Our Commitments
WHY CHURCH MEMBERSHIP MATTERS
“The very word membership is of Christian origin,
but it has been taken over by the world and emptied of all meaning.
I am afraid that when we describe a man as ‘a member of the Church’
we usually mean nothing Pauline; we mean only that he is a unit,
that he is one more specimen of some kind of things as X and Y and Z.”
– C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory —What is church membership? It’s a declaration of citizenship in Christ’s kingdom.
— Jonathan Leeman —
Goals of Membership
In all human relationships, we want to know what is expected of us. And what can we expect in return? Expectations are too often unspoken or assumed. We believe it is important especially in the church to be clear about expectations both what is expected of members but also what can members expect of church leaders. We think it is helpful to frame our expectations for each other in terms of goals. So what goals are expected of those who formally join the church? In a phrase, we want “The Priority of 1” for our members.
We want our members to…
Give 1 day a week for Sabbath worship and rest
Seek 1 time a day for scripture reading and prayer
Give 1/10 of your income to kingdom work
Cultivate 1 avenue of community in the church
Pursue 1 avenue of service in the church that uses your gifts for others
Identify 1 unchurched friend for intentional prayer and invitation
What are the goals you can expect from your pastor? You should expect I will…
develop worship that nourishes your soul on the work of Jesus and gives rest
pray for you and develop care structures that equip members to meet the needs of the body
provide resources and help in the historic practices and biblical means of grace.
cultivate biblical generosity, steward your gifts wisely, continue outside funding efforts.
provide avenues and content for authentic Christian community.
foster missional engagement, understanding of gifts, and equipping for service.
provide a safe, hospitable, and engaging space for non-Christians to explore faith
Vows of Membership
Vows are biblical. There are ample places throughout Holy Scripture where God’s people resolve themselves to do something with a promise. Yes, we are warned against making rash, hasty and foolish vows. Yet, the Bible indicates that it is a good and a wise, and even a necessary, thing for believers to make holy vows to the Lord. Key Point: While we steadfastly make promises, we place our confidence not in our vows or in our success and ability to keep them, but in the work of God the Holy Spirit in us. Example: Too often we seek to love our neighbors as ourselves and then base our acceptance with God on our performance of love or lack thereof. However, biblical promises always seek to anchor our trust first in Christ, relying on the grace and work of The Holy Spirit, and then seeking to love our neighbors well. Making these kinds of commitments are good and important to do, but our confidence is always in the Lord working in us and not in ourselves.
So what commitments are we asking members to honor? Below in bold are the 5 vows of church membership that every PCA congregation practices. With each vow you will find additional commentary to give more color and depth for what each vow means.
1. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy? This is the starting place of the Christian journey: that we are sinners in need of a Savior. In this vow, we are acknowledging that we know that we are not basically good, but that we sin daily in our thoughts, words, and deeds. And all of this is so because we are sinners by nature, as well as sinners by practice. God would be just to judge us and condemn us, but there is hope—hope in the sovereign mercy of God; hope that God would not count our sins against us. Lakeway Pres is a gathering of sinners whose hope of salvation is not in ourselves, but in God who has sovereignly acted in history to deal with our sins.
2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel? The way that God dealt with our sins was by sending Jesus, the Son of God, to save sinners. He did this by living the righteous life that we could not live, by dying the death that we deserved to die as the penalty for our sins, and by rising from the dead in victory over sin, death, and the grave. This is the great exchange: Christ takes our sin and our death, and gives us his perfect life and the promise of life eternal. Our response to this good news is faith, trust and rest in the work that Christ has done for us, knowing that we cannot add anything to it or subtract anything from it. It is finished! And so the gospel is good news about victory won, by Christ, for you.
3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ? Because of the work of Christ on our behalf, we have been adopted into the family of God. And in this family, God wants us to witness well to the family name. That is, he wants us to take on the values of the family and incorporate them into our lives. Therefore, we want to put to death the former values of sin and death, and be raised to life with values that become the followers of Christ. Thankfully and wonderfully, we are not left alone to this task: God has given us His Holy Spirit as the Helper to shape us into his new creation.
4. Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability? You are committing yourself here to living out the Christian life in a particular church, Lakeway Pres. This beckons you to support the church to the best of your ability. Supporting the worship of the church means presence and participation; you are regularly present in worship and entering into that worship with your whole being. Supporting the church in its work means that you are excited about the vision of Lakeway Pres and are willing to invest yourself — your time, your spiritual gifts, your skills, your experience, and your material resources — to help see the vision of our church take shape in the Lakeway area.
5. Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace? Church membership involves two-way accountability. In one direction, you are asking the members and the leadership of Lakeway Pres to hold you accountable to faithfully living out the Christian life. You are opening up and giving them authority to be a voice of counsel in your life, even if it is the counsel of tough love and discipline. In the other direction, we are asking you to hold us accountable as well. We are giving you the authority to be a voice of counsel in our lives, even if it is a counsel of tough love and discipline. And above all, we want to pursue this two-way accountability in love, the patient, hopeful love of Jesus, so as to preserve the purity and the peace of his church.
The Handshake Vows
The handshake vows were crafted as a practical expression of the fifth vow of church membership. While these are not formally a part of our broader church tradition, they help address a common and problematic issue in the church. Conflict will happen in the church. We can count on it. The question remains is how will we deal with it. The handshake vows encourage us to be upfront and proactive. They are a way to help preserve the purity and peace of the church.
I won't make assumptions about your motives.
I won't gossip about you.
If we ever have conflict, I will work with you to resolve it biblically.