Read This First@@first@@

Volume One explains the Covenant. Volume Two explains how the churches decide together. Both describe a body that has not yet met. This booklet is the day it first meets.

It is written for the founder, who leads the meeting, and for every pastor who will sign. It has three parts: what to prepare, the meeting itself with words to say, and the thirty days after. The last pages are the Founding Record, which every founding church signs and keeps.

Nothing here is a new rule. Each step comes from the Covenant (Form J-2), Volume One or Volume Two, and says which. The words marked SAY are suggestions. Change them freely; keep their meaning.

Version: (). Copyright © 2026 Apostle Anderson. All rights reserved. Churches of The Fivefold Church Alliance may use and copy this booklet for their own FCA work. Publisher: TeleChurch Live. Self-published by Lighted Candle Church Inc., Atlanta, Georgia. This booklet is not legal advice.

Part I. Before the Day

1. What the Founding Meeting Does

2. What to Prepare

Part II. The Meeting

3. The Order of the Meeting

4. The Covenant Is Signed

5. The Council Is Seated and Decides

Part III. After the Day

6. The First Thirty Days

The Founding Record

PART I OF IIIBefore the Day@@p1@@

CHAPTER 1 · BEFORE THE DAY

What the Founding Meeting Does@@ch1@@

A covenant is not founded by a book. It is founded when churches stand in one room and make the same promise to each other. Everything before that day is preparation, and everything after it is keeping the promise.

One gathering, four things. The churches sign the Covenant. Their delegates are seated as the Council. The Council confirms and commissions. And the work begins.

1.1Four Things Happen

Three things already exist by this day: Headquarters, the Chairperson, and the leaders who have agreed to serve as officers. This meeting adds the fourth: the delegates, seated as the Council.

The Covenant is signed. Each founding church signs Form J-2, and the others receive it.
The founder takes the chair. The founder is seated as Chairperson, and declares himself bound by the same Covenant (Volume Two, 3.3).
The Council is seated. Each church names who holds its seat. From that moment the churches decide together, one church, one vote.
The Council makes its first decisions: it confirms the officers, sets each church’s starting state, and agrees when it will meet again.

1.2Who Founds

The founding churches are the churches whose pastors have heard the introduction, read Volume One, and answered yes. Headquarters is already there: it was born before this meeting, not chosen at it (Volume One, 3.3). At least three churches are needed, so that the Council can decide by a majority.

1.3What the Founding Meeting Does Not Do

It does not decide money. The Covenant asks no dues. The Financial Addendum is a later conversation, for the Council to take up when it is ready.
It does not create an organization over the churches. Each church leaves as independent as it came.
It does not register a legal body. If the Council later wishes to register one, it should take professional advice first.

CHAPTER 2 · BEFORE THE DAY

What to Prepare@@ch2@@

A founding meeting goes well when nothing in it is a surprise. Every pastor should know before the day what they will sign, who will sit for their church, and what the Council will be asked to decide.

2.1The Founder, Beforehand

Send each pastor The Vision at least fourteen days before the day, the notice a Council meeting needs. Its back page carries scan codes for both books, this booklet, and the Covenant with every form.
Send the written notice (Form C-3) with the date, the place and the list of first decisions in Chapter 5.
Complete Form H-1, which records how Headquarters was declared, so that the churches can read it before they sign.
Have each leader who has agreed to serve as an officer complete Form C-1.
Name one person to keep the record of the day until a Secretary is confirmed.

2.2Each Church, and Its Starter Pack

Each church is handed a Starter Pack in the room, holding every form below. Each form says at the bottom whether it is turned in or kept.

Come ready with	Form	Why
The application	J-1	Tells the others who the church is, what it needs and what it can give.
The Covenant, read but not yet signed	J-2	It is signed in the room, in front of the others.
A church officer	J-2	The Covenant is signed by the pastor and one officer of the church.
The delegate, named	D-1, D-2	The delegate is appointed and signs the Code of Conduct.
References or a background check for the delegate	D-3 or D-4	Safe to send: no one serves in another church without them.
Who holds the church’s seat	D-5	Only if the seat holder is not the delegate.
The start time it would like	J-3	So the service time blocks can be assigned.

2.3The Room

One table at the front for signing. The churches seated together, each with its pastor, its officer and its delegate. A Starter Pack for every church, which holds the Covenant twice: one copy for the church and one for the FCA Secretary. A Handout for every person. One copy of the Founding Record at the back of this booklet. Pens that will not smudge.

The founding meeting is held at Headquarters, the place where the churches will gather, train and hold Council.

PART II OF IIIThe Meeting@@p2@@

CHAPTER 3 · THE MEETING

The Order of the Meeting@@ch3@@

The meeting takes about two hours. The founder leads all of it: first as the one who called the churches together, and from step 6 as their Chairperson.

#	Step	What happens	Minutes
1	Prayer and Scripture	Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 and Ephesians 4:11–12 are read aloud.	10
2	Why we are here	The founder says in a few minutes what the Covenant is and is not.	15
3	The roll of founding churches	Each pastor names the church and why it has come.	10
4	The Covenant is read	Part 4, “What none of us may do to another”, is read aloud in full.	10
5	The Covenant is signed	Church by church, at the table.	15
6	The founder takes the chair	The founder declares himself bound, and is seated as Chairperson.	5
7	The Council is seated	Each church names its seat holder. The Council can now decide.	10
8	The first decisions	The officers confirmed, each church’s state, the next meeting.	30
9	The officers are commissioned	The charge, the answer, and prayer.	10
10	The Founding Record is signed	Every church signs. Closing prayer.	5

3.1Opening Words

SAYWe have not come to start an organization. We have come to make a promise. The churches in this room are already one Body, because Christ made us so. Today we agree to live like it.

SAYNo church here is joining something that sits over it. Each of us makes a promise to the church beside us, and receives the same promise back. Your name, your pastor, your members, your decisions, your money and your property stay your own.

SAYSome of us come strong, some steady, and some in need. A season is never a rank.

CHAPTER 4 · THE MEETING

The Covenant Is Signed@@ch4@@

This is the heart of the day. Take it slowly. Every church should hear every other church make the same promise it is about to make.

4.1The Reading

Before anyone signs, the founder reads aloud the six things no church, no officer and no Headquarters may ever do to another (the Covenant, part 4). These are the protection of every church in the room, and no vote may ever remove them (Volume Two, 8.2).

SAYBefore you sign, hear what no one in this Covenant may ever do to your church. If any of us breaks one of these, it is my work as Chairperson to say so and to send the matter back.

4.2The Signing

The founder calls the churches forward one at a time, in the order of the alphabet, so that no order of honor is implied.
The founder asks the pastor the question below, and the pastor answers.
The pastor and the church officer sign both copies of the Covenant.
The founder signs “Received for the Fivefold Alliance”, and the room answers, “We receive you.”
The founder’s own church signs in its turn, like every other.

ASKPastor, does your church enter this Covenant freely, to give what it can and to receive what it needs, and to keep these promises to the churches beside it?

ANSWERWe do, with God’s help.

4.3The Founder Takes the Chair

When every church has signed, the founder is seated as Chairperson. He does not take the seat by vote: Volume Two (3.3) gives it to the founder until he lays it down. But he takes it in front of the churches, and binds himself in their hearing.

SAYI take the Chairperson’s seat as the servant of this Covenant, not its owner. I am bound by it as you are. I will preside, I will call you together, and when a decision breaks the Covenant I will say so in writing and send it back to you. I will not vote. I will not handle money. I will not reach inside any church. And if I break this Covenant, three-quarters of you may set my act aside.

From this moment the founder leads the meeting as Chairperson, and the churches decide.

CHAPTER 5 · THE MEETING

The Council Is Seated and Decides@@ch5@@

Now the churches stop being guests of the founder and become a Council. Each holds one seat and one vote, whatever its size or its season.

What the room becomes. The Council decides, the President and officers carry out, Headquarters hosts, and the Chairperson keeps the balance.

5.1Seating the Council

The Chairperson calls each church. Its pastor names who holds its seat: normally the delegate (Form D-1), or another person (Form D-5). The recorder writes each name on the Founding Record. The Chairperson then declares how many churches are present and that the Council can decide.

5.2The First Decisions

#	Decision	How it is made	Form
1	Headquarters is recognized	Not voted. The Chairperson reads the declaration (Form H-1). Each church has recognized Headquarters by signing the Covenant.	H-1
2	The President is confirmed	Already serving since the birth. More than half, by written ballot. Not from the Headquarters church.	C-1, C-2
3	The Vice President, the Secretary and the Planning Department Secretary are confirmed	Leaders of the founding churches who agreed to serve. More than half each, by written ballot. No church holds more than one office unless there are too few churches to fill them.	C-1, C-2
4	Each church’s starting state	More than half. Each church says what it believes its season is, then the others decide. A church does not vote on its own state.	G-2
5	How often the Council meets	More than half. Monthly is recommended for the first year.	C-6
6	The date of the next meeting	Agreed in the room.	C-3

Headquarters is read out first, because the President may not come from it. If no one has agreed to serve in an office, it is left empty until the next meeting, and the President names a member in good standing to carry the work until then. While the Fivefold Alliance is small, one person may hold two offices, but never President together with Secretary.

Service time blocks are not voted. Headquarters holds 10:30 to 12:00. Every church being helped takes 12:30. A steady or helping church says the block it would like. The Planning Department Secretary assigns them afterward for the President’s approval (Form J-3).

5.3The Commissioning

The officers confirmed stand together. The Chairperson reads the charge from Form C-2, each officer answers and signs, and their own pastors lay hands on them and pray. Their two-year terms begin that day.

SAYYou are commissioned to carry out what these churches decide together. You are servants of the Covenant, not rulers of the churches. You hold no vote. Go around no pastor. Keep honest records. And lay this office down when your term ends.

5.4The Close

Every pastor and seat holder signs the Founding Record. The Chairperson and the new Secretary sign last. The meeting ends in prayer for the church in the room that is in the greatest need, by name.

PART III OF IIIAfter the Day@@p3@@

CHAPTER 6 · AFTER THE DAY

The First Thirty Days@@ch6@@

A covenant signed and then left alone becomes a certificate on a wall. The first month is when it becomes a way of life.

Within	Who	Does what
7 days	Secretary	Gives every church its signed Covenant and a copy of the Founding Record. Opens the membership record.
14 days	Secretary	Sends the minutes of the founding meeting to every church (Form C-6).
14 days	Planning Department Secretary	Assigns each church its service time block for the President’s approval (Form J-3). A church has six months to move its service.
The first Sunday	Each church	Its delegate is stationed at Headquarters. Membership begins on that day.
30 days	Each pastor	Sends the first Request for Help (Form W-1), or says what the church can send.
30 days	Vice President	Matches the first request to a worker, and brings it to the President (Form W-2).
30 days	Headquarters	Announces its first training, free to every church.
The next meeting	The Council	Hears the first reports, and decides where the first help is sent.

6.1The First Sign That It Is Working

The measure of the first month is simple: has one church sent one person to help another, freely, with both pastors’ signatures on the page? When that has happened once, the Covenant is alive.

6.2Telling the Congregations

On the Sunday after the founding meeting, each pastor tells the church what was signed and why, and introduces the delegate. The standalone teaching, The Fivefold Ministry and the Awakening of the Body, is made for the weeks that follow, so that the members understand they are not being asked to watch the Covenant but to take part in it.

The Founding Record@@rec@@

On this day the churches named below entered the Covenant of The Fivefold Church Alliance, a covenant among churches to live as the one Body they already are. Each signed the Covenant (Form J-2). Each remains its own church.

Date Place

Church	Pastor (signature)	Seat holder (signature)	Starting state	Block asked

The founder took the Chairperson’s seat and declared himself bound by the Covenant.

Headquarters Declared on

President of (church)

Vice President of (church)

Secretary of (church)

Planning Department Secretary of (church)

The Council will meet Next meeting

Chairperson Secretary

Headquarters was declared, not voted. The President does not come from the Headquarters church. This record is kept by the FCA Secretary, and a copy is given to every founding church.

The Founding Meeting