In mid 1990, a group of Christian believers began to meet from house to house in Baltimore suburban areas according to the oneness revealed in the Bible. With much prayer and fellowship with nearby, mid-west and southern California local churches, we were encouraged to meet in Columbia, Maryland in August 2005 to stand on the ground that all regenerated Christians are one. For this reason, we take no other name than the church. We pursue the subjective experiences of Christ together in the Word, in the gospel, and in the mutual care for each other. Our life of pursing Christ is what we call “the church life”. Every Sunday we have the Lord’s table at which all the Lord’s children are welcome to partake with us of the bread and wine. The church meetings are open, and all believers are free to participate.
OUR COMMITMENT
Here in the Church in Columbia, we feel the Lord has committed us with two main items. First, Jesus Christ is to be experienced. He is not meant to be merely knowledge, nor merely teachings. He is to be subjectively experienced. Second, these subjective experiences of Christ issue in a living together with other Christians in oneness, which is the living of the church, the Body of Christ.
OUR PRACTICE
Our activity focuses on the study of the Bible, hymn singing, gospel preaching and church establishment. From time to time, we may attend various perfecting trainings and conferences held by various local churches.
Our unique leader is Christ. We have no official, permanent, organized human leadership. Furthermore, there is no hierarchy of any kind and no worldwide leader. We regard no person as infallible, and we do not follow anyone blindly. On the contrary, we follow only those whose teaching and practice is in accordance with the truth of God’s Word. Those who take the lead do not lord it over the saints, but rather shepherd them in love. Likewise, those who serve the Lord do not control the churches, but rather serve them as bond slaves of Christ in the ministry of the living Word.
OUR BELIEF
Holding the Bible as the complete and only divine revelation, we strongly believe that God is eternally one and also eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the three being distinct but not separate.
We hold that Christ is both the complete God and the perfect man. Without abandoning His divinity, He was conceived in the womb of a human virgin, lived a genuine human life on earth, and died a vicarious and all-inclusive death on the cross. After three days He resurrected bodily and has ascended to the heavens. He is now in glory, fully God but still fully man.
We look to His imminent return with the kingdom of God, by which He will reign over the earth in the millennium and in eternity. We confess that the third of the Trinity, the Spirit, is equally God. All that the Father has and is expressed by the Son; and all that the Son has and is, is realized as the Spirit.
We further believe that mankind is in need of God’s salvation. Though we were absolutely unable to fulfill the heavy demands of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, Christ fulfilled all the requirements through His death on the cross. Because of Christ’s death, God has forgiven us of our sins, reconciled us to Himself, and justified us by making Christ our righteousness. Based on Christ’s redemption, God regenerates the redeemed with His Spirit to consummate His salvation that they may become His children. Now possessing God’s life and nature, the believers enjoy a daily salvation in His Body in this age and the eternal salvation in the coming age and in eternity. In eternity we will dwell with God in the New Jerusalem, the consummation of God’s salvation of His elect.