Steve Atkerson
House Churches (Primarily in the US)
Steve Atkerson is president (and one of the founders) of the New Testament Reformation Fellowship (www.NTRF.org). NTRF is focused on helping reform today’s church with New Testament church practices.
They have taken to heart the evangelical belief that the Bible is our final authority, not only in matters of faith, but also in matters of practice. They see theological significance in the distinctive practices of the apostolic church.
NTRF advocates orthodox, historic Christianity poured into the wineskin of New Testament church practice (as established by the twelve apostles and found on the pages of Scripture). They argue strongly from Scripture for such things as living room sized churches, the Lord’s Supper as an actual fellowship meal, elder led congregational consensus, and participatory church meetings.
Steve lives in Georgia (Southeastern USA) with his wife, Sandra. They have three children, two still at home and one married. Steve graduated from Georgia Tech and worked in industrial electronics before heading off to seminary. After receiving a Master of Divinity degree from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, he served on the pastoral staff of a Southern Baptist Church. After seven years in the traditional pastorate, he resigned to begin working with churches that desire to follow apostolic traditions in their church practice. Since 1990 he has traveled and taught as the Lord opens doors of opportunity. Steve is an elder at a local house church, edited Toward A House Church Theology, authored both The Practice of the Early Church: A Theological Workbook and The Equipping Manual, and is editor of and a contributing author to both Ekklesia: To The Roots of Biblical House Church Life and House Church: Simple, Strategic, Scriptural.
Steve can be reached through the “contact us” feature at www.NTRF.org
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Why build spiritual bridges?
Most of us have been exposed to the huge ecumenical push of recent decades, and have also seen that this push seems headed towards creating a dumbed down oneness that may eventually include holding hands with the Pope, moderate Islam and the New Age and saying that we “all worship the same God”. So it’s easy for us to react against it and become more isolationist and protective than ever. But, in the end this only results in the true testimony being weakened, while the tares are left to take over. It seems that the wheat, God’s people, need more than ever at this time to build bridges with one another, to learn from one another, to strengthen one another, and to be together a clear New Testament witness to this generation.
Who are the ambassadors in this section?
Each of the “ambassadors” listed in this section of the website have accepted the invitation to represent “their people” (group / denomination / etc), and to be a point of contact for answering questions, helping people find other spiritually sound representatives of “their people” in various locations, and being available to speak in churches or other such meetings of denominational and non-denominational groups. We hope this will provide just one practical means of opening doors between different parts of the body of Christ. Note that these people are not necessarily formal denominational representatives and therefore claim no special endorsement other than their willingness to build bridges and communicate.