The Church Statute (religious law)

Article one.
The church community is called the Church of Equality.

Article two.
1. The church community is based on the Biblical principle that all true believers are part of the body of which Jesus is the head.
Efeze 1: 22-23.
That is why the body of Christ is an organism and an organisation.
An organism, shaped on the day of Whitsun through the work of the Holy Spirit.
(1 Kor. 12:12-13).

2. The church community is a red-letter christian community following the principle of equality.
The church also recognizes associated communities and are recognized by the church community as such.
The leading elder / overseer determines which communities are considered associated.

3. Every community has it's own independant leader(s) who operate within the framework of these statutes and recognizes the authority of the leading elder / overseer of the Church of Equality.

Article three.
The purpose or goal of the church community is:
1. To awknowledge Christ as Almighty Head of the Church across the world and to spread our message of equality to all people;

2. To recognize all true believers as parts of the body of Christ;

3. To amplify the apostolistic mission, to encourage and improve and found communities, which are a place of devotion to the principles of equality;

4. To accept the responsibility to fullfill the great mission by spreading the Word of Christ and make the people His desciples.
(Mattheüs 28: 18);

5. To create unity between members of the body of Christ;

6. To underwrite the fundamental truths as dictated in article 4 of these statutes;

7. To create services belonging to the church community, for the purpose of spreading the message of the church community as descibed in these statutes;

8. To employ candidates for providing services, as described in article 6.1 and if they are proven worthy, appoint as overseers according to the demands set in the New Testament.

9. To spread the principle of equality, that we are all created equally and to dedicate ourselves as a church community to protect and defend the rights of those who are not treated as an equal.

Article four.
The declaration of fundamental truth.

1. The one true creator. The creator has manifested itself as the eternal, the selfexisting "I AM", the creator of the universe and the salvation of mankind.
(Deuteronomium 6:4; Exodus 3: 14; Jesaja 43:10,11);
The creator has manifested itself as Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(Jesaja 48:16; Mattheüs 28:19; Lucas 3:22).

2. The Scriptural Inspiration and foundation.
The community recognizes the Bible as the by the Holy Spirit inspired Word of the creator and therefore accepts the Bible as the foundation of the guidelines for the functionality of the community.

3. The divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of the creator and as such shares in the divinity of the creator.
(Mattheüs 1:23; Johannes 5:22-23; Johannes 1:1; Hebrews 1:1-13)

4. The Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is send by the Father on the payer of Jesus and shares in the divinity of the creator.
(Psalms 139:7-10 and Lucas 1:35)

5. Inherited sin and sins of mankind.
Mankind was created and created good; for the creator says "Let us create mankind in Our own image".
(Genesis 1:26);
The first human, Adam, fell through disabedience of the grace of the creator and so sin was released and through sin death was created.
The sin of Adam did not only create the punishment of natural death, but also the eternal seperation from the creator.
(Genesis 2:17; 3:6-24).

6. The salvation of mankind.
The only hope for the salvation of mankind from the power of sin is through the blood of Christ.
(Acts of the Apostels 4:12; Romans 5:8-12; Jacobus 1:21; Efeze 2:.

7. Christ is the only shepard.
Jesus Christ is the good shepard (John 10:11) and the Great shepard (Hebrews 13:20). In the New Testament there is only one spiritual shepard and that is Jesus Christ. (John 10:16).

8. The church and it's mission.
The church is the body of Christ, the homestead of the creator through the Holy Spirit with the divine mission to perform it's great task.
Every beliver, born out of the Holy Spirit, is a part of the general church of the first born, who are registered in heaven.
(Efeze 1:22; Hebrews 12:23).
Because it is the will of the creator in reference to humanity to seek what was lost and to build a body of believers shaped in the image of the Son, it is the responcibility of the church to:
a. be a tool for spreading the Word throughout the world and make all people desciples of Jesus Christ.
(Acts of the Apostels 1:8; Mattheüs 28:19; Marcus 16:15,16);
b. be a communical body in which the creator can be prayed to.
(1 Korinthians 12:18-28).
c. Be a channel of the creator's intensions, to be a community of saints, perfected in the image of the Son.
(Efeze 4:11-16; 1 Korinthians 12:28).

9. Divine Healing.
In the Old Testament, divine healing is granted (Exodus 15:23-26; Psalms 103:1-3; Jesaja 53: 4-5) and this forms a literal part of the religion (Mattheüs 8:16,17; Acts of the Apostels 5:16).

Article five.
Membership.

1. Members of the church community are those who:
a) Have accepted the fundament of Hebrews 6:1-2 as a foundation for their life.
b) Have made it clear to the elders / overseers that they wish to join,
support our vision, accept the policy of the church and submit to the authority and oversight of the spiritual protection of the church community.
c) Have been accepted as such by the leading elder / overseer.
d) Have registered as members of our church community online.

2. Members have the right to receive spiritual advice or counselling from the church community.

3. Members remain members unless they distance themselves as such.
The elders / overseers have the authority to determine if a member has distanced his- or herself from the church community.

4. Exclusion (excommunication) from the church community.
After an attempt to reconcile between the church community and an individual member according to Mathew 18:15-17, must the following take place to warrant exclusion from the church community:
a) One rejects the teachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth partially or in it's entirety (2 John 9-11);
b) One is guilty of acts of immorality (1 Korinthians 5:9-11);
c) One behaves stubbornly inappropriate (The Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians  3:6-13);
d) One is trying to create a divide (Romans 16: 17);
e) One is trying to rule as a twisting dictator, creating division, must not be followed (3 John 9-11)
The elders / overseers must unanimously, with respect to article 6 paragraph 2, decide to deny membership, excommunicate or re-apply membership.

Article six.
Leadership of the church community.

1. Elders / overseers.
The leadership and oversight of the Church of Equality is performed by elders / overseers;
a) Elder / overseer is seen as a task and not necessarily as a calling.
Of the elders / overseers is expected that they meet the demands mentioned in the New Testament in 1 Timothëus 3: 1-13 and can remain appointed as long is they are worthy of that position.
b) The council of elders / overseers or the leader of the church can fire anyone who doesn't perform their task or is for any reason unable to perform their task.
c) New candidates are chosen and appointed by the existing elders / overseers.
d) The elders / overseers shall be appointed according to their skills and their state of mind.
The combination of all elders / overseers form the council of elders / overseers.
Other members of the church community can be asked to work with the council of elders / overseers in an advisory function or any other function as decided by the council of elders / overseers.
e) The council of elders / overseers shall oversee the administration and financial transactions of the church community and shall appoint a financial council to execute the function of financial administration.
f) The council of elders / overseers appoints the chairperson, accountant and financial secretary of the financial council.
g) The leading elder / overseer bears ultimate responsibility over the church community.
h) The leading elder / overseer keeps his or her job unless he or she voluntarily leaves, or in the case where what is mentioned in section j is applicable.
i) The leading elder / overseer shall as carier of the vision of the church be responsible to help build a future that matches the vision of the Church of Equality.
j) In the case where the leading elder / overseer ends his or her task due to finding a new life calling, is it the duty of the departing leader to arrange a meeting with the council of elders / overseers to vote for a replacement, determined by majority vote.

2. Decisions.
Decisions made by the council of elders / overseers can only be validated if the vote for that decision is unanimous.
If it is not, the leading elder / overseer can make the decision.

3. Deacons.
Deacons can be chosen by their local predecessor or elder / overseer and shall be confirmed by them according to the demands of the New Testament and they shall serve as missionairies in the local community (1 Timothëus 3:8-13).

4. Currency.
The funds for maintaining the work of the church community and spreading it's message shall be raised through voluntary donations and offerings, legates, inheritance, gifts and fundraising campaigns.

Article seven.
Alterations to the Church Statutes.

The statutes of the Church of Equality can only be changed after a unanimous vote of both the council of elders / overseers and the leading elder / overseer.

Article eight.
House rules.

The council of elders / overseers can, if deemed needed, write house rules:
a) For the benefit of the functionality of the church community.
b) For altering the statutes, as long as they do not deviate from:
1. The mission and goals as defined in article 3;
2. The declaration of fundamental truths, as defined in article 4;
3. The basis of church leadership as defined in article 6;
c) For various activities that may from time to time be hosted on church property or participated in by the church community.

Article nine.
The authority of elders / overseers.

The leading elder / overseer and, in the case of sickness or vacation, two other elders / overseers combined which are appointed by the leading elder / overseer shall represent the church community by right and is / are capable of performing all legal transactions that the council of elders / overseers deems necessary.
Unless someone else is appointed by the leading elder / overseer, the task of executing a decision of the council of elders / overseers lies with the leading elder / overseer.

Article ten.
Abrogation (discontinuation of the church community)

1. Abrogation of the church community may and can be decided at any point by the council of elders / overseers and the leading elder / overseer.
2. In case of abrogation and disbanding of the church community, all of it's possessions shall be overturned to another church community that shares a similar vision.

Article eleven.
Final decisions / legal footnotes.

1. The church community can sue or be sued and shall in that case be represented by the leading elder / overseer.
The council of elders / overseers can also appoint a representative.
2. In any and all situations where our statures make no mention or reference to the situation in question, the leading elder / overseer or a unanimous vote by the council of elders / overseers shall determine how to proceed.
3. When any doubt arises to the nature of or explanation of these statures, the leading elder / overseer shall make the determination.

- End of document

This is the Church Statute in it's entirety without the index and references to external documents like the Equilibruim.

Since there is a lot of legal and religious complicated language in there and some of you have probably noticed that this is based on the Church Stature of a modern Christian church, I will open a thread called "The Church Stature explained" in this section (Church Rules) and link it from here so you'll have an understanding of why I made the decision to make this our Church Statute.

So, here is the link to the explanation as to why the Church Stature is the way it's written.

http://churchofequality.friendhood.net/t27-the-church-stature-explained