Bowling Green Covenant Church

Dear BG Covenant Church,

Here is an excerpt for our Membership Handbook which explains why church membership is important.  The membership class starts this Sunday after our regular church service. We have plenty of handbooks, so if you have been undecided about becoming a member of BG Covenant Church, you can still stop by Sunday and see what it is all about.  Pastor Malanga will be happy to talk with you.  Childcare will be available and lunch will be served.

Why is Church Membership Important?

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”—Acts 2.42

“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Ephesians 3.10,11

At Bowling Green Covenant Church (BGCC) we welcome people who attend our church. We encourage those who attend to worship, share the Lord’s Supper and hear the preaching of God’s Word with us. We also believe it is biblical to ask people who attend our church to consider making the commitment to become members of our church.

The Scriptures cited above illustrate the wisdom of making the commitment for membership in a local church. Acts 2.42 teaches that church membership connects us with a community of people focused on trying their best to follow Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3.10,11 tells us that church membership connects us to a mission that is larger than ourselves, as well as helping to define our purpose as followers of Jesus Christ. It is through the church that God has chosen to display His manifold (literally, multicolored) wisdom. Thus the diversity of the church’s membership is the grace of God in action.

We invite people to become members of our church because we are convinced from Scripture that the church is a community of people through whom and in whom God the Holy Spirit is working to build the kingdom of God by telling people about Jesus Christ.

The New Testament teaches that when a man or a woman made a faith commitment to follow Jesus Christ they did so in the context of a community of other men and women. The Bible makes it clear that membership in the church needs to be based on more than just a solid record of attendance at Sunday services. Before a man or a woman makes the commitment to become a member of the church, he or she must first make the commitment to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Jesus defined the requirements for becoming His follower, or what the Bible calls a “disciple” (literally, learner) in a nighttime conversation with a man named Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish religious leader. In the conversation, Jesus challenged the way Nicodemus understood what it meant to be a follower of God. As you read the following passage from the Gospel of John, put yourself in Nicodemus’ sandals and imagine hearing Jesus’ words the way he might have heard them.