It might come as a surprise to most people at church, I reckon, that I did not want to serve on the Bylaws Team initially. What may be an even bigger surprise is that I was not even in the business meeting when the motion was made to form the team. My husband relayed to me the news that a team had been formed to review the church's current Bylaws and that volunteers were being sought for the team. Being busy already, I resisted God's gentle urging to put my name forward. After a week or two, I could no longer resist the now constant urging and called the church office to submit my name. I am pretty certain that I was one of the last ones on the list, if not the very last one. I am sure that God had His reasons for wanting me to serve on the team, but all I could really be concerned with was obedience to Him.
After the church voted for the members of the team, one of the newly installed team members suggested that we come to our first meeting with a statement about what we hoped to accomplish on the Bylaws Team. For me, there were things that I knew we needed to do as a church, and so I expressed my goals and my beliefs with regard to work on the Constitution and Bylaws. The first concept that weighed heavily on me was covenant. I had been spending a good deal of time studying the covenant that God made with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai found in Exodus 19:
"Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." Exodus 19:3-6
I came to the first meeting and declared to the rest of the team that I strongly believed that we had an opportunity to return to the type of covenant declared at Mt. Sinai. We could declare, like the children of Israel that "We will do everything that the Lord has said (Exodus 19:8)". Our present church documents are very businesslike, but we could have a document that declares our allegiance to God and declares our return to His precepts.
Years before, I had read the book Our Covenant God by Kay Arthur. Ms. Arthur writes that "Everything God does is based on His covenant." The key to understanding the nature of God is understanding covenant, for God is a Covenant God; a God who is loyal and faithful and true. Reading this book was a major turning point for me spiritually. The book looks at the covenants of God as recorded throughout the Bible. Foundationally, I gained a greater understanding of how God blesses us through His covenants. Armed with this knowledge, I was convicted that our Constitution should reflect our church's desire to be a faithful people of God.
James, our team leader brought to us a Bible study from the organization 9 marks (http://www.9marks.org/). For a little over nine weeks, we went through the study. We examined nine characteristics--or marks--of healthy and holy churches. Within the chapter on "A Biblical Understanding of Membership", I was struck by this statement: "...membership in a church is that church's corporate testimony to the individual member's salvation." I had never thought of membership in the church in this way. My testimony--or lack of one--reflects on the local Body of Christ that I have identified myself as a member of. In the times in which we live, as ever, we must be thoughtful about our church membership. We live in times in which people regularly betray and abandon their commitments. Unfortunately, church members are no different than the rest of the world. Generally, Christians divorce at nearly the same rate that non-Christians do. This is problematic for a people who claim to follow God, who declares that He hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). Just as in many churches, our church had experienced the sting of conflict and dissension. We had also seen members come and go. We examined how to go about repairing our church's view of membership, and we came to the conclusion that a membership covenant would help. The 9 Marks study, as well as the book Church Structure That Works by Bill Blanchard had membership covenant examples. Presently, our church has a membership covenant, though it has not been necessary to affirm it. Additionally, it has not been necessary to take membership classes prior to becoming a member of the church.
The team has had an agreement that no recommendation will be brought before the church without 100% consensus. This has meant that much debate occurs behind closed doors on many, if not most, issues that we bring forward. It is a slow process, to be sure. However, we have felt that if we are not in complete agreement on an issue, than we must not have discerned the will of God. With prayer and lots of Bible study, we came to the agreement that a membership covenant would be a useful tool to help restore a Biblical understanding of church membership. In my mind, I thought that this would be not be an offense to anyone since we already have a membership covenant, and because the covenant affirms what people who have been longtime members already know and practice.
Much to my surprise and dismay, the idea of having members sign a membership covenant before joining the church met with a small, but very vocal and passionate outcry. The key objection to longtime members has been that if they have already been members for a long time, then they should not have to sign. To me, it was always a no-brainer: I intend to demonstrate my commitment not just to the church, but to God, and so I will sign. Of course, I have been a committed member for over 11 years now. I do not intend to leave the church, nor do I intend to disobey that which the Lord has revealed as His will. As a women's ministry leader, I would like to demonstrate my commitment to the women of the church, as well. In the ministry work that I do, I find that I often minister to hurting women. Women who have experienced the sting of abandonment and betrayal do not deserve a half-hearted commitment on the part of their leader.
In my next post, I will discuss more about the concept of covenant. I would like to dispel some of the myths about covenant that have been expressed to me privately and in the town hall meetings. In the meantime, I hope that I have given you some insight into the process of how the proposed membership covenant came to be. I also hope that you have found the links and materials intriguing, and that you might be interested in checking them out.
Until next time, may God's richest blessings flow over you,
Jennifer
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