PART II
Constitutional Requirements
This Part states the limited requirements that preserve the identity, integrity, safety, and public meaning of the Proximity Fellowship Framework. These requirements are deliberately few. They establish necessary boundaries while leaving substantial room for guidance, conscience, and local Christian responsibility.
Article 2. Name, Nature, and Purpose
2.1 The Name Proximity Fellowship
The name Proximity Fellowship identifies the Framework described by this Charter and local gatherings that use it in good faith. A local gathering may publicly identify as a Proximity Fellowship when it accepts the Foundational Christian Confession and the Constitutional Requirements established here.
Use of the name expresses a relationship to the Framework. It does not transfer ownership of a local gathering to ProximityFellowship.org, nor does it transfer ordinary local responsibility away from the Participants who actually live the fellowship.
2.2 A Framework for Christian Fellowship
Proximity Fellowship is a framework for Christians who desire to gather in ordinary places and circumstances around Jesus Christ. It provides common ground, practical guidance, safeguards, and room for responsible local life without requiring one denominational pattern for every fellowship.
A Proximity Fellowship may be small or larger, temporary or continuing, simple or more developed according to its circumstances. Participation in the Framework may exist alongside participation in a church, parish, congregation, denomination, ministry, or other Christian community.
2.3 Not a Denomination or Centralized Church Authority
Proximity Fellowship does not constitute a denomination, hierarchy, bishopric, or centralized ecclesiastical government. ProximityFellowship.org does not claim universal jurisdiction over local fellowships and does not stand between Christ and His people.
The Framework does not require every local gathering to describe itself as a church. It also does not forbid Participants from understanding their shared life as a church according to their convictions concerning Scripture and Christian tradition. The fellowship belongs to Christ, and the Framework does not claim authority to settle every ecclesiological question for every Christian tradition.
2.4 The Purpose of the Framework
The purpose of Proximity Fellowship is to make faithful Christian fellowship more possible and more accessible. It offers a sufficiently clear framework through which Christians may gather, pray, hear and consider Scripture, worship God, encourage one another, share Christian life, serve one another, and grow together in faith, hope, love, and obedience to Christ.
This purpose is especially relevant where Christians seek fellowship in places or circumstances that do not readily fit an existing congregational pattern. The Framework remains equally available to Christians who are already connected to established churches and wish to cultivate additional ordinary fellowship without transferring their allegiance to Proximity.
2.5 Fellowship as the Purpose, the Framework as the Means
Proximity exists to serve Christian fellowship. Its value is measured by whether it helps Christians draw nearer to Christ and to one another with faithfulness, love, and responsibility. Size, visibility, institutional permanence, and dependence upon the Proximity name are not measures of spiritual success.
A local fellowship may change form, join another Christian community, cease using the Proximity name, or reach a maturity in which the Framework is no longer useful to it. Such developments need not be treated as failure. The fellowship is the purpose. The Framework is the means.
2.6 Voluntary Participation
Proximity Fellowship is offered freely. No Christian is required to join, remain in, or identify with the Framework. A person may participate while retaining an existing denominational, ecclesial, or theological identity, provided that participation remains consistent with this Charter.
Participation does not create personal allegiance to a Host, steward, initiator, teacher, or ProximityFellowship.org. A Participant or local fellowship remains free to step away from the Framework without being treated as spiritually disloyal merely for doing so.
2.7 Simplicity and Sufficiency
The Framework should remain as simple as possible and as detailed as necessary. It should address what genuinely requires common clarity, constitutional protection, or practical guidance while resisting the unnecessary multiplication of doctrines, rules, procedures, titles, and institutional requirements.
Simplicity does not mean neglect. The Framework should be comprehensive in what it must address, restrained in what it must prescribe, clear enough to guide, and simple enough to live.
No Charter can anticipate every circumstance or carry the responsibilities of Christian life on behalf of those who use it. Proximity therefore provides sufficient common ground, boundaries, guidance, and safeguards while leaving Christians responsible to exercise prayer, wisdom, discernment, love, forgiveness, humility, conscience, and mature responsibility under the headship of Christ.
Development should not be assumed to require expansion. New requirements should be introduced only where genuine necessity, clearer understanding, meaningful safeguarding, or the integrity of the Framework reasonably requires them. What is genuinely open should remain open.
Article 3. Christ, Scripture, and the Limits of Human Authority
3.1 Christ Is the Head
Jesus Christ alone is the Head of His Church. No initiator, Host, elder, deacon, steward, teacher, ministry, denomination, website, or other human authority occupies His place.
Proximity Fellowship exists to serve Christian fellowship under Christ. The Framework may provide common ground, constitutional boundaries, guidance, and safeguards, but it cannot take Christ’s place in the life of those who gather through it. Christians remain responsible to seek Him, hear Scripture, pray, discern, love one another, and learn to follow Him together.
3.2 Scripture Is the Norm
Holy Scripture is the authoritative written norm for the Christian foundation, teaching, discernment, and practice of Proximity Fellowship. The Charter, the Framework, its resources, local customs, interpretations, and the words of those who serve within it remain human and subject to Scripture.
No Proximity document, teacher, Host, steward, or other person should be treated as infallible. A constitutional provision may establish what the Framework requires of those who use its name, but it does not become Scripture by doing so. Scripture is the norm by which the Framework itself remains open to examination and correction.
3.3 The Framework Is a Human Instrument
The Proximity Fellowship Framework is an imperfect human instrument offered in service to Christian fellowship. It does not claim to contain every truth, answer every theological question, or provide a rule for every circumstance.
Its provisions should therefore be read according to the four layers explained in this Charter. A recommendation should not quietly become a requirement. An example should not become an unwritten rule. A local custom should not be presented as though it binds every fellowship. Where the Framework needs correction or clarification, that work should be undertaken openly and with appropriate care.
3.4 No Human Being Is Indispensable
No human being should become indispensable to Proximity Fellowship. This applies to the initiator of ProximityFellowship.org and to every Host, elder, deacon, steward, teacher, or other person entrusted with responsibility.
Responsibilities should be capable of being shared, transferred, and, where appropriate, relinquished. A person may serve faithfully for many years without acquiring permanent possession of a role. A local fellowship should be able to continue when a trusted person steps away, and the wider Framework should remain capable of continuing when its present steward is no longer able or willing to serve.
If Proximity becomes healthier in Christ as any particular person becomes less necessary to its continuation, that should be welcomed as a sign of maturity.
3.5 Stewardship, Not Ownership
What is entrusted within Proximity should be treated as something to steward rather than possess. This includes the Framework, the Proximity name, responsibilities, shared resources, finances, information, influence, and opportunities to serve.
A steward may care for what has been entrusted, preserve it, explain it, and make responsible decisions within the limits of that responsibility. Stewardship does not create ownership of local fellowships or of the Christians who participate in them. Significant stewardship should remain accountable and capable of review.
3.6 Christians Are Not Property
No Christian belongs to another Christian as property. No Host, elder, deacon, steward, teacher, initiator, organization, or website may claim ownership of another person’s conscience, faith, relationships, participation, or Christian identity.
Participation in Proximity does not create personal allegiance to a human leader. A Participant remains free to ask questions, seek counsel elsewhere, remain connected to another Christian community, decline matters the Charter leaves optional, or leave a Proximity Fellowship. No one should be treated as spiritually disloyal merely for exercising those freedoms in good faith.
3.7 Responsibility Without Domination
Christian fellowship requires real responsibility. Hosts may host. Elders may shepherd according to the convictions of a local fellowship. Teachers may teach. Stewards may protect what has been entrusted to them. Participants may hold one another accountable within appropriate relationships and responsibilities.
Such responsibility is real and bounded. A role does not give unrestricted authority over another person’s conscience, relationships, finances, personal life, or standing before Christ. Responsibility should be exercised with humility, truthfulness, proportionality, and accountability. Where power is entrusted, it should serve the good of others and remain open to correction.
The governing orientation remains simple: Christ is the Head. Scripture is the norm. No human being is indispensable.
Article 4. Participants, Dignity, and Freedom of Conscience
4.1 Participants Rather Than Members
Proximity Fellowship does not establish a centralized system of institutional membership. Those who gather within a local fellowship are called Participants. The term describes shared Christian fellowship rather than enrollment into an organization.
Participation does not require a Christian to leave another church, denomination, or Christian community. A Participant may remain fully connected to another Christian tradition or congregation. By itself, participation in Proximity does not transfer ecclesial allegiance to ProximityFellowship.org or to a local Host.
4.2 Who May Participate
Participation is open to Christians who genuinely affirm the Foundational Christian Confession and are willing to gather in good faith within the Constitutional Requirements of this Charter. Christians may come from Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, evangelical, Pentecostal, Reformed, independent, or other Christian traditions. No denominational identity is required merely for participation.
A local fellowship may also welcome visitors, family members, people exploring the Christian faith, and other guests according to its circumstances. Their presence does not change the Christian character or common foundation of the fellowship. The term Participant, as used constitutionally in this Charter, ordinarily refers to a Christian participating in the fellowship in good faith.
4.3 Equal Human Dignity
Every person should be treated with dignity, respect, patience, and reasonable care. Human worth within a fellowship does not rise or fall according to age, sex, ethnicity, nationality, language, education, disability, economic circumstances, marital or family status, theological knowledge, public influence, or role within the gathering.
Some Participants may carry greater responsibility because they host, teach, lead, organize, or serve in particular ways. Greater responsibility does not create greater human worth. No title or function gives a person a higher claim to dignity than another person.
4.4 Voluntary Participation and the Freedom to Leave
Participation in Proximity is voluntary. A Participant may begin participating, pause, step back, or leave without seeking permission from ProximityFellowship.org, a Host, a leader, or the local fellowship.
Participation should never be maintained through fear, threats, shame, manipulation, financial dependence, social pressure, or claims that leaving the fellowship means leaving Christ. A person who leaves should not be treated as spiritually disloyal merely for doing so. Christian relationships may continue freely where the people involved desire them to continue.
4.5 Freedom of Christian Conscience
Participants retain meaningful freedom of Christian conscience in matters this Charter leaves open. No Participant should be pressured to affirm another person’s secondary theological position, adopt a denominational practice merely for conformity, imitate another person’s spiritual experience, or surrender conscience to a human authority within Proximity.
Freedom of conscience also includes the freedom to hold and express a sincere personal disagreement with a position established by the Framework. Such disagreement should be expressed honestly and respectfully. Where the Charter establishes a Constitutional Requirement governing the public practice of a Proximity Fellowship, personal disagreement does not require the fellowship to set that boundary aside or present a contrary practice as the position of the Framework.
Conscience should be exercised before God with Scripture, prayer, humility, and regard for others. It does not provide a license to disregard the Foundational Christian Confession, violate Constitutional Requirements, endanger another person, or deliberately make ordinary fellowship impossible.
4.6 Conviction Without Coercion
Christians may hold strong convictions. Proximity does not ask Participants to weaken sincere convictions merely to avoid disagreement. Strong conviction should be expressed without coercion.
No Participant should use spiritual title, claimed revelation, personal influence, financial support, friendship, access to the fellowship, or the language of Scripture as a means of forcing another person into personal allegiance or surrender of conscience. Teaching, counsel, correction, and persuasion may be offered within appropriate relationships. They should leave room for responsible Christian judgment and should remain open to question and correction.
4.7 Good Faith Participation
Good faith participation requires honesty about the foundation and character of the fellowship. Participants should respect the Foundational Christian Confession, honor the Constitutional Requirements that govern the fellowship, treat others with dignity, engage Scripture sincerely, and avoid deliberately misrepresenting or undermining the Framework while using its name.
Good faith does not require agreement on every theological question or local practice. A Participant may ask difficult questions, express disagreement, abstain from an optional practice, and seek change through appropriate conversation. Good faith asks that these freedoms be exercised without deception, contempt, manipulation, or persistent disruption of the fellowship.
4.8 Responsibility Toward One Another
Every Participant shares some responsibility for the health of Christian fellowship. Participants should seek to pray for one another, speak truthfully, encourage one another, bear burdens where reasonably able, practice forgiveness, welcome newcomers, protect the vulnerable, and contribute to peace and mutual edification.
These responsibilities belong to ordinary Christian fellowship and do not require an office or title. They should be lived according to each person’s gifts, maturity, ability, and circumstances. No Participant is expected to carry the whole fellowship, and no person should be made indispensable by the dependence of others.
Article 5. Safeguarding, Integrity, and Responsible Conduct
5.1 The Safety and Dignity of Persons
Every Proximity Fellowship should seek to be a place where people are treated with dignity and where reasonable care is taken to protect them from abuse, exploitation, coercion, manipulation, and avoidable harm. Christian trust does not remove the need for ordinary wisdom, appropriate boundaries, and responsible safeguards.
Protecting a person takes priority over preserving appearances, avoiding embarrassment, or protecting the reputation of a Host, leader, local fellowship, or Proximity Fellowship itself. Concerns affecting safety should be taken seriously and handled with appropriate care.
5.2 Children and Young People
Children and young people should be welcomed with care appropriate to their age and circumstances. Parents or legal guardians retain their proper responsibilities, and a local fellowship must respect applicable laws concerning minors.
Where children or young people participate in activities beyond the ordinary presence of their parent or guardian, the fellowship should use reasonable arrangements concerning supervision, communication, transportation, physical spaces, privacy, and other relevant risks. No spiritual role or position within a fellowship gives an adult permission to disregard appropriate boundaries with a child or young person.
5.3 Vulnerable Persons
Particular care should be given where a person’s age, disability, illness, grief, isolation, financial dependence, personal crisis, or other circumstances may increase vulnerability. Such circumstances must never be used to obtain money, labor, loyalty, secrecy, sexual access, personal dependence, or spiritual control.
Care for a vulnerable person should strengthen dignity and appropriate freedom. Where needs exceed what a local fellowship can responsibly provide, Participants should be willing to seek suitable family, pastoral, medical, professional, community, or legal assistance as appropriate.
5.4 Abuse, Exploitation, Manipulation, and Coercion
A Proximity Fellowship must not tolerate physical abuse, sexual abuse or exploitation, emotional or psychological abuse, spiritual abuse, financial exploitation, threats, intimidation, deliberate isolation, misuse of confidential information, or comparable serious misuse of trust or authority.
Scripture, prayer, prophecy, spiritual gifts, teaching, counseling, Christian titles, or claims of divine guidance must never be used to justify abuse or to compel another person’s submission. A person’s desire to belong, receive care, or remain in fellowship must not be turned into leverage over that person’s conscience, relationships, finances, body, or personal decisions.
5.5 Personal and Spiritual Boundaries
Healthy Christian fellowship requires appropriate personal and spiritual boundaries. No Participant should be pressured to disclose private matters, receive personal counsel from a particular person, enter a relationship of spiritual dependence, or continue a conversation or activity that is reasonably inappropriate or unsafe.
Confidentiality should be respected with wisdom. It should not be promised or used in a way that conceals abuse, prevents necessary safeguarding action, or obstructs a legal duty to report. Those who teach, counsel, host, or carry trusted responsibility should take particular care not to confuse spiritual service with personal entitlement to another person’s private life.
5.6 Serious Misconduct
Credible concerns about serious misconduct should not be minimized merely to preserve harmony or avoid difficulty. Where a concern involves abuse, exploitation, violence, criminal conduct, serious financial wrongdoing, or immediate danger, the response should be proportionate to the seriousness of the matter.
A local fellowship may limit or suspend a person’s particular responsibilities or participation when reasonably necessary for protection while a serious concern is being considered. Such action should be taken with fairness and care. Where civil authorities, safeguarding agencies, emergency services, or other appropriate bodies should be involved, internal fellowship processes must not be treated as a substitute for them.
5.7 Applicable Law and Local Responsibility
Each local fellowship is responsible for understanding and complying with the laws and safeguarding obligations that apply to its own activities and location. The Framework cannot provide one legal procedure suitable for every country, jurisdiction, meeting place, or circumstance.
ProximityFellowship.org does not assume the local legal, safeguarding, insurance, financial, or operational responsibilities of a fellowship merely because that fellowship uses the Proximity name or Framework. Where appropriate, Hosts and Participants should seek qualified local guidance rather than relying upon the Charter as a substitute for professional advice.
5.8 Financial Integrity
Money and shared resources must be handled honestly and with appropriate transparency. No Participant should be pressured to give money as a condition of participation, belonging, acceptance, spiritual standing, or access to fellowship.
Funds or property entrusted for a fellowship purpose do not become the personal property of a Host, leader, steward, or other Participant merely because that person receives, stores, administers, or spends them. Financial arrangements should remain proportionate to the scale of the fellowship and should include reasonable accountability when significant or recurring funds are involved. Further guidance is provided in Article 12.
5.9 Responsibility for Local Gatherings
The people who organize and participate in a local gathering share responsibility for conducting it with reasonable care. A Host may carry particular practical responsibility, but hosting does not make that person the owner of the fellowship or the sole person responsible for everything that occurs.
The Proximity Framework provides a common constitutional structure. It does not centrally supervise every local gathering. Each fellowship therefore remains responsible for its own meeting arrangements, safeguarding, conduct, finances, local leadership, communications, and compliance with applicable law.
Safeguarding is part of ordinary Christian responsibility toward one another. The aim is a fellowship in which people can gather with reasonable confidence that their dignity will be respected, concerns can be raised, and entrusted responsibility will not be used as a means of control.