We at RENEW.org believe in the renewal and restoration of a focus on Jesus Christ, his kingdom, and the pure teaching of the New Testament for the life and practices of the local church. Our movement is not another denomination with a unique brand. Rather, we are churches that pursue the ideals of the New Testament as our foundation. We stand on the shoulders of those who put Scripture over tradition—looking not only two hundred years back in North America or five hundred years back to the Protestant Reformation, but also to the earliest Christians after the apostles, and above all to Jesus Christ and the New Testament itself. We are communities of disciples who follow Jesus Christ, live by the scriptures, love one another, and take the gospel to the world. We believe this approach is the most faithful way to be the church God intended today. Here are eight points of emphasis that shape our practice.
1. We are centered on Jesus Christ.
We seek a non-sectarian emphasis on Jesus, his gospel, and the life of the Spirit. We seek to be Christians only, but we are not the only Christians. The church Jesus prayed for in John 17 is one church, not competing institutions or brands. Anyone who has truly embraced Jesus and his gospel and been reborn by the Holy Spirit is our brother or sister. Lasting unity is not found by minimizing Scripture, but in a focus on Jesus, his true gospel, and a life empowered by the Holy Spirit. We seek unity with other believers beyond the local church, but we do not want the kind of unity that requires our churches to set aside what is essential or vitally important in Scripture. These things bind us to God’s truth, which channels our focus on Jesus and his desire for unity. We believe the life of the Spirit and the power of Jesus-like love should govern us in all things.
2. Scripture is our first and final authority.
The 66 books of the Bible—the historic Old and New Testaments—are the sufficient, inspired, infallible, and final rule of faith and practice. Where Scripture speaks, we speak. Where it is silent, we walk carefully, pursuing the principles and spirit of what has been revealed and seeking to stay in step with all the teachings of God’s Word in its various literary genres. We also listen carefully to church history and learn from the insights of believers who went before us. Yet while we learn from history, God’s Word remains our ultimate authority. No creed, council, denomination, confession, or later tradition stands over God’s Word. Jesus Christ is Savior, Lord, and King. His apostolic Word is our definitive authority. Every other authority is secondary.
“His apostolic Word is our definitive authority. Every other authority is secondary.”
3. We prize Jesus’ gospel, repentant faith expressed in baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and new life in Christ.
The gospel is the good news of God’s rescue through Jesus Christ—his life, death, burial, resurrection, and enthronement at God’s right hand. Jesus inaugurated a kingdom that will be consummated when he returns, and we enter that kingdom by faith. We are saved by grace through faith. Faith is more than intellectual agreement or emotional warmth toward God; it includes allegiance, loyalty, and faithfulness to him. Baptism is the God-appointed expression of personal, repentant faith in conversion. In Scripture, it is neither a later symbol or public demonstration for those already saved, nor a mechanical act that works apart from faith. A person hears the gospel, believes in Jesus, turns from sin, confesses Christ, and is immersed into him for the forgiveness of sins and incorporation into his body (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3–4; Galatians 3:26–27). This is not baptismal regeneration. Conversion in baptism is the normative moment where faith, repentance, and obedience meet God’s promises.
4. We believe disciple making is the core mission of the local church.
Leading people to place their faith in Jesus Christ and then become more and more like him is the focus of the New Testament. This is disciple making, the core mission of the local church. Being true disciples and making other disciples are not side programs; they are the center of everything the church does. Disciple making happens through love—patient, relational, and life-on-life, as Jesus demonstrated with the Twelve. We believe in the present kingdom reign of God. In God’s kingdom we pursue holiness and reject lifestyles marked by pride, sexual immorality, homosexuality, easy divorce, idolatry, greed, materialism, gossip, slander, racism, violence, and the like. Love is the distinguishing mark of a true disciple. If a local church is not making these kinds of disciples and seeking to make more, it has lost the plot. By demonstrating the ways of Jesus, the church reveals God’s kingdom reign to the watching world.
“If a local church is not making these kinds of disciples and seeking to make more, it has lost the plot.”
5. We renew the norms of the New Testament Church.
We pursue the teachings of the New Testament for the practices of the local church, with a focus on emulating Jesus Christ in all things. Our goal is to recover the heart, faith, ordinances, leadership, and community life of the apostolic church so we can truly follow the teachings of Jesus in Scripture. We seek to understand and practice what the apostles taught the first church to uphold: the same gospel, repentant faith, baptism, leadership, prayer and fasting, being the gathered people of God, communion, loving, serving, and being sent people. Restoration without imitation of Jesus becomes legalism. Renewal without a tenacious commitment to the Spirit and heart of New Testament teaching leads to progressive drift or dead tradition. We seek both: the character of Christ and the life of the New Testament church, at its best, as envisioned in the apostolic Word.
6. We uphold congregational autonomy.
We have no higher human authority than elder/overseer leadership in the local church. Each local church is an expression of the body of Christ, not a franchise of a denomination or institution. Qualified elders (overseers) shepherd the congregation. They serve with and provide oversight to evangelists, teachers, deacons, and everyday members, who are all ministers. The church’s leaders are first servants and equippers. They provide guidance, teaching, and an environment of disciple making so that people place their faith in Jesus Christ and become more and more like him. The elders do not answer to a bishop, a convention, or a headquarters. Cooperation with other churches is good and often necessary for the mission of the church; control over other churches is not. The elders of the church watch over each other and the flock among them. Each church is autonomous.
“The elders do not answer to a bishop, a convention, or a headquarters.”
7. We uphold preaching God’s Word and practicing regular observance of the Lord’s Supper.
Our churches, like those in the New Testament, are devoted to God’s Word (Acts 2:42; 1 Timothy 4–5). We typically gather on the first day of the week to hear the Word and remember Jesus Christ’s body and blood and his real presence in communion (the Lord’s Supper). Scripture does not require weekly communion, but there is historical and theological value in being reminded of Jesus and his gospel on a weekly basis. Communion is not an occasional add-on. It is a regular proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes—a shared meal of remembrance, thanksgiving, and communion with Christ and one another. The earliest church did not meet only on Sundays, but from house to house on a regular basis (Acts 2:46). We want to be like they were: devoted to God’s Word, fellowship, prayer, and mission (Acts 2:42–47). When we treat the Word and the Table as central and frequent, as the first-century church did, the gospel, the resurrection, and the coming consummated kingdom stay at the center.
8. We are committed to reach the whole world with the gospel of Christ.
Restoring or renewing the teachings of the first church is not an indoor hobby for people who like to study Scripture. The New Testament church was a reaching and sending church. The same gospel that calls us to baptize, gather for communion, and make disciples also teaches us to love and serve one another (Matthew 25). The good news of Jesus sends us into our communities and out to the nations. Local churches exist to reach their neighborhoods and to help reach the whole world. If our practices become a closed circle of the already convinced, we have failed the RENEW.org and Restoration plea. Jesus is Lord of all. The gospel is for all. The church that renews New Testament faith must also renew Jesus’ Great Commission.
“The church that renews New Testament faith must also renew Jesus’ Great Commission.”
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These eight accents belong together. A fierce commitment to the teachings of Scripture above all else keeps us from drifting. Restoration and imitation of Jesus keep us from becoming just another religious institution. Disciple making in love is the mission. Baptism and weekly communion mark conversion and covenant life. We are devoted to each other in love. Elders/overseers lead autonomous congregations. Unity in Christ and the Spirit keeps us from sectarianism. Local and world mission keep us from turning inward. We do not advocate a new denomination, but a focus on the church envisioned by the apostles and a return to Jesus, his Word, and his way of making disciples until he comes.
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