We love how God joyfully adopts broken, undeserving people like us through Jesus alone – not through our good works, and not through our local church membership. Joining a local church doesn’t make anyone a Christian. Jesus does. When we first respond to the Good News of Jesus by trusting in him to reconcile us to God, he brings us into his family. So, even before we join a local church, we’re already members of what’s called the “universal church” – God’s rescued people all around the world.
But it’s impossible in this life to know, gather with, and serve alongside every other Christian on earth. That’s why local churches exist – to give real-world expression to the unity we have in Jesus. Many of the Bible’s teachings can only be lived out in real, local, identifiable communities of Christians. So, since God has made us his family, we gladly commit ourselves to one another in a local church.
Since it’s easy in our culture to take church membership lightly, we want to give applicants time to experience the biblically healthy church engagement we believe God calls us to. So before fully joining, we ask people to connect with us for a time in regular
worship gatherings,
community-based discipleship, and some form of
service.
