Melbourne Community Church
Beliefs
Whereas we, being a body of people of like precious faith:
- Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life through His death and the power of His resurrection.
- Believe the Bible as God's word and the revelation of His will to man and accept it as our rule for faith and conduct.
- Believe Christian fellowship, mutual edification, and evangelical effort, in the form of local churches, is God's ordained order for His people.
- Believe each Church is to assemble for worship, fellowship, counsel, and instruction in the Word of God, and the work of the ministry
- Believe each Church should exercise the gifts and offices provided for in the New Testament to obtain the Christian goal, "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect."
- Believe God has called and anointed us to emphasize the fullness of the Gospel through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we have accepted and adopted the following Statement of Fundamental Truths and Constitution. By God's grace, we shall seek to be governed by the Constitution as set forth and will also seek to teach and propagate the doctrines contained in the Statement of Fundamental Truths.
Statement of Moral Principles
Given our current time and context, we highlight and affirm the following moral principles, acknowledging that other ethical principles merit our further attention.
Gender Equality
Scripture teaches that men and women are of equal value in the eyes of God. Accordingly, the Church should treat women and men equally. We believe that both women and men are called to and gifted for ordained and licensed ministry, and both genders can hold any leadership role within the Melbourne Community Church.
Equality
We believe that all persons are of sacred worth. Therefore, we gladly welcome all who seek to grow in their relationship with God to attend worship services and participate in the Church's ministries. No person shall be disqualified from becoming a member of a local congregation, holding a leadership position in the Church, or becoming an ordained or licensed clergy based on race, color, nationality, national origin, marital status, or economic condition. The Melbourne Community Church expressly renounces all racial and ethnic discrimination and commits itself to work toward full racial and ethnic equality in the Church and society.
Marriage and Sexuality
We believe marriage and sexual intimacy are good gifts from God. In keeping with Christian teaching through the ages and throughout the Church universal, we believe marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union. We believe that God intends faithfulness in marriage and celibacy in singleness. Those ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be undertaken at Melbourne Community Church.
Human Dignity
We believe everyone must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual or group are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture or the doctrines of the Melbourne Community Church.
Purpose
One purpose of this Melbourne Community Church is to point people in the direction of having a personal relationship with the Lord (born again, saved) and to earnestly seek and promote the unity of God's people in the Scriptural manner of Godly love, respect, and faithful voluntary cooperation with liberty. To that end, it shall associate and cooperate freely with other churches and church organizations.
