Membership Class 1st week: Session 2

SLIDE #1

Bring nametags/folders; Andrea’s desk

Good morning everybody! I am so glad to get to gather with you this morning to talk about a super important and valuable subject.

My name is Tim Banna; I’m a 3rd year pastoral resident — OSOM… married to Emily, for 2 years now…

- love for preaching, prayer, and reaching the lost.

Have them share name, current hometown AND Icebreaker: If you could be a world-class pro at any instrument or sport…

Express gratitude for their interest in membership. Communicate confidence in what God has in store for these three weeks:

that God will grant us a time of rich learning, engagement together, and growth in both understanding and love for Christ and His church.

Pray.

Yes, session 2 swap: it should work just as well.

SLIDE #2

· Let’s start out by defining church membership, what is it? What are we doing right now?

· Read the content on the slide.

SLIDE #3

That’s what church membership is. Why do we do it?

Church membership matters for THESE reasons:

Membership honors Christ’s love for the Church.

Jesus loves the church for which He died and has established the new covenant with her in his blood!

Your commitment to a local church is Christ-like and publicly proclaims your joyful identification with the body of Christ.

- And in this commitment, God is glorified as you love what He loves.

· Membership reflects the “one another” commands.

While there is no “be thou a member of ye local church” explicitly in the Scriptures, what is plain is that there is an expectation of meaningful commitment to one another in the local church.

Membership is a practical outworking of that commitment to love, encourage, and pray & care for one another.

Membership follows the governance models described in the Bible.

In the New Testament, local churches were naturally and necessarily organized geographically.

There was no question regarding to which church you belonged, because you likely only had one option.

This meant that commands to love one another and submit to leadership had obvious applications.

Yet in today’s world – with many churches in one city and people frequently attending churches not in their city – membership clarifies to which church you belong and to which leaders you will follow.

In addition, membership is necessary for our local church, as our constitution sets forth congregational governance.

Membership is a gift. To your fellow members.

Membership is an act of saying, “I will stick with this church through thick and thin.” In a transient world, membership is a gift of consistency and perseverance to those who attend and are fellow members of your church.

This perseverance is extremely vital to the health of our church – people who stick with us through thick and thin are the ones who end up giving us such a great, warm, stable church culture.

To the pastors. It shows the pastors who is in our flock and for whom we are accountable to God. It’s also an encouragement to know who we can count on as we partner together in ministry.

To you. With how many folks struggle with assurance, membership is a wonderful blessing and opportunity to test your faith – and bring the encouragement from having your faith affirmed by the pastors and elders of The Orchard!

Not only that, but one of the Spirit’s chief tools for sanctification is the local church, so membership helps us pursue holiness.

Membership makes us more united and effective.

It aligns us together in history, theology, vision, and values so that we are more effective in our mission.

It helps us run together so that the gospel may speed ahead. It protects our unity and enables us to go forward in ministry, carrying out our mission statement with, Lord willing, great fruitfulness.

SLIDE #4

Direct discussion at tables.

Thank them again for their desire to increase their commitment to The Orchard.

— We are so grateful that you all are desiring to increase your commitment to our church family!

SLIDE #5 Orient them to where we are headed.

switching up the order of the sessions this time around!

Starting with our Mission and Your Commitment!

Does anyone remember the final mission Jesus gave to his apostles (particularly in the gospel of Matt)?

Get responses

SLIDE #6

The GREAT COMMISSION!

Introduce them to the mission Jesus gave to his Apostles, and thus, to the church. Make that connection.

“The Apostles, who heard those very words, responded to them by starting and growing local churches. Planting and maturing local churches is Jesus’ plan for world mission!

What we do together as a local church, gathering for worship, growing together

is a big part of Christ’s plan for world mission!

SLIDE #7

At The Orchard, we sum up our mission in these terms: to glorify God by growing in faith, hope, and love, through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the way we go about that mission is described most simply as Roots, Life and Fruit.

Those three words are not merely a slogan that goes with our name. They are a fundamental part of our identity as a church

– who we are and what we do.

In theological terms, Roots, Life and Fruit is our discipleship strategy, our sanctification plan, and our spiritual formation program.

In other words, it is what we want you involved in so that we can teach you to obey all Christ has commanded and so that you can become more like him

Roots, Life, Fruit. Let’s spend a good bit of time on each word. First, Roots.

SLIDE #8

First, by Roots, we mean that we want members to faithfully coming to worship services. Read Hebrews 10:24-25.

By going to church regularly, you will be rooted in the Bible.  We don’t just preach it, we sing, pray, read it too.

— Every weekend! And everything we do points to Christ.

So, as you worship with us week by week, God will speak to you through his Word. You will encounter him. He will renew your mind with the truth. He will nourish your heart with all that he has done for you in Christ. He will change your desires and strengthen your will to change behaviors so that you become more like Jesus.

Jesus told the Apostles to teach people all that he commanded. The worship service is the most important weekly experience for you to learn obedience to all the will of God.

And all four aspects: singing, praying, reading and preaching are vital to your growth in Christ.

SLIDE #9

While we of course sing in order to praise God for who he is and what he has done, Colossians 3:16 also states something quite profound about what is happening within us when we sing in church.

Read Colossians 3:16.

When we sing, the word of Christ is dwelling in us. We are teaching one another about Jesus. The words often sink deep into our minds such that we remember them throughout the week.

So, think of that, singing roots you in the Bible and contributes to you becoming more like Christ.

Our worship pastors are intentional about choosing songs that rehearse the Gospel message and reflect the Word of Christ, for the songs we sing do shape our souls over time!

SLIDE #10

Likewise, we pray his Word.

The Apostle Paul commanded Timothy, a pastor, to have public pastoral prayers in worship services. Read 1 Timothy 2:1.

So, we obey. We pray. We have various prayers in the worship service, but usually spend a good 5 minutes praying as 1 Timothy 2:1 commands.

And we fill that prayer with as much Scripture as possible. We pray God’s Word back to him and believe there is particular power in that practice.

When a pastor is up front doing that, your role as a worshipper is to pray along in your heart with what he is praying, earnestly affirming it, even repeating the very words in your mind or under your breath if that is helpful.

Feel free to Amen out loud as well!

The pastor is praying for the congregation and for the world.

- We pray with him as he does it. In doing so, God uses those prayers to shape us into the image of his Son.

SLIDE #11 Next, we read the Word.

We practice the public reading of Scripture, which the Apostle Paul also commanded in Scripture, not only in 1 Timothy, but also in Colossians. Read 1 Timothy 4:13.

Colossians from start to finish was to be read, not just in the church in Colossae, but in other churches. And when it was read, the people were hearing the voice of the Lord.

It is interesting that some folks view the Scripture reading as sort of a warm up for the sermon, but the Bible itself tells us to read it and that, when we do, we are hearing God’s voice.

The public reading of Scripture was considered one of the holiest and most important moments of the service in the church of the first few centuries.

It is the written Word of God. When it is read, we are hearing from God. That’s one of the reasons we stand. To show due reverence.

And the effect of listening to God’s Word read on a regular basis is profound

so listen ATTENTIVELY, with hearts of faith and expectation!

Opening up the Bible and reading it makes us more like Jesus. It roots us deeper in the Truth.

SLIDE #12 And the last way we seek to root you in God’s word is by preaching Christ from all the Scriptures.

Read Colossians 1:28.

The Apostle Paul envisioned a day when he would stand before God and present members of the churches he served to God.

He wanted all of them to be complete, not lacking any virtue, being mature in Jesus Christ.

So notice, he regularly proclaimed Christ to them!

This is vitally important for you to understand: The Gospel isn’t simply the message we preach to non-Christians for them to get saved.

It is also the message that Christians need to become more like Jesus. The Gospel nourishes our faith.

It grows us in character. It gives us power to obey God’s commands. Every Christian needs the Gospel everyday.

That is why we spend 30-40 minutes preaching Christ every worship service. Gathering to sing, pray, read and preach the Word of Christ is the first part of what we do at The Orchard. Roots.

SLIDE #13

Direct discussion around the tables.

SLIDE #14

The Orchard was started in 1953 as the Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church.

43 people met in a school with a simple vision of worshiping Christ and preaching the Gospel to their community!

It is The Orchard’s original and biggest campus.

Since then, that location has grown to nearly 1400 worshippers every week. And The Orchard as a whole has grown even more than that.

SLIDE #15

This graph shows the growth of the church’s worship services since its birth.

We grew steadily over 40+ years. Pastor Colin came in 1996, and the church continued to grow.

The church increased that pace when we became multi-site. In early 2020, we were seeing about 3000 attendees in worship every weekend across our six congregations.

We took a big dip in the end of 2020 but continue to see our weekly attendance increase. In addition to AH, we have…

SLIDE #16

Itasca, which is led by Pastor Kyle Green. It is a congregation of about 100 that was started in 2010.

An 18-member church in our denomination gave us their building and asked us to kickstart it as a campus of The Orchard. We did and it has been revitalized.

SLIDE #17

Our 3rd campus is our home, Barrington.

It is a congregation of about 700+ led by Pastor Tom Olson.

Barrington was launched from our AH location. It started with about 150 people meeting in a local high school until we purchased the current facility in 2011.

SLIDE #18

Our 4th campus is in Marengo. Similar to Itasca, Marengo was a declining church of 18 members who wanted to revitalize as a campus of The Orchard.

That happened in 2013 and is now led by Pastor Justin Searles. It is now a group of about 100+.

SLIDE #19

Our 5th campus is our North Shore campus.

It was similar to Barrington. We launched it mainly with people from AH under the leadership of Pastor Josh Parsons.

It also started with about 150 people and has grown to about 225. Since the beginning, we’ve been renting space and are now looking for a permanent building.

SLIDE #20

Our 6th campus launched in Vernon Hills in late 2021 with a group of about 120 led by Pastor Tom Yoon. They moved into their own newly remodeled building in 2021.

That’s roots. We want to root people in God’s word in worship services all over the greater Chicago area. That’s our mission. That’s why we are establishing new congregations and will continue to do so.

SLIDE #21 The second part of what we do, we call Life.

We share the life of Christ together. More particularly, we sincerely love Christ’s church by following our leaders as they follow Christ, and by praying for, studying with and encouraging one another in smaller groups.

Worship services are too large …

- Smaller groups are important …

The natural, or perhaps we should say supernatural, result of being rooted in God’s Word is that it creates and sustains the very life of Christ in us.

Christians are born again by the Word and nourished by the Word in order to live more like Jesus. Smaller groups provide a great context to share that life with each other.

LIFE is as an acronym to describe our LIFE Groups: Leader, Intercession, Fellowship around the Word, Encouragement & Care. We want members to be involved in LIFE Groups so that they grow in their Christ-likeness. SLIDE #22

Hebrews 13:7 says…read it.

That exhortation was clearly for church members to follow pastors/elders/deacons, but it is also a beneficial instruction for good small group dynamics.

—how helpful to the faith to spend time with mature believer

- To watch their way of life,

- To consider their fruit.

To learn from them.

To pattern your life and behavior after them.

Leaders help us grow.

SLIDE #23

So does prayer. Colossians 4:12 says…read it.

Epaphras was a member of the church in Colossae. When he was with the Apostle Paul, Paul noticed that he always prayed for members of his church. He did it earnestly and fervently.

And his prayer was for his fellow members to grow and to be confident in Christ.

That description shows us that intercessory prayer, that is, praying on behalf of someone else you know, helps us grow in two ways.

It sanctifies the other person as God answers the prayer.

It also sanctifies the one who is praying, for they are imitating Jesus himself who struggled in prayer on behalf of his church.

L for leaders. I for Intercession.

SLIDE #24 The F is for fellowship around the Word.

As we study the Bible together in smaller groups, and share the truth we are learning with each other, we grow in our faith.

Read Ephesians 4:15-16 (ask them to read the whole verses, not just slide) We want our members to learn from the Bible in worship services.

We also want them to study it in Life Groups.

Many of our groups are sermon based.

For those that aren’t, we want them studying books of the Bible or books that help people understand the Bible.

We want your fellowship to be around the Word.

SLIDE #25 Lastly, on LIFE Groups, the E stands for Encouragement and Care.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:11. We want our members to build each other up not tear each other down.

Part of the purpose of our groups is to practice edifying speech. Life is really hard. Everyone is fighting battles every day. The world is relentlessly negative.

Crucial to have place of refreshing that picks you up when you are down and shows you the compassion of the Lord when you are need.

- And we want you to be a person who does that for others.

That’s life. We want members to share the life of Christ together in smaller groups. That’s our mission. That’s why we have Life Groups. SLIDE #26 Direct discussion around the tables.

SLIDE #27 The third part of what we do is called fruit. Roots. Life. Fruit.

By fruit, we mean that we partner together in membership to bear fruit for Christ by praying, giving, serving and inviting.

People who are rooted in God’s Word and sharing the life of Christ together also need to be challenged to make a difference in the world. After all, Christ’s mission is to spread his glory throughout all the Earth.

SLIDE #28 Praying is the most important way to do that. No significant work of God happens apart from prayer.

Read 2 Thessalonians 3:1. While we have pastoral prayers in worship services and intercede for each other in LIFE Groups,

- we have Pray First once per month to focus on the commands to pray for the Gospel to spread,

to speed ahead and be honored locally and globally

Of course, you can pray for the church to be built and grow in your own personal time, but this once per month gathering serves as a way that we can do that together.

EMPHASIZE the early church being devoted to prayer together, preceding Pentecost; 2 Cor 1:11

2 Corinthians 1:11 ESV

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

And when we do gather corporately, God uses our unity in the Spirit, not only to grow his kingdom, but to grow us immensely.

SLIDE #29 Giving is the second way to bear fruit.

Read 2 Corinthians 9:7. Note this verse:

**God commands giving. And we are supposed to give to his work through the church.

God doesn’t want people to follow his command as a result of other human beings having twisted their arms or guilted them into doing it.

Each one must give.

- But not under compulsion.

So, the idea is, you know God wants you to give.

You pray about how much to give.

You decide how much to give.

You give.

And thus, it is a cheerful activity because you are giving unto the Lord. It’s between you and him.

Our motivation to give is also in 2 Corinthians. Jesus who was rich, became poor, in order that, by his poverty we might become rich.

That is the Gospel motivation for us to give. When we give, we grow in faith and in character. We become more generous like Jesus is generous. SLIDE #30

The third way to bear fruit is by serving. Read Mark 10:43-45.

Jesus served us in his earthly life, and ultimately by becoming our a ransom.

- That is our motivation to serve the Lord by serving in his church.

Gifting and being passionate about something matters,

- and we’re commanded to use our particular spiritual gifts

- but the bottom line of service is find out what needs the church has and to seek to fill those needs the best you can.

Telling kids pick up clothes…

- They do that work because it is part of having a well-functioning house.

There is a lot of that kind of work at the church.

You don’t need a spiritual gift to do it.

You simply need the motivation of Christ’s servant-heart — a humble heart and some time.

- In fact, the best way to find out what you are passionate about and what you are good at is to start someplace.

Serve somewhere.

Bear fruit by serving. SLIDE #31

The fourth way we talk about bearing fruit at The Orchard is by inviting. Read Mark 5:19.

The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 is often used to motivate personal evangelism, but we must recognize that it is a corporate mandate.

It was given by Jesus to his Apostles and his Apostles to the local churches.

It is the responsibility of each local church to preach the Gospel and make disciples.

The responsibility of individual Christians seems more focused on personal testimony, such as 1 Pet 3:15, sharing the reason for the hope that is in you.

- And telling the people that you know and meet how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.

Be like the man in Mark 5 who was saved by Jesus and called to bear witness!

And invite those people who show interest in the Lord during those conversations to your church, The Orchard.

Bring them here to learn about Christ with the hope and prayer that they will follow Christ.

You bearing fruit by inviting will challenge you and grow you!

That’s bearing fruit. Praying. Giving. Serving. Inviting.

SLIDE #32 Direct discussion around the tables.

SLIDE #33-34

Read the membership commitment. Point out how it is simply a commitment to live out Roots, Life and Fruit.

Any questions?

Close in Prayer.