ACOP as a Fellowship

[Anna]

Conferences are important to fellowships because they create a place of gathering for believers who share the love of Jesus. Conferences also allow different churches to come into agreement with each other, building doctrinal, philosophical, and relational unity within the body of believers.

I have been a part of the PAOC and the AGC churches but I cannot speak on their denominational structures as I wasn’t aware of their inner operating models.

[Zach]

Conferences play vital roles in a Fellowship because they are the places where relationships and connection are built and enhanced, but also when people with shared values come together those tend to be caught and enforced in a social way that is very powerful. I have in the past been a part of a movement that was very much centrally controlled but that also believed authority was relational and not based on a position or a title. It seemed to work well with good leaders, but the possibility did exist that at a functional level, choices were made for local churches and fellowships that were made by others far away, and that even in the best of times can cause relational strain, and almost functionally undercut or at least strain the shared value of relational authority.

[Jaylen]

Conferences are important because otherwise it is hard to really get a sense for what is going on everywhere else. To gather and share testimony with each other about God work, and also to take advantage of the moment and utilize it to cast vision for the next period of time.
I have not.

[Kimberly]

Conferences are so important because it allows the relationships between each other to grow. Conferences also give us the chance to talk about what is going on in our local church and be creative with others when it comes to programming and outreach. Since we don’t have a central control planning our stuff out, it is very beneficial to be able to bounce ideas off of people that may have more experience or a different perspective than us.