Proposed Constitution
Of the Mid-Ohio Valley Reformed Fellowship
This document is in development.
Preamble
1.1 In submission to Scripture through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit through regeneration, we confess the purpose of this church is to glorify God in Christ through biblical Christian worship, administration of the sacraments, proclaiming Christ to sinners, edification of the saints through preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God, and the practice of biblical Christian love.
1.2 This church declares itself to be in union with Jesus Christ and through Christ with all of Christ's body as described in Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12-15. This church also declares itself to be a family integrated, interdependent Christian church.
1.3 We confess and believe together with our predecessors in the Christian faith and the saints throughout the world. We are baptized into their company as members of Christ's body, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with them we eat of a common loaf and drink from a common cup. We proclaim ourselves to be united with all who are united in the classic creeds and confessions of the universal Christian church — one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
1.4 All elders, teachers, authorities and officers of this church study, believe and promote these creeds and confessions, holding them to be a faithful witness to what the Scriptures teach, and as a means of identifying with the whole Church.
1.5 Only the sixty-six (66) books of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are the true, God-breathed, and the authoritative word to humanity regarding all things necessary to know and believe in order to please God. Scripture is our first and final resource for faith and life.
1.6 We do not believe that the civil government of any country, though a minister of God for good and with the authority to enforce civil justice and whose civil laws should reflect the moral law of God, is in any way to interfere with or dictate the beliefs and practices of God's churches, especially when to obey the civil authority would be to disobey the Scriptures. Consequently, we reject the 501(c)(3) tax classification as an intrusion by the civil government into the church, and protest but graciously donate to the taxing entities amounts equal to their computation of taxes owed until this matter is resolved by all parties involved. (Study reference: www.hushmoney.com)
Secondary Authorities — Creeds
a) We stand in faithful agreement with our fathers in the faith who have affirmed and proclaimed the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Definition of Chalcedon, and the Athanasian Creed to be faithful to Scripture.
b) We include as sister authorities the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms and Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the Cambridge Platform (1648), the Savoy Declaration (1658) and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics (1978). We also view as sister documents the three-forms of unity used historically by the Dutch churches: the Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and the Canons of Dort (1619). Where these documents may conflict, we turn to Scripture in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit for adjudication, trusting in the Trinitarian God of Scripture to be both just and merciful.
c) Because the human mind is frail and all true Christians are still sinners even though justified before God, we do not enforce slavish devotion to any of these creeds or Secondary Authorities because we find a wideness (or range of toleration) in God's mercy. The Bible is our first and final rule of faith and practice. We do intend, however, 1) that this church be assisted by these secondary authorities' understanding of Scripture, 2) that this Constitution is to be understood in light of them, and 3) that they are to be consulted as providing additional interpretive basis of this Constitution.
…
