Covenant Membership
In Acts 2:46-47, we see a picture of corporate spiritual vitality in the Church. They are together in the temple, in one another’s homes and accountable for each other’s lives. From the start, this has been the normal pattern for the Church to worship together. To belong to the Head of the Church, Christ, means being a member of Christ’s body. What does the New Testament teach about church membership? What is a church covenant? What does TCF commit to and expect from each other? These are all excellent questions!
Here we hope to address the following issues:
- What does the New Testament teach about church membership?
- The implications of church government and church discipline.
- The Trinity Christian Fellowship Family Covenant
- What is the goal of church membership?
- How does church discipline relate to church membership?
What does the New Testament teach about church membership?
At the very heart of the concept of “church membership” is the believe that membership in a local church involves the commitment to worship corporately , edifying brothers and sisters through mutual exhortation and service, cooperating in mission, and holding each other accountable to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord as a witness to the truth of Christ in the world.
We believe that covenant church membership is a wise and helpful path for those who desire to walk together in obedience to the Lord and in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil. 1:27). This becomes evident when we consider how the New Testament teaching on church government and church discipline relate to mutual accountability and thus to the concept of covenant membership.
The New Testament teaching about church government and church discipline would be meaningless if some form of commitment to mutual accountability in a body of believers were not only assumed but also expected.
Church Government Implies a Membership of Accountability
The New Testament teaches that the local church has elders or overseers who have special responsibility to equip (Eph. 4:11) and care for (Acts 20:28) and teach (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9) the members. The New Testament teaches that the members are to respect (1 Thess. 5:12f.) and be submissive to (Heb. 13:17) these leaders, but not to treat them as infallible (1 Tim. 5:20) or in the place of Christ (Matt. 23:8-12). They are servants, not masters (Luke 22:26), and their leadership comes from their divine call to serve (Acts 20:28), not from their desire to rule. Their leadership does not replace the congregation of believers as the body with final authority under the Lord (Matt. 18:17; 1 Cor. 5:4; Acts 6:3; 15:22).
This whole picture of called leaders, and people who affirm that leadership, assumes the existence of “church membership” that consists in a corporate life of mutual accountability. Leadership and submission have no meaning where there is no commitment to accountability (that is, to membership).
Church Discipline Implies a Membership of Accountability
Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:15-17).
What this implies is that Christians are to be members of churches where they are held accountable to walk in a way that pleases the Lord. If there were no relationship of accountability, it would be meaningless to “tell it to the church,” because the offending person would simply say, “That church has no jurisdiction over me.”
The same thing is implied in 1 Corinthians 5. A man in the church is living in blatant immorality and is proudly unrepentant (v. 2). Paul writes, “Let him who has done this be removed from among you” (v. 2). He goes on to say, “When you are assembled . . . you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (vv. 4-5).
None of this would be feasible if the immoral man could simply say, “I am not accountable to you. I can do what I please. You have no authority or rights over me.” In other words, the teaching of the New Testament on church discipline implies that church membership (involving mutual accountability among the members) is the will of God for all Christians.
The Church Covenant
The biblical call for a membership of mutual accountability in a local body of believers suggests the need for believers to make a covenant with one another. This is simply implied in agreeing to hold each other accountable to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord.
The church covenant is a written summary of biblical practice that a church agrees should be the basis of its accountability. The covenant allows for freedom of conscience in areas where the Bible is not definite in its guidance. The covenant focuses on principles, especially as they relate to our corporate life together.
What does TCF commit to and expect from each other?
The following is the Trinity Christian Fellowship Family Covenant that expresses what we believe the Bible calls members to commit to and covenant towards:
Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord, Savior, and supreme Treasure of our lives, and, on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God, angels and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.
We covenant to seek to know and follow our Savior and to live as Jesus lived taking his commands seriously (Matt. 4:19; 8:22; 16:24; Luke 9:23; John 10; 12:26; 17:3; 21:19; Phil. 3:7-10).
We covenant to faithfully attend the church’s worship gatherings (Acts 2:42; Heb. 10:25).
We covenant to diligently guard the truth, upholding the standard of sound words recorded in Scripture (1 Tim. 3:15; 6:3-4, 20; 2 Tim. 1:13-14; 2:14-15, 24-26; 4:3-4).
We covenant to wholeheartedly support, love, and care for the church’s ministries and family, offering:
Our prayers – regular intercession (2 Cor. 13:9; Eph. 1:15-20; 3:14-21; 6:18; Phil. 1:3-6, 9-11; Col. 1:3-12; 4:2-6; 1 Thess. 1:2-4; 5:17; 1 Pet. 1:22).
Our finances – regular tithes and offerings (Lev. 27:30; Mal. 3:10; Matt. 23:23; Acts 2:43-45; 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 9:6-7; 1 Tim. 5:17-18).
Our service – regular participation (Eph. 4:11-16; Titus 2:11-14; Heb. 10:24; 1 Peter 2:5, 9, 12; 4:10; Jude 17-21; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; 1 Cor. 12:4-11, 25-26).
We covenant to boldly witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, living a transformed life and sharing the gospel as God gives opportunity (Matt. 4:19; 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 5:42; 1 Pet. 3:15).
We covenant to actively pursue personal holiness before God, loving others as Christ has loved us (2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 4:7; 1 Pet 1:15-16; 1 John. 3:3; John 13:34-35).
We covenant to diligently promote the unity of the church, being a peacemaker with all in the body of Christ (Matt. 5:9, 23-26; Rom. 12:18-21; 14:19; Eph. 4:1-3; Phil. 2:1-4; Col. 3:12-14; 2 Tim. 2:22; Heb. 12:14).
We covenant to love and accept one another (1 John 4:7-8; 1 Pet. 4:8; Phil. 2:2; 1 Thess. 1:9).
We covenant to forgive one another (Matt. 6:12; Eph. 4:32).
We covenant to bear one another’s burdens (Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:13; Gal. 6:2).
We covenant to respectfully follow the leaders of this church, trusting and supporting their leadership (1 Thess. 5:12-13; 1 Tim. 5:17-20; Heb. 13:7, 17).
We covenant to humbly submit to the church’s discipline, graciously repenting when approached about personal sin, and lovingly restoring others who become entangled in sin (Mat. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5:6-13; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; Gal. 6:1; 1 Thess. 5:14-15; 2 Thess. 3:5-6; Eph. 4:29; Phil. 2:14).
Is the Goal of Disciplined Church Membership a Pure Church?
Accountability in the local church does not mean that the church will ever be perfectly pure in this age. We sin after conversion. The church is a company of forgiven sinners who wrestle against their own remaining sinfulness every day.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23)
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)
“When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind.” (Rom. 7:21)
“Not that I have already obtained [the resurrection] or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me his own.” (Phil. 3:12)
Therefore, church membership does not involve an expectation to live perfectly. Rather, church membership is a commitment to worship and minister in a body of believers where the members covenant together to hold each other accountable to pursue obedience to what Scripture teaches.
The pursuit of obedience is not the same as perfection. It will involve failure and confession on a regular basis. The mark of a true Christian, and the mark of a church member in good standing, is not perfection, but the persistent fight of faith that recognizes sin as sin, confesses it, and turns from it in new resolves of holiness again and again.
How Does Church Discipline Work?
In a good family, discipline should be overwhelmingly instructive and encouraging. Teaching a child how to make his bed by patient instruction is part of a well disciplined home. Nevertheless, spankings (especially in the younger years) will probably be a needed part in an atmosphere of loving, patient instruction and admonition.
So it will be in the church. Mutual accountability should be mainly instructive and affirming. It means that all of us in the church are responsible both to give and receive encouragement, counsel, consolation, exhortation, and admonition (1 Thess. 5:14; Heb. 3:13; Gal. 6:1; 2 Cor. 1:3).
This is implied in the precious doctrine of the priesthood of all believers (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10). We are priests for each other in that we minister God’s grace to each other (1 Pet. 4:10), intercede for each other with God (Rom. 15:30), and confess our sins to each other (James 5:16). Membership in the church then is a commitment to the tender love of encouragement, and the tough love of confrontation—to give it humbly and to receive it without defensiveness.
Only in rare cases does the New Testament suggest that accountability will lead to an all-church, disciplinary act of excommunication. This kind of discipline results when a member forsakes the covenant and persists in a refusal to forsake and repent of willful sin. Such cases seem to be ones in which the sin of a member is open for the public to see and is impenitently persistent. In other words, the commitment to pursue obedience is broken. Instead of pursuing obedience, the member has settled into a behavior or an attitude with no effort to flee from it as sin. This would be a willful decision to live in violation of the covenant.
In this case, those members who are the nearest friends should, if possible, approach the person early in his or her slide into sin. If there is no repentance, the process of Matthew 18:15-17 should continue to be followed. The goal at every step of the way is repentance and forgiveness and reconciliation for the good of the offender and the spiritual health of the church and the glory of Christ.
When the private efforts of loving church members do not bring about repentance, the overseers of the church should be brought in, and a process of patient inquiry and entreaty should be followed. If repentance does not result, the leaders of the church will present the findings to the church body and action will be taken to remove the person from membership in the hope that this will sober him or her and win repentance (1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 2:6-7; 2 Thess. 3:14-15). The fact that it is easy today for a disciplined person to be offended and withdraw membership and go to another church should not hinder the obedience of the church.
Conclusion
We realize that not everyone agrees about the subject of Church Membership, but we hope that we can answer more of your questions and pray with you and glorify Christ regardless of whether you are a member of TCF or not. Please feel free to sit down with one of our Pastors if you have further questions!