Denomination and Network
Your body needs red blood cells and white blood cells. The red blood cells deliver resources to the front line—energy, oxygen to the extremities. White blood cells are there when you need them—they fight disease and impurities. Just like the human body, the church needs both. We find them in our denomination and movement.
White Blood cells: Denomination. Today, it is vogue for people to shun such institutions as being outdated or silly. However, we believe that it is right for us to be “in community with other churches. ” In obedience to Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that we be unified, we are a part of a denomination as a step toward that unity. We have a local connection to this community (Eastern Carolina Presbytery) as well as a national connection (the Presbyterian Church in America). Your pastor, as member of the Eastern Carolina Presbytery, is under its authority, and accountable to the pastors who make up this body. As such, we are modeling what we ask you to be a part of: an accountability structure. You can check out the Presbyterian Church in America, whose beliefs can be found here and whose confession of faith can be found here).
Red Blood cells: Network. We are continually wrestling with how to contextualize the gospel in the culture of the city of Raleigh. One of the best resources for this is our network., called Acts 29. The Acts 29 Network is a national group of likeminded churches who pool resources to start new churches. A denomination is great about theological clarity and precision and accountability, but a network provides the missional blood infusion that keeps us thinking perpetually how to speak the gospel and live the gospel in this time and this place. This red-blood-cell network brings resources to the front lines and keeps us sharp.
