Approximate reading time: 5 minutes
Explore Further, Only Where You Need To
Proximity Fellowship is meant to be simple enough to begin without mastering a body of material.
You do not need to read every document before meeting with other Christians. But as a fellowship grows, questions may deepen. Different circumstances may call for more guidance. Some matters are better explored carefully rather than reduced to a few paragraphs on a webpage.
These resources are offered for that purpose.
The Proximity Charter governs the Framework. The Quick Starter and companion guides explain and assist its practice. They do not stand beside the Charter as additional constitutions.
Begin with what helps. Go deeper where you need to.
New to Proximity Fellowship? Start Here
There is no need to read everything at once. If you are new to Proximity Fellowship, this is one simple path through the Framework.
1. Begin With the Vision
Read About Proximity Fellowship and the Initiator’s Reflection to understand the purpose, convictions, spirit, and hopes behind the Framework.
2. Begin Gathering
Visit Find & Start and read the Quick Starter. It contains what you need to take the first practical steps toward gathering with other Christians.
3. Learn as Fellowship Develops
Return to A Guide to Christian Practices and Seasons of Transience when questions of shared practice, responsibility, continuity, or changing seasons become relevant.
4. Understand the Framework More Fully
Read Stewardship to understand how responsibility for the public Framework is carried, and consult The Proximity Charter for its constitutional foundation, boundaries, safeguards, and governing provisions.
You may follow this path in order, or simply begin with what your present circumstances require. The Framework is meant to serve Christian fellowship, not become another body of material that must be mastered before fellowship can begin.
The Proximity Fellowship Quick Starter
Everything You Need to Begin
If you are beginning a Proximity Fellowship, start here.
The Quick Starter introduces what Proximity Fellowship is, how a gathering may begin, what a gathering can look like, and the foundational commitments, safeguards, and practical principles worth understanding from the beginning.
It is companion guidance beneath the Charter, written so that you do not need to master the whole Framework before you begin.
For many small fellowships, it may be enough until real questions give you reason to go deeper.
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A Guide to Christian Practices
Where Christians Differ, and Where the Framework Draws a Boundary
Christians have long held different convictions about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts, leadership, worship, and other questions of Christian practice.
Where the Charter leaves room, this Guide offers recommendations, examples, and practical considerations without turning those recommendations into hidden requirements.
Where the Charter has already established a Constitutional Requirement, the Guide explains that boundary rather than weakening it, enlarging it, or creating another one beside it.
It also includes practical guidance on Scripture and Bible versions, worship, hymns and songs, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts, elders and deacons, leadership, and marriage and marriage blessing.
The Guide does not replace Scripture, conscience, prayer, or responsible Christian discernment. It exists to help Christians practice fellowship with clarity, freedom, and responsibility under Christ.
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Seasons of Transience
A Guide to Continuity and Succession
People move. Students graduate. Jobs change. Families relocate. Leadership changes. A fellowship that serves one season may continue through others, take another form, become part of another Christian community, or come naturally to an end.
None of these outcomes is necessarily failure.
This Guide offers practical help for sharing responsibility, preparing for transition, handing responsibility on wisely, gathering in places where people are always moving, beginning again elsewhere, changing form, ending faithfully, and preparing for changes in the stewardship of the wider Framework.
Its deeper concern is not merely how to keep one gathering going. It is how Christians can remain faithful to Christ and responsible toward one another as circumstances change without making one person, one structure, or even the Framework itself indispensable.
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The Proximity Charter
The Constitutional Text of the Framework
The Proximity Charter is the governing text of the Proximity Fellowship Framework.
It establishes the common Christian foundation, the Constitutional Requirements that protect the identity, integrity, safety, and public meaning of the Framework, principles and guidance for healthy fellowship, and the substantial room intentionally left for local Christian freedom.
Return to the Charter when a question becomes more serious, when responsibility grows, when a local practice needs clarification, or when you want to understand what the Framework actually requires, recommends, or leaves to local discernment.
You do not need to agree with every other Christian on matters beyond the common floor before fellowship can begin. But those who publicly use the Proximity Fellowship name should understand and respect the Framework they are choosing to represent.
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A Word About These Resources
Not every companion resource, section, or recommendation will be necessary in every circumstance.
Use the guidance that genuinely serves your present situation. Leave matters the Charter leaves open genuinely open. Return when your circumstances change or deeper questions arise.
At the same time, the Charter governs the Framework. A recommendation should remain a recommendation, and a Constitutional Requirement should not be treated as optional merely because a companion guide is not presently needed.
Nothing here asks you to master a special vocabulary or complete a course before you can gather. Questions are welcome and should never be treated as disloyalty.
Where a real situation reaches beyond what a document can responsibly address, such as a serious conflict, a safeguarding concern, abuse or coercion, unlawful conduct, or a legal question, seek mature Christian counsel or appropriate professional help.
A resource can point toward help. It was never meant to become the help itself.
Questions, concerns, and constructive suggestions are welcome at info@proximityfellowship.org.
Christ is the Head. Scripture is the norm. No human being is indispensable.