Membership | Covenant Reformed (PCA)

Membership

Church membership is one of the more important aspects of maintaining and protecting a healthy Christian life. There are no lone ranger Christians … at least not healthy and surviving ones.

Acts 2:41 ‘So the people who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.’

American Christianity has devolved into generating the commodity of personalized worship experiences. You enter a theater complex to perform and be pleased, but you are entirely free from any engrafting into the community. There are no commitments in either direction; you to them, or them to you.

Is this biblical and what God wants? Is this what our souls need for the pilgrim life? At Covenant Reformed, we believe this gospel-lite, community-lite, approach to Christ and his body will only offer a cotton candy gospel. It will tickle your tastebuds, but it will not endure, and you will desperately long for substance during the varied seasons of life.

At Covenant Reformed, we want to be a biblical community modeled on the normative and prescriptive practices of God’s word. Yes, we think the Bible is still relevant and authoritative. Therefore, we believe in and practice church membership because Christ died to save sinners and to unite a community to receive his grace, help, and protection (Eph 2:19–22).

Being a Christian is more than being a pew-slider. There is more for you in Christ and his body than merely slipping in, grabbing a bulletin, and sliding out. So, come and join Covenant Reformed to partake of a biblically guided community seeking to know and enjoy Christ.

Why we practice church Membership:

Prescribed

o Christ and the New Testament prescribe and display commitment takes place in the church community. In addition to Acts 2:41, nearly all the New Testament letters are written to a church: Rom 1:7 ‘to those in Rome called saints’; Gal 1:2 ‘to the church in Galatia’; 1 Peter 1:1 ‘to the elect exiles in Pontus, Galatia, etc.’; Revelation 1:4 ‘to the seven churches that are in Asia’.

Practical

o Church is the primary avenue of Christ nourishing us and us glorifying him

o Church membership is for practical and beneficial obedience

Eph 4:3-4 ‘Zealous to maintain the unity of the Spirit In the Bond of Peace. For there is one body and one Spirit …’

Protection

o Church community is where Christians flourish and receive more of Christ

Ephesians 3:18 ‘may have the strength to comprehend together with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and the depth’ of the love of Christ
Hebrews 10:24-25 ‘to stir one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another'

o How can one comprehend together with and be zealous together for Christ if there is no community togetherness? Christ has a body for you to be united for your protection.

Preservation

o Gal 6:1 tells us that sinners are pruned and restored by the help of the community

o Like Acts 2:42, 1 Timothy 4:13 tells us what the church is devoted to growing by giving ‘attention to the public reading, preaching, and teaching’ of the scriptures

o Church membership is the commitment to growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ as Peter exhorts (2 Peter 3:18)

Personal Belonging

o Commitment from Christ and to Christ includes a commitment to his body

o Col 1:18 ‘Christ is the head of the body, the church’ (cf. Eph 4:12; Col 1:24)

o The whole Old Testament attests to the importance of the covenant community

o Read 1 Corinthians 12 a few times. Together we are united, belong, and have essential qualities to contribute to make the one functioning body.

o The church body is Col 2:2 ‘knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance’ (cf. Col 2:19; Eph 4:4)