Distinctive Characteristics

As a Christian church, we have the same mission as Christians have always had, which is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to win disciples among men and women. In relation to those who have received the gospel, our mission is to help the believers to remain believers and to grow in their faith and discipleship. The radical character of Christian discipleship makes it necessary for every believer to receive support, exhortation and encouragement from the community of believers. We also believe that we, as a part of God’s people, have an important mission in relation to God himself, which is expressed in the ministry of praise. In this respect, we hopefully have the same characteristics as everyone who bears our Master’s name in this world. A few distinctive characteristics can still be mentioned.

Ad Fontes, as a church, is in first hand a spiritual community. Like the very first Christians, we have discovered the strength of fellowship in the faith.

“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” (Acts 2:46)

In our fellowship, we want to find the strength to live a committed life as Christians in the circumstances each of us has to face in everyday life. Since we strive to allow the roots of faith to sink deep, in order to make a radical discipleship possible, our fellowship with brothers and sisters in the faith must be concrete and personal. The normal form for our fellowship is the services (usually Sunday mornings) and prayer-groups in the homes (usually once a week). In addition we encourage the close relationships that develop naturally from actively seeking God together.

To us in Ad Fontes, the Christian life is secondly a matter of every-day life. Faith is supposed to find expressions in your entire life, and the mission of the church is therefore to support its members into living uncompromisingly as disciples of Jesus, no matter whether we are concerned with traditionally Christian activities or things belonging to the so called worldly sphere, as family life, work or studies. We actually do not strive after running church activities as such, except if we should run into special needs that the church can take a responsibility in meeting. Instead we see the vital activities of the church as the sum of everything its members do during the weeks. Everything is assumed to be sanctified to the Lord.

A third characteristic is integrity. Honesty and truth is a condition for true worship. If we want to be real, we have to be true to ourselves and in our relationships to God and each other. It is liberating to stop pretending. To be yourself and find that God accepts you, even if our lives are in constant change. If we walk in the light, we also have fellowship with each other. Since God expresses such confidence in us, we also want to express confidence in each other.

One goal in the Christian life is that each and everyone should hear God’s voice and be guided by his Spirit. This presupposes that everyone is given the confidence to live his or her life with God, and allow faith to express itself in outward acts of obedience as a “grown-up Christian”. We want to help and assist each other in a committed way, without taking over the responsibility for each others’ lives and thus hinder growth. This attitude is fundamental to all forms of spiritual leadership in the church.