Rule of Life

1. For the sake of our individual holiness and to help us live in solidarity...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to have a daily prayer time.43

2. For the sake of raising up a unified family unit pleasing to the Lord and for solidarity with other holy families...
each Alleluia family will be faithful to pray together daily.44

3. For the sake of both our ongoing solidarity and our faithfulness to commitments to community prayer, fellowship and service...
each Alleluia member will be faithful in attendance and punctuality when the community or subgroups of the community gather, unless released from this commitment.45

4. For the sake of building up and maintaining our common life, and so that we may be faithful to our commitment to community service...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to serve on a Community service team, outreach ministry, or other Community service.46

5. For the sake of our formation in God’s ways, our personal spiritual growth and Christian maturity...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to undertake an ongoing program of spiritual study and Scripture reading.47

6. For the sake of keeping our commitment to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and the commitment to destroy our isolation...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to make space in his/her life for spending time with other Community members outside of scheduled meetings and, to the degree possible, live in close proximity to other Community members.48

7. For the sake of being faithful to the Scriptural command to “go into every nation and make disciples”...
each Alleluia member will seek opportunities to share Jesus and our
communal life in Him with others through Christian hospitality,
evangelism and other good works.49

8. For the sake of personal growth in holiness and to insure that our individual lives and the lives of our families are lived in solidarity with other individuals and families...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to a headship relationship of care
and accountability.50

9. For the sake of living out our call to be an extended family...
each Alleluia member with children will work to bring and lead their children, high school age or younger, into participation in the life of the Community and to educate them as godly sons and daughters.51

10. For the sake of humbling and disposing ourselves before the Lord, and for aiding us in seeking God’s will for us as a people...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to fast weekly.52

11. For the sake of being faithful to our call to be a people of praise and in our call to live in His joy and peace...
each Alleluia member will strive to be Christlike in every thought so that we might all radiate the joy and peace of being God’s people.53

12. For the sake of our covenant call to sanctification...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to dedicate his/her life individually, and with this people, to holiness. Each member will seek the highest
standards of morality and cultural expression. These cultural expressions include such things as media use,54 modesty,55 fashion,56 customs of dating and courtship, etc.57

13. For the sake of living out our commitment to foster the growth of the community by accepting responsibility for a program of Christian initiation and formation in community life...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to complete, assent to, review regularly, and live out the teachings of the Alleluia Formation program.58

14. For the sake of our call to communal prayer,...
each Full Covenant member of Alleluia will be faithful in his/her
participation in the Alleluia Prayer Watch.59
15. For the sake of aiding individuals in living as stewards rather than owners of God’s resources, and to provide resources for our common mission, and to make resources available for Christian generosity...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to prepare a monthly budget and to plan his/her time so as to provide for his/her family, live within his/her means, and seek to live a life of Christian simplicity.60

16. For the sake of accepting our financial responsibility to the community...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to keep our current Community
financial agreements.61

17. For the sake of keeping our basic commitment to live under the Lordship of Jesus...
each Alleluia member will be in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and filled with and open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.62

18. For the sake of our vision to be a multi-denominational people...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to be in good standing in his/her denominational church and will respect other’s denominational differences, while seeking to live a life based on all that is good and true.63

19. For the sake of honoring the Lord’s Day, and recognizing that setting aside a day of rest and focus on the Lord builds us as a people...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to acknowledge the beginning and end of the Lord’s Day and will limit to a minimum business activity and travel that is not for spiritual or recreational purposes.64

20. For the sake of maintaining our love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and to keep our commitment to build up, exhort, admonish and listen to one another, and to be quick to forgive and to ask forgiveness...
each Alleluia member agrees to avoid gossip, slander, divisiveness or a party spirit [factions] and to live out the principles and methods of Matthew 18:15-17.65

21. For the sake of maintaining our love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and to keep our commitment to build up one another...
each Alleluia member will diligently strive to honor others in speech and outward expressions of love, deference and respect.66

22. For the sake of keeping our commitment to maintain community order and to be faithful to recognize the headship of the coordinators (government), and to obey, correct and pray for them...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to live by the agreements of the
community government and make them his/her own. Each member will be faithful to offer correction and input to the appropriate authority and pray for community leaders.67

23. For the sake of maintaining a clear witness to God’s design in Scripture and the eternal law in the midst of a culture of personal and family confusion...
each Alleluia member will strive to be faithful to live out Scriptural models of the roles of men, women, children and family.68

24. For the sake of our call to be a spiritual army and our call to heal the whole man...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to war against the devil, his/her own flesh, and the errors of a worldly wisdom that denies Christ, and will seek ministry in areas that hinder his/her ability to live a holy life or live our common life.69

25. For the sake of maintaining community order...
each Alleluia member will be faithful to read and respond appropriately to community communications, such as: consultations, the Dove, prayer chains, words, memos, etc.70

26. For the sake of building supportive relationships as part of an extended family network...
each woman will seek a supportive relationship with an Older Woman.71

27. For the sake of maintaining our unity...
each Underway member agrees to live out our Covenant by coming to
understand and live out our Rule of Life.72

28. For the sake of maintaining our commitment as a community to live totally, radically and faithfully for Jesus...
each Alleluia member agrees that this is the way God has chosen for his/her sanctification and that he/she has chosen this way in good conscience, freely and in faith, and further agrees to be called to the highest standard of
community life. 73