Fellowship Covenant
Making a covenant is a highly personal decision. It acknowledges that something beyond us is more important than ourselves. It is only in the keeping of such personal commitments, however, that meaningful communities are formed and life in the church flourishes. When one part of the Body rejoices, we all rejoice and when one part suffers, we all suffer: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ . . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:7, 22).
We at the Covenanting Conference in Orlando are making a covenant together, to live as God created us to be. We invite you to sign the Fellowship Covenant with us.
7 Responses
Thank you for your witness and your mission. All of this is in my prayers. I’m also praying for protection as spiritual warfare mounts up to new levels.
This is an excellent document. I especially appreciation the affirmation of the sanctity of life. Thank you. I will sign this and urge people in my congregation to prayerfully consider it.
If this document is to help give some differentiation for evangelicals within the PCUSA then it fails—big time.
Read the document and ask yourself, “Could a liberal sign this document without crossing their fingers?” The answer is “Yes, they can.” Since that is so, then this document provides no differentiation.
If you want to correct this, I would suggest two simple adjustments.
In section I. “*Because Jesus Christ is Lord” change to “Because Jesus is the Lord and only Savior”
In section II. You can add #7 from from the list of 10 on page 8 of The Essential Tenets piece
OR you could reference the Essential Tenets piece and state the need to affirm all 10 statements found on page 8
OR you could reference the Essential Tenets piece and state those signing this covenenat need to affirm the Essential Tenets of the FOP.
Do those simple adjustments and you will have provided some differentiation for those who need it in order to remain in the PCUSA. Otherwise, this covenant fails to accomplish what I believe its primary goal is.
As usual, you are correct and strike at the heart of the matter.
I find the covenant document to be a breath of fresh air, invigorating because it focuses on the practical application of scripture. The one issue which might be included which I do not see there is a personal acknowledgment of sin. In the current culture, there as an avoidance of responsibility for personal sin based on two factors. There is a high degree of narcissism in our culture, and a large proportion of people are unable to tolerate any kind of personal “criticism” or negative evaluation of themselves. There is also a sense in the liberal/progressive folks I know that they are basically good people, and that it is more important to focus on corporate sin (big government, Wall Street, etc.) rather than their own relatively insignificant failings. This leads to an inability to recognize our helplessness in the face of our own sin and our resultant need for grace. The theology document deals with the question of the pervasiveness of sin, and including it in the covenant would help distinguish between those who recognize their dependence on grace and those who think that they are “good enough” without it.
BTW,
Yesterday I read a blog post by former moderator of the PCUSA and liberal, Bruce Reyes Chow, that he liked the above Covenant and with a few minor tweaks could sign on.
Again, if this covenant is to be what helps us (conservatives) find a differentiation within the PCUSA so we could consider staying then it fails–and fails by a significant margin. I hope the leadership at FOP are looking at this glaring problem and will take action to correct it (see my earlier post here).
I 100% agree with Matt, there is nothing in this document as is that distinguishes the ‘fellowship’ from what are more ‘progressive’ brothers and sisters in Christ believe. You do mention the word ‘authority’ but even that seems to me to be left open for what that means. No where do you address the issue that is (whether you as a fellowship leadership want to focus in on or not) is the elephant in the room; the plain and authoratative teaching of scripture on marriage and sexual behavior. Our church is a ‘confessing church and I’m sorry but I see more distinct language in their document that we signed as a session that this document. My primary point is, like Matt’s, if you were looking to give me something to sign that would allow to me to say; ‘I’m a pastor of a PC(USA) church but . . .’ this document is not it.
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