Welcome New Members

Today you are on stage, because you have expressed a desire to be “all in” with the fellowship of disciples here. These are people that have demonstrated their commitment to the deepest level to this fellowship at FCC. They have attended our membership class, agreed to our doctrinal statement, shared with a team of our elders their salvation story. The elders collectively reviewed their testimonies and are glad to invite them on stage to “show them off” a bit! Don’t you get excited when you have something new to show off.

Here’s the “new shiny members” that we are receiving into the fellowship here at FCC today.

List off names… ( ))

As your pastor, I aspire to uphold you in prayer and to come alongside you with God’s Word to show you our Father’s heart on any and every situation you might find yourself in. I will be a sheepdog on behalf of Jesus for you.

Sheep need to be led, and fed and sometimes restrained and corralled for their own protection. It’s not my job to to lead you or feed you. My job isn’t to restrain or corral you. That is the job of the Great Shepherd…I am just His sheepdog…but so often He will work through me and the rest of the leadership team to do what only HE can do.

I joked about you being a “new shiny things.” You truly are a “new,” “shiny,” “things.”

You are new – (2 Cor. 5:17 – new creations)

You are shiny – (Matt. 5:14-16 – cities on hills / lamps on stands)

We are things / disciples (mathetais) (Matt. 11:29) – we are learners of Jesus.

Your membership here…isn’t the end of your journey with Jesus…you are a disciple… you are a learner alongside us…as HE leads us. Me included…I am just a sheepdog and I will need to learn alongside you as well. I am not the Great Shepherd…but I do submit myself to him. And together we can fulfill our mission to

Be disciples who make and mature more disciples.

To help you remember that you are a new shiny thing…I want to give you this little glow in the dark star as a reminder of who we are to be as members of the church universal.

Jesus said that the way people will know that we are His disciples is by the way we love one another. Paul says that we maintain our shine is by committing to uphold the one another’s of the NT. He says in Philippians 2:14–16…that we are to

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.

Trust me…there are plenty of things to grumble and complain about around here!

Let’s pray