Membership Class

Mission

Seek the lost. Disciple the saved. Worship the Lord. Tell the World.

What is Church Membership?

Eph 4 says that we are members of one body. Each with specific callings and giftings to best build up the body and work of Christ.

We believe that upon salvation that the Bible describes and prescribes that the Christian needs to belong to a local body of believers. In Acts 2, on and following the day of Pentecost, the people were being saved and about 3,000 were added to their number. Also, there were people being saved and added to their number. This is an illustration of the first church roll being set up.

Church membership is essential to the functionality of the local church.

“A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

How do I become a church member?

The first requirement for church membership in a Southern Baptist Church is to have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Repeatedly, the Bible calls for repentance from sin and faith filled belief in the name and work of Jesus. This is the first step. If you have not received Jesus as your savior and placed your faith in him, then we can stop right here.

Once salvation is received, we require a biblical baptism. I call it biblical baptism because many other denominations view baptism differently. Some sprinkle at birth, some at adulthood, some immerse at birth or upon completion of a class. But the examples provided in the Bible is to baptize with full immersion after conversion. We see Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, the Ethiopian sought baptism immediately after believing in Jesus.

If you have never been a member of a Baptist church, that is the way to join.

If you have, you can apply for membership here and we can request your membership letter from your previous church.

If your previous church has no record, then you can join by “statement of faith.” This can only happen if you are a born-again believer and have been biblically baptized.

What can I expect as a member of Journey?

Beliefs

As an SBC church, we affirm the Baptist Faith & Message 2000. You are more than welcome to research and read it in its entirety, but the primary belief points to cover tonight are: the Trinity, the authority and authenticity of Scripture, salvation, and man.

The Trinity

“There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.” - BFM 2000

The Scripture

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

Salvation

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

Man

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Structure

We agree with Adrian Rogers description of church structure as follows: “A church is pastor led, deacon served, committee operated, and congregationally approved.”

Pastor Led

The Bible prescribes the office of pastor as an under-shepherd for the flock of a local body of believers. The pastor is to lead from the front and protect and nourish the spiritual hearts of the congregation.

Deacon Served

The second office the Bible prescribes is the office of deacon. The word deacon means a servant. The first account we see of deacons comes from Acts 6. The apostles needed some men within the congregation to help serve food for the widows and orphans. Paul’s first letter to Timothy also lays out the requirements for a deacon. One day soon, we will be adding some deacons to our leadership here.

Committee Operated

In most modern churches, committee is a bad word. However, they are necessary for the function of a church. When Paul talks about the different gifts of the body in 1 Cor. 12, he emphasizes that we’re all different and have different ways to serve.

Congregationally Approved

It will be important to have a membership business meeting once a quarter to discuss church business. If we aren’t in a majority consensus with something, then it needs to be addressed. But that can only be the members and not just attendees.

What does Journey expect of its members?

We expect faithful attendance, faithful giving, and faithful living. In the event you fall short, we as a church is here to lift you up and also hold you accountable. The Bible prescribes a method of church discipline which Journey Church will follow.