Core Values

      Barton W. StoneAs Disciples of Jesus Christ

  1. We have learned that the roles played by the Enlightenment and American/Canadian Holiness/Revivalism have shaped the theological perspectives of our respective heritages. This awareness now influences our attitude and helps us to transcend certain limitations coming from our histories.
  2. We appreciate the value of historic Christian creeds, but we are unwilling to make any of these creeds a test of Christian fellowship.
  3. We celebrate our common conviction that Christ is the authority for life and belief. Christ is revealed through the Bible, as interpreted by the work of the Spirit in the context of the community of faith.
  4. We desire to recover for our time the essence of New Testament Christianity.
  5. We recognize the church as the universal Body of Christ. Each local congregation is called to be a manifestation of this one body. We recognize the importance both of freedom in the Spirit and mutual responsibility among Christ's disciples.
  6. We are agreed that baptism is commanded by the Lord Jesus to be practiced by all of His followers. This baptism is to be by the immersion in water of penitent believers. Baptism is symbolic of the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. By its nature as well as by biblical teaching, baptism is involved with forgiveness of sin. We take pains, however, to repudiate any doctrine of baptismal regeneration, holding that forgiveness is wholly a matter of God's grace.
  7. We rejoice in the Lord's Supper and reaffirm the new covenant of God's love poured out through Christ, the crucified, risen, reigning, and returning Lord.
  8. We encourage our brothers and sisters in the Evangelical Christian Church and in the Church of Jesus Christ to give careful attention to these affirmations and to continue discussion of other issues concerning which there is a range of opinion among us. These include: feet washing as an ordinance; women in ministry; the most desirable frequency of participating in the Lord's supper; and the meanings and processes of the "sanctification" of Christian believers. 
  9. As Christians, we rest in the finish work of Jesus Christ on the cross according to the grace of God..