About the Relational Participatory Christianity Forum
greenspun.com : LUSENET : Relational Participatory Christianity : Policy
WHO WE ARE
We are fellow believers from all over the world who have each felt God's
call to return to the simplest and most relational expression of church
life. It is our conviction that institutional Christianity as it has
emerged in our day is insufficient to release God's people to the fullness
of relationship with him and with each other that allows him to be known in
the world. Though we have come to this conclusion through different
avenues, and are at different points in our own journeys of faith, we
desire this discussion forum to be a source of mutual encouragement to people who
are on a similar journey.
In outward expression, we practice participatory, non-authoritarian
leadership. We view worship as a way of life, not a specific style or
tradition. We make decisions collectively; we prefer our resources to be
used on ministry and missions in the world, rather than on expensive
infrastructure such as a salaried clergy, expensive buildings, or
organizational maintenance. We affirm the inherent feasibility and
practicality of a more tangible, life-giving expression of the Church,
because we trust Jesus as the Head to put us together as he desires.
Our desire is to encourage church as a way of life among God's people. Our
hearts are to see informal fellowships flourishing everywhere where
believers can be built up in their trust in God. As that happens the body
of Christ at large will be built up. To that end we seek to nurture lives in
the Name of Christ, to build up communities of faith in face-to-face
expressions of love, mutual submission, and shared life. We want to
encourage the ministry of all Christians through the exercise of spiritual
gifts in the context of the priesthood of all believers.
Each of us is involved in a variety of ways to encourage fellowship among
Christians across every barrier to God's unity. We are knit together by our
common longing for genuine love and relationship among believers and are
bound to one another in that love, without a formal organization or
ministry.
We are still on this journey and do not consider that we have arrived. We
want to share the nuggets we have found along the way, and hear what others
have discovered on this journey. We make this discussion forum available to you on
the world wide web, so that you who are fellow travelers might be inspired
to reach out with us for all that
God has for his people. We do this also with the fervent prayer that all
God's children might learn to embrace the longing for reality that he put in
each of us, and take steps to walk on in this glorious journey of faith.
How this System Works
This bboard software was written by Philip Greenspun and hosted for free by him started in 1995.
Anyone could come in and create a forum and moderate the discussion. Most of the thousands of
forums on this server were and are publicly searchable by Google and other Web indices.