Church Hopping

We just went through the new membership process at our new church. A slightly different process than others I have been a part of. It was less informational and more experiential. The idea was to make church membership feel more personal by sharing stories and testimonies. For a big church I can see the benefit and they did allow for questions if you had any.

My one complaint is that at no point did they clearly lay out the Gospel. I wanted to hear, “This is what is necessary for you to believe for salvation.” But in both the Newcomer Gathering and the Membership class, this was never said.

In the Membership class you are broken into small groups with an elder in each and you share your testimony. One of the couples in our class was a little vague in their conversion experience, dropping questionable lines like “I’ve always believed in Jesus.” It is very possible that the elders or someone is responsible for following up on this or perhaps it is covered in the baptism class (the couple requested to be baptized). I think there are going to be a lot of instances that are missed and by laying out the gospel clearly (clear like crystal pepsi…funny title right?) they could set that straight with everyone right then.

They do give you a booklet that lays out the beliefs of the church, but how many are going to read through it? When I was in youth ministry we got a new group of 7th grade kids every year. The first month of small group was all about what is the Gospel. I usually took 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 and said this is what you believe to be a Christian. I think this is important with all of the differing theologies and backgrounds out there that we at the least present the basics and make sure our members are getting those right.

UPDATE: Jennifer, who is in charge of new membership, emailed me to let me know that more than likely the elder would be following up with someone whose testimony seemed unclear.

The elders are very careful on ensuring that those seeking membership understand the gospel and are truly Christians. We have had folks who were denied membership as well as baptism because they didn’t understand, at which point the elder would share the gospel with them as well as make sure they knew about Alpha (an informational class about Christianity).

I’m still convinced sharing it upfront with the group is probably best, but people can zone that out easier than making up a doctrinally-sound testimony I guess.