Covenanting Together

Several years ago, at the Golden Globes, Christian Bale (the actor who plays Batman in three of the more recent movies in that franchise) accepted an award. In his acceptance speech, he said it was Satan who gave him “inspiration for playing [the] role.”[i] The Twitter account for the “Church of Satan” later tweeted a sort of thank you, saying, “To us, Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential.” Note that they speak of Satan as a “symbol,” and not a person… a symbol of pride, of liberty (freedom to do what you want), and of individualism(freedom to be who you want).

Last Sunday night, at the Grammys, two performers displayed an all-out worship ceremony for Satan. (Just in case you’re wondering… I don’t watch the Globes or the Grammys, but I do know how to do research.) One of the performers at the Grammys later said that the whole thing was “a take” on “being able to live the way [you] want… to live.”[ii] For this person, the satanic imagery was a way to pay tribute to the idea of personal autonomy – to live how you want without anyone giving you limitations.

Friends, it seems to me that one of the main assumptions in our culture today is that our highest good is achieved when we are completely free to be and to do whatever we want. We assume that our desires must have no restraint… and anyone who thinks or says otherwise is judgy or a bigot or oppressive. Now, none of us are probably going to argue that we want to worship Satan, but all of us are affected by the water we swim in everyday… And all of us have a sort of built-in expectation that “nobody is going to tell me what to do or who to be.”

But I’m going to argue today that we all desperately need limitations. In fact, to put it plainly, living without limitations is an illusion, and giving free reign to your own personal desires and preferences is the fastest way to self-destruction.

From the earliest days of Christianity, Christians have committed or “devoted” themselves to learning and to living according to “the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). That is, Christians devoted themselves to living limited or regulated lives. This’s what we read in the book of Acts, and we see it taught and exemplified all throughout the New Testament letters.

One of the earliest Christian documents (other than the Bible) is called the Didache, which simply means “teaching.” It was compiled in the second century, and it’s a list of Christian regulations, both for individuals and for the local church. The Didache begins by saying, “There are two ways [to live], one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways.” And then it describes rules for Christian living in 16 short chapters. Christians are to “love the God that made [them],” they are to love their “neighbor as [themselves],” and they are to practice this love as defined in God’s commands.

In short, Christian living is the constant striving against the temptation to do and be what you want and the constant striving toward doing and being what the Bible says we ought… in every area of life.

Friends, we might think that Christian living is especially hard or counter-cultural in our own day, but the fact is that Christian living is the opposite of human nature since Genesis 3. It’s always counter-cultural to live as a Christian in this fallen and sinful world, and it’s always hard to war against our own sinful desires… and that’s why we need help to do it.

Today, I’m going to preach a topical sermon on the need for and the purpose of a Church Membership Covenant. This is the second installment in our monthly topical series for 2023. As most of you know, the normal method of preaching at FBC Diana is expositional, where the main point of the sermon is drawn from the main point of the text of the Bible. But once a month, we break from that normal practice in order to preach a topical message on some concept or doctrine that is particularly relevant to our life as a church and/or to our cultural moment.

In January, I tried to argue that Christian living centers around or begins with one’s relationship to a local church. A sinner hears the gospel, repents and believes, and comes into the visible kingdom of Christ – the local church. And churches provide the only authoritative structure and context for Christian living. If you want to talk more about that, then let’s get lunch or coffee sometime.

Today we are taking one more step toward building out a biblical perspective of Christian living. Christians, by definition, have moral boundaries, set by Christ Himself, and a Membership Covenant helps us understand what at least some of those boundaries are and how to live within them.

As happens every Sunday, I can’t speak to everything we need to know in order to really grasp this topic… our seats and our minds can only take so much. So, I’m going to reiterate that this sermon (like all others) is meant to be the substance of further conversation… not just an interesting speech that makes you feel one way or another. This means you should write down questions, you should remember one or two statements, you should think about concepts I’m explaining or mentioning, and you should discuss these with other Christians in your life.

Our Scripture reading for today is from a section of Paul’s letter to the Romans, a section that really emphasizes Christian living, after Paul has already spent a lot of ink on Christian doctrine or theology. The Bible is interested in teaching us what to believe and also teaching us how to live based on that belief.

As we read this passage together, I want you to look especially for statements of command – “Do this.” or “Don’t do that.” And I want you to look for the context in which these commands are to be obeyed… Is this talking about stuff to do or not do on my own, or in relationship with other Christians?

Let’s stand together as I read Romans 12:1-13…

Scripture Reading

Romans 12:1–13 (ESV)

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Main Idea:

A good church membership covenant summarizes my responsibilities to live as a Christian along with other Christians.

Sermon

1. Keeping the Old Ways

Our Scripture this morning is chock-full of commands. Verse 1, do “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” to the Lord. Verse 2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,” which happens as we read and study and apply Scripture to all of life. Verse 3, do “not… think” more “highly” of yourself than you ought, but do “think with sober judgment” about your abilities, your maturity, your knowledge, and your life. Verse 6, do“use” the “gifts” that you have, which are “given” to you by God’s “grace,” to benefit others.

I could go on, but you get the idea. As I said already, the Bible is interested in teaching us how to live, just as much as it is interested in teaching us what to believe. And a good membership covenant is one that summarizes my responsibilities to live as a Christian along with other Christians, based on commands just like the ones we see in Romans 12.

For the members of FBC Diana, it will come as no surprise that we have all committed or covenanted together to live according to some clearly stated and biblically grounded rules or standards. However, it may be surprising for some to learn that this is not new. Indeed, it is very, very old.

From their beginning, Baptists have covenanted together to form local congregations. In fact, I want to argue that Baptists are simply following in the footsteps of our earliest Christian ancestors. As I already pointed out in my introduction, the first church in Jerusalem was populated by members who “devoted themselves” to “the apostles’ teaching,” which included instructions about both what to believe and how to live (Acts. 2:42). They may not have had a written summary in the form of a covenant, but they were doing the same thing.

One of the earliest Baptist church covenants is from Swansea Baptist Church in Rehoboth, MA, in 1663.[iii] But the most widely used covenant among Baptists was created in 1853, by a man named J. Newton Brown. And this covenant was so commonly used among Baptists that it was included in the 1956 edition of the Baptist Hymnal (the songbook almost every Baptist church used for decades).

At least as early as November of 1940, and probably as early as September 1925, when FBC Diana was still called James Baptist Church, J. Newton Brown’s covenant was used by our own church. And it was even printed at the front of the church’s record books, which were published by the Baptist Sunday School board.

Let me read a portion of that covenant to you.

“Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior; and, on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we do now, in the presence of God, angels, and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another, as one body in Christ.”

The word covenant means promise, and these are some of the promises made by members of FBC Diana throughout the early and mid-1900s.

“We engage… by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love; to strive for the advancement of this church, in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.”

They promised to “maintain family… [Bible reading and prayer]; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances… to be just in our dealings, faithful in our [work], and exemplary in our [behavior]; to avoid all tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger…”

They promised to “watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress… to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Savior, to secure it without delay.”

And finally, they promised to “unite with some other church” as “soon as possible” when they leave this one, and to “carry out the spirit of this covenant” with their new church family in the same way as they had done with us.

Brother and sisters, I praise God where I see many of us living in keeping with these promises. And I pray that we will all strive in this same direction. This membership covenant is not exactly the same as the one we use today, but the spirit or heart is the same in both.

You know, over the last few years, I’ve been able to talk with several other pastors of churches near and far who have heard about the changes we’ve experienced as a church in recent years. I sometimes hear about how other churches are wanting to take membership more seriously, and I hear that a pastor or member of another church is interested to learn about our efforts. What a joy it is to tell other pastors and other church’s members about how the Lord has worked so mightily among us to bring about the kind of health and growth we have now!

You should all know that our church is earning a good reputation for being the kind of church that aims for faithful and meaningful Christianity. Of course, not everyone in our community has a positive perspective of what we’ve done. Many people who want less accountability or less responsibility don’t at all like the way we prioritize the sort of promises that used to be common among Evangelical churches. But time will tell whether the freedom to do and be what you want is better or worse than the Bible-regulated living we are striving for.

May God help us to keep striving for faithfulness, may God help us to talk about the gospel with others, and may God produce much fruit from our efforts.

2. Knowing One Another

Remember, I’m arguing that a good church membership covenant simply summarizes my responsibilities to live as a Christian along with other Christians. Notice in our main passage that at least some of the commands explicitly include the phrase, “one another.” This phrase shows up more than 50 times in the New Testament, and it is almost always referring to fellow church members.

Look at v10 with me. The Scripture commands Christians to “love one another with brotherly affection,” and to “outdo one another in showing honor” (v10). Now, before ever you try to understand what the Bible means by “love” or “showing honor,” you should ask yourself: “Who is my ‘one another’?” You and I will never obey these commands if we don’t know who we’re supposed to “love” and “honor” (or value). So, who is your “one another”?

I’ll go ahead and give you the answer to this question to save us a little time this morning, and it’s right there in v4-5. Paul uses the analogy of a human “body,” which has various “members” (eyes, hands, feet, mouth, etc.), each with different “functions” (v4). And he says that a local church is like that – “one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (v5).

This concept is where the phrase church member or church membership comes from. And the analogy here only works if the various members are attached to one another in some meaningful way.

There is a sense in which all true Christians are members of Christ’s invisible or universal body, which will become visible as a united assembly on the last day. But until then, local churches are where the whole world sees Christ’s body become visible right now! In our loving and regulated relationships with one another, both we and the world outside are able to see a foretaste of the eternal kingdom of Christ!

Therefore, your “one another” (if you are a Christian) is that body of Christians to whom you are joined by a shared love for Jesus and a shared love for one another. In other words, your “one another” is your fellow church members.

Friends, I wonder if some of us realize just how much our own spiritual health and growth is tied to our relationships with other Christians. Why has God given some of us the gift of “service” (v7), if not to serve one another? Why has God given some of us the gift of “teaching” (v7), if not to teach one another? Why has God given some of us the gifts of “leadership” or “generosity” or “zeal” (v8), if not to employ those gifts for the benefit of those other Christians around us?

And think of the flip side of these commands. Don’t these commands imply that we all need to be served and taught and led? Don’t these imply that at least some of us will need the generous “contributions” of others? Don’t these imply that at least some of us will need “acts of mercy” from those who are “zealous” or eager to do them? Of course, they do! We need each other!

Sometimes we will be on the giving end, and sometimes on the receiving end, but God has designed this whole thing to work when Christians understand themselves to be members of a tangible body… a body of Christians who know our names and our addresses… a body of Christians who take responsibility for our spiritual health, and those for whom we commit to take responsibility as well.

Friends, the world around us tells us all day every day that what we need is personal freedom to do and to be what we want. Gloria Steinem, and others in the feminist movement, tell us, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” The “family” depictions on TV and movies show us that kids (not parents) are the smart and capable ones. The most famous celebrities of our day are those who transgress and those who express their own individuality.

But the core message of Christianity begins with the hard truth that every one of us needs a Savior to come and rescue us from a world of guilt and shame… a world of our own making. The gospel is a message of salvation through the work of someone else, and a call to turn away from what we want in order to grab hold of what we need. And the gospel itself calls those who believe it into a new way of living… one that is not defined by individualism or the freedom to do and be what you want. Rather Christian living begins when we recognize our desperate need for Christ and for other Christians… and we must believe this and commit ourselves to this counter-cultural way of life… both for our own sake and for the sake of others.

3. Covenanting Together

In just a little while, at the end of this sermon, I’m going to lead us in observing the Lord’s Supper. And it is our custom to read through our membership covenant as part of our preparation to observe the Supper together as a church. We also publicly read our covenant at the beginning of our members’ meetings, and we try to keep these promises on the front of our minds for many good reasons.

One of the main reasons we read our membership covenant when we’re observing the Lord’s Supper is to remind us that our relationship with Christ is not individualistic, but rather communal.

Think of how John says it in Scripture. He writes, in 1 John, “we proclaim” to “you” the “word of life” so that “you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn. 1:1-3). And again, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn. 4:7). And, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen… whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 Jn. 4:20-21).

Friends, our fellowship with God is definitionally tied to our relationships with other Christians. Our love for God in Christ will necessarily affect our love and care and engagement with other Christians. Therefore, we may get a good glimpse of our love for God in the way we engage with fellow church members.

Let’s consider our membership covenant together for a bit this morning… and let’s consider how these promises are meant to summarize our responsibilities as Christians who walk this pilgrim path alongside other Christians.

1) I promise to submit to the Bible, and the truths it contains, in all areas of my life (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Deuteronomy 6:5, 17-18). This submission to the Bible begins when we are confronted by the gospel. We learn the truth about ourselves, the truth about God, and the truth about what God has done to reconcile or save or justify sinners like us. If you want to learn more about these things, then hang around for a while after the service and talk with someone… or get a phone number and make plans to talk about it over a meal later on.

But the moment of our conversion (when we first repent and believe) is not where our submission to the Bible ends… that’s where it begins! Christian living is the life-long practice of striving to understand what the Bible teaches and striving to apply and obey the Bible in all areas of life. This is what church members are committing or promising to do, because this is what Christians do together.

2) I promise to participate regularly in the life and function of this local church (Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:23-25; Titus 3:14). If you think of a church as an event or as a building, then you probably will think of church meetings or activities here. But that’s not really what this promise is getting at. A local church is the collected body of its members, so this promise is referring to the lives of its members and the function of making disciples in our everyday lives.

Brothers and sisters, we can’t know every church member with the same level of intimacy and knowledge, but this should not hinder us from knowing at least some fellow church members very well. Do you know the Tanners or the Turners well enough to know the names of their kids, the normal routine of their families, and the prayer concerns they are lifting to God during this season of life? Do you know BJ and Tina Berry, or Joe and Sandra West, or Duck and Janice Vickery… or Charlotte Henson, or Kandi Grissom, or Russ Holland well enough to know how to pray for them, how to encourage them, or how to be a practical help to them? If not, why not? And if so, then let’s invite each other into our lives.

If you’re an older woman, how are you “teaching what is good” and “training the young women” of our church to grow into mature womanhood (Titus 2:3-4)? If you’re an older man, how are you living with a “sober-mind” and “dignity” and “self-control,” and how are you investing your time and effort into young men in order to help them do the same (Titus 2:2)?

3) I promise to read the Bible, pray, and assemble with this household of faith (Deuteronomy 10:12-13; Matthew 22:37-40). This promise focuses on our mutual commitment to apply ourselves to the ordinary means of grace. As most of us can testify, the race toward Christian maturity is not a sprint… it is a marathon. And we need to put one foot in front of the other, doing the basic stuff Christians do (Bible reading, prayer, gathering on the Lord’s Day) for our whole lives.

It should also be clear (but I’m going to say it anyway) that it’s the responsibility of church leaders to teach you how to run (as the Bible commands), to urge and encourage you as you run, and to give you examples of what it looks like to run well (not perfectly, but faithfully)… but each church member also has the responsibility to get on the path and run! And this is exactly what we’ve all promised to do… to get on the path and to run… as well as we may… up the hills and down the slopes… on rainy days and sunny ones… sometimes barely doing the survivor’s shuffle… but running the race, until Christ comes.

4) I promise to serve others rather than expecting others to satisfy my preferences (Philippians 2:3-8). This is the sort of promise and command we see right in our primary passage for today. We are to “love one another with brotherly affection” and to “outdo one another in showing honor” (v10). Furthermore, we are to “use” our “gifts,” not to elevate ourselves, but to serve one another and to build up the body (v6; cf. 1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 4:11-16). Friends, if we are looking for ways to serve others, then we will have a lot less time to fuss about what we’re not getting for ourselves.

5) I promise to lead my family in healthy membership practices (Genesis 2:24; Deuteronomy 6:4; Ephesians 5:22-26, 32-33; Ephesians 6:1-4). This promise is emphasizing our willingness to take the initiative to meet the basic expectations for church membership, and to lead others in our households to do this as well.

In our membership classes, we list five basic expectations for church members: (1) regular Sunday morning attendance, (2) regular attendance at occasional members’ meetings, (3) active effort to be in discipling relationships with at least some fellow church members, (4) regular prayer for fellow church members, and (5) thoughtful financial contributions to the ministry of FBC Diana. If you are a member of this church, then this is what you’ve signed up for, and you’ve also signed up to hold the rest of your immediate family accountable to do these things.

Friends, this is Christianity 101, and these are the sorts of practices that will produce spiritual fruit and maturity over time. Resist or neglect them, and you will suffer loss; practice them, and you will grow… and so will others around you.

6) I promise to cheerfully and willingly give all that I am able to the work of God through this church (Matthew 25:14-30; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8-9; 1 Peter 4:10-11). This promise makes clear that every church member is taking responsibility to contribute financially to the ongoing ministry of FBC Diana. The reason we have a building to meet in is because church members in the 70s and 80s gave generously to pay for it. The reason we have a full-time pastor/elder, heating and air-conditioning, and a whole host of other amenities is because church members today give generously to cover the expense.

I praise God for our financial situation today! We are able to pay our bills, and we finished last year in the black (or as I usually say, in the green). There is always more we’d like to do, but God supplies us well through the regular contributions of our church members.

Notice, however, that the promise we make to give is qualified by three words in our covenant. We promise to give cheerfully, that is not begrudgingly. We promise to give willingly, not out of compulsion or legalism. And we promise to give as we are able. This means that none of us should go into personal debt in order to give an offering. None of us can give what we do not have, and we should all take care to prioritize our spending and our giving so that we are honoring God with our finances… whether that means giving less for a while or giving more.

7) I promise to strive towards a life of holiness, righteousness, and Christ-likeness (1 Peter 1:13-16, 4:1-3). This promise carries both a positive and a negative action. Positively, we are all committed to grow in our obedience to Christ. We want to live lives of holiness, and we want to aim for righteousness (think virtue or good character or morals). But negatively, we are all committed to resist temptation to sin, to repent or turn away from those sins that are common to us, and to confess and repent again when we do sin.

Friends, Christians are not sinless, but all true Christians genuinely want to be… And we promise to strive for holiness until Christ returns to complete the job.

8) I promise to submit to and participate in biblical discipline and accountability (Psalm 141:5; Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13; Hebrews 12:5-11). This promise gets into what we all expect to happen when someone decides to neglect or rebel against these commitments we’re focusing on today. What if one of us is persistently absent from the regular gathering on the Lord’s day? What if one of us is often getting drunk, or sleeping around outside of marriage, or getting into fights? Are we as fellow church members to simply leave well enough alone?

No! If we really do love one another, then we will not stand silently by while a fellow church member pours gasoline all over himself and reaches for a match. We have signed up to hold one another accountable… not because we legalistically want to police each other… but because we really do believe that sin is bad… It’s soul-destroying bad, and we love each other enough to speak up and even to dive in… in the hope of rescuing a wayward brother or sister.

I realize how counter-cultural this is, and even many Christians today find the idea of church discipline intolerable, but no loving parent lets their kid play in the street, and no loving brother or sister sits by to watch their sibling drown… so too, no loving church family turns a blind eye toward sinning church members.

9) I promise to honor my covenant with the other members of FBC Diana (Titus 3:1-11; Joshua 1:6-9; Philippians 4:13). And here we’ve come to a sort of summary promise, a commitment to honor or to hold in high regard these promises and this relationship we have with fellow church members.

We all understand that the relationships we have and the promises we’ve made are important… both to us and to others. We don’t enter this relationship lightly, and we don’t treat it carelessly as we go. We remember that other Christians have committed themselves to our good, and we remember that we’ve committed ourselves to theirs.

In other words (to point back to Romans 12), we have committed to a “genuine” love (v9)… a love that is sincere and not hypocritical. And this way of genuine Christian living… is made explicit in a good church membership covenant… which simply summarizes my responsibility to live as a Christian… along with other Christians around me.

If you’re a church member, then you have always have a job to do, and you always have a ready and eager bunch of friends who have signed up to be involved in your messy and wonderful and sometimes bizarre life… We can’t solve all the world’s problems, but we can make an eternal difference in the lives of those brothers and sisters around us… May God help us, and may He grant us fruit.

Endnotes

[i] See the full Vanity Fair article here: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/01/golden-globes-2019-christian-bale-speech-satan [ii] See this quote among others listed in the article here: https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/sam-smiths-unholy-performance-at-the-grammys-reminds-people-of-the-church-satan [iii] See the Swansea Baptist Church covenant here: http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/ma.swansea.bapt.covenant.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aland, Kurt, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, eds. Novum Testamentum Graece. 28th ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. Logos Research Edition. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.

Schaeffer, Francis A. How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture. Logos Research Edition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Logos Research Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Logos Research Edition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009.

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Logos Research Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.

The NET Bible First Edition. Logos Research Edition. Biblical Studies Press, 2005.

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