Next Steps

Membership

The first step toward church membership is a 4-week class on Sundays at 9:00 am called “Raintree 101.” The class is usually offered every other month and is led by our elders. After completing the class, two of our elders will set up a time to meet with you personally and hear your testimony of salvation. Once accepted into membership, the expectations for a member are to attend and serve regulary, participate in communion, attend quarterly Family Meetings, give faithfully, and pray consistently for the church.

What is church membership, then? As one author, Jonathan Leeman put it, “It’s a declaration of citizenship in Christ’s kingdom. It’s the declaration that a professing individual is an official, licensed, card-carrying, bona fide Jesus representative. It is a formal relationship between a local church and a Christian characterized by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.”

Church membership is not about belonging to an organization or a club. The church is not a building. It is something you are in Christ and it is something you do with others who are in Christ. Therefore, once we are in Christ, we are also in fellowship with one another. We are called then to live out this reality within the context of the local church together.

The New Testament is clear that people in a local church were committed to God’s Word, to prayer, and to one another (Acts 2:44-47). They committed to caring for one another physically and spiritually. This includes loving one another by speaking the truth to one another, exhorting one another, forgiving one another, and restoring one another. We are called to live according to the Gospel as we strive side by side for the sake of the Gospel (Philippians 1:27).

 At Raintree, we want to get to know your family on a personal level. We want to share our lives with you as well as who we are and what God has called us to do for His glory. We also desire to answer any questions you might have along the way. In the end, we want to live to see Christ formed in each member so that we may present everyone mature in Christ!

To sign up for the next Raintree 101 Class, please send us an email.