Church Membership
Membership in a local church involves commitment to worship the Lord corporately, edifying brothers and sisters through mutual exhortation and service, cooperating in mission, and holding each other accountable to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord as a witness to the truth of Christ in the world.
At The Living Church, we believe that covenant church membership is a wise and helpful path for those who desire to walk together in obedience to the Lord and in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:27). This becomes evident when we consider how the New Testament teaching on church government and church discipline relate to mutual accountability and thus to the concept of covenant membership.
The New Testament teaching about church government and church discipline would be meaningless if some form of commitment to mutual accountability in a body of believers were not expected.
Our membership process is five-fold:
1) Connect by attending church services
2) Believe by having a saving faith in Jesus as God and Savior
3) Learn by attending our Fall and Spring New Members class on Wednesday nights. The class lasts six weeks and will cover the book "I Am a Church Member" by Thom Rainer. The chapters in this book are as follows:
Week One - I Will Be a Functioning Church Member
Week Two - I Will Be a Unifying Church Member
Week Three - I Will Not Let My Church Be About My Preferences and Desires
Week Four - I Will Pray for My Church Leaders
Week Five - I Will Lead My Family to Be Healthy Church Members
Week Six - I Will Treasure Church Membership as a Gift
We offer a Membership Class to help you understand fully who we are as a church, what we believe, what we expect of our members, and how we operate. It’s also a great chance to meet others and get to know your leaders. We believe it’s important to know these things so that you can make an informed decision about membership.
4) Commit - The Living Church members share in their commitment to the church by agreeing to our membership covenant and joyfully living in community, serving the church, and giving faithfully.
5) Install - The new members who agree to the covenant membership will be officially installed as members before the congregation and will attend our church membership fellowship lunch.