My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.
Author:
Jack Delk
Date Given:
March 11, 2009 COVENANT AFFIRMATION SERVICE
The Covenant Affirmation portion of the service usually follows the Prayer of Praise, after the opening songs.
The pastor will call the candidates forward—they should line up at the front by the stairs, evenly across the whole stage.
Introductory Thought
-
Covenant Affirmation weekends are some of the high points of the year for me – they rank right up there with Christmas and Easter. As Pastor for Covenant Member Care, I rejoice as this body of Christ is strengthened by the addition of members who join us in a covenant to trust Christ together, and worship God together, and love each other in ways commanded in the New Testament.
-
There are many people (and churches) that don’t see any necessity to participate in or promote church membership –especially by entering into covenant one with another. I mean after all, if we promise certain things to each other, someone might expect us to keep those promises. We would be making commitments.
-
But that is exactly why we promote church membership. Bethlehem exists because of covenant commitments. 1st because of the God’s New Covenant commitment to forgive our sins and to write his law on our hearts and make us his people and be our God; and 2nd, Bethlehem exists because of our own "church covenant" commitment to trust Christ and worship God and love each other in ways commanded in the New Testament.
-
In our services this weekend, we have __ people joining in covenant affirmation to labor with us, to encourage us, to hold us accountable, to join us in our fight of faith.
Ask Church Covenant Questions
-
I will take the 6 Covenant promises that you will find on the back of your worship folder and put them into questions and ask them of the candidates. The candidates for membership should answer corporately with "I do" after each question
Question 1
Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord, Savior, and supreme Treasure of your life; and on the profession of your faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, do you now, in the presence of God, angels and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with us and with one another as one body in Christ?
Question 2
Do you engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of this Church in knowledge, holiness, and peace; to promote its spirituality and fruitfulness; to sustain its worship, ordinances, and discipline; to welcome, and test biblically, instruction from the Scriptures by the elders of the church, which accords with the Elder Affirmation of Faith, seeking to grow toward Biblical unity in the truth; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations?
Question 3 Do you also engage to maintain family and personal devotions; to educate your children in the Christian faith; to seek the salvation of your kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in your dealings, faithful in your engagements, and exemplary in your deportment, to avoid all tattling, backbiting and excessive anger; to seek God's help in abstaining from all drugs, food, drink and practices which bring unwarranted harm to the body or jeopardize your own or another's faith? Question 4 Do you further engage to watch over one another in love; to remember one another in prayer, to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay? Question 5 Do you moreover engage that when you remove from this place, you will, if possible, unite with a likeminded church where you can carry out the spirit of this covenant? Question 6 Finally, as part of this covenant do you consent to be governed by the Relational Commitments that have been officially adopted by the church and that address peacemaking and reconciliation, accountability and church discipline, marriage and divorce, counseling and confidentiality, and the protection of our children?
Handshake and Introductions
-
Pastor will then go down the line and ask them to introduce themselves and shake their hand.
I will ask them each to introduce themselves to us and extend the right hand of fellowship to them on our behalf.
Members Vote for Membership
-
Then the pastor will have the congregation verbally respond to welcome them into membership, asking for an “Amen.”
“If you are a member of Bethlehem and endorse the acceptance of these into covenant membership of the church please say together, ‘Amen.’” If you are opposed, say “no.”
Members Reaffirm their Covenant
-
The pastor then asks the current members to renew their commitment to the church covenant (often having them stand).
“Having been reminded that we are God's people by virtue of his new covenant, which he established through the blood of Jesus, and having heard the intention of these brothers and sisters to live together with us in covenant commitment, do you now reaffirm your covenant commitment to one another and to them as members of this body? If so please say, ‘I do’”.
All stand and sing (or whatever is next).