Our fellowship is given definition by the following pursuits:
Pursue a hermeneutic of scripture that follows the example of Christ and his apostles. Modern exegetical and hermeneutical thought tends to produce a minimalistic reading of scripture that makes the way that Christ and his apostles read the Old Testament strange to the modern ear. We need to regain the eyes of Christ and the apostles’ as they looked at scripture. We need to understand the teaching of Christ in Luke 24 that all the Old Testament speaks of Christ. We desire to hold to a grammatical-historical approach in our exegesis, but we cannot stop there. We need to grow in understanding of the typology of scripture, a method that has always been recognized in the history of the church.
Pursue an understanding of the Fathers, the Medievals, the Reformers, and many others in their own context. Learn to read scripture with them. We often have very little depth in our understanding of the traditions of the church, even our traditions. Don’t be quick to accept the popular understanding of what the Reformers or the Fathers believed. Dig into them for the sake of renewing your own mind. None of them are without quirks, but even the most idiosyncratic can benefit the modern Christian. There is a great value in reading these Spirit illuminated men who provided a foundation for the church of today.
Pursue the reformation of worship. Perhaps this is one of the things that is most broken down today. There are churches with great liturgies, but are basically dead. There are churches with good orthodoxy, but with little or no attention to liturgy. We call on the members of this order to pursue the great liturgies of the past and to search the scriptures in order to find good instruction on the covenantal order of worship and the content of worship. Notably, we look at Acts 2:42 and call on all our brothers to pursue a holistic teaching of scripture, the gathering of offerings for the needy among them, the practice of the Lord’s Supper, and the practice of prayer, particularly the singing of Psalms, in their weekly worship services. We can also think of books full of liturgical wisdom like Leviticus and Revelation.
Beyond that, the entirety of scripture forms our imaginations so that we may grow in the worship of God.
Pursue unity with brothers from other denominations and federations under the tutelage of the word. We do not desire unity for the sake of unity. Rather we come to friends from other traditions with the Bible in our hand, ready to submit to the word of God in whatever we find. Though we see many differing interpretations of scripture, we trust that God will use his word in us so that we may sharpen one another. In doing so, we approach with a desire to find a greater degree of truth and find unity under the Master, Jesus Christ.
Pursue the lost. We continue to bear the name of our Lord Jesus Christ before the lost. We desire the unity of the church, but we also hope for the unity of the human race. Christ broke the wall between Jew and Gentile so that both may worship Christ. He continues to break down the walls the people put up between each other, and even more importantly, between themselves and God. We trust that God desires that all men should repent and come to Jesus. Thus we desire to preach the gospel promiscuously.
Pursue freedom. One of the things our Lord warns us against is lording it over other men as the gentiles do. There is a temptation to force people to participate in our vision of the good, whereas God calls his church to participate in the good freely. We can think of Paul speaking to the Corinthians about giving to the church in Jerusalem where he urges them to give, but at the same time seeks to preserve their freedom in that. Historically, we speak of this as sphere sovereignty. The father has a particular duty, the mother, the civil magistrate, the officer of the church, the teacher, and the doctor; each one has a duty over a certain sphere. Where their duties overlap, they are called to submit to one another. Let us be careful in all that we do to preserve the freedom of one another in Christ. We should also be careful to honor the freedom of those who are not in Christ.
Pursue well-ordered church government. Great confusion reigns, not only with regard to what a man is in contrast to a woman, but also what the various offices of the church are. We begin with the knowledge that the officers of the church are gifts from Christ (Ephesians 4), but are also providentially chosen through the congregation. We will continue to grow in our understanding of the roles of elder, deacon, and minister in our study of scripture. We will seek to preserve the work of guarding and teaching the church to wise and godly males. Finally, this means that we also strive to work together as churches, calling one another to account through the various higher bodies which we participate in.
Pursue Christian Education. One of the calls in scripture that is repeated often is the call to raise our children in fear of the Lord. This is also one of the most significant failings of the modern church. As public schools grow more and more anti-God, we continue to send our children to them to the detriment of the future of the church. It is hard to emphasize how important this is. God has given us these gifts, and we are called to prepare them to be arrows in God’s war-bow.
Pursue a well-ordered society. Peter calls us, for the sake of Christ, to submit to legitimate institutions, even when they use their power illegitimately. We are called to be patient with the failings of those in authority over us. Let us pursue the peace and well-being of our society in all that we do.