The goal of church discipline is restorative not punitive. Hence, Christ Church is eager to receive back into her fold those sheep who have wandered. When, in the unanimous opinion of the elders, the one under discipline has repented, he will be publicly restored-a confession of his repentance will be read to the congregation on the Lord’s Day and the elders shall formally announce the end of the discipline and restoration of fellowship.

Members of Christ Church may appeal the actions of the Session to the presbytery and/or council of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Any appeals to presbytery will be conducted in accordance with the Constitution of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches.

The elders shall establish the specific procedures for all formal discipline on a case-by-case basis, as appropriate to the circumstances and individuals involved. However, at minimum these procedures should include a clear and timely warning of the individual that he is in the process of formal discipline, two or three visits or communications involving two or three witnesses, and clear records and/or minutes of the entire proceedings kept by the elders.

When the elders determine that a hearing is necessary, they will establish the specific procedures for each trial on a case-by-case basis, as appropriate to the circumstances and individuals involved. However, at minimum these procedures should include informing the accused in writing of the specific charges, the time, place, and date of the trial, and ample time for the accused to prepare a defense.

The heads of households will be informed of the hearing at the first opportunity. At the hearing, one of the elders will present a solemn charge from the Scriptures on the responsibilities of those present, the evidence against the accused will be presented, and the accused will have time to make a reasonable defense, including the right to question any witnesses.

At a separate meeting of the elders, a vote will be taken on each of the charges. The elders will declare their verdict to the congregation on an appointed Lord’s Day, following an appropriate exhortation. The accused will be given a written copy of the verdict.

The elders will establish an official file containing all the records pertaining to the hearing, including all pertinent correspondence, transcripts, and minutes. If he requests it, the accused will be given one copy of this file at the expense of the church.

The only persons who may undergo formal church discipline are baptized members of member households. Un-baptized members of member households and Christians who attend Christ Church regularly (but are non-members) are subject to pastoral admonishment but may not be put out of the church. Nevertheless, a non-member who is divisive, heretical, scandalous, or factious may be barred from the Lord’s Supper and rejected after proper admonition (1 Tim. 3:10). If another church has disciplined one of its members, and that person subsequently comes to Christ Church, then the Session will honor the discipline of the other church, unless after due consultation with the person concerned and after all appropriate information is considered, the Session unanimously rejects such disciplinary actions as out of accord with the government of Christ.

If informal discipline does not result in satisfactory correction, then those who are aware of the need for discipline are expected to call the matter to the attention of the elders. Formal discipline will be pursued only after Scriptural prerequisites have been satisfied and the elders have made sufficient inquiry. Such discipline is applied through the formal action and unanimous judgment of the elders. In extraordinary situations, the elders have the authority to take immediate disciplinary action if the honor of Christ or the purity of the church is directly threatened by a failure to act. Except in such extraordinary cases, the pattern of formal church discipline will generally include (1) private admonishment by the elders, (2) formal public admonishment and suspension from the Supper (called by us excommunication or barring from the Table, 2 Thess. 3:14-15), and (3) a formal hearing which may result in being put out of the church (Matt. 18:17) and being delivered over to Satan (1 Cor 5:4,5; 1 Tim 1:20).

1. While we agree with the doctrines of the WCF, we do not always agree with how those doctrines are supported with the Scripture proof texts which the Westminster Divines cited.

Chapter I
Of the Holy Scripture

2. Para. 2 We are unwilling to be dogmatic as to the Pauline authorship of the book of Hebrews.
3. Para. 8. We believe that the original languages to be consulted in the matters of controversy are Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic.

Chapter VII
Of God’s Covenant with Man

4. Para 2 (cf. Chp. 19, para. 1, 6). While we agree with the original intent of the Westminster Divines, we believe the usage of the phrase “covenant of works” is open to misinterpretation by modern Christians. By way of clarification, we deny that any covenant can be kept without faith, and we affirm that good works flow out of faith in God, and not vice versa.

Chapter XXI
Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath-day

5. Para. 8. We believe that along with works of piety, necessity, and mercy, the command also calls us to rest physically on the Sabbath (Gen. 2:2-3; Ex. 16:30; 31:15-17).

Chapter XXIII
Of the Civil Magistrate

6. Para. 3 — Delete the last phrase, beginning with “to provide that whatsoever…”

Chapter XXIV
Of Marriage and Divorce

7. Para 4: Delete the last sentence, which reads, “The man may not marry any of his wife’s kindred, nearer in blood than he may of his own: nor the woman of her husband’s kindred, nearer in blood than of her own.”

Chapter XXV
Of the Church

8. Para. 6. Though we believe the Pope of Rome to be anti-Christian, we do not believe him necessarily to be the anti-Christ.

Chapter XXVII
Of the Sacraments

9. Para. 4. We believe that the Lord’s Supper should not be administered without the oversight of an elder, lawfully ordained.

Chapter XXVIII
Of Baptism

10. Para. 3. We believe that the proper modes of baptism include sprinkling, pouring, and immersion.
11. Para. 4. Being a church composed of both paedobaptists and those holding to believer’s baptism, we expressly allow men otherwise qualified to serve as elders, but who hold to believer’s baptism, to make an exception to WCF Chapter XXVIII, paragraph 4, which reads: “Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized.”

Memorials are intended to state the position of the CRE on issues which cannot be addressed effectively in constitutional language, but on which some sort of constitutional statement is desired. Memorials are intended to state the position of the CRE on issues which do not rise to a confessional level, or on issues concerning which a confessional statement has not yet been made.

1. A local congregation within the CRE is not excluded from membership if it is incorporated, but churches are strongly urged to avoid such status. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only rightful Head of the church (Eph. 1:22), and incorporation blurs that truth in that a corporation is judicially a creation of the state (Matt. 22:21).
2. In questions about candidates for ordination, the local session is not judicially bound by the recommendation of presbytery. But when the local church has sought the wisdom of the broader church, agreement with such recommendations is strongly encouraged.
3. While a formal seminary education may prepare a candidate for ordination, our confederation strongly prefers ministerial training, under the oversight of local church elders, which maintains high academic and theological standards (including training in the original languages of Scripture), and yet at the same time incorporates an apprentice or internship approach within the context of the local congregation.
4. Our process of confessional revision is established so that the differences between our churches may be resolved over time by a careful striving for like mindedness. The process is established to work in a slow and deliberate fashion so that we will be less susceptible to various fads and winds of doctrine (Eph. 4:14).
5. All things are to be considered and conducted under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, including education, and especially the education of our covenant children. God has neither charged nor authorized the state to educate children within its civil jurisdiction. God has commanded parents to bring up their children in the education and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4, Deu. 6:7). Given the importance and enormity of the task (Ps. 127:3-5, Deut. 6:7-9), and the impossibility of neutrality in education (Prov. 1:7, Matt. 12:30, Lk. 6:40, Col. 2:1-10, 2 Cor. 10:3-5), we do heartily affirm the necessity of educating our children in a manner that is explicitly Christian in content and rigor.

   Government schools are, by decree and design, explicitly godless, and therefore cannot be considered a legitimate means of inculcating true faith, holy living and a decidedly Christian worldview in the children of Christian parents. Parents who do not fully understand the indispensability of Christian education should be warmly received into membership. However, the leaders of Christ’s church must thoroughly understand and plainly teach the divine imperative to disciple our children, the divine prohibition of rendering unto Caesar those who bear God’s image (Matt. 22:20-21), the divine warning to those who cause their little ones to stumble (Matt. 18:6) and the divine promises to those who raise their children in faith (Deut. 7:9, Ps.102:28 Ps. 103:17-18, Prov. 22:6, Lk. 1:48-50, Acts 2:39).

6. The doctrine of creation lies at the heart of Christian living, deeply embedded within our assumptions about worship, knowledge, faith, celebration, beauty, and redemption. In recent decades, many conservative evangelicals have been moved by the science of the day to oppose the historic view of creation in six sequential days of common length, several millennia in the past. Instead, they hold that the bare ideas of creation presented in Genesis have little to do with the actualities of creation. Falsely pitting poetry and symbolism against history, they distort the text of Scripture and divorce ideas from the created order in ancient gnostic fashion.

   Science changes like the wind, and therefore its authority ought to pale beside the Spirit-led, traditional exegesis of creation in six days of common length. Intimidation by apparently more sophisticated non-Christian knowledge-priesthoods is not new. Over the centuries, God has regularly tested the Church’s courage to stand loyal to His revelation over against the ever-changing sciences of the day, those “profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.”

What We Believe & TeachChrist Church is a “confessional” church. That means we “confess” to believe an historic doctrinal statement called a “confession” that many other churches have subscribed to for hundreds of years. Our confession of faith is the Westminster 1646, which we hold to with a few exceptions.

Because we live in a postmodern age where truth is thought to be malleable and definitions elastic, we have further taken certain positions, along with our denomination, which are called “memorials.”

These memorials are intended to make our position known on contemporary hot topics like education, creation, the interrelationship between government and the church, as well as others.

The purpose of this church is to glorify God through submission to His Word in true worship, proclaiming grace in Christ to sinners, and building up the saints through doctrinal and applicatory proclamation of the whole counsel of God, faithful observance of Christ’s sacraments, and earnest devotion to prayer.

The procedures of membership outlined below are designed solely for the purpose of maintaining scriptural and accountable local church government (Heb. 13:17), such that our affairs are conducted in decency and in order (1 Cor. 14:40). In no way is our practice of membership to be construed in such a way as to disrupt our Christian unity and fellowship with true saints who attend church elsewhere (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 3:1-4).

1. Membership in the community of our church will be normally reckoned by household. A household will be eligible when the head of that household meets the following criteria. He or she:
   

   a. Has been lawfully baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19) and professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9-10); b. Does not contradict his or her baptism and profession through his or her manner of life (Matt. 7:22-23); c. Considers his or her permanent residence to be in our geographical region (Eph. 1:1); d. Submits to the government of this church (Philemon 2; Heb. 13:7,17).

2. The elders in Session may admit eligible households into membership in Christ Church based upon the positive testimony of two or more elders who have personally spoken with the head of the household or the individual(s) seeking membership in Christ Church, and who have heard their profession of faith and ascertained that they have been lawfully baptized. Those seeking membership who make a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but who have not been baptized in a Christian church may be considered for membership after being baptized. Letters of transfer from another Christian church will be accepted, but will not mitigate the above requirements.All membership in the congregational covenant will be by household, meaning that all members of a household that are not explicitly excluded are included as individuals in covenant with the congregation. Non-baptized individuals of member households are not included as individuals in covenant with the congregation. When a member becomes a head of household through marriage, the new household will be considered a member household.
3. The elders will maintain a membership list, with the members of each household listed in a clear manner, including names, dates of birth and baptism. This membership list will be maintained by the elders and updated annually, and is not to be confused with the church directory of addresses and phone numbers.
4. Individuals who satisfy the criteria listed above will be received as a member household with a single member in the following circumstances:a.         He or she has no family;b.         Members of his or her family choose to join another church;c.         Members of his or her family are non-believers.If through marriage or adoption the individual joins another household that is not a member household of Christ Church, his or her church membership must be transferred.Unmarried members who are independent of their parents may request to form their own household (e.g., a young man who becomes self-supporting and lives apart from his parents). The elders will review such requests on a case by case basis.
5. Water baptism is required of those seeking membership. No one will be admitted into membership in the church until baptized. When baptisms are administered by the elders of our church, the mode used (whether by pouring, immersion, or sprinkling) will be determined through arrangement with the person being baptized, or with his parents.When a baptized believer moves to our church, the elders acknowledge his baptism as Christian baptism in receiving him into the membership of the church.If the baptism was administered by a non-Christian sect or cult, and the baptism is determined to be no baptism at all, the individual will be instructed on his responsibility to be baptized at the first opportunity. As an act of an ecclesiastical government, a valid baptism does not depend upon the personal integrity of the minister conducting the baptism, or the doctrinal and moral integrity of the administering church. Nevertheless, if the corruptions are such as to require our elders to consider that church to be no Christian church at all, then the baptisms administered by such a church will not be received. Given the complexity of all such issues, the elders will deal with each situation on a case-by-case basis.
6. When the criteria listed above have been fulfilled, a household or individual will be formally received into the membership of Christ Church before the congregation on the Lord’s Day in the following manner.
   

   a. The individual or head of household will be asked the following questions: “Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in need of salvation by Christ, and do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving and resting upon Him alone as He is offered in the gospel?” “Have you been baptized in accordance with His Word?” “Do you swear in the name of God, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, to live in a way that becomes followers of Christ?” “Do you swear in the name of God to support the ministry of this church in its worship and work, submitting to its government and discipline, while pursuing its purity and peace?” When the questions are addressed to the head of a household, he will also be asked if he is speaking on behalf of the household. b. When an affirmative answer has been given, the members of the congregation will be asked to welcome the individual or household into this covenant relation of membership together with them. They will signify agreement with a corporate “Amen.” c. One of the elders will offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

1. If a member household or individual member of Christ Church in good standing requests to be released to the care of another Christian church, the elders will grant the request, and release them with a blessing.
2. If a member household or individual member of Christ Church requests to be released because of disciplinary proceedings against the individual or anyone in the household, the elders will deny the request until the disciplinary matter is resolved.
3. If a member household or individual member is moving from our geographical area, before they leave the elders will exhort them on their duty to find a new church home. If they have not joined themselves to a new church within six months of moving, the elders will release them from membership in Christ Church with a letter of admonition. This will be done even if in the interim a situation arises which would normally call for the disciplinary intervention of the church.

D. Access to the Sacraments

1. It is assumed that all but very young children and unbaptized persons will be regularly attending the Lord’s Supper.  However, the elders of the church recognize that each head of household received into membership is responsible before God for the spiritual condition of his household. Therefore, considering that conscientious Christians differ as to when it is appropriate to admit children to the Table, the head of household is invited to make recommendations to the elders concerning his or her household, with the understanding that no one will be admitted to the Lord’s Supper who has not been baptized. Under the headship of Christ, the administration of church sacraments (or ordinances) remains with the elders. However, in such administration, the elders are to work in league with the head of the household.
2. When a child in a baptistic home desires to be baptized and come to the Table of the Lord, the parents should notify the elders, who will arrange for the baptism of the child.
3. Any baptized child is invited to partake of the Lord’s Supper. The head of the household is responsible to carefully and regularly instruct the child in the gospel and the richness and meaning of the Supper.

E. Electors

Those members of Christ Church who vote in church elections will be called electors.

1. Qualifications for Electors: Electors of Christ Church are those who are heads of member households.  A household is not eligible to vote in an election unless the household is established before the ballot is distributed to the electors.
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2. Authority of Electors: Electors may vote in the elections of elders and deacons, and provide input to the elders and deacons at a regularly scheduled meeting.
   
3. Qualified Electors: The elders will qualify electors. Three weeks prior to any election to church office, the election will be announced and the ballot will be provided to the electors. Those who desire to vote but who do not receive a ballot may contact the elders. If qualified, they will be provided a ballot in time for the election.
4. Elections: Elections will be conducted at appropriate times set by the elders.
   
5. Heads of Households Meetings: The congregation will hold a regular (currently bimonthly) meeting of heads of member households, which will be the normal channel through which the elders and deacons receive advice from the representatives of the church’s households.