What in the World is a Congregationalist?

Congregationalists trace our history back to the Pilgrims (yes those Pilgrims).  Our Pilgrim and Puritan forebears turned to the Scriptures as their guide for faithful living. In the Scriptures, they found two major types of covenants that expressed how we are in relationship to God: the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace.  The Covenant of Works is shown in the story of Adam and Eve. God would bless Adam and Eve as long as they remained obedient to God. However, they failed in this and fell into sin, taking all humanity with them. Because of this, God sent Jesus Christ to form a new relationship with us, redeeming us from our sin.  Through Christ, God established the Covenant of Grace. This was an act of God’s love and mercy for us. Unlike the Covenant of Works, this Covenant of Grace was tied to God’s promises rather than human obedience. The Pilgrims and Puritans looked to these covenants to make sense of their relationship with God and to understand how to be in relationship with each other.  

We commonly express the core of Congregationalism as Faith, Freedom and Fellowship.

Faith is the foundation of the Christian life and our walk with God.  God has saved us from our sins, redeemed us and called us His own.  By faith, we take hold of these truths and claim the promises of Scripture as our own.  “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9).

The Freedom of each individual and each church to follow Christ is the distinctive part of Congregationalism.  Every follower of Christ must take ownership of their own faith and follow Christ where He is leading them through His Word and His Spirit.  In addition, each church is independent, self-directed and self-governing.  Every Christian has been given direct access to God through the Holy Spirit, which means that the best group of people to make decisions on behalf of a local church is the members of that church.

Fellowship is essential in the Christian life.  From the very beginning of the church, the fellowship of believers has been instrumental.  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42).  No believer was ever meant to walk alone.  The church is the gathered community of Christians.