My family and I are in fellowship with several other families in the north Idaho region (Coeur d'Alene, Rathdrum, Post Falls area) and gather under the leadership of an elder on the Lordsday to worship the risen King by having an agape meal, singing, praying, and studying the Scriptures together.
If you'd like to know more about our home fellowship please email me at the_100th_sheep@protonmail.com
A Description of a New Covenant Fellowship
A New Covenant church of King Jesus the Messiah is an autonomous, localized congregation of baptized believers, and their children, all of whom are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel with one-another and with all God’s saints past and present. They are led by elders and governed foundationally by His Word revealed in both the Old and New Covenant Scriptures. They exercise the gifts, rights, and service of being in the family of God. Finally, they carry-out the two decreed practices of Jesus which are celebrating the Agape meal with one-another, and baptizing and discipling all people to extend the Gospel of Jesus' kingship and salvation to the ends of the Earth.
(written 2014)
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The Primeval Tradition of the People of Messiah
(written 2014)
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A Proposed Creedal Blueprint for House
Congregations concerning Scripture’s Apostolic Doctrine & Practice
“Brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which
you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.”
II Thessalonians 2.15
We profess, first
and foremost, that YHWH the triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit –
is the foundation for all things created, and that His Word is the
fount from which all wisdom and knowledge comes for all our works, words and
lives. Upon that basis we – as an independent, unique, local congregation in
the Body of Christ – are committed to these doctrines of Scripture and the
practice of them in our lives by the strength of Holy Spirit.
Holy
Scripture is our Infallible Standard
We believe the Word of YHWH God is authoritative on everything of which it speaks and that it
speaks of everything. It alone is the infallible,
foundational, normative standard that shapes and directs what we do, say, and
think in our congregation, families, individual lives, and with the world.
We deeply desire to be a sacred fellowship that strains earnestly
to exist by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
(John 17.17 – Ecclesiastes 12.13 – Psalm
119 – II Timothy 3.15-17 – Colossians 3.16 – Matthew 4.4 – Resources: The Shape of Sola Scriptura by Mathison, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God by
Frame, Through New Eyes by
Jordan, By This Standard by
Bahnsen)
Gospel-family is our Fundamental Context
We are committed to living our lives within, and out
of the context of being a household of faith. This relationship as gospel-family will set
the ethos of our lives with one-another as we strive daily to live in sacrificial,
transparent, agape relationships as true brothers and sisters in the Spirit.
We will expect each of our own personal
decisions to be made with consideration toward their implications upon our
congregation, and that any grave or significant decisions we may have should be
decided by seeking wisdom and prayer from the congregation.
We are
committed to resolving conflict among us through clear, confronting, grace-filled
dialogue, and exhorting one-another to let nothing separate us from Christ and
His Ekklesia. Not comfort,
convenience, wealth, personal preferences, reputations, fear of man, biological
family, nor the State. Our God is our all-in-all,
and we desire to live authentically in light of that confession.
(Mark 3.33-35 – I Timothy 5.1-2 – Ephesians 2.19-20;
4.15-16, 25-32 – I John 3.1, 14 – I Peter 1.22-23 – John 1.12-13 – Philippians
2.3-5 -- II Corinthians 6.11-13, 16-18 – Matthew 18.15-20 – Jesus’
relationship with the disciples – Resources:
Paul’s Idea of Community by
Banks, Total Church by
Chester and Timmis, Life
Together by Bonhoffer, From
Forgiven to Forgiving by Adams)
Agape
Meals are our Central Activity
We are committed to orienting the rhythm
of our lives upon the routine festivity of the Lord’s Supper. We desire
to gather together frequently on the first day of the week to enjoy intimate
communion with Jesus, and personal fellowship with one-another. We will
celebrate the Breaking of the Bread and the drinking of the New Covenant Cup
with both baptized adults and children during an actual, full meal just as
Jesus did with His disciples, and they after Him with the first-century Congregation.
We understand
all of this to be the primary reason why we gather together as a fellowship,
and the truest, most authentic way of “proclaiming the Lord’s death until He
comes” to one-another, and to the unbelieving world around us, and ultimately
to God Himself as we await the final, grand feast in the marriage Supper of the
Lamb.
(Luke 22.8-20 – Acts 2.41-42, 46-47; 20.7 – 1
Corinthians 10.15-17; 11.18a, 20, 33 – Luke 24.30-31, 35 – Proverbs 15.15 – Psalm
23.5a – Resources: A Meal with
Jesus by Chester, The Christian
Passover: Agape Feast or Ritual Abuse? by Perks, "The Love Feast"
essay by Jordan, Leisure: The Basis
of Culture by Pieper)
Worship is the Work of our Entire Lives
Worship will
be our comprehensive, all-consuming practice as individuals and as a distinct,
localized congregation of God. We
understand from Scripture that we are by nature homo adorans (worshipping beings), and as redeemed disciples of
Jesus in the New Covenant we have been indwelt with the Holy Spirit which has
transformed us into mobile temples that are living sacrifices. Therefore, there
is no dichotomy of spiritual/physical
or religious/secular; rather, we are
called by the triune God to be obedient, whole-life worshippers serving our
King at every moment we have breath.
(Luke 4.8b – John 4.23 – Romans 12.1 – I Corinthians
6.19-20 – II Corinthians 6.16 – Colossians 3.17 – I Peter 2.4-5 – Acts 26.7
Ephesians 2.21-22; 5.1-2 – Resources: On the Christian
Life by Calvin, The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer, You Are What You Love by Smith – Surprised by Hope by Wright)
Known
by our Love
We desire to love one-another as Jesus has loved us
and be recognized by our agape-love, both inside Christ’s Bride by establishing
peaceful, patient relationships of fellowship with Her various congregations
and traditions, but primarily outside God’s Covenant with unbelievers as we
apply the healing Gospel balm of God’s grace and kingship through word, deed,
and baptism. As the Spirit gives the
opportunity, we will do this by bringing the whole Word of God to bear in
heralding the Good News through bold, deliberate outreach to our unbelieving
neighbors and city.
(John 13.34-35; 20.21 – Galatians 6:10 – Leviticus 19.33-34 – Luke
10.30-37 – Matthew 5.43-48; 28.18-20 – Resources: The Mark of the Christian by
Schaeffer, Everyday Church by Chester
and Timmis, Persuasions by
Wilson)
House-centered,
Participatory
Congregational Life
We are committed to having the activities of our congregation
such as bible studies, mission outreach, prayer gatherings, agape meals and
worship gatherings to be located in our houses, and all those who are present
to be able to actively participate with the gifts, skills and positions they
have been given by the Master. We believe this home model to be the most biblically
faithful, public setting to represent our new identity as brothers
and sisters in the Messiah, both to each other and also to the lost world
around us.
As a
sacred fellowship we want the burden of being the presence of Messiah in our
city to fall upon us as His People, and we don’t want to be tempted to relegate
that privilege to an autonomous church building. In this way we’ll be closely connected
to a flexible structure that can be easily replicated for the creation of other
congregations, and also be able to free-up financial giving to be bestowed to
others outside ourselves.
Most importantly, it will hopefully aid us
to live constantly in the awareness of our daily need for God’s sovereign grace
as we all intentionally engage in altruistic activity for one-another as a
family of God.
(Philemon 1.2 – Romans 16.5 – 2 John 1.10 – 1
Corinthians 14; 16.19 – Colossians 3.16; 4.15 – Galatians 6.10 – Hebrews 3.5-6;
10.24-25 Ephesians 2.19; 5.19-20 – I Timothy 3.15 – Philippians 2.3-5 – Acts
20:7 “dialogued with them” – Resources:
House Church: Simple, Strategic, Scriptural by Atkerson, Going to the Root by Smith, Christian Charity by Edwards)
Prayer
as a Routine Discipline
We are dedicated to the arduous, humbling
discipline of praying regularly and unashamedly as a fellowship both as individuals
in our private times, and also as a congregation through either planned
gatherings or spontaneous responses to needs and/or opportunities. We
crave to know God’s will, and to receive His blessings and direction knowing
that our Father loves to hear us speak with Him. We know also that prayer is a
weapon given to us by the Spirit to tear down the strongholds of Satan and one
of the primary means of grace by which God is pleased to mercifully change
hearts and cultures in response to our pleadings.
(Acts 12.5-12 – I Thessalonians 5.16-18 –
Matthew 6.5-14 – Luke 18.1-8 – Colossians 4.2 – Romans 8.15 – Philippians 4.6-8
–Galatians 4.6 Ephesians 6.10-18 – Resources:
A Call to Prayer by Ryle, Prayer
by Keller)
Elder
Led, Deliberately Small,
and Creating New Congregations
We are committed to the Bible’s teaching on male leadership
through local elders and deacons, and that their leadership should be committed
to shepherding a smaller congregation.
We understand both of these to be the New Covenant, apostolic pattern
and the logical extension of the Scripture’s teaching involving our
relationships with one-another in a congregational fellowship. This smaller size will provide us the opportunity
for fostering greater accountability, and will promote candid, close
“one-anothering” to go on within our congregation. Likewise, it will give an elder and a deacon
the advantage of being able to personally shepard all the people under their
care.
We will place a heavy emphasis on finding
godly men to lead our own congregation, and who can plant others from out of
ours. These men will need to have proven
to God’s Ekklesia over an extended
period of time to have faithfully managed their own family well before becoming
a leader in the Congregation of Christ.
We are
committed to sprinkling northern Idaho with house fellowships that are linked
together by koinonia and agape-love
in the Body of Christ. We will not grow
into a single, large congregation but when we reach around 30-35 individuals,
and at the very most 40-45, we are resolved to have at least 10 - 12
individuals agree to divide off in order to create a new congregation together. This new fellowship will be uniquely its own
independent, free congregation under the oversight of a new elder(s) and
deacon(s).
(Acts 20.28 – I Peter 5.1-3 – Hebrews 13.17 – I Timothy
3.1-13; 5.17-18 – Titus 1.5-9 – I Thessalonians 5.12-13 – Matthew 28.18-20 Colossians
4.15-16 – Resources: The Pauline Doctrine of Male Headship by Bordwine, Federal Husband by Wilson, Biblical
Eldership by Strauch, Total Church by
Chester and Timmis, House Church:
Simple, Strategic, Scriptural by Atkerson)
Independent
and Accountable
We will not seek to join a Protestant denomination,
but will remain an independent, free congregation with no formal membership
vows for those who desire to commit to our fellowship. This is due primarily to the fact that denominations
typically are founded on ancillary, divisive doctrines which have demonstrated
over time to become nothing more than centralized, bureaucratic, para-church
organizations and/or some kind of disconnected, mega-church. We understand this whole structure to be
impersonal, with no biblical warrant, and a disgraceful stumbling block to koinonia between other Christians and
congregations.
In regards to formal membership, in Scripture there is no such thing as a baptized, professing disciple of Jesus and His Word who is not a member of the Ekklesia already. That being true, we believe that when a Christian such as this comes to us desiring to enter into active fellowship with us that individual certainly may; provided, that upon inquiry, the elder(s) are satisfied that the person indeed is a faithful follower of Jesus and His historic, orthodox Faith just as he (or she) said he was.
Therefore, by ones avowed commitment (covenant) to the King and His Word we will actively disciple and hold one-another accountable. Thus following the King does not become institutionalized by man’s traditions, but rather it is relational and lived out personally as a family in the Holy Spirit through agape-love, conforming to Scripture’s apostolic, ecclesiastical institution laid down through command, narrative, and example.
(Acts
2.41, 47 – Galatians 3.27 – I Corinthians 12.27 – Romans 12.4-5 – Colossians
3.12-15 – Philippians 2.3-8 – Matthew 18.15-20 --II
Thessalonians 2.15 – I Corinthians 11.2 – Resources: Pagan Christianity by Viola &
Barna, When the Church was a Family by
Hellerman, Reimagining Church by Viola)
Respect for the Historic Ekklesia
We believe that the historical Congregation – the Ekklesia – both in the Old Covenant and
New, has blessed us through the Holy Spirit with much to emulate and
follow. Specifically, in regards to
doctrine we agree with, and are thankful for the Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, Creed of Chalcedon, and Sola Scriptura.
We also
are committed to observing the historic New Covenant Christian calendar. Following the New Covenant calendar manifests
our underlying unity with both the saints of the past and those in the present,
and reminds us ritually of that connection.
Further, we find the calendar to be eminently biblical as it perennially
marks out our days around the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus
our Savior and King.
We follow
the Reformation-revised calendar which consists of Advent, Incarnation (i.e.
Christ-mass), Epiphany, Good Friday, Resurrection (i.e. Easter), Ascension, and
Pentecost.
(Ephesians 5.15-16 –– Psalm 107.1-8; 111 – Esther
9.20-32 – John 5.1 “Feast of Purim” and 10.22-23 “Feast of Dedication” both
feasts Jesus attended but were not commanded in Old Covenant Law – Resources:
Creeds by R.L. Dabney , Ancient-future Time by Webber, A Brief
History of Christian Worship by White )
Written Advent 2011
Revised Epiphany
2018
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