MEMBERSHIP
Church Membership Process
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If you’ve been coming to Trinity and want to take the next step towards officially joining our family (or you’re still on the fence and just want to know more about our heartbeat as a church), then this time is for you. We’ll spend our time sharing the story of how we came to be a church, the importance of a local church in God’s plan for all of us, what we believe as a church and what our life together looks like as a church. Our hope is that you’ll get a well rounded picture of who we are at Trinity and how you can be involved.
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Next, we’ll schedule a brief membership interview with one of our pastors. Don’t be intimidated, this is a time specifically designed for you. At Trinity Church, we don’t believe the church is like a family, we believe the church is a family. Therefore, we want to ensure that everyone that wants to join our family has the opportunity to have a touchpoint with one of our pastors. Our pastors want to get to know you, so they will ask about your testimony, about the gospel, and about how God is at work in your life. This is a great time for you to ask any questions that weren’t answered in our initial orientation. It’s also a great chance for the pastors to get to know you a little better.
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At a regularly scheduled elders’ meeting, the elder that you met with will share a bit about you with the other elders. Collectively the elders will decide to bring you before the church family (members) to be voted into membership or to wait and have more conversations. The reason we would wait is because we believe that membership is a recognition and affirmation (to the best of our limited ability) that you indeed are a born again believer. The last thing we want to do is give affirmation to someone who doesn’t know Jesus - we want to love people well by being intentional in who we call family.
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As a sign of our unwavering commitment to love, support, and cherish new additions to our family, we gather as a congregation to affirm each new member. The reason why we do things this way, as opposed to just having a pastor grant membership, is because when you join a church, you’re not just making a commitment to a pastor. You’re making a commitment to love, care for and serve an entire church community. And that church community is making the same commitment towards you. This is our way of reminding our congregation of the amazing responsibility and honor we have to take care of one another.
Membership Commitments
If the Statement of Faith is what we believe, the Membership Commitments are how we intend to live together. To be a member of a church is to be vitally connected, like a limb (member) to a body. Church membership is not like joining a club for its benefits or services; it is committing oneself to the good of a local body, even as that body commits itself to your good. Our commitments are a set of promises we make to one another as fellow members of Trinity Church.
Our Commitments
Being led by the Spirit of God, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior and supreme treasure of our lives, and to give up ourselves to Him, having been baptized on profession of faith, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God and this assembly, relying on His gracious aid, joyfully and willingly commit to one another as one body in Christ.
Commitment to one another begins with our hearts being transformed by the grace and love of God. Thus, our aim with one another is not merely about behavior, but seeking the glory of God as we increasingly love, enjoy, and reflect Christ.
We commit, by God’s grace, to seek above all things, the glory of God, as we work and pray for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to abide in Christ daily through the reading of Scripture, prayer, and the practice of other spiritual disciplines as we strive to establish faithful habits of personal and family devotions.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to walk together in Christian love, exercising care and watchfulness over each other, and stirring one another up to love and good works.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to listen carefully to one another, to humbly and gently confront one another, and to receive correction from one another as occasion may require.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to disciple any that may be in our care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to remember one another in prayer.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to rejoice at each other’s happiness and to bear each other’s burdens and sorrows with tenderness and sympathy, so that we might multiply our occasions for joy and halve our sorrows.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and remembering that as we have been voluntarily buried by baptism and raised again from the symbolic grave, so there is on us a special calling to now lead a new and holy life.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to proactively declare and demonstrate the gospel to non-Christians as well as, support and pray for people sent out by Trinity Church to mission locally, nationally, and globally.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to contribute to this ministry cheerfully and regularly, through our time, talents, and treasure.
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We commit, by God’s grace, to work together for the ongoing faithful ministry of this church, as we regularly gather to worship, participate in the ordinances, practice church discipline, and guard right doctrine; testing all teaching by the standard of Scripture.
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May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.