Rick Warren kicked off Day 2 of Radicalis with a session on Radical Membership.
The session started off by showing a video about Martin Luther and what he did in church history. Rick reminded everyone on the concept of the conference and what the word Radical means, “to be rooted.”
Here are some thoughts from Pastor Rick:
- Love the stories of people from church history, makes me wonder how much passion I have and if I could do what many of them did (They were truly Revolutionary)
- Being a believer of Jesus, means far more than believing, it also means belonging
- Churches need to have some kind of membership
- At Revolution, we call this partnership
- Church membership needs to be more than having your name on a list
- The difference between an attender and a member is the difference between living together and getting married
- You cannot grow spiritually without being connected to a local body
- When the word church is used in the NT, it almost always is talking about a local body of believers
- If you are going to build a healthy, mature church, you must understand the meaning of radical membership
- Romans 12:5 (membership is about belonging)
- The most used pictures in the Bible for the church is a body and a family
- To have life in you, in biblical terms, you have to be connected to a church
- If God likes me and I like me, but you don’t like me. What’s your problem?
- There is a big difference from attending a service and belonging to a church
- Communicate the value of membership
- You will succeed in what you emphasize
- People will join a church when they understand the meaning and the benefit to joining
- No one joins a church out of conformity today
- Ephesians 2:19
- There are 3 parts to the Christian life (believing (Acts 16:31), belonging (Ephesians 2:19), becoming (Romans 8:29))
- God has never made anything that he didn’t love
- Only in America do we have “floating believers”
- There are 30 commands in the Bible you cannot fulfill if you are not attached to a local body
- You need a team of people who are committed to you to climb whatever mountains lay ahead
- Establish a required membership class
- No one should join a church without knowing where it is going
- For your church to grow, some people are going to have to leave first
- You need to say, “There are lots of ways to reach people and grow a church, but this is how we do it”
- A strong membership class will grow a strong church
- The lead pastor needs to teach the membership class
- A new members class is not a new believers class
- A membership class is about your vision, your values, your strategy, what makes your church different
What questions should a membership class answer?
- What does it mean to trust in Christ (salvation)?
- What is a church and what are the purposes?
- What are the purpose of the church?
- What are the benefits of being a member?
- What are the requirements of a member?
- What are the responsibilities of a member?
- What is the vision and strategy of this church?
- How is the church organized?
- Baptism and communion
- How can I get involved in ministry?
How many classes?
- Have a kids, students and adult class
- Do it in 1 week
Develop a membership covenant
- There are many examples of covenants throughout the Bible and church history
- 2 Corinthians 6:5
- There is a commitment that needs to be made by each follower of Jesus to a local church
- Membership means “Being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ”
- Membership requirements (Salvation, baptism, signed the covenant, go through the class)
Enlist every member into a small group
- People come to a church for a variety of reasons, but they stick for one reason: relationships and responsibility
- Growing churches is not a new thing, it has been happening since the NT (Acts 1:15, 2:41, 2:47, 4:4, 5:14, 5:28, 6:1, 6:7, 21:20)
Where did everyone meet in the book of Acts?
- In the temple courts and houses (Acts 5:42)
- Multi-site, multiple services is not a new idea
- Large group worship (Acts 2:46) and small group community (Romans 16:5)
- To be a healthy church, you need large group worship and small group fellowship
Pingback: Radicalis Notes « My World