pat loughery

“The refusal to grapple with the issue of entrance into the Christian Church is not tolerance; it is betrayal of the gospel which we preach. No one claims that seeking to ensure integrity of membership is not fraught with danger and difficulty, but the answer does not lie inn skirting the problem. The profound meanings of membership need to be rethought.”

– Elizabeth O’Connor, Call to Commitment, p. 25 – regarding Church of the Savior.

This will be a long post, but I hope it is helpful. I am considering the idea of membership in the missional church, looking at two examples that I am aware of, describing the membership requirements we used in church 1.0, and then writing a bit more about what we might try in 2.0 (boy, I’ll be happy when we finally figure out the name of the 2.0 church…)

I recently read the book Mustard Seed vs. McWorld by Tom Sine. One of the interesting things in that book to me was a side-note about Rockridge United Methodist Church in Oakland, California. Rockridge, heavily influenced by Church of the Savior, calls for a yearly commitment to a covenant group. Annually, a member is invited to affirm a commitment to these disciplines:

1. A daily commitment to at least 30 minutes in prayer and Scripture study
2. A commitment to allow the rhythms of life to be dictated by faith instead of the culture, including keeping the Sabbath holy.
3. A commitment to consistent participation in the worship and educational life of the community, “unless prevented.”
4. A commitment to develop and use spiritual gifts, not only in the church but out in the community. They devote one evening a week to be part of a small “mission covenant group.” Then they invest an additional two to four hours a week to conduct ministry with their group.
5. A commitment to manifest, with God’s help, something of the fruit of the Spirit and strive against sin. It is in those covenant groups where believers are both nurtured and held accountable as they are formed into part of God’s new family.
6. A commitment to a form of whole-life stewardship that begins with the tithe and goes up from there. They report, “From this foundation we find God making us more generous. We are becoming aware of the dangers of our society’s consumerism, and we can see how to be better stewards of God’s creation.”

pg. 211

Membership at Church of the Savior is stringent as well. Elizabeth O’Connor commits an early chapter of the above quoted book to COTS’s invitation to membership. It was an annual invitation that a minority of their people pursued, and there was no disappointment if somebody who was a member one year chose not to commit to be a member the next year. But members were required to commit to service, to deep community life, and must have finished coursework in the church’s School of Christian Living, among other things.

The covenant itself, at least in the early days appeared to be this from what I’ve read.

I come today to join a local expression of the Church, which is the body of those on whom the call of God rests to witness to the grace and truth of God.

I recognize that the function of the Church is to glorify God in adoration and sacrificial service, and to be God’s missionary to the world, bearing witness to God’s redeeming grace in Jesus Christ.

I believe as did Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

I unreservedly and with abandon commit my life and destiny to Christ, promising to give Him a practical priority in all the affairs of life. I will seek first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness.

I commit myself, regardless of the expenditures of time, energy, and money to becoming an informed, mature Christian.

I believe that God is the total owner of my life and resources. I give God the throne in relation to the material aspect of my life. God is the owner. I am the ower. Because God is a lavish giver I too shall be lavish and cheerful in my regular gifts.

I will seek to be Christian in all my relations with other persons, with other nations, groups, classes, and races.

I will seek to bring every phase of my life under the Lordship of Christ.

When I move from this place I will join some other expression of the Christian Church.

It is my understanding, though I’m not able to find the reference now, that this covenant also included commitment to a missional assignment and was taken incredibly seriously. Membership was a high, high bar.

There is more good information taken from Gordon Cosby’s book at this link.

Membership at Mt. Si Vineyard

In order to identify ourselves as a non-profit corporation we had to elect a board of directors which approved a set of Articles of Incorporation and Corporate By-Laws. This initiates the process of qualifying for non-profit status with the state of Washington, the Internal Revenue Service and to be able to create a bank account (among other practical details; including qualifying for bulk mailings at reduced rates at the local post office). I took 99% of these two documents form other area Vineyard churches.

Our church’s current by-laws state that the requirements for membership are threefold (this is cut n pasted from our by-laws).
1. The membership of this corporation shall be open to any believing and confessing Christian, who acknowledges and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who is willing to subscribe to the policies of this corporation.
2. A list of active members who attend and give regularly is maintained by the Secretary of the church board.

That’s it. I believe that we passed an addendum along the way on the recommendation of a lawyer friend of mine who said that we should say that the membership list is technically those people who the board in (what’s the term? the best assumptions? there’s a technical term) believes fulfill these requirements.

The membership in our church lays out in two layers: VOting Members == a small group (the board) which makes legal and financial decisions; and Associate Members == the above list, who have voting privileges in case the pastor is under consideration of removal for moral failure etc. Basically the main perk that an Associate Member gets is being able to fire me if I need to be fired.

Now, membership is a tricky, tricky topic. I’d rather not worry about it at all, but membership details are important in the current U. S. environment for at least two reasons: when a corporation is applying for bank loans that loan qualification process includes a look at the committed membership and regular giving budget. The other reason is that there are legal protections that happen for people who are members of a corporation, and there are specific lawsuits around church discipline issues recently which I have no interest in delving into. Bottom line there is unless church membership and the discipline process are very well defined, a church can get into HUGE problems if sued.

But I’ve intentionally de-emphasized membership because I believe that people vote with their feet, and they’ll either commit or not commit on their own.

So one of the things I’m considering is whether membership can, in fact, be a covenanted commitment to the work of the Kingdom. or whether this is simply not practical in our day and age.

Your thoughts (if you’ve actually read this far :-))? Recognizing that membership has both discipleship and legal ramifications, and recognizing that stringent membership also includes a possibility of legalism, what does membership in a missional community mean to you?