What We Believe

Though we’re not officially affiliated with any larger denomination, our agrarian Christian community shares many core beliefs with various Christian traditions, including Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals and Mennonites. Our beliefs, lifestyle and values are perhaps most heavily influenced by the Anabaptist tradition.

Core Tenets

1. Scripture 

• The Bible: We believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God, providing the foundation for all faith and practice.

2. God 

• The Almighty: We believe in the One God of biblical Jewish monotheism, fully incarnated in Jesus Christ, with whom He was fully one. This oneness now extends into the life of Christ’s corporate Body, the church, bringing individuals into oneness with God.

3. Jesus Christ 

• Incarnation and Atonement: We believe that Jesus Christ is the fully human and fully divine Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, suffered under Pontius Pilate, died for our sins, and rose again for our justification and regeneration. He now sits in the place of full inherited divine power and dominion, from which He will return to judge the living and the dead. 
• Lordship of Christ: We believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and pledge our lives to His service and discipleship.

4. The Holy Spirit 

• Indwelling Presence: We believe in the Holy Spirit, who indwells believers, empowering and equipping them for godly living and service.
• Spiritual Regeneration: We believe in spiritual regeneration through a powerful encounter with God, a baptism in the Holy Spirit as described in the New Testament. This experience goes beyond mere propositional knowledge to actual entry into His presence through revelation and regeneration.

5. Salvation 

• Grace and Faith: We believe that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, leading to a commitment to the “obedience that comes from faith” and a pledge to ongoing discipleship and sanctification. This commitment depends upon a repentance from dead works that recognizes that no work of human flesh can add anything—but can only become an obstruction—to the believer’s salvation.
• Knowing God: We believe that knowing God constitutes salvation. This knowledge is relational and comes through Jesus Christ—revealed by the Holy Spirit, based on Scripture, and in communion with the fellowship of believers.

6. The Church 

• Nature of the Church: We believe the church is the Body of Christ, comprised of all true believers throughout the world—built on the teaching of the apostles and prophets, interpreted by the Holy Spirit. Believers find tangible union with the universal (or invisible) Body by committing to a local fellowship with brothers and sisters they can see, know and serve in love.
• Baptism: We practice believer’s baptism—immersion for the remission of sin in Christ’s name and as a pledge of submission to His lordship and discipleship, signifying participation in His death and resurrection.
• Communion: We believe the Lord’s Supper memorializes Jesus’ sacrifice, signifies believers’ ongoing communion in His sacrificial death, and renews their ongoing discernment of Christ’s Body in their local fellowship of believers.
• Church Government: We practice relational church governance, emerging from within the local church, with a plurality of ministers—both local and mobile—cooperating to guide and serve congregations in the order given by God in the New Testament. We are of the “free church” or the “believers’ church” tradition, emphasizing a relational form of authority based on consent. We reject the forcing of conscience in any form. 

7. Christian Life 

• Authentic Living: We emphasize lived religion, combining right belief (orthodoxy), right conduct (orthopraxy), and right feeling (orthopathy).
• Simple Lifestyle: We emphasize a simple lifestyle rooted in the land, with a focus on family and intentional community.
• Nonviolence: We believe in nonviolence and nonresistance, distinguishing this from political activism commonly associated with “pacifism.”
• Separation from the World: We believe in a separation from the world without sectarianism, maintaining relationships with the lost and needy world without compromising our covenant with Christ.

8. Church and State 

• Separation of Church and State: We believe in the separation of Church and State to protect and sanctify the Church as Christ’s virgin Bride.
• Loyalty to God: While we respect and pray for governing authorities and believe we are bound by Scripture to obey all ordinances of men not counter to the Word of Christ, our ultimate loyalty belongs to God. This belief has historically caused Anabaptist Christians persecution, but we stand firm in obeying God above all.
• Political Participation: We forgo active participation in politics, focusing instead on life within the kingdom of God, the community of Christ.

9. Israel and the Church 

• Israel’s Role: We believe Old Testament Israel manifested God’s purpose in a natural body, which rose in a spiritual Body with the risen Christ and the birth of the church. The Old Testament can thus no longer justify State churches or persecution of dissenters, as the church is now a spiritual community of all peoples.
• Israel’s Calling: We do not accept classic “Replacement Theology” but believe in a special calling for the Jewish people. The return of a remnant of Israel will coincide with the full restoration of the church.

10. Ongoing Reformation 

• Reformation and Restoration: We believe the Reformation must merge doctrinal reform with authentic reformation of lives and the church. We view the Reformation as ongoing, leading to a restored New Testament Christianity.

For more detailed information, please visit us and feel free to ask questions! Our bookstore also provides in-depth materials explaining our views on these and other topics.