For those of you who are members of the church, there was, at some point in the past, a moment in which you stood before the entire congregation and made some promises. You made some promises to yourself; you made some promises to the congregation; you made some promises to God. (For those of you who are considering membership, there will come a time when you make promises like that!) The specific wording of those promises has changed over time, but the general thrust has remained the same. Today, when someone joins the church, we typically ask this question: Will you be a faithful member of this congregation, share in its worship and ministry, through your prayers and gifts, your study and service, and so fulfill your calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? The one who is joining the church answers in the affirmative: “I will, with God’s help.” Then we pray for that person, that she or he might diligently and faithfully fulfill their promise. This can happen either by rote - simply reciting the words that we are supposed to utter, or it can happen with intentionality – a deliberate, heartfelt desire to genuinely follow through on the promise.
I always pray that it is the latter.
But how often do we stop and consider what the words mean? How often do we pause to reflect on what, exactly, we are promising to ourselves, and to the congregation, and to God? How often do we reflect on how we might be good stewards of the promise that we have made? For most of us, the answer probably is – not very often!
Well, let’s do it today.
According to the constitution of our church, “a faithful member accepts Christ’s call to be involved responsibly in the ministry of his church.” The constitution goes on to say that such involvement includes:
- proclaiming the good news,
- taking part in the common life and worship of a particular church,
- praying and studying Scripture and the faith of the Christian Church,
- supporting the work of the church through the giving of money, time, and talents,
- participating in the governing responsibilities of the church,
- demonstrating a new quality of life within and through the church,
- responding to God’s activity in the world through service to others,
- living responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life,
- working in the world for peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment.
You see, membership in the church isn’t a right so much as it is a responsibility. Jesus Christ calls us to be responsible members of the church . . . in a whole variety of different ways. Using the words of the promise we make when we become members of the church, let me offer some specific reflections on what responsible membership looks like. . . .
A faithful member shares in the worship and ministry of the church. Our church constitution is quite clear: It is not possible to be a faithful member without participating in the worship life of the community of faith. It is also not possible to be a faithful member without participating in the ministry of the church. According to our church’s constitution, the difference between an “active member” and an “inactive member” is that active members participate in the worship and work of the church, whereas inactive members do not. Faithful membership involves both worship and work.
Currently, our congregation offers at least six worship services a month – at least four on Sunday mornings, and at least two on Sunday evenings. There are plans in the works to add additional worship opportunities at other times. In other words, we are trying to provide an array of worship possibilities to suit varying tastes and interests and work schedules. There are many people here in this congregation who are very faithful in their attendance patterns. But I have discovered an interesting statistical fact, which I think is worth sharing. If you look at our total membership – the total number of people on our roll of “active members” – and if you compare it to our average worship attendance – the total number of people present here for worship on Sundays, averaged out over the course of the year – and compare it with some of our sister congregations, a very interesting pattern emerges. When you compare our attendance and membership statistics with the statistics of the other ten Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations in the greater Lansing area, you discover that for four out of the past five years, our congregation has had the lowest attendance-to-membership ratio of any of those eleven congregations. Our lowest year was 2003, when our average attendance was less than a third of the total membership of the congregation. (Those of you who were here then know that there are some complex reasons why that was the case.) Our highest ratio in the past five years was in the year 2006, when our average attendance was approximately 43% of the total membership of the congregation. The statistical average for all eleven Presbyterian congregations in the area in the past five years has generally hovered between 44% and 47%. Two or three churches in the region have had considerably higher statistical averages at various times over the past five years, with average worship attendance equal to anywhere from 50% to 65% of their total membership in those years. Those are the kinds of numbers I would like to see here! That’s the kind of commitment I would like to see here! Let me be clear about this – just so everybody knows and so there are no surprises: one of my long-term goals here is to help this congregation grow both spiritually and numerically. By that, I don’t just mean getting more people on our membership roll. I mean getting more people involved and invested in the worship and work of this community of faith. I want to see a steady increase in the number of people who choose to worship here regularly and faithfully. I also want to see a steady increase in our attendance-to-membership ratio. That’s not because I care about statistics – the numbers are not what really matters, although the statistics do serve as a tool to help us to measure our effectiveness. The fundamental reason I want to see an increase in spiritual and numerical growth is because we are called – in the words of Jesus – to “make disciples of all nations,” and one critical component of discipleship is faithful participation in the worship life of the church.
Faithful membership also involves faithful participation in the work of the church. In our tradition, we believe that every member is a minister. This congregation does not have one minister; it has (as of right now) two hundred forty ministers! Or, at least, we have two hundred forty ministers, in theory. What happens in practice – well, that’s another matter. We have to work to make the practice more truly reflect the theory. Let me be clear about this, just so everybody knows and so there are no surprises: another one of my long-term goals here is to see that every member has some kind of job to do here in the church (with the sole exception of those people whose health makes this impossible). I believe that every single member needs to be doing something to help our congregation accomplish our mission. That could be serving on Session, serving as a Deacon, serving as a member of a committee, serving as an usher, serving as a greeter, serving as a liturgist, singing in the choir, singing with the praise team, playing an instrument, teaching Sunday School, teaching adults, leading a small group, cooking for Wednesday night dinner, cooking for Sunday night dinner, helping with the Wednesday night program, welcoming visitors, counting the offering, creating or running the PowerPoint, editing the bulletin or the newsletter, stuffing the bulletin or the newsletter, helping to keep the church clean both inside and out, helping with publicity, delivering communion to shut-ins, visiting people in the hospital or in their homes, helping in the office, and so forth. The list could go on and on, for a very long time. There are endless possibilities of ways in which people can actively serve in the church to promote the mission of the church; the trick is often figuring out which ways represent the best use of people’s gifts. That can be hard sometimes, but there are tools that we can use to help people discern their gifts. I would like for every single member to be able to say honestly, “I help promote the mission of the church by doing __________.” Jesus calls us to serve in his name – to be faithful disciples – in both word and deed, and one critical component of discipleship is faithful participation in the work of the church.
A faithful member shares in the worship and work of the church through prayers, gifts, study, and service. Now, we start to get specific. The promise that we agree to when we join the church is that we will share in the worship and work of the church by doing several very specific things. We agree to pray. We agree to use our gifts for the betterment of the church. We agree to study. We agree to serve. I’ve already talked a bit about using our gifts; I’ve already talked a bit about service. I’ll have more to say about prayer at another time, but let me offer a word here about study.
When we join the church, we make a promise that we will study. What that means is that we promise to study the scriptures and the faith of the Christian church. There are a good number of adults here who participate in various opportunities for spiritual growth, and there are some amazing conversations that happen during some of those opportunities. Just this fall, we added one new class and one new small group Bible study. I hope that we will continue to expand. Christian education is not primarily just for children! When we get confirmed as a teenager, or when we join the church as an adult, we are taking just the first step in what ideally should be a lifelong spiritual journey. We are called to study the scriptures and the faith of the church not just before we become members, but also throughout the whole course of time that we are members. We all get a weekly dose of the scriptures in our Sunday worship, but I don’t believe that’s sufficient. I myself have grown spiritually through sitting through many sermons (some of which fed me more than others!), but I also know that I have really grown spiritually when I am sitting in a room full of other people and we are actively talking about what these scriptures mean for the here and now of our daily lives, and I have to work to develop my own, personal, robust understanding of what it means to be a Christian. In other words, I believe in the power of sitting around in a roomful of fellow Christian pilgrims and talking about the scriptures and the faith of the church. Our congregation is committed to “fostering spiritual growth” – that’s part of our mission statement – and I would like to urge every single member of the church to find some place where you can sit down with other people and talk about what this Christian faith means in your daily life. We’ve currently got about half a dozen places where you can do that, and my hope and desire is that we will add more in the years to come. And if my urging isn’t enough to persuade you that this is important? Well, remember that once upon a time, you made a promise to yourself, to the congregation, and to God that you would study. I believe that involves more than just listening to preachers preach; I heartily recommend investing your time and energy into a class where you can talk to others about matters of faith in daily practice. That would be a great way to be a good steward of the promise that you once made to yourself, to the congregation and to God. I believe it involves getting yourself in a group with people who are reading and talking and thinking and praying together. So, today, I’m reminding you that, at some point in your life, you promised that you would study, I’m giving thanks to God for those many people here who are already doing that, and I’m inviting the rest of you to be good stewards of that promise that you once made.
A faithful member fulfills her or his calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. At rock bottom, that’s what all this is about: We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Being active in the worship and work of the congregation – that’s discipleship. Offering our prayers, our gifts, our study, and our service – that’s discipleship. Being a faithful member of the church – that’s discipleship. It’s part of the essence of what it means to be Presbyterian. It’s part of the essence of what it what it means to be a Christian. It’s part of the essence of what it means to be a member of the church. We have promised – to ourselves, to the congregation, and to God – that we intend to fulfill our calling to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
Let’s be good stewards of that promise!
Peace and blessings,
Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor
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