STRATFORD CHURCH PLANT 2026: CONSTITUTION
2ND OF 2 SPECIAL GENERAL MEETINGS FOR CONSTITUTION OF NEW CHURCH PLANT FOR STRATFORD
Monday November 24, 7:30pm at Skinner Hall, Stratford A&P Showgrounds, Flint Road, Stratford
A new church is coming to Stratford in 2026. And while this church will be in one sense new, in another sense it will be a church that is anchored in a way of life that is old and timeless.
The only novel thing about this church is that it is new and independent. The intent is that everything about this new church community will be that it is grounded in the timeless doctrines of the faith, handed down in scripture, once delivered unto the saints. And the hope is that it will mature, with the wider church, into a congregation that is part of a wider body of believers that know what it is to live for the glory of God alone, embracing all of Christ for all of life.
Over the last month, meetings have been held to discuss the principles and concerns driving the new church. This has included discussions about some of the great confessions of faith that have guided the church through the ages.
Two Special General Meetings have been organised to form a constitution for the new church plant. At the first Special General Meeting on November 11, a constitution was tabled that referred to the Westminster Confession as the doctrinal basis for the church, with some adaptions to allow discretion for matters of conscience such as baptism.
A very profitable conversation ensued. The result is that a revised constitution is being tabled for the second Special General Meeting, happening this Monday, November 24.
Rather than using one confession, and taking to it with a red pen, we are now looking at being a church that operates within the bounds of the three great English confessions, majoring on where they overlap.
The purpose clause (Clause 3) in the constitution therefore reads:
3. The primary purpose of the Fellowship is to promote the establishment of a church that is biblical and generally consistent with the broader doctrines of the Reformed Tradition as articulated in the 39 Articles of Religion 1571, the Westminster Confession 1646 (American Revision 1788) and the London Baptist Confession 1689 (hereafter “the Confessions”), while allowing discretion for exceptions in those matters of conscience that can be supported biblically, as identified below:
The purpose clause then lists the matters of conscience in which discretion will be allowed:
- Infant baptism and infant participation in The Lord’s Supper
- Grounds for re-baptism where appropriate
- Ability to adopt different kinds of church government
- Ability for approved laypeople to administer The Lord’s Supper
- Accepting different views on the validity of sign gifts in the church today
- Accepting different views on the end times and the rapture
- Accepting different views on doctrines not held in common by the three confessions, while honouring and not condemning the doctrines of each confession.
It is this explicit engagement with the confessions, together with an explicit emphasis on operating in the space common to them all, that gives this new church plant a distinctive combination of timeliness and relevance.
Every Christian is, by virtue of being a Christian, a brother and a sister to every other Christian. Our salvation as a Christian has social ramifications. We are not merely saved for later, meanwhile living out a worldly life in a worldly tribe. We are saved from the power of sin and death now. We are saved from a world of darkness and blindness into a world of love and light, now.
In the hearts and lives of other Christians we see a glory and a grace that feels like home. That’s why the Bible expects us to treat our fellow Christians as brothers and sisters. That’s why brotherly love is the currency of Christian relationships.
And that’s why a church constitution that explicitly majors on what we have in common, and allows discretion on matters of conscience, is a great foundation. Taking this approach means building a community that really knows what it is to love one another, and persevere with one another, even when we disagree about topics that are important to us, but topics about which the Bible doesn’t speak plainly.
The emphasis on what is held in common by the three confessions, while honouring and not condemning the doctrines of each confession, ensures that where the confessions go beyond what the Bible speaks plainly, the others have a tempering effect. This is especially important for the complexities of those doctrines concerning predestination and election.
While I hold to the Westminster Confession on these matters, I accept that some of the doctrines articulated in the Westminster, such as those concerning the relationship between God’s eternal decree and his foreknowledge, are logical deductions, rather than conclusions clearly articulated in scripture. I accept that there are nuances in that God’s atoning grace is applied in some measure to the whole world, while that grace only has saving power for the elect.
Two other distinctives of this new church and its constitution consist of:
- a commitment to weekly celebration of The Lord’s Supper, and
- a commitment of members to being a member of a class meeting or discipleship band that meets at minimum fortnightly.
This is to ensure everyone is actively engaged in discipleship and pastoral care, and to restore The Lord’s Supper to the centre of Christian worship, alongside the preaching of the Word, prayer and singing.
Behind all of these dinstinctives and commitments is a desire to truly honour all of scripture, and all of Christ, for all of life. To make sure, in establishing the constutional foundations of the church, it is scripture alone that is the standard, and scripture alone that prescribes that goals of our common life.
As we prepare as a family for this church plant, and discuss the project with those who are interested, we are well aware that doing something new like this will be no easy task. And yet I am reminded of the movie Chariots of Fire, when Eric Liddell takes the mark for the 400 metre race at the 1924 Paris Olympics, having famously refused to participate in the 100m race he’d trained for, because it was run on a Sunday. As takes his place at the start line, the American runner Jackson Scholz passes him a note, and the note reads, “In the Old Book it says, ‘He that honors me, I will honor.’ Good luck.””
We are only doing what we are doing, because the convictions I discuss above have become guiding stars for us, and we know that their source is in nothing other than the very Word of God himself. Because of this, and because we are prioritising unity around the core gospel message of the faith, and because we are honouring the depth and breadth of the work of the forefathers in the traditions that have formed us, we can have confidence for these plans to be a success.
The words of Psalm 133 come to mind:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
If these convictions are convictions you share, and you have a clear sense that God is leading you into something new, then we do hope and pray you will join is in this work. If that’s you, then we welcome you to join us at the Special General Meeting this Monday, as we plan to discuss and adopt a constitution for this work.
To read the proposed constitution, and the confessions it refers to, please see the links below.
Stratford Church Plant 2026 
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