Author Archive
For I too am a Man Under Authority
Posted by: | CommentsIt was an amazing statement of faith. It was an appeal and an observation. “I too am a man under authority.” (Matthew 8:9) The centurion was beseeching the kind intercession of the Savior to save the life of his child. In the midst of his pleading with Christ he makes a comparison between himself and Christ. He acknowledges that he is a soldier under the authority of Rome with soldiers placed under his authority. However, what is striking is that the centurion recognizes that Christ is also under someone else’s authority. Christ came not to do His own will but the will of His Father. The centurion saw it for what it was and made that the basis of his request.
As a pastor, I too am a man under authority. There are several different layers of accountability in my life. First, there are my fellow elders. Most importantly, they hold me accountable to living a godly life that is worthy of emulation. Nothing is more important than a man’s walk with God. They also hold me accountable for achieving the goals of the Lord in preaching and teaching on a weekly basis.
Secondly, there is my church. The church congregation, though comprised of many members, holds me accountable as a single entity. The church congregation is the body of Christ, and is charged with the responsibility of seeing Christ’s interests advanced on this earth. They hold me accountable to helping the church achieve those interests in our community and within the church.
Lastly, I am also accountable as a missionary to my mission board, my home sending church in Texas, and hundreds of financial supporters back in the States that support me. You see, I am not only a pastor. I am also a missionary. I was commissioned by Cedar Heights Baptist Church, a church in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, to come to Kamloops with the express purpose of preaching the Gospel here in the interior of BC, starting churches in the cities of this region, and advancing the Kingdom of Christ by making disciples. Cedar Heights Baptist Church commissioned me as a missionary. This means that I am sent with their blessing, their approval, their recommendation, and their financial assistance. I am required to give an account on a monthly basis of what is happening, and what is being done with the money that they send to support me. There is no contractual agreement between me and my supporters. In the event that they don’t like what they read one month in one of my newsletters – they can pull the plug on my funding.
I also function under the oversight of the North American Mission Board, the church planting and evangelizing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. I am an official missionary with an official sending church, working under the guidance of an official Missions Agency. With the approval of a local church, the funding of hundreds of individual brothers and sisters in Christ, and the guidance and oversight of an official Mission Board –I too am a man under authority.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to go rogue and do it alone? It depends on what you mean by the expression, ‘easier?’ There is something fundamentally flawed in our hearts and minds today when we think that something is ‘easier’ when it involves less people and less headache. Have you ever stopped to consider that the involvement of multiple layers of people with multiple layers of accountability is a God given safety net? Have you ever considered that dealing with these individuals on a regular basis helps a man work out patience and long-suffering as his God continues to work in him and through his circumstances for his sanctification? Have you ever considered that God is more concerned with your personal holiness than He is with it being ‘easier?’
At the end of the day if you find yourself a little free from accountability to others then you need to ask yourself a question: how will I grow and conform more and more into the image of Christ without accountability? You see, Jesus was a man under authority. If you, dear brother, are striving to be a man after God’s own heart, a man forged into the image of Christ – then how will you do this without deliberately holding yourself accountable to a higher authority than yourself?
Why We use a Membership Covenant (Part 5 of 5)
Posted by: | CommentsA Signed Covenant protects the Leadership:
Hebrews 13:17 says that Elders will have to give an account for the members of their church. This is the most frightening passage that I’ve read about what it means to pastor God’s church. How can I stand before God and give an account of my pastoral ministry if no one has made a commitment to me to adhere to certain Biblical principles? How can I shepherd people who secretly refuse to be shepherded? I am asked, as a pastor, to make a huge commitment to people that will result in my greater judgment (James 3:1), but they are not asked to make any commitment to me, and they are not asked to make any commitment to the Bible. This is a farce and a lose-lose situation.
I’m basically screwing myself in this deal. I am voluntarily taking upon myself greater judgment and greater responsibility, and I’m not going to ask for anything in return? Hebrews 13:17 says that members of a church congregation should “Obey and submit to church leaders.” How does the church realistically ask people to submit to the leadership? How does the church ask people to obey? This is a two-way relationship after all. As pastors we have a good understanding of our coming judgment (at least I hope so). But church members need to be informed of their responsibility in the two-way relationship as well. They also need that understanding. As a result, I personally need a signed membership covenant from the members of my congregation so that I can sleep a little easier at night knowing that we have a reciprocal relationship with each other and knowing that they know it too. I can’t even begin to explain to you the number of hours that I’ve stayed awake over various membership situations. I sometimes feel that in some way I have failed various members as their pastor. I take the burden of it all on myself.
My own mind, lured and enticed by the idolatry of being a people-pleaser and wanting everyone to like me, works very hard sometimes to believe the various lies, to take blame on myself, and to try and create a compromise situation where everyone can get their own way. In this situation -that I create in my own mind- I can be well-liked again, and everyone can live happily ever after -the only exception being God who is usually greatly dishonored in such compromise situations. But then I drive to work. I pull open my file drawer and I take out the membership covenant, and the bright shining light of truth floods the darkness, and I know that to compromise on the bedrock truth of Scripture would be a disservice to the church by allowing the cancer of sin to remain, and a disservice to churches all over the world. I’ve learned that a signed membership covenant protects the church from me in my weaknesses, and it protects me from my own self.
Why we use a Membership Covenant (Part 4 of 5)
Posted by: | CommentsA Signed Covenant Reinforces a Higher Authority over the Membership and Empowers the Membership to Act like the Church.
A properly crafted member’s covenant will rest all of its authority on Scripture. The corollary to this rule is that an improperly crafted membership covenant will not rest all of its authority on scripture. Too often certian requirements and expectations are placed on members that lack specific scriptiural warrant. This is legalism. A good membership covenant will not be a document that advocates legalism, but will advocate a Christian ethic based on the Gospel and rooted firmly in scripture. Every point will quote the Bible. Every obligation will call upon God to witness its veracity.
The Members come to learn that they stand to give an account NOT to the Elders, but to God Himself. They learn that their membership isn’t tied to human wisdom or human popularity, but to God Almighty, who is no “respecter of persons.” In effect, a properly crafted Membership Covenant is calling upon people to make a commitment to the Bible, a commitment to God, and not a commitment to any pastor as a nice guy, smart Elder. It focuses everyone’s attention upward. It empowers the membership to take actions by clearly defining what is right and what is wrong. Members can step into an organic, non-leadership directed, self-starting, self-initiating activity of shepherding each other according to the Membership Covenant, and they can do this without fear of reprisal as long as there are clearly articulated guidelines for how to talk and interact with each other as there should be in a Membership Covenant.
God’s desire is to empower every believer to stand as a priest and proclaimer of the Gospel, and a Membership Covenant can empower the members of the congregation to start caring for each other and shepherding each other as long as they have a framework of clearly articulated guidelines within which they can find freedom to operate. A person may see another member living in sin, and since he knows that the other member has signed the Membership Covenant, he knows that he has permission to gently speak into that member’s life without necessarily consulting the Elders. If the other member takes offense, both parties may refer to their signed Covenant (and Scripture) to hopefully settle the dispute. Both parties can place trust in the fact that each party is agreed to certain principles and they can operate without fear of reprisal because they know the other party has had things clearly explained to them, and they have agreed by signature to those principles.
A properly crafted Membership Covenant immediately focus everyone on God, and empowers everyone to speak to each other with the wisdom of Scripture. This leads to a very organic, self-shepherding church family.
Why we use a Membership Covenant (Part 3 of 5)
Posted by: | CommentsA Signed Covenant is a Useful Accountability Tool
Without a signed membership covenant it would be hard for any church to do two things: 1.) hold individual members to any standard of accountability, and 2.) hold the church congregation to a standard of accountability in seeking to be reconciled with any wayward members.
In the Western Church, average church goer Joe and Sally live in blatant and unrepentant sin. They believe, erroneously, that they can do whatever they want with a subtle disregard for the interests of the church and the interests of Jesus Christ. They often make decisions that lead to subtle forms of idolatry – the most blatant and obvious being the inherent belief that they can leave the church whenever there is any disagreement and seek out a church that cators to their personal whims. Joe and Sally leave the church, abandon their family in Christ, and selfishly pursue whatever tickles their fancy. They should be held accountable for their decisions. A signed membership covenant PROVES that there was a clear understanding between various parties at the beginning of the relationship BEFORE there was any conflict. A church that utilizes a signed membership covenant can honestly say that Joe and Sally fully knew what they were doing when they joined the church. A signed membership covenant becomes a piece of evidence in a court of law when members violate the other members of the church and selfishly pursue their own interests. It helps to establish a baseline and the church can hold people accountable to that baseline because the church can prove that they explained that baseline of behavior to Joe and Sally before they joined the church.
It also helps to hold the church to a standard of accountability. Many in the church may not know Joe or Sally or do not have a relationship with them. As a result, many members in the church may be reluctant to pursue reconciliation with Joe and Sally. In the beginning, there was a tempting desire to allow Joe and Sally to go in peace without confrontation over their subtle idolatry. But every member will know that this is not an option that will carry water with the leadership. Why? Because they also signed a covenant that clearly articulated certain responsibilities that were incumbent upon them in moments of crises. The church KNOWS that they have a responsibility to Joe and Sally, to reach out to them and to love and care for them during this moment of crises. And so the church steps out in obedience and can call Joe and Sally back to church attendance and begin to appeal to Joe and Sally via the membership covenant to resolve their differences amicably. The church leadership is effectively able to hold the church to a standard of accountability to engage Joe and Sally in an act of reconciliation and redemption when few really want to. And this is very helpful. Because it further compounds Joe and Sally’s guilt for so flippantly disregarding their church. They have had a loving family reach out to them and appeal to them to repent and come back to the church. Any insistance upon departure is, in cold-hearted fashion, a rejection of the loving appeals of their fellow brothers and sisters. This makes church discipline really really easy at this point.
A signed covenant is a piece of evidence that can show to a watching world that there was a clear-cut understanding among various parties involved. As evidence, it cannot be denied! Therefore, it is useful in holding people to a standard of accountability.
Why We use a Membership Covenant (Part 2 of 5)
Posted by: | CommentsA Signed Covenant is Counter to the Typical Church Culture and Helps Develop Koinonia Fellowship:
I do believe in a signed membership covenant because I think it’s faithful to Biblical Koinonia Fellowship. With churches on every street corner it is way too easy for people to hop from church to church. They tend to hop from church to church for several reasons, and not all of them are necessarily bad. But at the end of the day the opportunity to church hop reinforces a mentality that church is nothing more than a country club that provides services and spiritual goods, and their interest is merely a consumer’s interest. When we approach the church of the Bible we find a brotherhood. There were not churches on every street corner. So these guys were bound to each other like survivors in a life-raft on a hurricane tossed ocean. They needed each other, they loved each other, and they protected each other. At the end of the day we should view ourselves in the same way as flesh and blood brothers, not patrons of the same country club. Our loyalty should be to each other as family, not to the institution.
One of the things that I’ve seen happen in the Life Groups these past few months is the formation of true Koinonia Fellowship. The church is starting to become a tight-knit family, and that’s awesome to see! There has been healthy debate, and some members have had some disagreements with other members about the right way to pursue ministry, but everyone understands that they’ve made a binding commitment to each other. And everyone is seriously trying to work through those issues TOGETHER.
The reason I like a signed membership covenant is because you can talk about the formation of koinonia fellowship, and people will nod their heads and think that they understand it when they really don’t. As long as you have it in the back of your head that you can casually check out and go somewhere else, then you are kept from forming that relationship. A marriage is no marriage at all as long as both parties keep the reservation in the back of their heads that they can always get a divorce. A signature on a piece of paper is a person giving his word to certain things. We can buy a car on financing with nothing more than a signature. We can buy a house on mortgage with a signature. In our culture today when we make a binding commitment to something… we sign our name to a piece of paper that commits us to that thing. But when it comes to making a binding commitment to a church, one of the MOST important decisions we could ever make, we do it with a verbal commitment, a nod of the head, and a wink of the eye. Every church on every street corner is attempting to lower the bar in terms of a binding commitment to a church because every church is trying to lure, entice, draw, and attract as many people as possible to their church. It’s the whole megachurch mentality run amok. Every pastor is attempting to build his own empire. So there are churches that are attempting to lure and entice our brothers away from our church so that they can build their own megachurches. In doing this, they are inadvertently tampering with our church’s ability to develop true koinonia fellowship with each other, because to develop this koinonia will take time and energy. Koinonia doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years… The megachurch culture is attempting to build a large building with a lot of attendees in total disregard of Koinonia fellowship. However, a signed covenant means that people can’t easily and flippantly disregard their commitment to koinonia fellowship at our church when the church down the street opens up a really cool new ministry.