Partner's agreement

Real Hope church …. What’s it mean to be a partner?

Phil 1:4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. ....27...I know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.

Paul had a vision for the church. He saw us together as partners, following Jesus our Lord, empowered by His Spirit, with one purpose, spreading the Good News about Jesus. He saw the church as God’s people, on God’s mission. It’s a great vision. God calls everyone of us to be partners in His church, both local & global.

Though there is one world-wide church, with our one God over us all, God’s pattern all the way through the new testament is for every true follower of Jesus to belong to a local church. It is within this framework of relationships, that He desires us to learn to love one another, as He has loved us; that we learn to live the gospel. All mission, discipleship, & church planting is done through His local church. It’s here that we learn to submit to one another under biblically qualified elders, so that together we can honour Jesus, we can be led by Him as His body, we can draw closer to Him through His Word, we can be empowered by His HS, we can display God’s character, we can care for & support His people, & we can be equipped & empowered for His mission.

You choose the relationship

We want to build up & encourage everyone.

If you are part of another church, you are always welcome here at Real Hope church. Friends can visit as often as they like. We will seek to encourage you, & hopefully equip you to be a blessing in your own church.

If you wish to join our church family without formally becoming a “partner,” that’s ok also. We will care for you, build you up, & involve you.

But we believe you should consider, after much prayer, becoming a church “partner.” Paul describes believers, as partners together in the gospel, & how God works through them to fulfill His mission. This is who we want to be as a church.

Our church exists to show how great our God is. We live as His people, in the normal, everyday stuff of life, right here in Inverell. And so, our partnership agreement is how we commit together, to live as God’s family on mission.

We are disciples of Jesus, committed to bringing all of our life increasingly under His Lordship, & leading others to do the same. We want to show everyone what He’s like, His love & His grace, so they can come to know & experience Him as Saviour, & give Him the admiration He deserves.

So we can’t do this in just a couple of hours once a week. This is all of life. Our desire is to equip God's people, to be disciples who make disciples, wherever they are, every moment of their lives, so people everywhere know Jesus as Lord.

If you wish to join Real Hope church without formally becoming a partner, here are some benefits ….

It means all of the church family, are committed to you, & you to them
It means we’ll do all the “one another's”; love, support, encourage, caution, care, bear burdens
It means you will have servant leaders who will pray for you, shepherd, & protect you
As part of a church, you are a more effective witness for Jesus
It means you will be part of God’s vehicle, to fulfill His mission

If after seeking God, you choose to become a partner in Real Hope church, here are some added benefits & responsibilities ….

It makes you part of the vision of Real Hope
It means you are making yourself accountable to others you can trust
It means you can hold accountable the servant leaders (while also praying for & supporting)
As a committed partner, you are entrusted to be part of making decisions
Partnership gives the church a framework for making decisions, by those who are committed to its best interests, & who are mutually accountable to each other

What’s next, how do you make this decision?

Please read through our statement of belief & core values.
More importantly spend some time talking with our servant leaders, hear where we believe God is leading us.
Much more importantly spend time praying & ask the Holy Spirit to lead you as you consider this decision.

This is not an exclusive relationship. We recognise we are part of the bigger church of Inverell, & of Christ’s body right around the world. We encourage you to have healthy relationships with other churches. Indeed, one of our core values is to be kingdom focused, & so we desire to be actively building, & investing in other churches in our region, & together grow God’s kingdom.

Partner’s agreement (first section to be read when celebrating new partners)

This is the story of how I came to know & follow Jesus……. (share testimony of God’s saving grace)
I believe Jesus Christ is exactly who he claimed to be, as revealed in the bible; God’s eternal son, the Messiah who became flesh; fully God and fully man. The only mediator between God and man. (Isa. 53:6; Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:70; John 4:25-26; 6:29; 8:58; 11:25-27; 14:6-7; 15:5).
I have repented of my sins and have been made a new creation in Christ (1 John 1:9; 2 Cor. 5:17).
I have been saved from the punishment I deserve by faith in Jesus Christ alone, through his death and resurrection, by which I am also assured of eternal life. I come by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, based on the scriptures alone, for God alone. (John 3:16-18; Rom. 3:23-26)
I believe in Jesus as my Lord, Saviour, & supreme treasure of my life.
I acknowledge the one & only true, Almighty God, as revealed in the bible; Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. I will seek to honour Him & surrender to Him in everything.
The Word of God (Bible) is my absolute authority. I submit to it in all of life & faith (Ps. 119; 2 Tim. 3:16-17)
In obedience to Scripture, I have been baptized to personally identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and to publicly demonstrate my new identity as a disciple of Jesus (Col. 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21).

Both individually & as a church, we recognise that we are far from perfect, & so we will mess up & often need to come back to the gospel, to ask for & receive forgiveness. But our aim in life, is for everything we do to bring honour to Jesus.

So only by totally relying on the Holy Spirit’s help, & only by completely depending on God’s grace, I commit to;

gathering regularly with the church family
growing as a disciple of Jesus, by reading God’s Word, prayer, abiding
working together to make disciples of Jesus, to fulfil God’s mission
encouraging each other to become more like Jesus
stewarding God’s resources by giving of my time, talents and treasures to build His kingdom

recognising that we don’t know it all, we don’t understand God’s Word completely, & that God graciously allows us liberty in our understanding, but I will use my liberty to build up the whole church & not to push my agenda or undermine others. I’ll support Real Hope’s statement of belief & core values

I commit to live in the light of my new identity in Christ, seeking to serve the ministry of the local and global church for his glory.
understand the importance of church leadership and will be diligent to preserve unity and peace (Eph. 4:1-3; Heb. 13:7, 17).
We promise to pray for, support, listen to, & hold accountable our servant leaders. We will always bring any concerns or accusations to them first.
We acknowledge that by agreeing to this covenant, we are also choosing to support the relationship guidelines that have been adopted by this church, that address peacemaking and reconciliation, accountability and church discipline, marriage and divorce, counselling and confidentiality, and the protection of our children.
submit to discipline by God through his Holy Spirit, to follow biblical procedures for church discipline in my relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ, and to submit to discipline when approached biblically by brothers and sisters in Christ (Ps. 141:5;Matt. 18:15-17; 1 Cor. 5:1-5; 2 Cor. 2:5-8; Gal. 6:1-5 8; 1 Tim. 5:20; 2 Tim. 2:25; Titus 1:9; 3:10-11; Heb. 12:5-11; Rev. 2:5-7, 14-25).

Be there for each other, to watch over, pray continually, help practically, support when life is hard, celebrate good times, never listen to gossip, always assume the best, be really slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, & do it all in love.

Servant leaders reply ….

We promise:

that we will meet the scriptural criteria for elders (1 Tim. 3:1-13; 5:17-22; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4)
to seek God’s will for our church family to the best of our ability, through much prayer, & asking Holy Spirit to lead us from God’s Word (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1-5).
to shepherd you, (tend, care, protect) and seek your growth as a disciple of Christ, in part by equipping you for service, and praying for you regularly, particularly when you are sick (Eph. 4:11-13, James 5:14).
to provide teaching and counsel from the whole of Scripture (Acts 20:27-28; Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 5:17-18).
to be on guard against false teachers (Acts 20:28-31).
to exercise church discipline for the health of whole church when necessary (Matt. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5; Gal. 6:1).
to set an example and join you in fulfilling the duties of church family members (1 Cor. 11:1; Phil. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:12).

Process for partner’s making decisions (this is framework from constitution)

As a church, we recognise the authority and headship of Jesus Christ. We believe that the bible teaches that the church is a theocracy, so we seek Jesus to lead us in all things. Decisions will be made after much prayer. All members will strive to reach unity (a unified position, not necessarily total agreement) before making decisions. We vote democratically as an association to confirm how we believe Jesus is leading us.
Decisions will be made by a 70% majority of the votes of eligible voters present at a meeting unless otherwise specified in the constitution.

Decisions will include confirming appointment of servant leaders, confirming removal of servant leaders, confirming distribution of finances, & confirming change in church governance documents, (inc constitution, statement of intent, core values, statement of beliefs).