Invitation

Welcome to Heart of David International Fellowship, (HDIF). HDIF is a pastoral event ministry and the parent company for our online ministry, The Bible In Culture. Our goal is to service the Christian community, foster mutual cooperation across ecclesiastical guidelines and fellowship with other ministries with the goal of expressing Jesus in the larger culture.

Soon you will be able to join the conversation through our discord server. Here we can enter directly into fellowship and discussion on a wide range of ministry topics.

Below is an abridged version of our official constitution. 

 

The Abridged Constitution of Heart of David International Fellowship

Official Declaration: God’s Glory Sonnet

How do we fail to see your artful hand?
The unfathomable cosmos,
Grandeur beyond measure,
Intricacies beyond imagination.
From the immensity of galaxy clusters,
To the minuteness of subatomic particles
The material world is
Your crafted expression.
Children splashing in water,
Son at a father’s bedside.
The depth and variety of
Experience outplays sin’s tragedy.
This magnificence and resilience 
Of creation reveals your loving Glory.

 

Preamble 

We, the Elders and Pastors of Heart of David International Fellowship do hereby declare and establish this Constitution to proclaim, preserve and secure the principals of this fellowship and to govern it decently and in an orderly manner, to maintain the autonomy of this fellowship in freedom of action in service to the Lord Jesus Christ, our motto being: Agape Dunamis Exousia.

This fellowship is, by definition, an open fellowship with no obligation required of any of the member Elders and Pastors save agreement with this constitution and the command of the Lord Jesus to love one another.

Accordingly, the Elders and Pastors who have prayerfully agreed to such Christian fellowship can participate with an international organization to be known as Heart of David International Fellowship.

 

Article One: Name

This fellowship shall be known as “Heart of David International Fellowship.” HDIF shall refer to Heart of David International Fellowship in this Constitution.

 

Article Two: Mission

It is the mission of HDIF to express and support the authentic ministry of Jesus Christ in culture through the spoken, written and performed message of the scriptures.

We will accomplish this mission through the power inherent in the Word of God to heal, deliver, strengthen, unite, and uplift the individuals that make up our various local communities and serve through our venues of Christian expression and development.

Every career path in our fellowship will service the core values of servant leadership, empowerment, and creative expression to provide growth opportunities for the people within our sphere of influence.

 

Article Three: Vision

Vision Statement: It is the vision of HDIF to see the Body of Christ unified in purpose, active in love, supportive of the local pastor, and to establish venues where God’s name is glorified, and His glory resides.

Vision Summation: Faith in real life!

 

Article Four: Statement of Faith

We believe in God, the invisible, omnipotent, omnipresent, Creator of all things that we know and all things beyond the knowledge of humanity. God, who spoke all things into existence, maintaining all things by the power of His Word, who is unapproachable light, and pure beyond our knowledge of purity. God, whom no one has seen, nor can see, for fallen man lacks the capacity to survive in the presence of the Holy God.

If God drew His breath away all flesh would die together, and yet we live, for God is also mercy and love beyond our understanding.

We are fallen and unable to plead with such a majestic God, yet His love and mercy is so glorious He has reached down to us and given us the ability to commune with Him through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ.

Jesus, who was with God from the beginning and God from the beginning, through whom all things were made, who became flesh for us, born of a virgin, and willingly bore the inescapable punishment for our sin, rising on the third day and redeeming us onto God.

We believe that God is made known to us through the Holy Scripture, which is the Bible. That the Bible is inspired by God and without error as preserved by God in the original manuscripts and the faithful translations. The Bible is accurate in its revelation of Jesus Christ and is the sole authority of our faith.

We believe that it is the ministry of God’s word given in its various forms, and by the grace of God, that gives us the ability, and responsibility, to continuously grow in Christ, which is how we increasingly express His grace, share His love, and live a life separate and distinct from the nature of this fallen world.

We believe that everyone whose faith has Christ Jesus as its one and true foundation is connected to us in His body, and that sectarian and denominational judgments of each other are not sufficient cause to sever our fellowship, love, and common purpose.

We believe that the foundation of Jesus Christ is sufficient to bind us together as one body and any differences of structure in theology and practice built upon that foundation should not be judged by us because they are reserved for judgment by God himself at a future appointed time as stated in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15

Such is our faith, and such is our God, who if we worshiped, praised, and thanked Him with ten thousand times are ability to do so for all eternity, it would still not equal what is due Him. It is He whose glory we approach when we worship in our various services, and He whose watchful eye covers us every second that we draw breath.

This is the God whom we must seek with reverence, joy, faith, hope and love because of who He is and what He has done for us, the God of our salvation. Amen.

 

Article Five: Purpose

As long as there shall exist, by means of ecclesiastical division: selfish ambition, the isolation of ministry, and the estrangement of the citizens of the Church Universal; as long as the three modern plagues of Christian life persist: the famine of the word of God proclaimed in power, the drought of the of the spirit of God revealed in power, and the abandonment of the love of Christ expressed in power; as long as spiritual darkness covers our cities: stifling Christian activity, oppressing human hope, and corrupting human action, such a fellowship as this will be found to have value for the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Article Six: Prioritized Activities 

• Fostering targeted prayer across ecclesiastical divides.
• Fostering targeted ministry across ecclesiastical divides.
• Fostering fellowship across ecclesiastical divides with emphasis on mutual prayer, mutual support, and mutual events.
• Fostering training networks across ecclesiastical divides.
• When advantages and possible, fostering the coordination of ecclesiastical activities and goals with parallel governmental activities.
• Maintaining a commitment to the world’s cities and the natural opportunities for ministry they present.
• Allegorical Discipline: Leviticus 6:13

 

Article Seven: Philosophy

Churches in the West have been able to effectively operate through their not-for-profit business model under the various economic protections and advantages bestowed on them by Western governments for centuries. The world is now dominated by economic influences and powers that could not have been imagined by churches or governments during most of this relationship. Many churches are closing their doors for lack of funding even as the need for the services they provide is in increased demand.

Governments are now the precarious managers of a world of competing businesses and are experiencing an increased inability to control, or even resist, the economic tides that rise and fall and reshape culture in their wake. The protections and advantages bestowed on many churches by Western governments have become irrelevant in their ability to assist these churches in surviving the current world’s economic climate.

As these economic swells become more challenging an alternative funding model is called for. HDIF has been framed and rigged as an independent asymmetrical venture sufficient to weather all monetary tempest and drive the authentic ministry of Jesus Christ forward in culture. 

  

Article Eight: Philosophical Inspiration

Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'T is of the wave and not the rock;
'T is but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, — are all with thee!
 
Excerpt from, The Building of the Ship
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Article Nine: Scriptural Inspiration

1 Samuel 17:47b - …for the battle is the Lord’s…

 

Article Ten: Government

The Government of HDIF is vested in the Managing Minister and such Elder/Pastors whom the Managing Minister may nominate for appointment, who have given their allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and agreed to contribute to His work, to include participation with HDIF.

Persons nominated by the Managing Minister and duly received by the Elder/Pastors shall constitute the team of Elder/Pastors. These Elder/Pastors shall be individuals who have in common with the Elder/Pastors their commitment to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as their assent to the various Articles contained in this document.

 

Article Eleven: Code of Elder/Pastors 

• To Fear God, live Holy and labor for the body of Jesus Christ.
• To balance circumspection and fearlessness as a builder and steward of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• To love the weak, defenseless, and rejected.
• To stand in the strength of their calling by Christ Jesus.
• To strive to understand and express the Holy Scriptures.
• To never prioritize personal gain.
• To guard the spiritual lives of Christians by the authority given as a member of the Kingdom of God.
• To eschew selfish ambition, the isolation of ministry and the estrangement of the citizens of the Church Universal.
• To respect those placed in authority.
• To commit to the Church Universal unfettered by sectarian or denominational considerations.
• To keep faith by faith.
• To live a life for eternal value.

 

Article Twelve: Relationships

HDIF is subject to no other civil or ecclesiastical body. However, we recognize the benefits of sustaining the Christian obligation of cooperation with and support of the Church of Jesus Christ locally and throughout the world.

We consider all Christian organizations to be in general fellowship with this fellowship and any artificial separation from them to be carnal as implied in 1 Corinthians 3:1-15.

We define “Christian organization” to be one who adheres to the belief that the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the sole and necessary payment for humanity’s original sin, and the only hope for the salvation of man; and that the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, is without error as preserved by God in the original manuscripts and faithful translations and is the final authority of the Christian faith.

In addition to this HDIF commits itself to three primal philosophies of Christian relationship.

First, HDIF commits itself to the wellbeing of the individual in the necessary moment, unencumbered by any larger concerns of organizational membership or religious affiliation.

Second, HDIF commits itself to the establishing, maintaining, and utilization of uncompromising strategic relationships with any organization that will aid us in accomplishing the goals, strategies and philosophy expressed directly or implicitly in this document.

Third, HDIF will maintain a collective relationship with Jesus Christ through participation in regular services containing corporate worship, prayer, and the sharing of the Holy Scriptures.