Ministry Teams
Members will be grouped into Ministry Teams which will consist of those with like-minded passions. The purpose of ministry teams is to be effective in reaching and serving those of whom the team is passionate for. There will be an assigned leader of each ministry team which will in turn report all activities and concerns to the associate pastor(s). Ministry teams will be responsible for planning activities and projects in order to reach a people group.

Life Groups
Life Group is not just a once a week meeting for an hour to study scripture. Life Group is not a program, it is shared life. Life Group is a place to build honest relationships through learning God’s Word and how to live it, to share joys, and to support each other in the midst of struggle.

Life Groups will discuss the sermon or a specific book. They will meet in homes and will consist of prayer, discussion, food, with an open agenda to meet specific needs. Life Groups will have a facilitator to lead discussion. Life Groups will remain at a manageable size so that people still feel connected. They will provide an avenue to build relationships that reach outside of the typical meeting walls. Life Groups will, at the core, be a place to have honest relationship in a true community.

Church Discipline

1) The attitude of the Leadership Team in church discipline:

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 6:1-3

2) The steps of the Leadership Team in church discipline:

STEP 1- “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. -Matt 18:15
STEP 2- But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. -Matt 18:16
STEP 3- If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. Matt 18:17a
STEP 4- And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. -Matt 18:17b

AFFIRMATION- Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. -Matt 18:18

3) The objective of the Leadership Team in church discipline:

a) To restore him/her to a proper fellowship with God and the church.

Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs. -2 Cor 2:5-11

b) To remove the leaven, or the corruptive influence, from the congregation.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. -1 Cor 5:6-8

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. -Titus 1:10-11

c) To correct doctrinal errors.

Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith -Titus 1:13

d) To prevent the spreading of sin to the other members.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. -Gal 6:1

As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. -1 Tim 5:20

Divorced Men Serving as Pastors or Deacons

Those men who have been divorced are not necessarily excluded from the office of pastor or deacon. Each candidate will be handled on a case-by-case basis and will be examined and scrutinized by both the Leadership Team and the Body. A vote of ¾ majority will be required in order to admit that person to the office in question.