the Covenant Household Model of life and ministry

We believe God has given us through Jesus Christ and His Word, a clear and powerful model for how we are to live as disciples of Jesus Christ and as a church body.

We call this the Covenant Household Model of Life and Ministry.

The information below offers a more detailed explanation of this model:

A Sufficient Model for Life & Ministry

The Bible clearly teaches that God has a model for how we are to live in Christ and this model is absolutely necessary, authoritative, sufficient, clear, and antithetical to the world’s models, the wisdom of this world and those without the Spirit. We call this the Covenant Household Model of Life and Ministry

(1 Corinthians 2:12-14).

• The Bible clearly teaches that there is a sufficient model of life and ministry to be found only in Christ.
  • In Christ, abundant life is possible and God's model offers the ability to have emotional, behavioral, relational health in every present circumstance and for eternity
  • In Christ, fruitful, God-glorifying ministry is possible and God's model offers believers filled with the Holy Spirit the power and wisdom to do what they are called to do and help others understand and experience that same health.
• The compromise and rejection of this truth regarding the sufficiency and antithetical nature of God's model, taught by the model itself has led to the pursuit of what the scripture refers to as ‘useless speculations’ in the history of thought about life and ministry in the church.
  • Romans 6:17; Titus 1:13; 2Timothy 3:14-17; 1Timothy 1:3-10; 1Corinthians 1-4;
  • Colossians 2:8, 16-23; 1John 4:1-6
    • For example, whereas the early church leaders (the 1st Century church) had nothing to do with worldly wisdom, rejecting the integration of the philosophies of unregenerate man, the church leaders that followed (particularly the Apologists and their descendants) sought to integrate them. More recently this compromise and pursuit has led to the integration of human wisdom (scientific psychology), which has in turn led to uncertainty (a lack of confidence in sufficiency of God's model) and confusion in the life and ministry within the church.

Overview of Covenant Household Model

• God created man and the world for His glory.
  • God’s creative activity in and His own ends for creation and for man are the necessary presupposition for understanding everything that is (exists).
  • The world is derivative for God’s glory.
    • Revelations 4:11; Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:16
  • Man is derivative for God’s glory.
    • Genesis 1:26,27; 2:7; Genesis 5:1; Isaiah 43:7; 1Corinthians 11:3-7
• God entered into a covenant of works with man, whereby in reliance on him he might act for God in this world to God’s glory.
  • Man glorifies God most by being most satisfied in Him.
    • Matthew 22:37; John 4: 1-24; Jeremiah 2:11-13; 1Corinthians 10:1-11; James 4:4-6.
  • Man glorifies God by acting for God through God.
    • John 15:5-8; 1Peter 4:1
• God executes everything according to His plan
  • God’s Will is the necessary presupposition, ultimately, for understanding everything that exists and anything that happens.
    • Job 42:2; Psalms 33:11; Proverbs 16:4; Isaiah 45:6,7; Lamentations. 3:37, 38; Amos 3:6;
    • Daniel 4:34, 35; Acts 4:27-30; 17:26; Matthew 10:29; Romans 9; 11:33-36;
    • Ephesians. 1:10-11; 1Peter 2:8.
  • Unless God’s plan is the explanation for all that happens, the events of this life, all things, devolve into chaos at there most basic level, and there is no basis for certainty about anything.
• Man chose to reject God’s explanation of the true nature of all things, as well as God’ right to explain the true nature of all things and his very own existence. He chose to believe a lie about God’s control of the future
  • At the instigation of Satan man chose to set up his own reason as the judge
    • Genesis 3-5
  • Man chose to set up his own will as the rule against the Wisdom and rule of God.
    • Romans.1:21- Romans 5
• Consequently, Man became dead in sin.
  • Man cannot know the truth about the nature of anything. He became a slave to futility and hostility in his mind.
    • Matthew 11:25-27; Matthew 22:44; Matthew 23:15; John 1:5; John 15:23; John 12:40;
    • John 5:37-39; John 8:43-47; John 17:14; Romans 8:6-8; 1Corinthians 1:21;
    • 1Corinthians 2:13-14; 1Corinthians 3:20; Colossians 1:21; Titus 3:3
  • Man cannot obey the truth and so cannot please God, but became a slave to idols. Enmity rather than love for God now motivates all his acts.
    • Matthew 15:9; Romans 8:6-8; Romans 5:10; 1Corinthians 10:20; John 8:19;
    • Galatians 4:8; Ephesians 2:2-3, Ephesians 2:14-16; 1John 2:22-23; 1John 3:6, 10, 12-13
  • Man stands under the condemnation and wrath of God.
    • John 3:18; Romans 3:10-19; Romans 5:12-18; Romans 6:23;
    • Ephesians 2:1-3; 2Thessalonians 1:8
• God initiated and fulfilled the Covenant of Grace.
  • Genesis 3:15; Galatians 3-4; Romans 3-6
• God applies the Covenant of Grace and explains the process by which man is renewed in His Glory-Image (also called godliness, or covenant faithfulness)
  • The ordo-salutis or The Order of Salvation
    • Romans 8:29, 30; 1Corinthians. 1:30-31; 2Corinthians 3:18-4:6
  • Faithfulness in all Covenant spheres of life. (heart and life faithfulness)
    • 1Thessalonians 4:11; 1Timothy 3:4; 1Timothy 5:8; Ephesians 5-6; 1Peter 3
• God ordains and Institutes the Primary structure of Authority to most faithfully oversee and manage this restoration to Covenant faithfulness, which is itself both an end and means of that restoration process.
  • The local church as a household of households under the authority of Elders, who oversee heads of households and encourage and oversee mutually constructive covenantal relationships for individual members, with a view to their varying gifts and roles (including importantly speaking the truth in love to one another in mutually constructive covenantal relationships and in corporate assembly
    • Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 3:16; 1Corinthians 12 & 14; Hebrews 3:12, 13; Hebrews 10:24
  • Heads of households are responsible (accountable to God and the elders of the church) for the building up and training in righteousness of their own family.
    • Ephesians 5:21-6:4