1 Timothy 4:16 (King James Version)
16Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
Some translations render this passage as “watch your life and doctrine closely” meaning that Paul was exhorting Timothy to watch the way he lived his life as well as what he was teaching the congregation he led. Note too that there is a connection to our salvation in watching both how we live as well as what we teach.
If you compare today’s Christianity with that of the earliest Church you would be hard pressed to find a church that matched up in both lifestyle and doctrine to that of those early believers. You can find groups that hold to beliefs which are extremely representative of the early faith but they don’t emphasize the same close daily walk with Christ, the separation from the spiritual pollution of the world, and the focusing on being a member of Christ’s kingdom over the kingdoms of the world that the first Church did.
You can also find groups whose lifestyles resemble the early Church a great deal. They believe that the Sermon on the Mount can be lived out daily in their lives and they apply it. They separate themselves from this world’s filthy and violent entertainments so as not to be spotted by it. And they live simple, modest lives because they aren’t entangled in financial pursuits.
Truth be told, from what we can gather, if the earliest Church were to be transported to the 21st century, it would probably resemble a hybrid between the Churches of Christ in doctrines and the Anabaptist (Amish and Mennonite) groups in lifestyle. There would still be differences, but as a general rule this would likely be what it would look like.
This is what we in the Marietta Fellowship hope to do; live the lifestyle Christ is calling us to as His disciples while observing the doctrines and beliefs which were handed down to the apostles by Him.
This is precisely why we ask that a person hold to the same core doctrines we do before they ask to join our fellowship. As was stated on an earlier webpage, it isn’t that we want to exclude anyone. We only want to protect what we believe to be the true doctrines of the faith from those who would divide us maintaining our unity in that area. God is the ultimate judge and we may find out our beliefs were wrong in the end but these are the beliefs which we believe to be accurate and Church history does support this.
Regarding lifestyle, we desire to walk daily and increasingly closer with Christ. Let’s face it we are all a mess! Our goal is to nurture a spiritually healthy group by encouraging each other to apply the scriptures to their lives and allow individuals to grow as they are convicted to do so by God’s Holy Spirit.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t call people to repent of gross, overt sin in their lives, we do. We simply have realized, many of us the hard way, that personal righteousness cannot be legislated through rules and “guidelines”. It has to come from the personal convictions of the individual believer.
We are a group of believers who no longer care about being “right” we only want to seek and obey what is right. If you are an individual who is willing to take a humble, hard look at their life and doctrine and compare them, first to the Bible and then to what the first believers held to, then we may be the fellowship you’ve been looking for.