Monday, April 04, 2005

Prescott's Brethren Manifesto!

Our brother in Christ, Andrew Prescott posted his "brethren manifesto" yesterday on the forum:
Okay... I sat down on my laptop and started something. Please reply with comment, rewording, addition, deletion, etc. Perhaps this is junk, needs a lot of work...

Outline for a Brethren Manifesto 1st Draft - April 2005

* Purpose

We have traditionally had two movements, the Open, consisting of the Chapels, and the Closed. What we need is our own reformation; a re-birth, a renewal, an awakening, or as someone has said, a Third Way. Not an emotionally driven alteration as many liberals would advocate, nor an unemotional rejection of change for the misdirected sake of maintaining the status-quo as many conservatives would support... but a true and sincere changing of the hearts of all. What we need is a true and earnest desire to seek the face of God, to conform to the image of His Son, and to do one of two things; for those who lean toward conservatism, who view change as bad, to implement a heart transplant from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh; or for those who advocate more liberal views, to tame the wild ambitions of the flesh and to seek a whole-hearted submission to Him and His Word, no matter what that might cost. Only by so doing with the brethren movement, which we feel was initiated by the Holy Spirit so many years ago in an effort to preserve the Church, survive....
Not sure I agree with everything he says, but it's worth a read and it's good for future leaders to think through some of these things. I think Andrew is addressing the "open" assemblies (Chapels & Halls) only and not talking about the "exclusives".

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