"Return to the Lord" Vienna

www.uzh.at/english

Ecumenical Covenant Community
"Umkehr zum Herrn"

Charta of the Return to the Lord Community

God, the Lord of history, offered a covenant with us. We have stepped into this covenant in order to allow God to bring us together as a committed community. We acknowledge that our roots are in the Charismatic Renewal and know that this covenant–life is only possible when we live our lives by the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.

As a fellowship of disciples, we want to love our Lord from the depths of our heart, with our mind, emotions and with all our strength.  

• We treasure our daily prayer and community worship.

• We want to draw closer to our Lord, get to know Him better, understand His will and  be lead by Him in His ways.

• We want to measure our lives and faith according to the Holy Scriptures.

• We trust the leading of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives and practice the gifts of the spirit.
  
• We accept ourselves as we are even in our need of healing. We arrange our lives in such a way that we make ourselves available to God and men. 

As a community of brothers and sisters we pledge ourselves, as one family, to love the brothers and sisters as in a family.  

• We respect and honor the dignity and the special characteristics of each individual.

• We help carry the burdens of life with each other.

• We serve each other with our gifts.

• We protect the community by uplifting and encouraging a style of communication with each other by carefully working through conflicts.

• We are honest and sincere with each other.

As a committed community, we pledge to live a mutual life style according to biblical example. We try to do this with as few regulations as necessary and with as much freedom as possible.  

• Because we are in need of common vision and ideals we deal with the teachings and orientate ourselves accordingly.

• Because we are a family- we live in intensive sharing with a group of brothers and sisters in Christ.

• Because we have the a mutual calling we take on responsibility for concrete ministries in the community life, as well as building God’s Kingdom.

• Because we carry financial responsibility for God’s Kingdom, we pay our tithes and give generously.

• To protect the unity of the fellowship, we listen to what God is speaking to the community and submit to those brothers and sisters, who have been entrusted for the pastoral care of the community life.

As an ecumenical community we have brothers and sister from different denominations who serve faithfully their own churches; through our mutual life together, we want to set a sign for the building of unity towards the future.  

•  We want to take into consideration, the fact, that there is still disunity among our churches and we therefore hold back the forms and symbols of the complete unity among us. We want to work for the complete unity of the whole body of Christ. 
  

As a living community, through our life style and mutual consideration, we want to be a home for men, women, children, adults, single men and women, those living in celibacy, families and for the healthy and sick people.  

• We accept the differences of origin, occupation, calling and the way of life and include these differences in our lives together.
  

• In various life situations, we try to live our Christian lifestyle in our daily lives: as singles, in families, in communes and in the neighborhoods.
  

• As a community among communities, we see each other as part of a “network” nationally and internationally. Together with other communities, churches and mission societies, we take the responsibility for the renewal and revival of Christianity and for the expanding of God’s Kingdom.

As an evangelistic community, we take part in the fulfilling of the Great Commandment of Jesus. We want to preach the gospel. We want to lead people to conversion and into discipleship. We want to demonstrate God’s Kingdom also through signs of God’s authority and through the deeds of love.

As a prophetic community we want to be a “city on the hill”. We want to set signals that challenge the people and the society to return to God. We proclaim that Jesus is Lord over every area in our life and our society- we promote the development of a Christian culture. 

As an apostolic community, we support with all our strength, the building of committed communities of similar values so that these communities are stable enough to work on their own for the Kingdom of God .

"Return to the Lord" 
Vienna, Austria 

"Umkehr zum Herrn"
in Vienna is a charismatic  ecumentical community, committed to a life of personal discipleship and working towards Christian renewal and unity within the Body of Christ.