A Connecting Church

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."  -Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ." -1 Corinthians 12:12

The Biblical Mandate of Connection and Community 

In our Chrisitan community, too many individuals and too many independent churches are going at alone. In doing so, they are missing out in the biblical mandate of connecting in community to establish and advance the Lord's Kingdom purposes.

With this in mind, Cornerstone is connected to a larger Chrisitan church planting movement moving throughout the United States and through global missions. The Evangelical Covenant Church is a denomination of more than 750 churches in the United States and Canada and is curretly the fastest growing denomination in America. It was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1885 as a voluntary covenant of churches committed to working together to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Covenant churches emphasize the Bible\'s witness to new life in Jesus Christ expressed in a day to day walk with the Lord.  Today, it is one of the fastest growing denominations and simultaneously, continues to be committed to be "kingdom minded" and many of the similar values that Cornerstone cherishes:  diversity, justice and compassion, churchplanting and global missions.  It is arguably one of the most diverse denominations with at least 20% being ethnic/multiethnic churches. Below is a summary of the ECC.

What is a Covenant Church?

• Evangelical, but not exclusive

• Biblical, but not doctrinaire

• Traditional, but not rigid

• Congregational, but not independent

The Covenant Mission

We are united by Christ in a holy covenant of churches empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey the Great Commandments and the Great Commission:

• ...to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind;

• ...to love our neighbor as ourselves, and

• ...to go into all the world and make disciples.

Introduction

The Evangelical Covenant Church of America has its roots in historical Christianity as it emerged in the Protestant Reformation, in the biblical instruction of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, and in the great spiritual awakenings of the nineteenth century.

• We are an apostolic church. We confess the historic faith of the Apostles. We believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Savior and Lord. We accept the Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, as "the Word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct."
• We are a catholic church. We see ourselves to be part of the universal church of Jesus Christ from the days of the apostles until now.
• We are a reformation church. We stand in the mainstream of the sixteenth century Protestant movement which insisted on justification by grace alone through faith alone.
• We are an evangelical church. We were born out of the revival movement that touched all of Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and came to flower for us in nineteenth and twentieth-century America.

Appreciating this classical Christian heritage and hungering for an ever more vital experience of new life in Christ, Covenanters affirm a number of evangelical emphases. Among these are:

1. The centrality of the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, as the authoritative Word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct. We believe it is essential to the life of the Church that it be a company of people who want, above all else, that their lives be shaped by the powerful and living Word of God. The alternative is clear. Not to be shaped by the Word of God is to be shaped by the world.

2. The necessity of the new birth for entrance into God\'s kingdom, and the importance of continuing growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ for sound spiritual health. Jesus said, "Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). He also said, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:332).

3. The Church as a fellowship of believers, characterized by mutual participation in and sharing of the new life in Christ. Membership is by confession of personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It is open to all believers. Considerations of class or race, education or pedigree, wealth or prestige do not enter. Uniformity in creedal details is not expected. What is required is that one be "born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). "The doors of the church are wide enough to admit all who believe and narrow enough to exclude those who do not," said our forebears. We affirm no less today.

4. The ministry of the Holy Spirit, who with the Father and the Son calls the church into being, empowers its witness, guides its mission, and supplies the gifts needed by the Church and its members to exalt Christ.

5. The reality of freedom in Christ, who delivers us from the power of sin and moves us by his grace into a whole new experience of obedience and life. This freedom creates an ecclesiastical climate which allows for differences of opinion in matters of interpretation, doctrine, and practice within the context of biblical guidelines and historical Christianity. Such freedom "is to be distinguished from the individualism that disregards the centrality of the Word of God and the mutual responsibilities and disciplines of the spiritual community" (Preamble to the Constitution).

Affirmations like these are not to be taken as creedal statements. They are rather to be understood as true and valid descriptions of what Covenanters believe and cherish as they continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of God, awaiting that day when "the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15).

Check out the national website at: www.covchurch.org

Check out the regioinal Conference website at: www.pswc.org