Why we use a Membership Covenant (Part 4 of 5)

A 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.