Thursday, October 19, 2006
Ok, so I didn’t expect to get a whole lot of questions about these but I have. I’m gonna answer, as best as I can, each of these biblically, unless I find someone else who has spoken to the issue more intelligently than I.
Such is the case with the first item-meaningful church membership. Mark Dever is who has championed this most effectively and biblically. Here is a link to his 9Marks page concerning church membership. You can listen to the sermons or read either way.
http://marks.9marks.org/Mark6
One of the things that bothers me as a soon to be (hopefully) pastor is that it is so easy to join a church.
A person walks down an isle, shakes the pastor’s hand, fills out a card, pastor presents them to the church, church says amen- (in an Italian mafia accent) boughtta-bing-baughta-boom- you’re a member. No evidence given of faithful obedience, nothing.
Here is how Meaningful Membership works. 4-5 classes covering church beliefs and basic doctrines of the faith, church history, denominational organization and the role of the church within that organization, church covenant and organization (incl. leadership) would be covered as well as others if that church felt it was warranted. This is just a sample. It would be similar to a discipleship class for new believers only more in depth.
During the course of these meetings the individual will get to know others, questions about their understanding of the Gospel. A final would be for an interview with the leadership with the church. In a SBC case, their deacon/elder and the pastor would conduct the interview asking them questions about their salvation testimony, why they left their former church, have they ever been disciplined in a church before and why, and to explain the Gospel in 60 seconds (doesn’t have to be deep, but cover the basics and you can help them along if necessary cause this might throw some off).
These are just some of the nuts and bolts of it. Dever has an outstanding book called The Deliberate Church as well as 9 Marks of a Healthy Church.
Strivin for the Upward Call,
Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1:3
Such is the case with the first item-meaningful church membership. Mark Dever is who has championed this most effectively and biblically. Here is a link to his 9Marks page concerning church membership. You can listen to the sermons or read either way.
http://marks.9marks.org/Mark6
One of the things that bothers me as a soon to be (hopefully) pastor is that it is so easy to join a church.
A person walks down an isle, shakes the pastor’s hand, fills out a card, pastor presents them to the church, church says amen- (in an Italian mafia accent) boughtta-bing-baughta-boom- you’re a member. No evidence given of faithful obedience, nothing.
Here is how Meaningful Membership works. 4-5 classes covering church beliefs and basic doctrines of the faith, church history, denominational organization and the role of the church within that organization, church covenant and organization (incl. leadership) would be covered as well as others if that church felt it was warranted. This is just a sample. It would be similar to a discipleship class for new believers only more in depth.
During the course of these meetings the individual will get to know others, questions about their understanding of the Gospel. A final would be for an interview with the leadership with the church. In a SBC case, their deacon/elder and the pastor would conduct the interview asking them questions about their salvation testimony, why they left their former church, have they ever been disciplined in a church before and why, and to explain the Gospel in 60 seconds (doesn’t have to be deep, but cover the basics and you can help them along if necessary cause this might throw some off).
These are just some of the nuts and bolts of it. Dever has an outstanding book called The Deliberate Church as well as 9 Marks of a Healthy Church.
Strivin for the Upward Call,
Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1:3
posted by Aaron L. at 8:44 AM | 
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