We have confidence in the power that God has vested in his word, the Bible. Every week we read from the Psalms, other Old Testament books, the Gospels and other New Testament books. We value preaching through the Bible exegetically, that means preaching through a book of the Bible to learn from the Word of God on its own terms.

We practise weekly communion with a family cup, and encourage respectful and worthy participation by adults and children of households of faith.

We consider prayer to be core business in the Sunday service, along with the Ministry of the Word and Communion. We understand and value the power of a praying church, and understand that the Ministry of the Word and Communion prepare us to pray with authority before the throne of God. We use liturgy that is soaked in ancient prayers that are richly biblical.

We also encourage spirit-led congregational participation in prayer in the service, according to biblical standards of orderliness in the church, with a time of intercessory prayer following Communion.

Our Sunday service includes singing, preaching, the Lord’s Supper and prayers of intercession. Our service follows a classical liturgical format with opportunities for participation in prayers read together as a church.

There is also an opportunity to bring words or songs of exhortation and encouragement, with a sharing time in the service, along with an opportunity to join in a time of intercessory prayer following Communion, to be conducted according to biblical standards of orderliness in the church.

Our main 10am service includes children. We run a Sunday School for junior church goers (under 10 years) at 9.15am, the same time as the singing practise.

We provide an area in church for young children to play quietly, as well colouring options and sermon note sheets for older children.

We welcome your whole family.

A Sunday school is run before our main service, at 9.15am, aimed at children under 10 years old.

We start with a song with the main singing practice group, then split off for a lesson that links to the sermon in the 10am service.

As we sing in gathered worship, we lift our hearts to God, and enter into his throne room and his presence.

Singing together expresses the unity of the body of Christ in praising and adoring God, and in singing we strengthen our soul, and build one another up in his word. Singing is a congregational act, in which we see and hear each other, and are truly involved in the singing, not mere spectators.

We sing hymns, both old and new. Music in worship should have as much majesty and beauty as we are able to muster, and it is fitting that it sounds different to the music of the world.

Our Song Book, with songs often heard in our services, can be viewed online here.

We have singing practice before our meeting every Sunday at 9.15am. We encourage you to come! Learning the songs, and practising them not only brings joy, it adds to the richness of our corporate worship.

Our Song Book, with songs often heard in our services, can be viewed online here.

Encourage each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord. Ephesians 5:19-20

Many have rightly reacted strongly to much of what is seen to be prophecy, healing, miracles, deliverance from demons and speaking in tongues in many churches today. So much of this is not subject to biblical standards of discernment and order for such activity. So much seems to cause much more harm than good, and to erode genuine faith.

Some have reacted to this by teaching that the Bible says that such gifts ceased after the time of the apostles. However, the Bible does not teach this plainly. But it does require the use of any such gifts to be properly scrutinised, and to be orderly and of clear benefit to the congregation.

Authentic expressions of these gifts must be well tested, and must flow out of a church culture that is firstly committed to holiness and sanctification, as well as tarrying prayer. We are open to their operation in our midst, but consider such manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit to be rare, and obvious when they happen, and will apply the disciplines outlined in 1 Corinthians 11 - 14 to any such initiatives.

We are respectful of a sense of Pentecostal identity that is authentic and biblical, and consider it biblical to be both authentically Pentecostal, respecting that the Bible does not plainly teach a hard cessationism, and yet be a soft cessationist with a small c, recognising that such manifestations of the Spirit’s power are very rare for us, compared to what they were for the apostles.

We consider church membership, the financial incorporation of a church body, and giving to the work of a local church body, to be a tried and true spiritual discipline for the church through the ages. We have a separate bank account for receiving and banking giving, and are committed to clear and transparent financial reporting, and to developing legal and financial instruments to govern this well. The intention is that all church members have the opportunity to participate in the governance and administration of church finances through reporting and democratic meetings and elections.

We include the collection of offerings as part of the liturgy of the Sunday service, as well as accepting internet banking. We encourage people to be conscious of their giving as part of our worship and our unity together as a church.

We have a weekly bible study on a Tuesday night, and intend to organise regular family social events.

Contact Allan for more details.

Discipleship training and theological education will be promoted, with regular classes to be organised in due time. A curriculum has been developed that reflects Reformation values, and that tilts towards a covenantal and postmillenial application of the gospel, acknowledging that God calls nations to repentance, judges nations and their governments, and expects Christians to call their nations and the laws of nations to righteousness before God.

The curriculum and associated library can be viewed here.

It is anticipated that discipleship training and theological education will begin around late January/early February.

We strongly encourage our regular attendees being part of a discipleship band, and it is a requirement for membership. The purpose of discipleship bands is to help and strengthen one another, and build each other up in faith.

Guidelines can be found here.

Our fellowship is led by Allan Chesswas. Allan is married to Nia, and is a father of 6. He is an environmental planner and farmer, and enjoys studying and writing history, philosophy and theology, and getting out into the outdoors.

Allan has a Diploma of Biblical Studies from Laidlaw College (Bible College of New Zealand). Allan is also qualified in public policy, with a Bachelor of Resource and Environmental Planning from Massey University, with a specialisation in Sociology. Allan has also studied Philosophy at Massey, Victoria University and Auckland University. He is the Director of Renaissance Consulting, an environmental planning consultancy.

It is our hope that as our fellowship matures and grows, qualified elders will be appointed to lead the church. Allan is well-networked with a range of elders and leaders of other churches to encourage and support our church plant, and to have outside accountability to uphold eldership standards.

While Stratford Reformation Fellowship is beginning as an independent church plant, the principles driving the work are consistent with those of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a denomination that was formed in 1998, and now has 170 congregations worldwide.

The Stratford Reformation Fellowship church plant leader Allan Chesswas has been in contact with the leadership of this denomination in the USA and in Australia, and advised them of this new work, in which they have shown prayerful interest and asked us to stay in touch.

Allan is also developing relationships with other churches across New Zealand that are in a similar mould and similarly as yet independent.

Allan and Nia also have good relationships with leaders of other Reformed, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches and denominations in New Zealand, and recently completed a church plant assessment through the New Zealand church planting ministry Multiply, which yielded a positive result.

While we are a church that recognises and values creeds and confessions, membership requires only submission to our constitution and leadership, and affirmation of the Gospel as articulated in our statement of faith.

A draft constitution has been produced, and this guides the work. The intent is to table and adopt this constitution at our first AGM in due time, with any necessary amendments.

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