“Missional churches are high-threshold churches, and they clearly communicate the responsibilities of church membership.”
Milfred Minatrea presents this as the first of nine essential practices of churches on mission with Christ. They provide clear information on how to unite with the church. They express the advantages of belonging to the church. And they stress the importance of corporate unity in pursuit of God’s worthy goals. “Missional churches,” Minatrea says, “are made up of members who are convinced God has invited their community to participate in his mission and that accomplishment of his mission requires their unity.”
He cites several churches as examples of this principle, pointing to the content of their membership classes and the covenants they ask new members to sign.
Hillcrest does a good job fulfilling this principle of high-threshold membership. We require prospective members to complete “Discover Hillcrest” -- a two-hour class offered about every six weeks. We cover for major topics:
The PLAN of Our Salvation: We share the Gospel and invite people to receive it, and we explain the two symbols of our salvation – baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Those who need to schedule their own baptism can do so at this point.We conclude the class by asking those interested in joining to sign a membership commitment.
The PURPOSE of Our Lives: We explain the fourfold purpose of the disciple’s life and how Hillcrest is dedicated to helping members fulfill that purpose. “Hillcrest” is more than our name – it’s our destination. Like climbers want to reach the top, disciples of Jesus want to mature. We have our own H.I.L.L. to climb: Honor the Lord of Life, Invite Your World to Life, Love the Fellowship for Life, and Live the Word in Life.
The PARTNERSHIP of Our Church: We look at the strategy we use to reach people for Christ and develop them as disciples. The purpose of membership is to partner together with other members to fulfill this strategy.
The PATTERN of Our Leadership: We look at how Hillcrest is organized for decision-making and ministry.
Prospects are channeled into this class through various means. The class is promoted in a prominent section of the bulletin that is dedicated to first-time guests. As the date of the next class approaches, all prospects receive a note in the mail and they call from one of the Ministry Staff. On the Sunday that the class is scheduled, I encourage worship attenders to stay for the lunchtime study.
In every church where I have required this class for membership, adult baptisms have dramatically increased and the dropout rate has dramatically decreased. I highly recommend Minatrea’s first principle for becoming a missional church.
If you are a church leader interested in learning how to start a membership class, I recommend Rick Warren’s important book, The Purpose-Driven Church.
3 comments:
Could you post the membership commitment that you ask your new members to sign?
Also, in the church(es) where you've introduced the signing of a commitment as a new aspect of membership, did you require those who were already members to sign it or not?
Thanks Bruce. I can send you a copy of the membership commitment if you'll write me (tom@anchorcourse.org), but it's pretty much the same as you'll find in "The Purpose-Driven Church" chapter on this topic. As for existing members, we did have a one-time class where I invited all current church members to attend. The response was good, but we didn't require that a membership commitment form be turned in if they wanted to continue membership.
Thanks for the blog and your comments. I'll go back to Warren's book and look it over again for their membership commitment.
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