Church Plant

CHRISTIAN: Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ

BIBLICALLY BALANCED: Don’t add to the Bible. Don’t take away from the Bible

PART OF THE REMNANT: Targeting the Historic, Biblical Christian Faith

Church Plant Stage: The objective of Puget Sound Bible Church is to establish a thoroughly Biblical Christian local fellowship.  This fellowship will diligently attempt to model the traits and attributes of the local churches established by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles.

It is our firm intention and conviction that Puget Sound Bible Fellowship will follow the Bible in both doctrine and practice.  We take seriously the repetitive warning in God’s Word – that there must be no addition to it, and nothing taken away from it.

What makes this local Christian fellowship distinctive?

Characteristic	Biblical Church	Traditional Present-Day Local Church
Doctrine and Practice	The Bible. Nothing added. Nothing taken away.	Claim that the Bible is fully sufficient for doctrine and practice, yet adding all types of beliefs and practices that are foreign to the Word of the Living God and not found in the New Testament Early Church.
Membership	Genuine born-again, water-baptized believers in Jesus Christ simply declare themselves to be members. Nothing else required except the individual’s ongoing intention to walk like Jesus did and remain faithful to the Bible.	Extra-biblical methods employed to establish people as members, including things like application forms, formal interviews, and other clearly worldly methods.
Standard Worship Service	All members are encouraged to participate in the regular worship service – each according to calling and spiritual gifts – according to the leadership and placement by the Holy Spirit.	Very few individuals regularly perform ‘on stage’ during the regular worship service. Most attendees are passive viewers (trained as pew-sitters and money-givers) of the performance of a few.
Church Organizational Philosophy	Organic local fellowship that is modeled after New Testament practice. Experienced more like an organic family than a business. Family members experience genuine and practical love.	Commercial business model similar to those found in corporations, social clubs and businesses. Acts like a business and feels like a business – but with a veneer of loving care included. Lots of talk of love, but little actual expression – unless you are one of the favorites.
Leadership	Servant leadership: Plurality of elders and deacons with no single individual established as the main leader. Leaders are to selflessly serve the local fellowship. Slaves not bosses.	Command-and-Control leadership: Pastors perform duties similar to a CEO of a business, with a leadership structure that leverages command-and-control methods to run the business of church. Bosses not slaves.
Individual Salaries	Financial renumeration is minimized, preferable with no paid staff positions. If there paid staff, these should be short-term and diligently working themselves out of a job – to provide others the opportunity to exercise their calling and spiritual gifts. However, due to the current terrible greed exhibited in most local churches, the preference is no paid staff positions – ever. The believers’ reward is kept safe in Heaven.	Usually have at least one fully paid staff member, with paid salaries being a significant budget drain. All the while, many faithful believers sit in pews and give money to support often unneeded paid staff. Very few local church attendees gifts and talents are mostly wasted, not exercising their spiritual gifts and calling.
Finances	Spirit-led giving according to the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. Never ask for money. Never commit to expenditures without the resources already in hand. Members quietly contribute without ‘the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing’. As much as possible, none knows what another gives. Everything is done with the goal of not bringing any shame or accusation against the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.	Forced and coerced giving. Often in the form of demanding the 10% Tithe of the Old Covenant of Moses. Asking for money is demanded, ordered, constant and regular. Practices often include passing a plate, advertising and promoting avenues of online giving, ushers guarding exit doors with plate in hand, and other explicit practices that are not found in the New Testament church.
Buildings and Facilities	The local fellowship is able to creatively, fully and perfectly function without owning land and buildings. The Lord provides. The local church is the people, never any building or physical asset.	The facility, land and buildings are considered critical, essential and major identifiers of the church itself. Much of church resources are expended on the land and buildings. The local church is usually associated with the building or physical asset, with the people being an afterthought.