Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.
Today's topic:
What are the expectations for a member of MCC?
Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The premise of church membership is that local gatherings of Christians committed to Jesus and to one another are the primary expression of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
The gospel is not just about how God saves us from the “dominion of darkness,” it’s also a message about how God saves us into the “kingdom of the Son he loves” - a kingdom bustling with other redeemed sinners who, like us, are now citizens of heaven (see Colossians 1:13, Ephesians 2:19). The gospel is about how God reconciles us back to him, and reconciles us to his people.
By joining a church, we commit to other redeemed sinners and show the world that Christ has indeed reconciled us both to God and to each other. It’s not enough to merely have Christian friends with whom we occasionally gather - friends we pick and choose according to our own tastes. What truly displays the gospel is when we commit to love and care for a group of people that includes folks utterly unlike us. We display the gospel when we gather each week to serve people who sometimes share only one thing in common with us: Jesus.
The Apostle Paul in his letters to the brand new church in the years after Jesus’s life and personal ministry emphasized the familial nature of the community of believers. Though they came from a variety of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, Paul said the church is a family because its members share the most important core identifying characteristic: they believed in and followed the crucified and risen Messiah Jesus.
“...so in Christ,” Paul writes in Romans 12:5, “we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
And in Ephesians 2:19, he says “...you are members of God’s very own family...and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.”
The example set for us by the New Testament Christians is that faith was always practiced in group settings, together in communities centered around the truth and grace of the gospel. The New Testament knows nothing of rogue believers who are saved and committed to Christ but remain uncommitted to the people of Christ. When we commit to the Jesus-filled life, we agree to prioritize this core characteristic over our other identities and personal preferences.
Though we may sometimes be tempted, this means we cannot live out our faith alone. We must do it together, in a church family. A survey of the New Testament reveals quickly that the Christian life is not merely about affirming the right doctrines or about pursuing individual, isolated virtues. Instead, scripture consistently shows that the Christian life revolves around the local church - a structured community with people of different ages, ethnicities, interests, and economic backgrounds.
To be a Christian is to belong to a church. Church membership is how the world knows who represents Jesus. Church membership does not save, but it does reflect salvation.
Ok, let’s say you buy all of that. You’ve committed your life to Christ and to his church. Now what? How do you “reflect salvation”?
There are a number of different ways to think about and communicate what commitment to the local church - membership - should look like. The rest of this Theology Thursday is what the MCC elders and I came up with last fall when we were working and praying through the process of creating our membership policy (if you’d like to see the full document, just ask!).
MCC members are expected to exercise their membership by participating in church life in the following ways:
Belonging
Belonging to a church means investing one’s life in a gospel-centered community of believers who joyfully serve one another and advance Jesus’s mission together.
MCC members will work to elevate the very concept of church; they won’t treat the church as unimportant, unnecessary, or an inconvenience. The church is imperfect but indispensable to faithful Christian discipleship.
MCC members will belong to and in the church in a very real sense. They will commit to pray for the church, give and receive friendship and counsel, invest in and take responsibility for the success of church events and efforts, and generally orient their lives around the rhythms of church life.
Welcoming
Division and partiality are realities in our world. The church is meant to be a place of peace, providing a glimpse of the unity and missional commonality to come in the Kingdom of Heaven.
MCC members will welcome all who earnestly pursue Jesus, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, religious background, or other worldly identifying factors. Being “welcoming” is not the same as being “affirming” of all decisions or identities, but it does mean a posture of love and warmth for those who are different.
MCC members won’t be snobs and won’t play favorites. They will actively work to welcome outsiders and those who are alone (sit by the single person!). They will reflect on the grace of Christ and seek to extend that grace to others. They will ask God to help make them aware of any pride or prejudice in their own hearts, and stamp it out.
Gathering
Physically joining together for worship is essential to discipleship, evangelism, growth, education, formation, and community. The various elements of the worship service - scripture reading, communion, corporate singing, prayer, teaching and preaching, giving - all contribute to the development of the mind and the heart.
MCC members will show up to church! They will practice the ministry of attendance (Let us not neglect meeting together… - Hebrews 10:25)
Attendance on Sundays will be the norm, absences will be the exception. Habits shape. The habit of church attendance help shape what type of Jesus-followers MCCers will become.
Caring
At least 23 times in the New Testament, God through his biblical authors commands believers to love and care for one another. The primary opportunity for living out this command is through the church.
MCC members will rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15), bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11) toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), and be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10). MCC members will also care for those in the Love20 community who are in need. They will act as the hands and feet of Jesus, who not only came teaching, but who also fed the hungry and cared for the sick.
MCC members will be patient and gentle with each other, and work toward peaceful reconciliation of differences, placing the unity of the whole body ahead of personal preferences.
Serving
Followers of Christ are not spectators in a church, but servants of Christ’s church. By God’s great mercy he has bestowed upon all his children spiritual gifts. In urgent anticipation of Jesus’s return, those gifts will be put to work for his glory.
MCC members will contribute to the ministry of the church by serving on the ministry team(s) that most align with their gifting. They will remember that discipleship consists of more than just knowing things, it means living out an active faith that demonstrates the life and light of Christ through good works.
MCC members will seek out ways to serve the church and the other members; they will volunteer, show up on time, and honor their commitments.
Honoring
Every member of God’s flock needs a humble under-shepherd who serves under the Chief Shepherd (Jesus), and such leaders need to be respected (1 Thessalonians 5:12) and followed (Hebrews 13:7). Then a faithful leader is following Jesus and being submissive to his word, then the people of God are to follow this shepherd joyfully.
MCC members will gently and lovingly hold their leaders accountable for faithfulness and fruitfulness and, having found them to be faithful and producing good fruit, will support them through prayer, attendance at events, attentiveness, kindness, encouragement, responding when called to action, and mature engagement.
When criticism is warranted, it will be communicated privately and with measured wisdom.
Witnessing
The data is clear: the vast majority of people who come through the doors of a church for the first time do so because a friend invited them. Evangelism isn’t reserved for pastors and missionaries - it’s the responsibility of all of God’s people.
MCC members will engage people in the name of Jesus in the everyday course of life - at work, in the grocery store, across the backyard fence, at the soccer game. They will remember that the most powerful witness isn’t perfectly articulated and rehearsed gospel speeches, but living faithfully and loving well.
MCC members will engage with unbelievers with the long-term purpose of conversion, will invite them to church events, will serve them as an expression of Christ’s love, and will provide them resources - prudently and strategically - that may prompt further opportunities.
Giving
Ever since the founding of the church in the book of Acts, its work has been funded by its members. If the ministry of the church is important, then the members of the church must come together to provide financial resources to build and sustain that ministry. A church is only as healthy as its financial stability. Giving tithes and offerings to the church doesn’t just fund essential gospel work, it’s also spiritually formative for the giver.
MCC members will give a portion of their financial resources back to God, through the church. Through their giving, MCC members will be formed in generosity, will be reminded that our resources are a blessing from God we are to steward, and will be caused to more deeply participate in something bigger than themselves. Kingdom work is only ever possible by the work of the Spirit and the generosity of God’s people.
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady
Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.
Today's topic:
What are the expectations for a member of MCC?
Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The premise of church membership is that local gatherings of Christians committed to Jesus and to one another are the primary expression of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
The gospel is not just about how God saves us from the “dominion of darkness,” it’s also a message about how God saves us into the “kingdom of the Son he loves” - a kingdom bustling with other redeemed sinners who, like us, are now citizens of heaven (see Colossians 1:13, Ephesians 2:19). The gospel is about how God reconciles us back to him, and reconciles us to his people.
By joining a church, we commit to other redeemed sinners and show the world that Christ has indeed reconciled us both to God and to each other. It’s not enough to merely have Christian friends with whom we occasionally gather - friends we pick and choose according to our own tastes. What truly displays the gospel is when we commit to love and care for a group of people that includes folks utterly unlike us. We display the gospel when we gather each week to serve people who sometimes share only one thing in common with us: Jesus.
The Apostle Paul in his letters to the brand new church in the years after Jesus’s life and personal ministry emphasized the familial nature of the community of believers. Though they came from a variety of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, Paul said the church is a family because its members share the most important core identifying characteristic: they believed in and followed the crucified and risen Messiah Jesus.
“...so in Christ,” Paul writes in Romans 12:5, “we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
And in Ephesians 2:19, he says “...you are members of God’s very own family...and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.”
The example set for us by the New Testament Christians is that faith was always practiced in group settings, together in communities centered around the truth and grace of the gospel. The New Testament knows nothing of rogue believers who are saved and committed to Christ but remain uncommitted to the people of Christ. When we commit to the Jesus-filled life, we agree to prioritize this core characteristic over our other identities and personal preferences.
Though we may sometimes be tempted, this means we cannot live out our faith alone. We must do it together, in a church family. A survey of the New Testament reveals quickly that the Christian life is not merely about affirming the right doctrines or about pursuing individual, isolated virtues. Instead, scripture consistently shows that the Christian life revolves around the local church - a structured community with people of different ages, ethnicities, interests, and economic backgrounds.
To be a Christian is to belong to a church. Church membership is how the world knows who represents Jesus. Church membership does not save, but it does reflect salvation.
Ok, let’s say you buy all of that. You’ve committed your life to Christ and to his church. Now what? How do you “reflect salvation”?
There are a number of different ways to think about and communicate what commitment to the local church - membership - should look like. The rest of this Theology Thursday is what the MCC elders and I came up with last fall when we were working and praying through the process of creating our membership policy (if you’d like to see the full document, just ask!).
MCC members are expected to exercise their membership by participating in church life in the following ways:
Belonging
Belonging to a church means investing one’s life in a gospel-centered community of believers who joyfully serve one another and advance Jesus’s mission together.
MCC members will work to elevate the very concept of church; they won’t treat the church as unimportant, unnecessary, or an inconvenience. The church is imperfect but indispensable to faithful Christian discipleship.
MCC members will belong to and in the church in a very real sense. They will commit to pray for the church, give and receive friendship and counsel, invest in and take responsibility for the success of church events and efforts, and generally orient their lives around the rhythms of church life.
Welcoming
Division and partiality are realities in our world. The church is meant to be a place of peace, providing a glimpse of the unity and missional commonality to come in the Kingdom of Heaven.
MCC members will welcome all who earnestly pursue Jesus, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, religious background, or other worldly identifying factors. Being “welcoming” is not the same as being “affirming” of all decisions or identities, but it does mean a posture of love and warmth for those who are different.
MCC members won’t be snobs and won’t play favorites. They will actively work to welcome outsiders and those who are alone (sit by the single person!). They will reflect on the grace of Christ and seek to extend that grace to others. They will ask God to help make them aware of any pride or prejudice in their own hearts, and stamp it out.
Gathering
Physically joining together for worship is essential to discipleship, evangelism, growth, education, formation, and community. The various elements of the worship service - scripture reading, communion, corporate singing, prayer, teaching and preaching, giving - all contribute to the development of the mind and the heart.
MCC members will show up to church! They will practice the ministry of attendance (Let us not neglect meeting together… - Hebrews 10:25)
Attendance on Sundays will be the norm, absences will be the exception. Habits shape. The habit of church attendance help shape what type of Jesus-followers MCCers will become.
Caring
At least 23 times in the New Testament, God through his biblical authors commands believers to love and care for one another. The primary opportunity for living out this command is through the church.
MCC members will rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15), bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11) toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), and be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10). MCC members will also care for those in the Love20 community who are in need. They will act as the hands and feet of Jesus, who not only came teaching, but who also fed the hungry and cared for the sick.
MCC members will be patient and gentle with each other, and work toward peaceful reconciliation of differences, placing the unity of the whole body ahead of personal preferences.
Serving
Followers of Christ are not spectators in a church, but servants of Christ’s church. By God’s great mercy he has bestowed upon all his children spiritual gifts. In urgent anticipation of Jesus’s return, those gifts will be put to work for his glory.
MCC members will contribute to the ministry of the church by serving on the ministry team(s) that most align with their gifting. They will remember that discipleship consists of more than just knowing things, it means living out an active faith that demonstrates the life and light of Christ through good works.
MCC members will seek out ways to serve the church and the other members; they will volunteer, show up on time, and honor their commitments.
Honoring
Every member of God’s flock needs a humble under-shepherd who serves under the Chief Shepherd (Jesus), and such leaders need to be respected (1 Thessalonians 5:12) and followed (Hebrews 13:7). Then a faithful leader is following Jesus and being submissive to his word, then the people of God are to follow this shepherd joyfully.
MCC members will gently and lovingly hold their leaders accountable for faithfulness and fruitfulness and, having found them to be faithful and producing good fruit, will support them through prayer, attendance at events, attentiveness, kindness, encouragement, responding when called to action, and mature engagement.
When criticism is warranted, it will be communicated privately and with measured wisdom.
Witnessing
The data is clear: the vast majority of people who come through the doors of a church for the first time do so because a friend invited them. Evangelism isn’t reserved for pastors and missionaries - it’s the responsibility of all of God’s people.
MCC members will engage people in the name of Jesus in the everyday course of life - at work, in the grocery store, across the backyard fence, at the soccer game. They will remember that the most powerful witness isn’t perfectly articulated and rehearsed gospel speeches, but living faithfully and loving well.
MCC members will engage with unbelievers with the long-term purpose of conversion, will invite them to church events, will serve them as an expression of Christ’s love, and will provide them resources - prudently and strategically - that may prompt further opportunities.
Giving
Ever since the founding of the church in the book of Acts, its work has been funded by its members. If the ministry of the church is important, then the members of the church must come together to provide financial resources to build and sustain that ministry. A church is only as healthy as its financial stability. Giving tithes and offerings to the church doesn’t just fund essential gospel work, it’s also spiritually formative for the giver.
MCC members will give a portion of their financial resources back to God, through the church. Through their giving, MCC members will be formed in generosity, will be reminded that our resources are a blessing from God we are to steward, and will be caused to more deeply participate in something bigger than themselves. Kingdom work is only ever possible by the work of the Spirit and the generosity of God’s people.
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady
Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.
Posted in Theology Thursdays
Recent
Theology Thursday: This is our homecoming
April 17th, 2025
Teaching Tuesday: Dying Breaths - Hosanna to the Humble King
April 15th, 2025
Theology Thursday: MCC Member Expectations
April 10th, 2025
Teaching Tuesday: Dying Breaths - Mission Accomplished
April 8th, 2025
Theology Thursday: No Creed but Christ
April 3rd, 2025
Categories
Archive
2025
January
Theology Thursday: What is the purpose of Scripture?Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - God's BlessingTheology Thursday: Son of God, Son of ManTeaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Knowing GodTheology Thursday: Buffet 2Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Alive in ChristTheology Thursday: Murder is wrong, but...Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Unity in ChristTheology Thursday: God and "Natural" Disasters
February
Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Church MembershipTheology Thursday: Evil and SufferingTeaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Experiencing God's LoveTheology Thursday: God Is Into the Details (Exodus 25-30)Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Church GrowthTheology Thursday: About those Jesus adsTeaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Christian Living
March
Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Christ-centered RelationshipsTheology Thursday: Where We Come FromTeaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Spiritual ConflictTheology Thursday: In essentials, unity...and so onTeaching Tuesday: Dying Breaths - Forsaken?Theology Thursday: Christians Only, but Not the Only ChristiansTheology Thursday: Where Scripture speaks...
2024
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
Teaching Tuesday: 2 JohnTheology Thursday: Eternal SecurityTeaching Tuesday: 3rd JohnTheology Thursday: Cultural ChristianityTeaching Tuesday: RevelationTheology Thursday: God's RegretTeaching Tuesday: Remember Who You AreTheology Thursday: Romans 13 vs Acts 5Teaching Tuesday: Before You VoteTheology Thursday: Guidelines for Christian Voters