Likeminded in Doctrine, Desire, Devotion, and Deference

1. We are Likeminded in Doctrine

• We will partner with pastors and churches that affirm the authority, sufficiency, clarity and necessity of God’s Word, the Bible. Adding anything to the Bible – either from non-canonical authorities, continuing revelation, or denials of inerrancy – undermines God’s Word and the confidence with which our congregations hold to it (2 Timothy 3:16–17; 3 John 1:3–4).

  
  

• Our partnership will extend to pastors and churches who affirm the person and work of Jesus Christ and who preach His gospel. Man’s greatest need is to be born again, forgiven of his sin and reconciled to God through Christ by faith alone and not through personal merit or meritorious works (1 Corinthians 15:1–3; John 3:3; Ephesians 2:8–10).

2. We are Likeminded in Desire

• We desire to be a voluntary network of likeminded and interdependent pastors and churches, and we desire for Christ to build his Church through us. We are assured of His promise to build His Church, but we also recognize our role in the process. We recognize our responsibility to pray for one other, and we desire to see each local church grow in its evangelistic zeal to reach its community. We also desire to equip each saint in our churches to do the work of the ministry and to spiritually reproduce their faith in others (Matthew 16:18; Colossian 4:2–6; Ephesians 4:11–13).

  
  

• Our desire is to stand firm in the faith but simultaneously to not stand still. We desire every county in the United States, every country in every continent, and every continent on the planet to have Bible-preaching local churches that plant other churches, all with the goal of reaching every soul with the gospel and sharing the gospel indiscriminately to every person (Matthew 28:19; 1 Timothy 2:3–6).

3. We are Likeminded in Devotion

• God is holy, and He requires that the Church be devoted to holiness. Practically, holiness is a separateness from unbelief, from false teachers, and from professing Christians who persist in disobedience. Each local church should recognize and value the Bible’s teaching on separation, and we will partner with those pastors and churches who are willing to practice biblical separation (2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1; 2 John 1:9–11; 2 Thess 3:6–15).

  
  

• By extension, ARCH pastors and local churches understand that while we may embrace the same Gospel, there will be churches with which we disagree in application to where we must limit our fellowship. We will network with churches who use biblical discretion before entering a partnership with churches that appear to ignore the importance of biblical separation and rather embrace a man-centered gospel presentation or worship style.

  
  

• While our mission is to coordinate networking with sister churches of like faith and practice, we recognize that the believer’s primary devotion is to his or her local church, and allegiance to ARCH ministries or any parachurch organization should not supersede devotion to his or her local church.

4. We are Likeminded in Deference

• ARCH Ministries is only as strong as the local churches that make up this network, and we defer to local church authority. Churches plant churches, and we desire that any church plant mirror the convictions of planting churches.

  
  

• We acknowledge the reality that saints often differ practically and denominationally. We purpose to be a network of pastors and churches who pursue unity as Christ’s body while pursuing purity as Christ’s bride – who resist identifying with the world (worldliness) and who reject any man-made tradition that would add to Christ’s saving work (legalism). Though our specific applications may differ on minor issues, we are determined to defer to the leadership of the local church and to maintain a charitable disposition as we partner with one another.

  
  

• As an organization, ARCH ministries reflects her founding church, Grace Church of Mentor in Mentor, Ohio.