ARTICLE I. NAME AND ORGANIZATION

The name of this organization shall be Covenant Christian Coalition, an international, evangelical, post-denominational coalition of Christians, churches, and associated ministries that are committed to the historical tenets of the Protestant Reformation, biblical inerrancy, and the Gospel. The Covenant Christian Coalition shall be indissoluble and shall not be incorporated under the laws of any nation, state, province, district, municipality, or other territory. For the purpose of this constitution and bylaws, Covenant Christian Coalition shall simply be referred to as "CCC."


ARTICLE II. ORGANIZATION PURPOSE

The purpose of the CCC is to unify all Christians around the world who believe in the Gospel (i.e., the propitiatory death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ), salvation by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, and the God of the Bible. This public, organizational unity is for purposes of evangelism, ministry, political activism, doctrinal education, and obedience to the prayer of Jesus Christ recorded in John 17:20–23.


ARTICLE III. DOCTRINE

Section 1. Covenant
The Covenant is a modern Statement of Faith or creed and is composed of twelve "We believe" statements that articulate the biblical doctrines of the self-existence and perfection of God, the Trinity, the historical reliability of the Bible, the Gospel, salvation through faith apart from works, membership in the true Church established by Christ, and the imminent return of Christ for His Church. Belief in and agreement with the Covenant, either de facto or de jure, is necessary for membership in the CCC.

Section 2. Convictions
The Convictions are a list of seven tenets of doctrine that further articulate and define what is already stated in the Covenant in order to prevent any confusion or manipulation of the Covenant's meaning. These are essential doctrines for every believer and therefore agreement de facto or de jure is necessary for membership in the CCC.

Section 3. Historical Protestantism
The CCC affirms the unquestionable truth of the Five Solas, which are Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, and Soli Deo Gloria.

Section 4. Invisible Church
The CCC affirms the doctrine of a unified body of the elect known only to God. No human denomination can claim to represent all true believers. Since the truly saved are those who have a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, and God alone searches hearts and minds, it is understood that every denomination is composed of both the saved and the unsaved—those with a genuine faith and those falsely claiming to have faith. The true Church encompasses every authentic believer from every denomination, nation, and time period in history. The purpose of the CCC is to bring about greater unity and mission in this body of believers, but the CCC does not claim to have any exhaustive list or count of all true believers. Neither does it claim that all of those counted in any published statistic are truly saved.

Section 5. Moral Positions
The CCC affirms that God alone can define right and wrong and all believers must fully embrace moral and ethical standards in accordance with biblical values and a biblical worldview. For this reason, the CCC will maintain a list of biblical positions on moral and ethical issues and encourage all believers to abide by it.

Section 6. Eschatology
The CCC organization itself affirms premillennialism, dispensationalism, and conditionalism as the proper doctrines of the Parousia, eschaton, and the final fate of the unsaved based on a thorough historical-grammatical exegesis of the Bible and analysis of early church teaching. In contrast to essential Christian beliefs, no early Christian creeds systematically described how the early church understood these doctrines, and for that reason the CCC allows for different eschatological interpretations while encouraging all members and churches to apply a historical-grammatical hermeneutic when studying the Scriptures. However, a future, physical return of Christ, bodily resurrection of the dead, general judgment, and new creation are fundamental components of biblical eschatology and views to the contrary are to be soundly rejected.

Section 7. The Bible
The Bible is the final authority for all matters of life, faith, and doctrine and in its original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic form is completely infallible. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all else (Jer. 17:9) and the understanding of mankind corrupted (1 Cor. 1:20; 3:19), so God's word must inform and ultimately decide all questions of truth and doctrine. The CCC rejects the deuterocanonical books, otherwise known as Apocrypha, because the ancient Jewish canons excluded them, Jesus excludes the time period in which they were written in Luke 11:50–51, no references can be found to them in the New Testament, and early Christians like Jerome fought against their inclusion. However, the Bible mentions and makes allusion to several books that are not in the current Protestant canon such as Jasher, Enoch, and the Wars of the Lord. The true canon begins with Genesis, ends with Revelation, excludes the Apocrypha, and likely includes several of these other referenced books, although it is not clear that the current translations of Jasher, Enoch, and others are accurate translations of the original writings and therefore their authority is in dispute. For this reason, only the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon are considered authoritative and divinely inspired, although the study of Jasher, Enoch, and other books that are explicitly mentioned or referenced in Scripture is not precluded, so long as the studier recognizes their current unverifiable state.


ARTICLE IV. MEMBERSHIP

Section 1. Individuals
Membership in the organization is automatically conferred on each and every Christian who has genuinely placed their faith in Jesus Christ, believing that personal salvation is accomplished exclusively by means of Christ's propitiatory death and physical resurrection and is received as a gift through faith apart from works. Since the genuineness of the faith of a believer is known only to God, for statistical purposes the CCC only acknowledges those Christians who publicly affirm the beliefs outlined in Article III Sections 1 and 2.

Section 2. Churches
An individual church can support the mission of the CCC by signing the Covenant and using the Covenant in lieu of, or supplementary to, an existing Statement of Faith. Signing the Covenant confers organizational membership to that church and gives said church a single seat on the Pastoral Council. Only a senior leader or legitimate representative from the church can sign the Covenant and signing implies full agreement with everything outlined in the Covenant.

Section 3. Denominations
Like individuals, membership is automatically conferred on all denominations whose existing creeds, doctrines, or beliefs comply with Article III Sections 1 and 2.

Section 4. Ministries
The CCC endorses specific ministries that comply with its doctrinal standards and that have a proven ethical and financial track record. A ministry's senior leader or authorized representative can sign the Covenant, which confers membership in the CCC to that ministry. If the ministry is then subsequently endorsed by the CCC, the ministry will be given a single seat on the Pastoral Council.


ARTICLE V. LEADERSHIP

Section 1. Governance
The CCC organization shall be led by a Director in whom is vested final executive authority and a Pastoral Council with which is vested final legislative authority. The Council is composed of a single leader or representative from each church and ministry that has signed the Covenant and voluntarily accepts a seat on said Council. The Council shall not exceed three thousand seats. If the number of requested seats exceeds three thousand then non-participating councillors will be removed with the longest non-participating councillor removed first. Non-participation is determined solely based on whether or not a councillor submitted a vote when a vote was underway. Seats can be voluntarily abandoned with notice given to the CCC Headquarters. The Director shall have an irremovable seat on the Council.

Section 2. Responsibilities
The Director and Pastoral Council are responsible for shepherding and stewarding the organization and ensuring that its mission, doctrines, and responsibilities are maintained, defended, and carried out. The Director shall have final authority to 1. establish any judicial, executive, or administrative positions as are necessary for the organization and appoint persons to, and remove persons from, those positions, 2. set the location of the CCC Headquarters and any satellite offices, 3. maintain and utilize the account of the CCC Headquarters for organizational and ministry purposes, 4. suspend a councillor in accordance with the reasons given in Article V Section 4 (overridable by the Council), 5. confer membership on, or remove membership from, a denomination (overridable by the Council), and 6. perform any judicial, executive, or administrative functions not given to the Pastoral Council. Aside from voting, members of the Pastoral Council act as voluntary ambassadors for the CCC at their respective churches and ministries. The Pastoral Council votes on 1. endorsing or removing endorsements from ministries, 2. removing a councillor for ethical or doctrinal violations, 3. removing membership from a specific church or ministry, 4. conferring membership on, or removing membership from, a denomination, 5. adding or removing reservations on a denomination, 6. adding moral and ethical positions to the CCC's list of positions, 7. funding financial requests submitted by other councillors, 8. sponsoring Council-hosted events, and 9. amending this constitution and bylaws.

Section 3. Voting
A vote is requested when a councillor gives notice to the CCC Headquarters. In effect, the Pastoral Council is always in session whenever a vote is requested. Staff member(s) will prepare the vote and inform all councillors of the impending vote by mail, phone, email, or word of mouth. Upon receipt of the notice, councillors will have exactly one week to respond to the notice with their "Yea," "Nay," or "Abstain" vote in order for their vote to be counted. One week from the receipt of the final notice, the votes will be tabulated and the result published. Staff member(s) will carry out the provisions outlined in the results. All votes will be passed by a simple majority of "Yea" votes, except for amendments to this constitution and bylaws. Amendments will only be passed by a two-thirds majority of "Yea" votes.

Section 4. Qualifications And Violations
The qualifications for a seat on the Pastoral Council will be the same as is found in 1 Timothy 3:1–13 and Titus 1:5–9, that is a male believer having not more than one wife and known for consistency in biblical virtues, family discipline, and obedience to God's word. If a councillor is suspected of violating these qualifications or is suspected of practicing a sin without repentance or is suspected of teaching doctrine in violation of Article III Sections 1 and 2, then the one suspecting shall first confront the councillor one-on-one with the charge in an attempt to admonish and encourage repentance. If the charge is perceived to be minor and the issue reconciled, then the charge will be dropped. If the charge appears to be grave and the suspect unrepentant, then the one who brought the charge will submit notice to the CCC Headquarters for a vote of removal of the suspected councillor. The notice must include both the date that one-on-one reconciliation was attempted and a synopsis of the conversation. The position of Director is an inviolable, lifetime appointment, ended only by death or resignation. Upon resignation, the retiring Director shall appoint a new Director. If the Director dies while in office, the Pastoral Council shall appoint a new Director via simple majority vote.


ARTICLE VI. FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP

Section 1. Nonprofit Status
The CCC shall be a not-for-profit organization and any collected funds shall be reinvested in organizational operations, used to support subsidiary or endorsed ministries, or used for other charitable causes. It is our organizational belief that God is our true and only sovereign and for that reason, and to maintain perpetual compliance with Article I, the CCC shall never file for incorporation as a nonprofit organization, corporation, or otherwise in any form in any territory.

Section 2. Accounting
All collected funds shall be kept within the account of the CCC Headquarters and each individual collection earmarked for its originally intended purpose. The CCC Headquarters will comply with all tax laws for a non-incorporated organization within the nation, state, and municipality in which the office resides in obedience to Matthew 22:21.


ARTICLE VII. AMENDMENTS

Section 1. Amending Process
A vote to amend this constitution and bylaws can be requested at any time by a councillor as outlined in Article V Section 3. When an amendment passes with a two-thirds vote, staff member(s) will append the amendment to the end of Article V, VI, or VII as a new section and will date said amendment with the date that the vote was tabulated. Staff member(s) will then carry out any necessary changes or provisions as outlined in the new amendment.

Section 2. Amending Prohibitions
Articles I–IV may not be amended by adding or removing sections. Article V Sections 1–4, Article VI Sections 1 and 2, and Article VII Sections 1 and 2 may not be removed. Only minor wording changes may be made to these protected Articles and sections, so long as the original intended meaning of the text is preserved. The amending process applies only to what is outlined in this constitution and bylaws. The Covenant and Convictions are separate, immutable documents and may not be amended in any way.

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