Our Membership Process
We believe that church membership is about more than just having your name on a list in the church database, and it's not about voting privileges or financial contributions. Becoming a member of a church is about joining a family. This biblical aspect of life in Christ is very important to us and to Jesus, so we have a process that allows us to build relationships and help everyone find their place in the family.
This is a 2-3 hour class where we tell you everything you need to know about Living Hope Fellowship. We cover our beliefs, core values, vision, structure, and exactly what covenant membership entails, and is hosted by the pastors and staff, so that everyone can get to know each other. The main goal is to provide you with everything you need to make a prayerful decision about membership.
Now that you are informed, it’s time to make sure this is really the place for you. We want you to take as much time as you need, and let Him guide the process. You won’t hurt our feelings if you feel led elsewhere because we all have the same desire—His will.
If you are confident that God is leading you to join this family, we have put together a 5-day devotional known as the “Blue Book” (because it looks like a blue book from college) that you’ll walk yourself through as a next step. The idea here is for you to think through some things about yourself that will help you find your place in the church family. The devotion covers spiritual gifts, interests, things you are good at, experiences you have been through, etc., and all of these things pressed together have shaped you for unique roles in ministry.
After you have completed the blue book, you will set up a meeting with one of the Elders known as a “one-on-one,” which might seem intimidating at first, but we promise there is nothing to be afraid of. This is an important part of our membership process because we want to get to know you, and this helps you get to know us as well. In this one-on-one, we will ask about your life — where you are from, what you are doing now, your family, your church background, and the story of your relationship with Jesus so far. We will also discuss what you learned about yourself by going through the Blue Book and will help identify some areas of the church where you may want to get involved. This meeting is not about seeing if you are good enough for us or anything weird like that, but is about knowing you more deeply and helping you get connected to our church family so you too can be turned loose to serve and use the gifts God has given you.
The final step is for you to come to one of our Family Meetings, where we gather all of the covenant members together and take care of some family business. This usually includes reports from various ministries within the church, a financial update, insight on what’s ahead, Q&A with the pastors and renewal of the membership covenant. A part of the covenant renewal is the welcoming of new members to the family, and we seal this by taking communion together.