New Covenant Church of God

New Covenant Church of God Church Manual

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NEW COVENANT CHURCH OF GOD

CHURCH MANUAL

The Church of God was born out of a desire to see "primitive Christianity" restored on the face of the earth. The founders believed the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and that it contained both the message of the church and all the standards of Christian living. They sought to find in God's word the "laws" of church government and practice. The first principle they lived by was that every individual was to be free to search the Scriptures for themselves and to live according to their own consciences as the Spirit gave them guidance. However, the second principle that guided them was a sincere belief that the church was to be visible in the world and that it was to be governed by the Spirit of Christ according to the Scriptures. Thus, the church expected its members to sit together around the Scriptures in order to determine the "practices" that were necessary to the Church. They saw themselves as not being legislative (creating laws) or executive (enforcers of laws) but rather as judicial (interpreters of law) in nature. It is with that same spirit and by those same principles that we, the members of the New Covenant Church of God, set forth our manual of church order.

Church Covenant

The Scriptures describe the followers of Jesus Christ as the "true descendants of Abraham" and as the "ministers of a new covenant." This new covenant brings to fulfilment the old covenant in that it establishes forever the people of God. The old covenant was centered on the Word of God written on tablets of stone; a law that dealt with sin and death. The new covenant is expressed in the Word of God written on hearts through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ; a law of life, love, and liberty.

A covenant is more than a contract that defines the duties of persons to each other. It is a pact that binds persons together and defines their relationship. Like contracts, covenants are specific in their expectations of persons; they contain a "law" or standard for behavior between the members of the agreement. Unlike contracts, in covenants the terms of the covenant focus on holding the relationship together rather than meeting the desires of its individual members.

The covenant of Jesus Christ is the basis whereby the children of Adam and Eve may once again be children of the most high God. In this covenant God has issued a call for persons to regain fellowship with him; to become members of his household. Response to the call is always personal but never private. To be born again by the Spirit of Christ is to be baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. A right relationship with God requires a right relationship with the people of God. The new covenant of Jesus Christ binds believers to him and to his church. Our church covenant exists to uplift this clear teaching of the Scriptures. It therefore reflects our attempt to be faithful to our lord in all things.

New Covenant Church of God

Church Covenant

We covenant to be the Church of God.

We will live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and devote ourselves to the fulfillment of his mission on earth.

We will walk in the light of the Scriptures as He shines it upon our paths.

We will govern our lives together according to the New Testament.

We will

Love one another,

Pray for one another,

Encourage one another,

Admonish one another,

Submit to one another,

All as unto Christ.

We will live out this covenant through active participation in a Covenant Life Group of the church.

We will cherish the fellowship of all saints.

We will give expression to the unity of the church by submitting to the General Assembly of the Church of God1 and offering to the Assembly and its officers the grace of God in us.2

1We recognize the church as being comprised of all true followers of Christ, and that it is manifest wherever believers are joined together in covenant to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ through the direction of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures. But we also hold that the unity of the church is essential to its very nature and destiny. Further, that unity requires submission which can only be actualized through tangible relationships.

2We also hold that submission requires that we offer to those over us in the Lord the grace of God given to us and that his grace includes the council and admonition of the Word of God as he shines it upon our paths. This we must do through participation in the polity and programs of the Church of God.

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

Church membership is based on the new covenant of Jesus Christ and must not be taken lightly. It is an implicit requirement of the covenant of Jesus Christ, a covenant given to and for a people, a people called to be the family of God, a nation of priests on earth. The government of Christ over, in, and through the church is fundamental to His plan of redemption [Ephesians 1 & 2, I Corinthians 15, etc.].

Church membership should not be viewed as surrender to a hierarchy of priests. Rather, it is a testimony that Christ is sovereign, able to administer the affairs of His kingdom and that He has chosen to do so through the church. It is a testimony that God chooses to live and move among His people and that it is primarily in their presence and through their hands that He administers grace and truth. Therefore, it should be viewed as an act of ongoing obedience to the Lord Jesus.

Just as water baptism is a necessary working out of our new found relationship with God, church membership gives tangible expression to our inescapable placement in the Body of Christ. To be joined to Him is to be joined to His body. The Spiritual death and birth of an individual which are accomplished by the Holy Spirit at the moment the individual repents and believes on Christ must be publicly confessed and sealed (marked) in the act of baptism (by the hands of the church). Spiritual placement in the Body of Christ must also be publicly sealed. Prior to the Protestant Reformation both realities may have been linked in the ceremonies surrrounding water baptism. Since the Reformation church membership, no matter how implicit in water baptism, must be made explicit. This we accomplish through our covenant of church membership.

This covenant is much like the marriage covenant in which individuals bind their lives together as one life but without destroying the integrity of either individual. Pledges which define the nature of the new relationship are made and received. These pledges, made out of free will, restrict the freedoms of the individuals in order to promote the fulfillment of the individuals and the marriage. More importantly, they define the manner in which the couple is to pursue life together.

Like marriage, church membership does not change the character of an individual. It can not save a person's soul, nor does it impute a special grace of God. Rather, like marriage -- which places individuals in a new relationship through which each may fulfill the other -- church membership places the individual in relationships within the Body of Christ whereby the grace of God may freely flow in and through its members.

Covenant of Church Membership: Membership in the New Covenant Church of God is open to all who know Jesus Christ as their personal redeemer and who enter the Church Covenant through public pledges of membership.

In essence the covenant of church membership is a commitment to God that we, by the grace of God, will be the church of God. It is a confession that we have been called to share the life of Christ through the communion of the Holy Spirit and that his life and commandments require us to give tangible expression to the unity of the body of Christ. We covenant in Christ Jesus to be members one of another. There are four sections within the covenant.

First, we confess to this body of believers that we know Jesus Christ as everlasting Lord over all and as our personal savior. Further, we confess that this knowledge came through our having repented from all sin, and having believed on him as the power of God unto salvation.

Second, we pledge that we will ever seek to live under his direction by honoring him as Lord of our lives, walking in the light of the Scriptures as He shines it upon our paths, and encouraging all others to do the same.

Third, we covenant with this church that we will join ourselves together as the church of God and that we will share our mission to be the church. In this we intend to make manifest the lordship of Christ through the manner we relate to one another while carrying out our primary tasks of fellowship, worship, evangelism, making disciples, showing of mercy to all, and fighting spiritual warfare. Together, we will search the Scriptures faithfully and walk in the light of God's Word as he shines it upon our paths. Having so done, we will submit ourselves to one another in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.

Finally, we pledge that we will give tangible expression to this covenant through faithful participation in one of the Covenant Life Groups of the church, submission to the counsel of those over us in the Lord, submission to the disciplines of the Church of God, and the support of the church through our attendance and temporal means.

New Covenant Church of God

Membership Pledges

I publicly confess

that Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, is my Lord and Savior.

that I have repented of my sins and believed on Jesus as the power of God unto salvation.

I pledge to you that

I will always honor Christ as Lord of my life.

I will faithfully search the Scriptures and walk in the light of His word as He shines it upon my path.

I will encourage all others to do the same.

I covenant with you to be the church of God;

I will love this church and all of its members as the body of Christ to me.

I will sit with you as the church of God to search the Scriptures so that we might together walk in the light as He shines it upon our path.

I will work with you to fulfill the mission of the church.

Further, I will give tangible expression to these commitments through. . .

Active participation in a Covenant Life Group of this church.

Submission to those who are over me in the Lord (as it pertains to the life and discipline of the church).

Submission to the discipline of the Church of God as outlined by the Scriptures and set forth in the Minutes of the General Assembly.

The support of the church with my prayers, attendance, service, and temporal means as the Lord makes me able.

COVENANT LIFE GROUPS

Participation in the life of the church should flow out of the New Covenant that Jesus Christ has made with the children of God. As individuals become partakers in the life of Christ it is both natural and to be expected that they be joined with Christ to His body, the church. This spiritual communion of the saints is to find expression in human relationships as they are governed by the Spirit of Christ. The New Covenant calls upon each person to freely search the Scriptures and to allow the Spirit to write upon his or her heart the law of God (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The same covenant calls all to a unity of spirit which is marked by love and mutual submission (I Corinthians 12 & 13; Ephesians 5, etc). No Scripture is of private interpretation (II Peter 1:19-21). Individually and corporately, Christians must submit to the Word of God. To be Christian is to participate with others in the life of Christ. It is to be joined to Christ and His church in a covenant of life which draws its authority from the Word of God.

The foundational expressions of covenant life in the New Covenant Church of God are manifest in its Covenant Life Groups. These are small groups of believers whose members have covenanted to be the body of Christ with one another. They are defined not by a time or place of meeting or by a topic or curriculum of study. Rather, they are defined by the covenant relationships they espouse. The essence of the covenant is that each member has committed to be open to Christ for Him to minister through them for the strengthening and building up of the body and its members. It is a covenant of love which calls its members to support one another in their journeys of faith.

While each group must search out the meaning of being the body of Christ for itself, there are some elements common to all groups. These are contained in the Covenant Life Group covenant. The covenant, like the covenant of church membership stresses a commitment to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It includes a commitment to wrestle with the major issues facing each member as they seek to discover and live out the will of God. Further, members of the group recognize that each member has a calling to be a minister for Christ. They therefore seek to identify and cultivate gifts for ministry so that each member is fully equipped to serve God. These processes are carried out in love through exhortation and never through coercion.

Role in the Church

Covenant Life Groups are integral to the total life of our church. Each group bears the primary responsibility for the spiritual welfare of its members and is responsible for helping its members find their place in the larger body of Christ as Stewards of God. Every person should reach a level of spiritual strength where they can share in the ministry responsibilities of the local congregation. The group should help each member reach that place and give the member guidance in ministry selection.

The Covenant Life Groups are also charged by the congregation to fulfill certain tasks necessary for the health of the church. Groups must recommend persons for ministry in the church. No one can hold a ministry office without the endorsement of their group for that level of ministry. Major decisions for the church are first referred to the groups for prayer and consultation prior to the church conference at which the decision is to be made. Groups also bear the responsibility of planning and coordinating special ministry activities such as preparing food for sick members, birth celebrations, wedding showers, etc..

Covenant Life Groups are constituted by the church elders and must have a Group Leader designated by the elders. (Group leaders are elders, candidates for eldership, or are otherwise qualified to serve as elders.) This does not restrict members of the church from participating in other small groups. It does say that only those small groups designated by the elders are considered Covenant Life Groups in the polity of the church.

Participation

Participation in a Covenant Life Group is open to anyone who desires to know and please God. Even persons unable to commit to the Covenant Life Group covenant are welcome to attend. The covenant does guide the nature of group meetings, however. While an individual does not have to be a member of the church in order to belong to a group, all members of the church have covenanted with the church to participate in a group. Individuals are free to join the group of their choosing, and afterwards to visit other groups that meet at times other than their own. But once one becomes a member of a group it is expected that any decision to leave the group will be openly discussed with the group or the elders of the church.

Households usually participate in the same group. Each group decides how they will care for young children during meetings. Older children and youth are considered individual members with contributions to make and needs to be met. They are listened to and are included in all activities except when their parents feel the subject matter is inappropriate.

Groups are encouraged to seek diversity in membership. Homogeneous groups based on race, gender, marital status, age, etc. are not sanctioned as Covenant Life Groups of the church. "If the whole body was an ear, where would the seeing be?" The church does encourage homogeneous ministries to form for the purposes of fellowship or need-based ministry (for example, singles ministries or parents of teens share groups) but the church does not consider these to be Covenant Life Groups.

Group Meetings

The central task of all Covenant Life Groups is to glorify Christ by edifying his body. Groups meet weekly at a time agreed upon by the group and at other times as desired. Groups are encouraged to plan social and recreational events suitable to their members and to invite other groups to participate in these times. Groups are expected to work through their leader to coordinate their activities with the church calendar.

Weekly meetings normally are comprised of times of fellowship, intercessory prayer, and Bible study. The central activity of these meetings is Bible study. But our study is not for the purpose of gaining information. We search the Scriptures so that we might live under the Lordship of Christ. The Bible is for us a living book which requires a lived response. We interpret the Word of God so that the Word of God might interpret us. The body of Christ is built-up by discovering the will of God for our lives (individual and corporate) and exhorting one another to be faithful to his will. Thus, at New Covenant, Covenant Life Groups are the primary setting for making disciples.