Copyright and Edition Information@@copy@@

Title: The Fivefold Church Alliance: A Covenant Among Churches. The Alliance Framework, Volume One: Foundations
Edition: First Edition, 2026
Version: ()
Author: Apostle Anderson
Publisher: TeleChurch Live
Self-Published by: Lighted Candle Church Inc., Atlanta, Georgia

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Apostle Anderson. All rights reserved.

Churches of The Fivefold Church Alliance may use this book, teach from it, and make copies of it, including the Questioneer and the Code of Conduct, for their own teaching and FCA work. Selling this book, publishing it as another person’s work, or issuing a changed version as an official edition requires the author’s written permission.

Joining the Fivefold Alliance or adopting this book does not make any church the property, branch or subsidiary of the author or publisher. Each church keeps its own name, leadership, records and property.

This book is self-published and is not endorsed by any denomination. It is not legal, tax or financial advice; churches and the Fivefold Alliance should consult qualified professionals on those matters.

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.

Contents

A Word From the Author@@word@@

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”1 Corinthians 12:7, KJV

This manual was not born from theory alone. It grew out of my life in the Church, my years of pastoral service, my study of the Word of God, my prayers, my questions, and the experiences that have shaped both my faith and my calling.

I know what it means to experience the loss of a pastor and the loss of a church. I have watched churches weaken, crumble, and close their doors. I have seen faithful people displaced, congregations left without direction, and pastors carrying burdens they were never trained or supported to carry. I have watched leaders who sincerely loved God become helpless before problems that required more than preaching. They needed order, counsel, trained people, dependable relationships, and a path by which a struggling church could be strengthened rather than abandoned.

Those experiences placed a lasting burden in my heart. I became an advocate for the survivorship of churches. I do not want the painful patterns I have witnessed to continue from one congregation to another and from one generation to the next. Too many churches close each year, not because their people have no faith, but because faith was left without the practical support, leadership development, accountability, and restoration needed to carry the work through difficulty.

I wrote this manual because I believe churches can survive, recover, grow strong, and help one another without losing their identity. Fellowship should not leave one church carrying every burden. Governance should not replace love; it should protect love when relationships become larger and more difficult to manage. Restoration should not be a word of shame. It should be an organized path through which a church receives help, develops its leaders, repairs what is broken, and returns to mission with greater strength.

The organizational model presented in The Alliance Framework is the fruit of that journey. Its relationships, principles, Church Seasons, leadership patterns, safeguards, and Circle of Support were formed through years of observation, pastoral experience, study, prayer, correction, and reflection. I believe God gave me this burden and inspired me to bring these pieces together for the benefit of the Church. This book is my original expression of that calling and my effort to steward it faithfully.

My purpose is larger than the success of one congregation or one organization. I am driven by a call to make an enduring impact and to participate in the restoration of the Church as a whole. My prayer is that this work will help pastors become better equipped, churches become more stable, fellowship become more balanced, leaders become more accountable, and congregations discover that difficulty does not have to be the end of their story.

If this manual helps one pastor find support, one church remain open, one congregation recover its strength, or one fellowship learn how to carry its responsibilities together, then the gift has made room for the work it was given to accomplish.

General Preamble@@pre@@

“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow.”Ecclesiastes 4:9–10, KJV

An alliance is not first an organization. It is a relationship: a bond between churches that have decided they will not let one another stand alone. This book calls that bond a covenant.

Every church has seasons. There are seasons of strength, when the pulpit is full, the music is steady, the doors are open and the people are growing. There are seasons of strain, when a pastor is carrying too much, the musicians have moved on, the records are out of order, and the congregation is smaller than it used to be. Strength and strain are not permanent labels. They are seasons, and churches pass through both.

The Fivefold Church Alliance, called in this book the Fivefold Alliance, or FCA for short, exists so that a church in a season of strength can lift a church in a season of strain, and so that the church that was lifted can one day lift another. This book calls that season a church's state. A church is either helping, steady, or being helped, and the Fivefold Alliance moves its people, gifts and resources according to those states.

The Fivefold Alliance gathers its training at one church, called Headquarters. Headquarters is a role one church holds for a season, not a throne. It trains and develops the churches of the Fivefold Alliance. It does not govern them.

Each church stays connected in a way people can see: it signs The Covenant and stations one of its own people, a delegate, at Headquarters. The delegates, speaking for their churches, sit together as the Delegate Council and decide where help should go.

The Fivefold Alliance works by willing service. Its help is freely given, and it does not depend on money. Where its churches choose to share money as well, they do so together under the Financial Addendum, which is published as a separate booklet.

The Fivefold Alliance shares what Christ gave His Church. He gave ministers: the fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. And He gave gifts to all His people, among them music, practical help and care.

Introduction@@intro@@

This volume is written for pastors, delegates, officers and members alike. Everyone in an FCA church should be able to read it and understand what their church has joined, what it has promised, and what it can expect.

The Fivefold Alliance rests on a few simple commitments:

• No church grows alone. Churches in strength help churches in strain, and every church can ask for help.
• Help is freely given. No church buys help, and no money passes between churches.
• Headquarters trains; it does not govern. It is born, not voted, and every church keeps its own authority.
• Every church is connected. Each church signs The Covenant and stations a delegate at Headquarters.
• The Fivefold Alliance grows by reaching new people. Growth comes through evangelism, never by moving members from one church to another.
• Everything is on paper. Appointments, commitments, and the Code of Conduct are written, signed and kept.

The Fivefold Ministry and the Awakened Body@@ch1@@

The Fivefold Alliance is named for the fivefold ministry: the five kinds of minister Christ gave to His Church. They are the ministers the Fivefold Alliance shares, and the reason it exists.

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”Ephesians 4:11–12, KJV

1.1Given for a Purpose

The passage begins with ministers, but it does not end with them. It ends with the Body. The five were not given merely to preach, hold titles or fill pulpits. They were given to equip the saints, so that the whole Church can do the work of the ministry.

1.2Five Ministries, Five Works

These ministries are not competitors. Each supplies a different part of Christ's care for His people.

1.3The Pastor Keeps

The word translated pastor means shepherd. Others may come, minister and move on. The pastor remains, watches, notices who is missing, and guards the flock. Not everyone can keep, and there is a gift in remaining. The sheep belong to Christ; the pastor is entrusted with their keeping.

1.4Why No Church Should Stand Alone

Keeping is necessary, but keeping alone is not the whole work of ministry. A flock also needs understanding, discernment, reaching and building. Keeping prevents needless loss. Teaching prevents ignorance. The prophetic prevents dullness. Evangelism prevents a church from turning inward. The apostolic prevents it from standing still.

Christ did not give one ministry; He gave ministries. Few local churches have all five, and no pastor was meant to carry the whole burden of the Body. This is why FCA churches share their ministers with one another.

1.5Gifts to People, and People to the Church

Christ gave gifts to people, and He gave people to the Church. This book keeps the two apart.

The ministers are people given to the Church. “He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets…” (Ephesians 4:11). This book calls them ministers, and their five kinds of work the fivefold ministry.

The gifts belong to the people. Every member has received one. “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Corinthians 12:7). Scripture names them in Romans 12:6–8, 1 Corinthians 12:8–10 and 12:28, and 1 Peter 4:10–11: among them prophecy, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, mercy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, discerning, tongues, helps and administration. Where the King James Version says “men” or “every man”, it means people, women and men alike.

The two belong together. The ministers equip the people to use their gifts. As people grow faithful in their gifts, they become ministers themselves, each operating in one of the five ministries. A gift alone does not make a minister: “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers?” (1 Corinthians 12:29). But every minister began as a member with a gift.

1.6The Pastor Stands Between

The pastor is the one minister who belongs to both. A pastor is one of the five, and is also the one who remains among the people. So the pastor is the bridge between them. People grow through their pastor into ministry, and the other ministers come through the pastor to equip the people.

A bridge is not a gate. The pastor does not decide who may serve God; the pastor helps each member across. And a bridge is not the whole building: the pastor needs the other four as much as the people do.

1.7The Awakened Body

“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”Ephesians 4:16, KJV

A church awakens when every member begins to supply what Christ has placed in them. Those who were taught begin teaching. Those who were restored begin restoring. Those who were reached begin reaching. This is the same test the Fivefold Alliance applies to its workers (Chapter 8): when the work is done, the church can do more on its own than it could before.

The goal of the fivefold ministry is not five powerful ministers. The goal is an awakened Body.

What the Fivefold Alliance Is, and Why It Exists@@ch2@@

The Fivefold Alliance is a covenant between churches to live as the one Body they already are. It exists so that no church has to grow alone.

2.1What the Fivefold Alliance Is

The Fivefold Alliance is not first an organization. It is a promise churches make to one another, written down and kept. So it does not sit over the churches: no church and no officer governs another. It does not sit inside one church: Headquarters is a place of service, not a throne. It sits between the churches, in what they have promised each other.

Its only body is the Delegate Council, which is the churches themselves in one room, and its officers exist to serve that promise. A church does not so much join an organization as enter a covenant.

2.2Is It in the Bible?

The word alliance is not in the New Testament, and this book does not pretend that it is. What the New Testament shows is churches living this way as their ordinary life. The church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 11:22). Antioch sent relief to the brethren in Judaea (Acts 11:29–30), and sent out Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13:1–3). The churches of Macedonia gave for the saints at Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8:1–4). Titus was left in Crete to “set in order the things that are wanting” (Titus 1:5). And the help moved both ways:

“That now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality.”2 Corinthians 8:14, KJV

Those churches needed no alliance, because they knew they were one Body in many places. A church should never have needed one. What has been lost is that knowledge: churches now stand apart, each with its own name and its own burden.

2.3A Covenant Among Churches

Because it is a promise and not a structure, this book also uses a second name: the Covenant. Both names are kept, and each means one thing. The Fivefold Alliance is the company of churches. The Covenant is what binds them.

A covenant is more than fellowship. Churches that visit one another, share a platform or keep one another’s anniversaries are in fellowship, and that is good. A covenant is written, signed and kept. It says what each church will give, what each may ask, and what none may do to another.

The Covenant is one way of keeping an old practice, not the only way; other fellowships keep it differently (Appendix A). And because the Body is permanent, the Covenant is meant to last. A church that has been restored does not leave. It stays, to help the next.

2.4No Church Should Stand Alone

We would never tell a new believer to live without a church. A believer without a church is a soul without a body around it. A church without a covenant is the same thing, one level up: a church without a body.

Every independent church should be in covenant with other churches, joined to a wider body of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Fellowship and visiting are not enough. No church should be left in the wilderness. This Fivefold Alliance is one such covenant. A church already in true covenant elsewhere is not alone.

2.5Churches Need One Another

No local church has every gift. One pastor is strong in teaching but has no one to lead worship. Another church has gifted musicians but no one trained to keep its records. One congregation is growing quickly; another has lost its pastor and does not know where to turn. When churches stand alone, each carries its weaknesses alone. When churches stand together, the strength of one can cover the need of another.

2.6Help Moves Both Ways

The Fivefold Alliance is not divided into givers and receivers. A church that is helped this year may be a helping church in a few years. A strong church may one day need help of its own. Every church in the Fivefold Alliance agrees to give when it can and to receive when it must, without pride in the first or shame in the second.

2.7What the Fivefold Alliance Does

The Fivefold Alliance does three things:

• It trains. Training, development and seminars for every FCA church are gathered at Headquarters.
• It shares. People, gifts and resources are sent where they are needed, across the fivefold ministry, music and practical help.
• It restores. A church in strain is helped until it can stand fully on its own again, and that restoration is recognized.

Headquarters: A Place of Service, Not a Throne@@ch3@@

Headquarters is the church where the work of the Fivefold Alliance is carried on: its training, its development, its seminars and its Council. It is not chosen by a vote. It is born, and it carries no authority over any other church.

3.1What Headquarters Does

• Hosts training, development and seminars for every FCA church.
• Receives and serves alongside the stationed delegates of the FCA churches.
• Hosts the Delegate Council.
• Serves as the common place where what the churches share is gathered, and from which it is sent where the Delegate Council directs.
• Keeps its own worship strong and growing as the home base of the Fivefold Alliance's work.

3.2What Headquarters Never Does

Headquarters trains; it does not govern. Being Headquarters gives a church no authority over another church's pastor, officers, members, finances, property or decisions. Headquarters may not direct another church's worship, appoint its leaders, or require anything of it beyond what the church has signed in its own commitments to the Fivefold Alliance.

3.3How Headquarters Is Born

In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers together in one place. No council had voted Antioch the place from which the work would go out. The ministers were gathered, the Holy Ghost spoke, and from that place the work began.

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”Acts 13:2, KJV

The Headquarters of the Fivefold Alliance comes into being the same way. There were many scattered churches and no place where they met. Then three things came into alignment:

1. The ministers converged on one place: apostle, prophet, pastor and teacher together.
2. The call was given to form an alliance.
3. The mission to help the churches was given to the apostle.

When these three are in alignment, the apostle, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, declares that place the Headquarters and consecrates it to the work. From then on it is recognized as the place where the work begins.

Recognized by the churches. Headquarters is not imposed on any church. Each church recognizes it for itself when it signs the Covenant, which names Headquarters as the common place of the churches.

What follows from it. The rest is born in order from that place: the Chairperson, then the officers who agree to serve there, then the delegates their churches send, who sit together as the Council (Chapters 4, 11 and 12).

3.4Headquarters Stays

Headquarters has to stay strong and consistent, because every other church sets its hour by it and sends its delegate to it. It does not pass from church to church on a schedule. Members added to Headquarters remain its members.

If the place of the work ever moves, it moves the way it was born: declared under the leading of the Holy Spirit, and recognized by the churches. Such a move is announced at least six months before it takes effect, and each delegate stays at the outgoing church until they have trained a member of that church to carry the work they have been doing.

3.5Keeping Headquarters Fair

Headquarters receives much from the Fivefold Alliance: stationed delegates, and new members each year. So that it serves the whole Fivefold Alliance and not only itself:

• Headquarters holds one seat and one vote on the Delegate Council, like every other church.
• Training at Headquarters is free to every FCA church.
• Headquarters gave up its own hour first: it meets from 10:30 to 12:00 so that every other church can be served (Chapter 9).
• The President does not come from the Headquarters church.
• At each yearly review, the Council asks whether Headquarters is serving every church fairly.
• Where the Financial Addendum is adopted, Headquarters gives to the Fivefold Alliance instead of receiving from it.

The Connection: A Stationed Delegate@@ch4@@

Every FCA church stays connected through a person. It signs The Covenant and stations a delegate at Headquarters. A church is joined to the Fivefold Alliance by one of its own people, not by a payment.

4.1The Stationed Delegate

A delegate is a person the church sends to serve at Headquarters as its representative of good faith. The delegate is normally a member the pastor chooses. In a very small church the pastor may serve as the delegate, because the service hours are set so that a delegate can serve at Headquarters and still be home for their own church’s service (Chapter 9). The delegate is the living connection between the home church and the Fivefold Alliance.

The delegate:

• serves at Headquarters to help keep it strong and growing, at least three Sundays a month;
• attends the Fivefold Alliance's training, development and seminars, and carries what is learned back home;
• speaks for the home church on the Delegate Council, unless the home church names someone else to hold its seat.

What the home church receives. The delegate brings the training received at Headquarters back to the home church within thirty days of each seminar, and reports to the home pastor each month on the Fivefold Alliance’s work.

4.2Stationed, Not Transferred

A delegate is stationed at Headquarters, not transferred to it. The delegate remains a member of the home church for as long as they serve. A pastor who serves as delegate keeps their membership and pastoral office at home. No church loses a member by sending a delegate, and because Headquarters ends at noon and a church being helped begins at 12:30, it does not lose that person on a Sunday either. The long history of this practice is traced in Appendix A.

4.3On Paper

Every delegate is appointed in writing and signs the FCA Code of Conduct. All formalities are observed. The home church keeps a copy of the appointment, and so does the Fivefold Alliance.

4.4Changing a Delegate

A home church may rotate its delegate at any time. It sends a simple notification and replacement form naming the new delegate, who is then appointed and signs the Code of Conduct in the same way.

No waiting period is required. Where a delegate’s work at Headquarters is technical, such as sound, media or records, the outgoing and incoming delegates may naturally overlap for a short time so the work is handed over well.

4.5Retirement Through Evangelism

A delegate may retire from service at Headquarters by evangelizing and bringing in a new member. When the new member joins Headquarters, that member becomes the home church's continuing connection to the Fivefold Alliance, and the delegate returns fully to the home church. The home church then does not need to station another delegate. This fulfils the church’s delegate duty. If Headquarters ever moves, the church stations a delegate at the new Headquarters, or retires one again there through evangelism.

The new member must come through evangelism: a person newly come to faith or without a church home. A member of another church is never counted.

The home church keeps its seat on the Delegate Council after its delegate retires. It names who speaks for it, usually the pastor or someone the pastor chooses. That person does not need to be stationed at Headquarters.

The Yearly Growth Commitment@@ch5@@

The Fivefold Alliance grows by reaching new people. Each year, every FCA church commits to adding at least one new member to the Headquarters church.

5.1Through Evangelism Only

The new member must come through evangelism. A member may never be transferred from another church to meet this commitment, and no FCA church may invite another church's members to leave.

5.2When a Year Falls Short

Adding at least one new member each year is a goal, not a requirement.

If a church does not add a member in a year, there is no penalty. The yearly state review notes it, and the Fivefold Alliance sends evangelism support to that church: a revival, an outreach team, or training. If a new believer chooses to stay in the church that reached them, that church has still kept its commitment to evangelize, and the person's choice is always respected.

Church States@@ch6@@

Every FCA church holds a state that describes its present season. The state decides whether the church is sending help, receiving it, or standing steady.

6.1The Three States

6.2A State Is Never a Ranking

A church's state describes its season, not its worth. A church being helped is not lesser, and a helping church is not greater. No state gives any church authority over another.

6.3The Yearly State Review

Each church's state is reviewed once a year by the Delegate Council. The review looks at each church's strengths and needs across the fivefold ministry, music and practical help, sets its state for the coming year, and decides where the Fivefold Alliance's help will be sent. A church being helped moves to steady when it receives the Restoration Mark (Chapter 10).

6.4Becoming a Helping Church

A steady church becomes a helping church at the yearly state review when it has stood steady for at least one year, has at least one fivefold worker, teacher or musician it can send without weakening its own services, and agrees to send them.

What Counts as Support@@ch7@@

The Fivefold Alliance shares the ministers Christ gave His Church, and the gifts of its people, among them music and practical help. The activities below are recognized as FCA support.

7.1The Fivefold Ministry

The five ministries and their work are set out in Chapter 1. In the Fivefold Alliance they are shared in these ways:

7.2Music and Practical Help

7.3How Support Begins

Support begins in two ways. A church may ask for help at any time, and the yearly state review may also assign help to churches in the being-helped state.

7.4What Support Costs

Support costs the church that receives it nothing. Each church is responsible for its own money, and no money passes between churches. Help is given freely; the host church covers a helper’s travel and meals when it is able.

7.5What Is Never Support

The following are never FCA support, and no helper or church may use support to do them:

• Recruiting members. A helper never invites a helped church's members to move to another church or to Headquarters.
• Taking over decisions. Support never gives a helper any say in the helped church's internal decisions.
• Cash, salaries or local bills. The Fivefold Alliance never sends money to a church, never pays a pastor’s salary, and never pays a church’s rent, utilities or other local bills. These are the church’s own responsibility; a church in need raises them through its own fundraising.
• Claiming property. Support never gives the Fivefold Alliance or Headquarters any claim on a church's building or assets.

7.6Nothing Goes Around the Pastor

Nothing the Fivefold Alliance does in a church goes around its pastor. Every request for help, delegate appointment and worker assignment is written down and signed by the pastor before anything begins, so that there is never confusion about what was agreed. Nothing is done in a church without its pastor.

7.7When a Church Is Without Its Pastor

A church may be without its pastor for a season or for good: through sickness, death, resignation or any other cause. The Fivefold Alliance does not leave that church alone, and it does not take it over. It helps the church through the change.

When the pastor cannot act, the church’s own officers may ask the Fivefold Alliance for help. Because no pastor can sign, the paperwork matters all the more. The help is written in a Pastoral Transition Agreement, signed by the church’s officers, by the pastor wherever the pastor is able, and by the Fivefold Alliance, before the help begins. It states:

• who is asking, and on what authority in the church;
• what the Fivefold Alliance will supply: pulpit supply, pastoral care for the members, counsel to the officers, and help as the church seeks and receives its pastor;
• who will come, and for how long;
• what stays with the church: every decision, its money, its property, its members, and the choice of its own pastor;
• when the help ends: when the pastor returns, when a new pastor is received, or on thirty days’ notice from either side.

Those who come serve as helpers under the Code of Conduct. They do not hold the pastor’s office, and the Fivefold Alliance never appoints a church’s pastor. The Secretary keeps the agreement, and the Delegate Council is told that it is in place.

Freely Given: Workers and the Circle of Support@@ch8@@

A church is not rebuilt by people who come, perform and leave. It is rebuilt by people who teach others to carry the work. The Fivefold Alliance calls these people workers. Their help is freely given, and the Circle of Support describes how that help comes back around.

“Freely ye have received, freely give.”Matthew 10:8, KJV

8.1Who Is a Worker

A worker is a person who fits in the fivefold ministry, including musicians. A worker must be teaching, training and building, not performing. The test of a worker is simple: when the worker’s assignment ends, the church can do more on its own than it could before.

8.2Working and Performing

8.3When Someone Performs

Performing is welcome help, but it is not a worker assignment. The host church may give a performer an honorarium or love offering at its own choice.

8.4Freely Given

The Fivefold Alliance works by willing service. Workers serve as volunteers, and a church in need is never asked what it can pay. Four things are always true, whether or not the Fivefold Alliance has any money of its own:

• No church buys help. Help is sent according to need, never according to what a church can give.
• No money passes between churches.
• A worker is never paid directly by the church they serve. Money must never come between a church and the one who helps it, so that no church overpays, underpays or argues over pay.
• Never cash to a church or a pastor.

Training at Headquarters is always free, and any church may send its own people there to learn.

8.5How a Worker Is Sent

Every worker assignment is approved by the Fivefold Alliance (Chapter 12) and written down before the work begins. The assignment is signed by the receiving church, the worker and the Fivefold Alliance, and it states:

• what will be taught or built;
• who in the church is being trained;
• how long the assignment lasts.

Workers go first to churches in the being-helped state, then to steady churches. When more help is asked for than there are workers to give it, new requests wait their turn, and the church is offered free training at Headquarters in the meantime. The Vice President places the workers, and the President approves each assignment.

8.6Closing the Circle

A worker builds up a church. The church grows strong, and the people it trained become workers who help the next church. In this way the help that one church receives is passed on, and the circle closes.

8.7Where Churches Choose to Share Money

Some Alliances will want to give their workers an honorarium and to share that cost fairly. This is provided for in the Financial Addendum, a separate booklet that is not part of this book. It is optional. It takes effect only when the Delegate Council adopts it, and nothing in this book depends on it.

Serving Every Church: The Service Time Blocks@@ch9@@

When every church begins worship at the same hour, no church can help another on a Sunday. FCA churches therefore stagger their service times, so that preachers, musicians and other helpers can serve more than one church in the same day.

9.1The Five Service Time Blocks

9.2Each Church Holds a Block

Headquarters holds Block B. It begins at 10:30 and keeps its service to an hour and a half, ending at noon, so that everyone who serves there can still reach their own church. Headquarters set its hour for the sake of every other church, and it does not move.

Every church being helped holds Block C, 12:30. There are no exceptions. A church that asks for help is asking for its own need to be met, so it is the one that adjusts: its delegate can then serve at Headquarters and at home on the same Sunday, and the workers sent to it are free to come. The founding churches moved their own hours for the same reason.

A church holding any other block is steady or helping. It is strong enough to carry its own hour and to spare the people it sends.

A church that will not move its hour cannot yet be helped. It keeps its voice and its vote, and help begins when it comes into alignment.

Blocks are assigned by the Planning Department Secretary and approved by the President. A church may begin up to fifteen minutes from its block time with the Planning Department Secretary’s approval, for example where the drive from Headquarters is long. A newly joined church has six months to move into its block.

9.3How the Blocks Make Help Possible

Because the hours follow one another, nobody has to choose between their own church and another. A delegate serves at Headquarters until noon and is home by 12:30. A musician from a helping church plays at home in the morning and for a church being helped in the afternoon. A preacher who ministers at 12:30 can minister again at 3:00.

9.4Why the Church in Need Is the One That Adjusts

A person who goes to the doctor takes the appointment the doctor has. No one thinks less of them for it; it is simply how a need is met. In the same way, a church that asks for help is not being asked to change its hour for anyone else’s convenience. It changes its hour because that is what allows its own delegate to be in both places, and allows the workers it is waiting for to come.

This is about the hour and nothing else. A church being helped holds one seat and one vote like every other church, and its season is never a rank. But the hour is the first sign of alignment. Headquarters gave up its own hour first, and the founding churches gave up theirs, so that the Fivefold Alliance could exist at all. A church that takes its place at 12:30 is doing what every church before it has done.

The Restoration Mark@@ch10@@

The Restoration Mark recognizes that a church which was being helped has been restored to full function. When a church receives the mark, its state changes.

10.1The Five Signs of Restoration

A church receives the Restoration Mark when all five of the following are true:

1. Fivefold present. The five ministry functions are actively carried out by the church’s own people. A function covered by an FCA helper does not count.
2. Music fulfilled. Every regular service has music, live or by tracks.
3. Service format established. The church has a written order of service and follows it.
4. Governance documents in order. The church has in place: its legal registration where required; a bank account in the church’s name with at least two signers; adopted bylaws or a constitution; named officers, including a secretary and treasurer; a current membership roll; offerings counted by two people and recorded; a monthly financial report; and minutes of its business meetings.
5. Attendance sustained. Weekly attendance has reached a total of at least 30 people, not counting delegates, every week for 90 days.

10.2Receiving the Mark

When all five signs are in place, the church's state changes from being helped to steady. The Delegate Council verifies the five signs, with a visit to the church, and the mark is presented publicly at the next FCA gathering.

The Delegate Council@@ch11@@

The Delegate Council is the body of the Fivefold Alliance that decides where its help goes. It meets at Headquarters.

11.1Who Sits on the Council

Every FCA church holds one seat on the Delegate Council. The seat is normally held by the church's stationed delegate. A church whose delegate has retired names who speaks for it, usually the pastor or someone the pastor chooses. The seat always belongs to the church, never to Headquarters.

11.2What the Council Decides

• Where the Fivefold Alliance's people, gifts and resources are sent.
• Each church's state, at the yearly state review.
• Whether a church has received the Restoration Mark.
• Confirming FCA officers (Chapter 12).
• Receiving new FCA churches and ending membership (Chapter 13).
• Whether to adopt the Financial Addendum, and on what terms.

The Council decides the Fivefold Alliance's shared work. It does not decide the internal matters of any church.

11.3How the Council Meets and Decides

The Council meets monthly or quarterly, as the Fivefold Alliance’s needs require, and once a year for the state review. The Chairperson presides and the Secretary keeps the minutes. Each FCA church has one vote. A meeting can decide when more than half of the FCA churches are present, and a decision passes by a majority of the votes cast. Some decisions need more: these, and every rule for meetings, are set out in Volume Two: Governance.

The Chairperson and the Officers@@ch12@@

The Fivefold Alliance keeps its power in balance. One body decides, one person carries out, one church hosts, and one person keeps the three in balance. No person and no church holds more than one of these.

12.1The Chairperson

The Chairperson presides over the Delegate Council and may call it together at any time. If a decision breaks the Covenant, the Chairperson rules it out of order, says in writing which part of the Covenant it breaks, and sends it back to the Council to decide again. The Chairperson also settles what the Covenant means when two sides read it differently, and hears the appeal of any church or person who believes they have been wronged.

The Chairperson does not vote, does not carry out the daily work, does not handle money, and has no say inside any local church. The Chairperson is bound by the Covenant like everyone else. The founder holds this seat until he lays it down. After him, the Council elects the Chairperson from among its churches.

12.2The Officers

Officers are volunteers. The first officers are leaders of the founding churches who agreed to serve at Headquarters when it was born; the Council confirmed them at its first meeting. After that, officers apply, the Council confirms and commissions them for two-year terms, and they carry out the work without governing any church. Where the Financial Addendum is adopted, the Council also confirms a Treasurer. How officers are chosen, how long they serve, how the Council meets and votes, and how a ruling is appealed are all set out in Volume Two: Governance.

Joining, Good Standing, and Leaving@@ch13@@

A church enters the Covenant freely, stays in good standing by keeping its commitments, and may leave in peace.

13.1Joining the Fivefold Alliance

A church asks to join by applying to the Fivefold Alliance. Its pastor signs the Covenant (Form J-2). It states what the church gives, what it may ask, what the churches hold in common, and what none may do to another, and it includes the Statement of Faith, the Code of Conduct, a stationed delegate, and a service time block. The Delegate Council receives the church and sets its starting state. Membership begins when the church’s delegate is stationed.

13.2The Statement of Faith

Every FCA church affirms the Fivefold Alliance’s Statement of Faith. The full Statement of Faith is in Appendix A.

13.3Good Standing

A church is in good standing when its delegate is stationed (or has retired by bringing in a new member) and its people keep the Code of Conduct.

13.4Falling Behind

When a church has had no delegate for three months, the Secretary sends a written notice. Until the church is current again, it does not vote on the Council and receives no new worker assignments. If a church remains without a delegate for six months, the Council may end its membership.

13.5Leaving in Peace

A church may leave the Fivefold Alliance at any time by giving thirty days’ written notice. Any open worker assignments are closed. The church keeps everything that is its own, and it may apply to rejoin later.

Safety and Conduct@@ch14@@

The Fivefold Alliance sends people into other churches to teach, train and care. Every person it sends must be safe to send.

14.1Background Checks and References

Anyone who will work with children or youth passes a background check before serving. Officers, delegates and workers who serve only adults provide three references instead. Background checks are renewed every three years.

14.2Protecting Children and Youth

Whenever the Fivefold Alliance’s people work with children or youth, at least two approved adults are present. No worker is ever alone with a minor.

14.3Reporting a Concern

Any concern about abuse or harm is reported at once to the President and to the authorities as the law requires. The Fivefold Alliance cooperates fully and never handles such a matter privately.

14.4The Code of Conduct

Every officer, delegate and worker signs the FCA Code of Conduct, which covers honesty, respect, safety, confidentiality, financial integrity, and never recruiting another church’s members. When the Code is broken, the President may suspend the person from FCA service until the Council decides the matter, and any worker assignment is paused. The full Code of Conduct is in Appendix B.

What the Fivefold Alliance Leaves to the Churches@@ch15@@

The Fivefold Alliance keeps its work focused on help and growth. Some things it deliberately leaves to the churches themselves.

15.1What the Fivefold Alliance Does Not Manage

The Fivefold Alliance does not organize or oversee fellowships between churches, church anniversaries, or the relationships churches keep with one another. Churches arrange these freely among themselves.

15.2Recognizing Ministers

Recognizing that a member has grown into one of the five ministries belongs to the pastor and the local church (1.6). The Fivefold Alliance approves a worker’s assignment (Chapter 8); it does not decide who is a minister in any church.

15.3The FCA Calendar

The Fivefold Alliance keeps a shared calendar so that every church can see what is happening. Secretaries, pastors and delegates may post events, and posts go out immediately. The calendar is for information only; it does not schedule or approve anything.

Contact information is kept private on the Fivefold Alliance's messaging platform. Text-message announcements are sent only to pastors and members who have registered.

Appendix A: Statement of Faith@@appa@@

This Statement describes the faith that binds the churches of the Fivefold Alliance together: love for one another, care for one another, and the restoration of what has been broken. Each church keeps its own fuller statement of doctrine; this Statement is the common ground on which the Fivefold Alliance stands.

What We Believe

1. Christ is the head of His Church. The Church belongs to Jesus Christ. No church, officer or Headquarters is its head.

“And he is the head of the body, the church.”Colossians 1:18, KJV

2. Love is the mark of His people. We are known as His disciples by the love we show one another, church to church and person to person.

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”John 13:34–35, KJV

3. We are one body with many members. What one church suffers, all suffer; what one church receives, all rejoice in.

“And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.”1 Corinthians 12:26, KJV

4. The strong carry the weak. Churches in strength are called to bear the burdens of churches in strain, not to please themselves.

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”Romans 15:1, KJV

5. God restores. A church in a hard season is not finished. God restores what was lost, and He calls His people to restore one another gently.

“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”Galatians 6:1–2, KJV

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.”Joel 2:25, KJV

6. Christ gave ministers and gifts to build His body. He gave the fivefold ministry to equip the saints, and gifts to every member, so that the body is built up in love, each part supplying what the others need.

“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”Ephesians 4:16, KJV

7. We are sent to reach the lost. The Church grows as the gospel is preached, and God gives the increase.

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”Mark 16:15, KJV

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”1 Corinthians 3:6, KJV

Scriptures That Ground the Fivefold Alliance

Each practice of the Fivefold Alliance rests on the Word of God.

A Practice With Deep Roots

Sending one’s own people to serve elsewhere, and giving to a shared work, are old practices in the Church. What is new in the Fivefold Alliance is the combination: lay delegates stationed at Headquarters, who may retire by bringing a new person to Christ.

• In Scripture. Philippi sent one of its own to serve Paul: “Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants” (Philippians 2:25, KJV).
• Priests lent between dioceses. Since 1957, Catholic dioceses have lent priests to serve other dioceses (Fidei Donum) while they remain priests of their home diocese: stationed, not transferred.
• Shared giving. Methodist churches each pay a share, called an apportionment, for the ministry they do together, as FCA dues do where the Financial Addendum is adopted.
• Giving to the center, reversed. Many Pentecostal fellowships send a percentage of local tithes to headquarters. Under the Financial Addendum, Headquarters gives 10% to the Fivefold Alliance.

All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.

Appendix B: Code of Conduct@@appb@@

This Code applies to every Fivefold Alliance officer, delegate and worker. Each person signs it before serving and keeps it for as long as they serve. It is written in love, so that every church can trust the people the Fivefold Alliance sends.

“Let all your things be done with charity.”1 Corinthians 16:14, KJV

1. Faithfulness and Honesty

• I will be truthful in what I say, what I record and what I report.
• I will keep my commitments, arrive prepared, and give notice when I cannot serve.
• As a worker, I will record my hours honestly wherever they are recorded.

2. Respect for Every Church

• I will honor the pastor and the order of every church I serve, and follow its order of service.
• I will not take part in, or try to influence, the internal decisions of a church I serve.
• I will never speak against a church, its pastor or its people to others.

3. No Recruiting

• I will never invite a member of any church to leave it for another church or for Headquarters.
• I will bring new people to Christ and to His Church only through evangelism.

4. Money and Gifts

• As a worker, I will serve freely. If a worker honorarium is given, I will receive it only through the Fivefold Alliance and never directly from a church.
• I may receive an honorarium or love offering that a church chooses to give, and I will not ask for one.
• I will not borrow money from, lend money to, or ask for money from the members of any church I serve.
• As an officer, I will never approve anything that pays me or my family.

5. Safety

• If I work with children or youth, I will complete a background check before serving and renew it when asked; otherwise I will provide three references.
• I will never be alone with a child or youth; at least two approved adults will always be present.
• I will keep appropriate boundaries in speech, touch, messages and counseling.
• I will report any concern about abuse or harm at once to the President and to the authorities as the law requires.

6. Confidentiality

• I will keep private what I learn about a church or a person while serving, except where someone’s safety or the law requires it to be reported.
• I will not share any church’s records, contact lists or member information.

7. Personal Conduct

• I will live in a way that honors Christ and brings no reproach on the Fivefold Alliance or the churches I serve.
• I will treat every person with kindness and respect, and I will not harass, threaten or demean anyone.

8. Speaking Rightly

• When I have a concern, I will take it to the person involved, their pastor, or the President, not to gossip or social media.
• I will speak of the Fivefold Alliance and its churches truthfully and with grace.

9. Serving Well

• As a delegate, I will serve at Headquarters under its order and carry what I learn back to my home church.
• As a worker, I will teach, train and build, preparing the church’s own people to carry the work, and I will stay within my written assignment.
• As an officer, I will serve the churches of the Fivefold Alliance and never use my position to govern them.

10. When the Code Is Broken

A concern about a breach of this Code is brought to the President. The President may suspend the person from FCA service, and pause any worker assignment, until the Delegate Council decides the matter (14.4). In the spirit of Galatians 6:1, the Council seeks restoration wherever it is possible. Where a child’s or another person’s safety is at risk, safety comes first.

Appendix C: The Questioneer@@appc@@

A leader’s guide. Discovery questions that lead people into the whole Fivefold Alliance by asking, not telling.

How to lead. Ask: read the question aloud, wait, and let people answer in their own words. Nudge: if the room is stuck, ask the “If stuck” question under it; do not give the answer. Confirm: when someone says the idea in the middle column, affirm it, turn to the page shown, then ask the next question. By question 18, the room will have described the whole Fivefold Alliance themselves.