Membership at Christ Church

All are welcome to attend and participate in the ministries of Christ Church.

All, regardless of membership, are invited to receive the Lord’s Supper and receive Holy Baptism.

For those who wish to make a deeper commitment to Christ Church, membership is a significant next step.

The prerequisite for membership at Christ Church is baptism and a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  There are two categories within the membership of Christ Church:  Baptized Members and Professing Members.

Baptized Members

Include all baptized people who have been baptized either at Christ Church or another Christian congregation but have not professed their faith.

Professing Members

Include all baptized people who have come into membership by profession of faith, profession of faith through baptism, or by transfer from other churches.

The vows membership at Christ Church will include the following questions:

Do you believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Do you confess Jesus Christ as Savior, put your whole trust in His grace, and promise to serve Him as your Lord?

Do you receive and profess the Christian faith as contained in the Scriptures?

Do you promise, according to the grace given to you, to keep God’s holy will and commandments and walk in the same all the days of your life as a faithful member of Christ’s holy church?

Will you be loyal to Jesus through Christ Church and do all in your power to strengthen its ministries through your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness as Jesus’ representative in the world?

Expectations of people who are professing members

At Christ Church, we believe membership is grounded in the earliest days of the church as described in Acts 2:42 where that first congregation of Jesus followers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer” (Acts 2:42 – NLT)

Prayer – In James 5:16, the brother of Jesus wrote, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”  As members of Christ Church, we are called to pray for each other, and through our intercession, we believe the Spirit forges inseparable connections between each of us.

Worship – We expect our members to gather weekly for worship, which is our time set aside each week to praise God with one voice, receive the message that the Lord has provided through the preacher and worship leaders, and to connect with others who are members of the church so that our Christian community will deepen.  As the Bible says in Hebrews: “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Spiritual Growth – Our purpose as a congregation is to make disciples who make disciples.  We expect our members will actively engage in spiritual growth activities.  Because we believe spiritual growth occurs best in circles rather than rows, we offer Sunday School classes, small groups, and Bible study groups that meet every day of the week.  It is these groups that we experience loving accountability with one another and live into the biblical truth that iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17).

Service – As members of the church, each of us are called to use the gifts and graces God has given us to serve Him and others.  This includes serving on committees or ministry teams, greeting teams, local and international mission teams, and in any of the plethora of volunteer opportunities that exist within our congregation.  Through our service, we make Jesus known to others, particularly the least, the last, and the lost.  As Peter said, “Each one should use whatever gift he or she has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10).

Financial Support – While God equips His servants to engage in the ministry to which He calls them, God has also given each of us resources that He invites us to deploy so that the church and those ministries can be undergirded financially.  The benchmark that the Bible has set for our giving is the tithe (10%).  We recognize that it is difficult for people who have no history of giving to immediately start tithing.  Therefore, we believe a faithful response to giving is to give a percentage of income to the church, and as the Lord directs, increase that percentage year to year, thus growing in giving toward a tithe.  When we faithfully give, God does wonders with our gifts.  As God said through the prophet Malachi said, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house.  Test Me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (Malachi 3:10).