OUR FOCUS

Mainstay Fellowship is founded upon four primary anchors to align our vision. These are the lines we tie to:

faith, fellowship, family and future.

faith

We strive to be Bible-centered. The Word of God can, should and will be our source of understanding. Both the Church and man can easily be fallible. As such, neither the Church, nor man can ever have authority over the Scripture.

Our greatest hope in attempting to understand God comes through scripture, without additions to or subtractions from the Bible. The Bible stands as a complete work, written by human hands through divine inspiration.

God is infinite, we are not. Therefore, a complete understanding of God is impossible during our lifetime. This is a beautiful mystery that we can embrace and be curious about together.

Priesthood of the Believer. Because of Christ, there is no mediator or middleman separating us from God. Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us. We have the honor of being heard by God when we pray and the privilege to read and interpret the Bible ourselves in relationship with God.

We are saved by grace through faith of our own free will. No one can choose the faith on our behalf. Grace is the mainstay of our faith, centered on the idea that our deeds, actions and intentions do not have the power to rescue us from our imperfect selves or an imperfect world. We are not God and cannot save ourselves or make ourselves perfect before God. God loved us first and offers all people everywhere the opportunity to accept our limitations and embrace what God freely offers us.

We seek unity in the essentials of faith and charity in the multitude of traditions that may have shaped our individual experiences. For any professioning Christian, far more unites us than separates us when it comes to the big ideas of scripture. Concepts such as the Apostle's Creed serve as template for what fosters unity within in the church that trancend beyond the differences found amongst countless different denominations and chuch structures. We believe that on topics such as baptism, communion and other "non-essentials", there is always room for discussion and respect across varying understandings of these traditions.

fellowship

True hospitality demands acceptance. We can only act as a safe space for the people of Billund and beyond when we are welcoming to all. Diverse circumstances and stories have brought us together and we have an opportunity to converge.

Our multigenerational and multicultural fabric is one our greatest assets. The diversity in how our people have experienced the Christian faith in the context of their lives is a powerful tool of perspective that can make us all better while pointing to the One who made us all.

There is room for all. We embrace the reality that every person brings with them a set of diverse influences that have shaped their relationship to faith. To us, this is beautiful. We can use these differences to understand and encourage one another while also learning more about ourselves and about Jesus.

Therefore, all things begin from a posture of welcome. We have a social responsibility to seek to understand what our place in Billund is and how we can realize it.

Sharing life means we allow space for all its seasons. We come as they are, on good days and bad days, in seasons of strength, weakness, joy and doubt alike. Prayer, worship, study, communion, creativity and food are all practical parts of what we share together.

Fellowship is also an opportunity for discipleship. A focus on small groups, bible studies and accountability practices offer us the chance to grow in spiritual disciplines beyond our larger gatherings.

family

Family takes many forms and every family is important. We want to support the health of the family unit at home, in every stage of life, regardless of whether you are single, in partnership, or have childen. Not everyone has a worldly family, but we believe in the divine family of fellow believers. We want to live this out.

While we hope to be a source of encouragement to the individual home, we also hope for our group to similarly represent a family. We recognize that family can be a complicated word for many, not universally representing security, safety and trust for every individual. Therefore, we want to take seriously, the role and responsibility of our group to represent a chosen family.

We want to proudly raise up and build a new generation of believers. We want to empower and support those who are called to be parents.

We want to unlock opportunities for everyone to lead, inspire and foster young people through all the varying seasons of life.

All children are inherently vulnerable. In many ways, before a certain age, attendance can feel compulsory to a child when their parents or guardians choose for them to attend. We want to treat children gently in this reality. We seek to provide a source on truth, patience, encouragement, friendship and exposure to the fundamentals about who God is and how we are loved.

Children are curious about themselves, about one another and about God. We want to provide space for all children to grow into what God imagines, meaning the responsibility to model good behavior as adults matters greatly to us. We see those in contact with our children as called to the highest standard.

future

Missions represent a commitment to the experiencing of Christ’s love by those around us. We collectively want to invest in society's future by sharing the same kindness that God first offered us.

Denmark’s history, culture and complex relationship with belief make it an abundant place of beauty and opportunity. Jesus loves Denmark and its people are hungry for a profound hope that we believe can be found in Christ.

For internationals and foreigners, our group should always strive to be a soft place to land. For those who have left their countries, families and communities behind, our goal should be to provide a source of stability, strength, welcome and belonging.

We rely on the English language not as an assumed de facto, but as a means to create a space that can be commonly shared by as many as possible from around the world.

Denmark needs Jesus the same as every other place and people. Our identity as a place for Danes and internationals alike allows us to be specially suited to local outreach. Our group strives to be a safe harbor for immigrants, but each international also brings their unique perspectives that offer the chance for native Danes to see and experience Jesus in a new or unexpected way.

We want to reach more than solely couples and families with children. The challenges faced by singles are equally our concern as to any other.