"Ethos" means our culture, the character of the community - what you can expect to see when you are among us. Another way to put it is "how we are". "You know how they are..." Well, we want you to know what to expect in the Community of Vine & Branches. Many people may feel intimidated, or even frightened, at the prospect of coming into a new group of people. New personalities, new idiosyncrasies - these things are scary. Some questions that come to mind may be: "How do I know they'll accept me?"; "What if they're goofy or something?"; "Will I be comfortable with these people?" These and a hundred more questions just like them come to the surface when people interact with other people. This may especially apply in the setting of a "church" or other spiritual or religious community. Extra fear and wondering abounds in these arenas. This is why we wanted to write an "Ethos" - to let you know what we're about a little more before you jump into this pool.


LOVE AND FREEDOM

Sounds like we're hippies or something doesn't it? Well, better that than some things. We are a community based in the Love of God. Love is the very central nature of God and this is how He manifests Himself to us. So, if we, as Christians who share in the divine nature, are to manifest something, it should be the Love of God who's Spirit lives in us and gives us life.

This Love is not a constrictive "love". It is not a binding and legally strict "love". It is true Love which is very much linked to "freedom." We can be characterized as a community who, although deeply committed to Godly life, is is also committed to the working of God through each one's conscience. Well, does that mean you're just hog-wild and do anything!? Well, no, but it might mean that some things we may legitimately have the freedom to do, others may see as "too liberal" or perhaps even "sinful." For the sake of the proper spiritual development of those in the community, we feel we must take a stand on these issues which have so long been a victim of the status quo of religiosity. A lengthy quote from Romans, chapter 14, verses 1 through 5 will help to clarify our view: "Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. One person believes that one may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. The one who eats must not despise the one who abstains, and the one who abstains must not pass judgment on the one who eats; for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on someone else's servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person considers one day more important than another, while another person considers all days alike. Let everyone be fully persuaded in his own mind."

So, you may very well see someone have an occasional beer or a glass of wine, maybe listen to secular music, go dancing, or any other of a number of things which have culturally and religiously come to be equated with being "unholy" or at least, "not very spiritual."

We are very much committed to being what Paul would refer to in Romans 14 as the person who is strong and confident in their faith - one who is not thrown here and there by rules and regulations which many think, by keeping, will enhance or maintain their connection to God. The "law" of Love which is written in our hearts will prohibit us from whatever needs to be prohibited. " 'Everything is lawful,' but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is lawful,' but not everything builds up. No one should seek his own advantage, but that of his neighbour." Ð1 Corinthians 10:23-24. Written laws are not necessary. Love will also tell us what TO do, how to act as Jesus on the earth. And this Love of which we speak is not mere emotion or feeling. It is the very nature and essence of God Himself in us - the Holy Spirit - who makes us eternally alive and transforms us into the image of Jesus, and who is our strength to live as we are to live.


BALANCE & WISDOM

We do very strongly affirm that we, as Christians under the New Covenant, are no longer bound under the law of the Old Covenant. The Spiritual Life that we now have in Jesus Ð in our connection to God through Him, is absolutely not about laws and regulations. So, in Scripture, in New Covenant revelation, we see a definite connection between this new state we are in and how we live our lives as a result of the transformation that has occurred. We are told in Romans chapter 6, verse 14 that "...sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace." And the union which has produced this freedom from "sin" is affirmed earlier in verses 5-7 of the same chapter: "For if we have grown into union with Him through a death like His, we shall also be united with Him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin."

In other words, before Christ, we had a nature of "sin" (a propensity toward moving away from God, living outside His eternal intention for our lives), but now that we have been re-born in union with His Spirit, we have a new nature, His nature. We are in a new relationship to Him. He is not looking at us now through a veil of law and outward restrictions, but directly, as His beloved children. So, we don't count on a certain ethical code to establish or maintain our relationship with God, and we say with Paul in Galatians chapter 2, verses 20-23: "If you died with Christ to the elemental powers of the world, why do you submit to regulations as if you were still living in the world? 'Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!' These are all things destined to perish with use; they accord with human precepts. While these make a certain show of wisdom in their affected piety, humility, and bodily austerity, their chief effect is that they indulge men's pride."

What we are saying is that we put our complete faith in God, working in us by His Holy Spirit, to accomplish our transformation into what He wants us to be; not in laws, rules, and outward restrictions which only make us "feel" holy. These things only give us an illusion that we are becoming like God, something to pride ourselves in. We reject this outward-focused notion of holiness, and embrace an internal, transformational view of growing in union with God. So, finally, we lift up the Word of God in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 17 & 18, which reads: "Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit."