What are you guys?
Well, that's a good question. This is, pure and simple, just a place to speak honest Truth and maybe start moving toward the way Jesus wanted things to be. The people here recognize that they played a part in making this mess we've come to call "church" and they want to try to make it right.
Sometimes it's easier to define yourself by what you're not. We're not a "ministry." We don't take money. We're not trying to build any buildings. We're not trying to get your kids to go live on a commune. We're just saying stuff that is as True as we can make it and encouraging others to do the same.
You see, for so long we've fed a system that seems specifically designed to get people to pick sides and throw rocks at each other. We've gotten distracted with so many side issues that we don't even know what the real point was sometimes.
Arsenio Hall used to talk about "Things that make you go, Hmmm." That's sort of what we do. Just say stuff and maybe you'll go, "Now you know, he might have a point there." If it drives you to the Bible to go figure out whether we're making it up or not, all the better.
We've been dumbed-down for so long, we all need some remedial education in how to even tell the difference between Truth and not-quite-Truth (which is still a lie). So we set up a discussion board where people can practice.
The Fellowship of the Martyrs is not a "movement" or a "church," per se. You see, those who commit themselves to Christ are to pick up their cross daily and follow Him. They are to pour themselves out so that Jesus can be poured in. They are to endure faithfully any trial or persecution for the sake of His name. They are to love as He loved, forgive as He forgived, sacrifice as He sacrificed. We are to crucify OUR will and plans and desires so that we can follow HIS. And if it comes down to it (which we hope it doesn't), we're willing to lose our heads rather than deny Christ.
So anyone that understands that and lives it is already a part of the Fellowship of the Martyrs. They are joined as part of God's true invisible Church, whether or not they are members of a particular earthly church building/body/denomination/etc.
We don't have some membership application or clubhouse or anything like that. This website and all of our efforts are just about pointing out that what Christians are to be is Martyrs. There's no soft, comfy way to follow Christ. What the church body is to be is a place for Martyrs to fellowship and support and encourage each other. We've built buildings so that we can reach out to the "lost" in great numbers and involve them in our fellowship, but the result has been that we've been unable to disciple and train them - or keep ourselves fed. Over time we've watered everything down so far that it's hard to find Jesus anywhere.
Something new is coming. Christians all over will start taking responsibility for their own relationship with God, instead of relying on a paid staff member to do it on behalf of hundreds or thousands. That doesn't mean we stop having "church" as we know it or eliminate the staff. It means everyone that is serious needs to buck up and start helping more.
I hate that it's necessary for us even to say this stuff, but that's the way it is. This is a place to point out the obvious and encourage Christians to do three simple, but life-altering things (See Romans 12):
In thankfulness for God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice as your spiritual act of worship.
You can do this by:
1. STOP CONFORMING TO THE WORLD!
2. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind - grow up into Him who is the Head - be like Jesus.
3. THEN you will know what is the perfect pleasing will of God - and YOU CAN GO DO IT.
Is that what we're preaching in the churches? It ought to be. Hmmmm.
I'd rather you not, but If you really feel like you need to, you can read more about us personally here.