SStratford Reformation Fellowship is a reformed evangelical church plant venture
in Stratford, Taranaki, honuring the great confessional traditions of the Reformation,
and majoring on the common ground and chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

Our aim is to plant and build a church that honours “All of Christ for all of life”. That means seeing Jesus for who he really is, as scripture reveals him to us. That means living in submission to all of scripture, and obeying all that Christ commands us. We seek to be a church living under the authority of scripture - all of it! A church that rightly divides the Word of God so we know what it means to be led by the Spirit of Christ and to obey his commandments.

Our Statement of Faith

  1. We believe in one God, existing eternally of himself in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; limited by nothing apart from his own nature and character, which is holy, righteous, good, severe, loving and merciful.

  2. We believe that God made all things, visible and invisible; that he made man very good, male and female; and that he commissioned them to extend his heavenly dominion into the earth; yet the first man, Adam, broke faith with God, and in so doing separated himself and all his progeny from Life and Light, becoming dead in sin, and unable to love his maker; bringing upon mankind the judgment of eternal death.

  3. We believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, fully God, eternally begotten of the Father, made fully man by birth of the Virgin Mary; the seed of David and inheritor of God’s covenant promises; who lived a life of faith without blemish, wholly pleasing to his Father; bore the penalty for our sin by death on a cross; descended to the dead; and the third day was raised bodily by the Holy Spirit for our justification, and declared to be the Son of God now in power. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, with every authority on earth and in heaven being subjected to him; from whence he now reigns until all his enemies are put under his feet.

  4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, fully God, eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son, who breathed out and preserved the Bible as his own very words; our only ultimate and infallible authority, sufficient to fully equip all men with wisdom for salvation and godly living.

  5. We believe that salvation is wrought by the Holy Spirit adopting us as sons of God, indwelling us as his temple, and uniting us with Christ wholly apart from our own works; whereby we receive everything that is his—from faith, by which we receive his righteousness reckoned to us and rely completely on him to pardon us—to faith, by which we subject ourselves to his rule and represent him in obedient lives, through the power of that same Spirit.

  6. We believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and that all so baptized are united into one holy, catholic and apostolic Church, the body of Christ; in which, if they persevere to the end, they will certainly be saved.

  7. We believe in the bodily return of the Lord Jesus to judge the living and the dead; whereupon we who are his, having our sin covered by him, will be acquitted, with our lives of faithful obedience serving as proof that his verdict is just, and as the basis for our heavenly rewards; as we rule forever with him and his elect angels in the new heavens and the new earth. The rest of mankind, along with Satan and his angels, will be rightly condemned according to their works and cast into hell, where they will endure just punishment forever.

  • We recognise the ecumenical creeds, including the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon.

    We recognise the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) , the American revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1788), The London Baptist Confession (1689), and The 39 Articles (1571). We major on the overlaps, insisting that scripture should interperet scripture, and that we should not go beyond scripture on what we require of a Christian brother or sister.

    We are willing to consider and include other confessions from the Reformed tradition that are consistent with these confessions, such as:

    Follow this link to see a document comparing the three main confessions above (with the Amercian revision of the Westminster included)

  • You do not need to be Reformed to be a member of Stratford Reformation Fellowship, membership in Christ’s body being not by Reformed orthodoxy, but by faith in the gospel. Membership requires only submission to our constitution and leadership, and affirmation of the Gospel as articilated in our statement of faith.

  • Our fellowship is led by Allan Chesswas, who is bivocational. 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.

    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.

  • Here is the draft constitution. This is what we are currently working under, and we plan to adopt it, possibly with some alterations, at our first AGM.

    CLICK FOR DRAFT CONSTITUTION

  • We strongly encourage our regular attendees being part of a discipleship band, and it is a requirement for membership. Discipleship bands are intended to help and strengthen.

    Guidelines can be found here.

  • We have a choir practise 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 robustness of our corporate worship. The purpose of singing in worship is to express the unity of the body of Christ in praising and adoring him, and to build one another up in his word. Therefore, members must be able to see and hear each other, and must be truly involved in the singing, not mere spectators

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

  • 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.

    You will find much of our music in the following hymbooks:

    Hymns of Grace
    (Masters Seminary)

    The Redemption Hymnal
    (Elim Publishing House)

    Sing to the Lord
    (Reformed Churches of NZ)

    The Sing! Hymnal
    (Getty Music)