A New Gathering of Christians

What would our new church look like?

Charter for A New Gathering of Christians

• Familial, informal, and sometimes spontaneous, but intentional and with structure
• Carefully progressive yet ancient, both modern and postmodern, conservative yet liberal, traditional yet contemporary, primitivist but not off-puttingly so, and emerging
• Nonsectarian and non-franchise
  • Affiliated with no denomination, yet not isolated from the larger Christian community
  • Aware of, and informed by, history and tradition
    • focused on the 1^st century
    • particularly attentive to the frontier American Restoration Movement (a/k/a Stone-Campbell Movement)
    • conversant with the strengths, foibles, and idiosyncrasies of diverse religious traditions
  • Inclusive of individuals (but not ecumenical, insofar as that might imply a “watering down” of theologies in order to achieve unanimity)
  • Non-hierarchical leadership
    • mutually pastoral in terms of ministering to one another
    • no extrabiblical (or reappropriated biblical) religious titles
  • In terms of theology and church practice, as purely biblical as it is possible to be-as scripture informs, and as God illuminates interpretation
    • Not Arminian (for Arminius, like others before and after, might appear to have minimized the sovereignty of God as he emphasized the requisite human responses to grace)
    • Not Calvinist (for Calvin, like others before and after, superimposed a human system on top of scripture)
• Non-hierarchical (no religious titles); instead, mutually pastoral in terms of ministering to one another
• Worship and the Christian Assembly
  • Valuing proskuneo (worship) and one-another care over ceremony
  • Expressing worship primarily through
    • Music
      • pure and simple . . . various types and styles
      • music subservient to lyrics
      • acappella or acoustically accompanied
    • Prayer (communion with deity, not a mere ritual or request list)
    • The Lord’s Supper
  • Openly pursuing various devotional activities
  • Taking advantage of opportunities for any Bible student to teach spiritual lessons, allowing us to hear God through scripture
  • Seriously investigating–and endeavoring to submit to–scripture texts
    • Elevating no scripture text out of its historical and literary contexts (in order to respect a specific religious tradition or an unwarranted individual interpretation)
    • Discarding no scripture text (in order to respect a specific religious tradition or an unwarranted individual interpretation)
• Missionally serving the household of faith, the community, and those beyond