Membership Is Meant To Mean Something

Churches can be weird places sometimes! Some really strange things can happen when we forget what we are really all about. Some of those things involved lists of members.

At its worst, if you were look at the list of members in a church you might find:

·       People who are dead but are still on the roll

·       People who have no real faith but saw membership as a status thing

·       People with no real faith but added to boost the numbers so the church looks good

·       Or, on the other hand, people not being added because the church has to pay a levy based on the number of members

·       People who haven’t been actively involved in the church for decades but are still “members”. Their last expression of faith or commitment might have been 50 years ago

·       People who were added without even knowing it, because someone else thought they were a good person and should be considered a church member.

In other words, sometimes membership rolls mean nothing at all. It is my impression that, with that background, some other churches have looked at a particular Methodist practice and said, “That makes a lot of sense. That is what membership is meant to be about.”

In 1775 (269 years ago), John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist Church and one of my heroes from church history) spent some time meticulously preparing people through teaching and catechesis (questions and answers about the Christian faith), fasting and prayer. He wrote in his diary:

I mentioned to the congregation another means of increasing serious religion which had been frequently practiced by our forefathers, namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul. I explained this for several mornings, and on Friday, many of us kept a fast to the Lord, beseeching him to give us wisdom and strength, to make a promise unto the Lord our God and keep it.

On Monday...I explained once more the nature of such an engagement and the manner of doing it acceptably to God.”

At six in the evening we met for that purpose. After I had recited the tenor of the covenant proposed, all those who desired to give testimony of their entrance into this covenant stood up, to the number of about 1,800 persons. Such a night I scarce ever saw before. Surely the fruit of it shall remain forever.

Can you imagine 1,800 people in a large church in London (a church Wesley had borrowed for the occasion because of the expected numbers) standing together and renewing their covenant before God? No wonder Wesley was delighted and believed that there would be ongoing fruit from people reaffirming their faith.

Notice too that it was a reaffirmation of the covenant. There were undoubtedly new Christians taking part but primarily it was people who had already come to know God, reaffirming their commitment to Him.

Since that beginning in 1755, an annual Covenant Service has been a feature of Methodist churches – normally on the first Sunday of the year. People remember God’s goodness and they reaffirm their commitment to Him.

That first 1755 Covenant Service was long and wordy. It has been modified a lot since then. The traditional covenant prayer says:

'I am no longer my own but yours.

Put me to what you will,

rank me with whom you will;

put me to doing,

put me to suffering;

let me be employed for you,

or laid aside for you,

exalted for you,

or brought low for you;

let me be full,

let me be empty,

let me have all things,

let me have nothing:

I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things

to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

you are mine and I am yours’

So be it

And the Covenant now made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven Amen’

It was a prayer saying, “Father, I am totally yours and all I have is yours. Do with me what you will. Use me however You want.”

As I said earlier, other churches have looked at this Methodist practice and said, “You know what, there is something very valuable, and very significant, in Christians standing before God and reaffirming their faith annually. This makes membership meaningful. It gets away from the silliness of membership lists that mean nothing. We want to take our discipleship seriously.”

It is a big statement: “I am no longer my own but yours. Put me to what You will… I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.” Wesley wasn’t afraid to ask people to give their lives to Jesus.

Jesus also was not afraid to ask people to give their lives to Him. He called people to follow Him. He called people to leave other things behind – leave family, leave wealth, leave security. It is a choice. Is it Jesus, or is it not, because, if it is Jesus, it has to be all for Jesus.

If you are of a certain age, you might remember the song, All for Jesus I surrender; all for Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust You; in Your presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all. All to Thee my blessed Saviour; I surrender all.

There are lots of hymns like that. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. When we sing hymns like that we are, together, making a statement. We dedicate ourselves, once more, to Jesus.

Jesus said some really challenging things. The most important commandment is…

Luke 10:27

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’

Luke 9:23-24

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

None of us is going to be able to do that consistently. We are going to get it wrong time and time again. We want to put Jesus first but we put ourselves first. But is it our heart? Is it our desire to live completely for Jesus? And are we getting closer to the goal? Are we growing? By taking these vows, we are not claiming to be perfect; we are stating an intention to live for Jesus.

Presbyterian churches used to be to refer to Communicant Members and Adherents. Communicant Members had publicly expressed their faith and could therefore take Communion. Adherents were those who were attached, like adhesive. But many churches have adopted this language of mission membership. Again, it is saying that membership is meant to mean something. Membership is not just a formal association or a status within the church, membership is about being an active part of the team. Membership is about being involved, one way or another, in the mission of the church.

John Wesley wrote in his diary, I mentioned to the congregation another means of increasing serious religion which had been frequently practiced by our forefathers, namely, the joining in a covenant to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul. He claimed that this covenant renewal had been frequently practiced by our forefathers. Is that true? Is this a practice with a long heritage?

We can go back in the Bible and we can see a number of times when the nation came together and renewed their commitment to God. We might think of time, at the end of his life, when Joshua stood before the nation. He recounted their history as a people: the patriarch, the exodus, God’s blessing, then:

READ Joshua 24:14-25

He gave them a choice: serve foreign gods if you want to. He told that that this would be hard and if they failed there would be consequences. Still they said, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey Him.”

In 2 Chronicles 15, King Asa of Judah was encouraged by a prophecy and instituted religious reforms, including bringing the people of Judah together in Jerusalem where they made sacrifices and entered a covenant with God.

2 Chronicles 15:14-15

They took an oath to the lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.

There are others after Josiah rediscovered the book of the Law in the temple and when Ezra preached in Nehemiah.

In the New Testament, it is possibly not so much about renewing a covenant but about people responding to the new covenant. In church history there have been many times of renewal and recommitment.

Today is simply an opportunity for us to be part of a long tradition of Christians standing before God and telling Him that we love Him, we trust Him and we are committed to Him, and to each other, to His church and to His mission. For some, this might be the first time they have publicly done that. For others, it is a renewal of that commitment.

There is absolutely no pressure. Some people might struggle with this; some might not be sure they are ready for it. Better to not do it at all than do it with doubts. We have sent out the words of the vows; they will also be on a screen. Are you comfortable saying these words? Do you want to?

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