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The House Church Discussion List (HCDL) was established in 1995 to network with and encourage folks whose vision is:
* To nurture community in face-to-face bodies of love, friendship and shared life;
* To practice the priesthood of all believers;
* To practice participatory, non-authoritarian, non-heirarchical styles of leadership, worship, and decision-making;
* To live our lives practicing and teaching Biblical stewardship, spending our resources primarily on actual ministry and missions — not programs, buildings and clergy salaries;
* To cultivate Christian spirituality for daily living, growth, healing and touching the world around us; and
* To *be* the Church in such a way that we exhibit Christ more fully.
The founders of this list hold the conviction that regardless of gender, race, or age, all Christians should have the complete and equal opportunity to fully participate in all aspects of being the church with respect to different administrations of their various giftings. Because of this, we ask that everyone would respect, honor and include all persons in the way you listen, speak, and present yourselves here on HCDL.
We’re really passionate about the priesthood of all believers around here, and for some of us this means that we believe a clergy/laity distinction is one of the worst things that ever happened to the body of Christ. If you want to know more about the various ideas we hold about leadership, feel free to ask – but beware that you will run into some strongly held convictions that may be offensive to you particularly if you are a clergy member. Many of us have no issue with different expressions of church structure, but others of us are strongly opposed to hierarchy of any type. To those strongly opinionated members of our group, as much as you feel that clergyism is or isn’t a bad thing, we ask you to be kind and civil to clergy members who might join this group seeking to learn how to have a more body-centric meeting in their own church context.
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