Covenant Membership

What is Covenant Membership?

A church is not primarily an event to attend, though gathering together is an essential aspect of what it means to be a church. A church is not primarily a building, though many churches own or lease buildings in which to hold their gatherings. A church is primarily a people to belong to. We call those who belong to this church Covenant Members.

The first paragraph of the preamble to our Membership Covenant reads, “The local church is God’s primary instrument in the world today. All Christians are united in the Lord’s universal church, but the New Testament assumes every believer will express their membership in the universal church through membership in a particular local church. (Matthew 28:18–20; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 12:21–27)”

We get the language of membership, in part, from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians where he describes the church as the body of Christ and each Christian is a member of that body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Corinthians 12:21–27, ESV)

Churches throughout history have given tangible expression of their membership to Christ and to one another through a formal membership process. We see this impulse as early as the first century. The Didache, arguably written as early as 50-70 AD, well within the lifetime of the apostles, was written as a sort of church planting handbook. In it there are indicators of a formal instruction of prospective members on the basics of the Christian life, followed by an official announcement to the church community, followed by a period of fasting by the candidate. Then, the candidate was to be baptized as a formal mark of entrance into the covenant community. Membership processes have a substantial basis in church history.

The term “covenant” simply means “formal agreement,” “solemn promise,” or “public commitment” between two or more parties. We see several examples of covenants throughout the Scriptures. And we see covenants still in our culture today. The prime example is marriage, which is a covenant between one man and one woman for life.

When we describe church membership as a “covenant commitment” to a local community of believers, we are simply saying that by becoming a member of a particular church, we are not simply entering into rights and privileges, but we are assuming certain responsibilities and obligations.

So, as our preamble continues, “As a matter of prudence, we formalize and solemnize this commitment to membership with one another through the use of a Membership Covenant. This Membership Covenant represents a voluntary commitment to God and one another regarding how we will live out our Christian discipleship. (1 Samuel 18:3; Psalm 89:3, 34)”