Membership and Covenants - Part 1

Over the course of the last several months I have found it necessary to really search out what the Bible says about church membership and covenants.  I have spent hours reading scripture and different articles.  It is now time to put it all together. Here is my conclusion.  I will also attach several links to articles that have solidified my own beliefs.

Please know that this conclusion is my own and that I am open and willing to discuss.

I want to define a covenant, for the purpose of this post as an agreement, contract, commitment, or written promise between two individuals that frequently constitutes a pledge to do or refrain from doing something.

"Church covenants and membership policies list certain requirements for membership and/or describe expected behavior of members, what I am addressing here are not confessions of faith but policies or covenants that bind the behavior of members." (www.wordofhisgrace.org)

Please also know that, I understand that modern day churches need a membership to be recognized as a legal entity and am not opposed to people committing to a church body for this purpose.  I am also not opposed to signing a Statement of Faith as long as those statements follow the definition that "a statement of faith is a statement of the core beliefs of a religious group" and that they are completely scriptural.  Cam said to me one day that I should ask "Am I willing to die for each of those statements?".  Now while, I may not be able to go to the extreme that I would be willing to die for each statement in the one that my church requires, I do at this time believe those to be my core beliefs.  I also have understood that by agreeing to be a member we are also committing ourselves to attendance, giving, prayer and services with that body of Christ.  While these are, in our church, unspoken, they are part of what is understood as stated in the "Why Church Membership?" paper I was given at the time of me becoming a member.

However, what happens when a church requires you to sign anything other than a Statement of Faith.  What does the Bible say about that?

In Part 1, I want to give you several scripture references that I have come across that are used to make an argument for a signed covenant.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

2 Corinthians 8:5

And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

John 13:33-34

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Now while I completely agree that we need fellowship with other believers and that this is highly expressed in the bible, I do not see how any of these confirm for me that I should be willing to sign a paper saying that I am committed to a specific church and promising to "men" that I will do a list of things.  My covenant is with God and if I am truly following Him then it will be by our actions and our faithfulness in belonging to a group that we show we are committed.  Anyone can say/sign that they are committed but it's a lot harder to live it.

I have also heard arguments stating that because God had covenants with people like Abraham, Moses and the Israelites that it is then okay for us to have them too. To some degree they are right, at least about the part of God making covenants between himself and people, but that cannot be compared to a covenant between man and man.  We make a covenant with God when we accept him as our Saviour and Lord.  By His "new covenant" we are freed from all law.  God is perfect and can perfectly uphold that Covenant. As men, we are not perfect and will absolutely not be able to perfectly uphold any man made documents.

There are also several instances in Scripture where there were covenants made between men.  Here are 2 that seem to be used often.
1) Genesis 21 - where Abraham and Abimelech make a treaty at the well of Beersheba
2) Genesis 31 - where Laban and Jacob make a covenant to end the fighting and be friends.  

In both of these cases, wars/fights were in progress and it was decided that a "cease fire" was in order and a deal was made.  So while they did make a covenant to each other it was in the best interests of both parties and it was during a time of war.

Again, I am unable to draw the line to connect what these verses are showing to the covenant or commitment that churches are asking members to sign.

Others have said that since we are willing to covenant ourselves in marriage, why should we "the bride of Christ" not be willing to covenant with a church.  In my opinion, that is a weak argument as the institution of marriage was designed by God and this is clear in scripture.

Ephesians 5:31
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."

While the bible speaks of us being in fellowship with other believers it never says I should leave my father and mother and covenant myself to a specific church.

The 2 links below are articles that I read that give arguments for a covenant.  They are the best I could come up with. There are lots of articles that have great arguments but they don't have any solid scripture to back them up.   If you have any other ones please let me know, I would love to read them.

On to Part 2...

Articles to read...

http://blog.mattalgren.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/saddleback-covenant.pdf

http://www.independencebaptist.org/Online%20Books/The%20Church%20Covenant.pdf