Foundation Statement
The Crieff Fellowship is comprised of those involved in ministering God’s Word. We are conscious of the sacred and weighty responsibilities entrusted to us in handling the Word of God, and recognise the continuing need we have to encourage, exhort and equip one another in pursuing this calling.
Aim
As a Fellowship we have from the first been gathered and bound together around a particular perspective, whereby we are persuaded that we best and most fruitfully exercise the ministry of God’s Word entrusted to us through a pattern of systematic expository preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Within the context of warm and genuine fellowship, therefore, our aim is to cultivate the highest calibre of such expository preaching on the part of those ministering the Word of God; in particular to encourage, support and spur one another on in the exercise of such ministry; to provide instructive and inspiring models of such ministry; and both to promote the benefits, and teach the disciplines, of such a pattern of ministry.
Authority
As an unashamed expression of our declaring Jesus Christ as Lord, we seek to exercise our ministries and serve our churches under the clear and full authority of the Scriptures as the very Word of God.
We believe that every person needs to be saved from the guilt and power of sin, and that it is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ alone that such salvation has been effected by God: we believe, moreover, that it is primarily through the reading and proclamation of those Scriptures that God both continues to speak, and effectively calls people into newness of life, uniting them with Christ by His Spirit through faith: and we believe that it is in this way that our Lord thus builds His church.
Convictions
Starting from that premise, we share two common convictions in relation to the ministry entrusted to us, both of which are firmly rooted in those Scriptures.
It is our conviction, first, that both the Scriptures themselves, and church history, too, make it clear that a deliberate and sustained pattern of systematic expository preaching is the primary and most fruitful means by which the Lord builds His church and advances His kingdom. Our aim, therefore, as stated above, is to support one another in the exercise of such a ministry and to encourage such a pattern of ministry throughout Christ’s church.
It is also our conviction that the regular gathering of Christ’s people to join together in earnest intercessory prayer should be a priority in the life of a local fellowship, an integral priority which we are careful to establish and safeguard in the exercise of the ministry to which we are called.
Mutual Commitment
The fellowship with one another which we embrace is thus centred around (a) a shared submission to the absolute authority of the Scriptures as the Word of God and (b) a shared embracing of those two core convictions in relation to the exercise of our calling as ministers of God’s Word.
We are clear that this fellowship is far from being a merely nominal thing, but one in which we make ourselves accountable to one another, and spur each other on. To be genuine and fruitful we recognize that such fellowship in the work of the gospel entails for each of us a deep-seated and continuing mutual commitment to one another: we are resolved that it should consistently find expression in our undertaking to pray for, to stand with, and to speak well of, one another in the exercise of the ministry of God’s Word - despite there being issues on which we may differ, and different denomination backgrounds.
We strive at all times to respect the different denominational (and indeed sometimes non-denominational) contexts in which we each find ourselves involved; we recognise the challenges which those varying denominational contexts can regularly bring; and we stand with one another, too, in the difficult decisions and choices which those different contexts can often necessitate for those who adhere to the absolute authority of the Scriptures.
Conclusion
The extent to which biblical norms are now not only marginalised but increasingly vilified only serves to underline the significance of our commitment to one another in this ministry of the Word.
We aspire, therefore, all the more earnestly to encourage and empower one another in rising to the challenges to, and opportunities for, faithful biblical ministry in this and succeeding generations.