Membership

But while the detail of church membership may not be set forth in the Bible, we believe that the practical rationale for church membership is quite biblical. In the New Testament Church, the gathering of God's people was very obvious. To profess faith in Christ was a drastic thing to do — it automatically separated people from the rest of the culture. Consequently, Christians in a given town or city were naturally drawn together, and saw the need to do so. If you were a Christian in Ephesus, you were automatically a part of the church in Ephesus. And because of this dynamic, all believers in Christ readily knew who their leaders were, and the leaders readily recognized who was under their care.

But without debating the pros and cons of our current circumstances in the American church today, we can easily observe that our situation is not the same as was the case in the first century. The Church of Jesus Christ is divided into various denominations and factions — some for valid reasons and some for invalid reasons. At the same time, we are faced with the teachings of Scripture that call us to "obey our leaders and submit to their authority..." (Hebrews 13:17). Our leaders are also called to "be shepherds of God's flock that is under their care" (I Peter 5:2). In the first century, these relationships were obvious. Our leaders would have been the leaders in the Church in Annapolis. And the flock under their care would have been all believers living in Annapolis. But today, how do Christians know who their leaders are? And how do leaders in the church know who is the flock under their care? We believe the logical solution to these questions is the volitional uniting of God's people to one another under Bibliccal leadership where the Word of God is taught, the Sacraments of Christ are administered and God's people are accountable to one another according to the words of Christ in Matthew 18:15-17. Obviously, as was stated above, we recognize that we are not the Holy Spirit. We recognize that there are going to be people acknowledged as members of the visible church here at EP who are not members of the invisible church, and that there will be others who are members of the invisible church who are not members at EP. But as we unite as the Body of Christ, under His authority and the care of ordained leaders, we believe that we will honor His plan for His church, and most effectively build up His Body.

COMMUNING AND NON-COMMUNING MEMBERS
There is one additional distinction that may be helpful along the lines of the Visible and Invisible Church. While it is not possible for us to conclusively discern the spiritual condition of everyone who professes faith in Christ, it is certainly not possible to discern the eternal destiny of someone who has not yet professed faith in Christ. For this reason, it would not be logical to consider the children of believers, who have not made a profession of faith of their own, as members of the Body of Christ. And yet, throughout history, God has included the children of believers among His people. Even Jesus told His disciples to let the children come to Him (Luke 18:15-17). In light of these things, we include the children of believers among the membership of our church. However, we do not consider them as believers. We must call them to repentance and faith just as we do all other non-believers. We consider the children of believers to be non-communing members. These children are members of our family, but they are asked to abstain from partaking of the Lord's Table until such a time as they would profess their own saving faith in Jesus Christ. We have training material available for parents seeking resources to help them educate their childrenin faith, and we desire to equip parents to lead their children to the Lord. For more information regarding the Children's Training Materials, speak with one of our pastors or one of our Children's Ministry Directors — Pam Storm and Karyn Butler. They may be contacted through the Church Office.

HOW DO I BECOME A MEMBER AT EP CHURCH?
Membership classes are held periodically throughout the year. Completion of this series of classes is required for church membership. Upon completion of the course, ccandidates meet with a committee of Elders in order to give testimony to their faith in Christ. This is a wonderful time of celebrating how the Lord has worked in our lives! This usually takes place at a fellowship event where dessert served.

The membership process is completed with the affirmation of our membership vows, which are listed below:
1. Do yo acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure and without hope except in His sovereign mercy?
2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and the Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?
3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?
4. Do you promise to support the church is its worship and work to the best of your ability?
5. Do you submit to the government and the discipline of the church and promise to pursue its purity and peace?

THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL
Many people object to the notion of church membership on the grounds that the church is a man-made institution. The argument goes, 'Everyone that belongs to Christ is already a member in Christ's church, therefore, membership in a local congregation is a human concept and unbiblical'. Before we attempt to debate this notion, lets take an opportunity to recognize an important observation that this argument makes. This argument observes that the Church of Jesus Christ is comprised of everyone who is a follower of Christ. If this is true (and we wouldn't encourage anyone to question this), then all Christians are, by definition, already members of Christ's Church. This observation is important because it brings all believers across time, geographical, denominational and national lines, under one umbrella — the Church of Jesus Christ. This is why the Body of Christ is often referred to as the Church Universal or the Communion of Saints.

THE VISIBLE CHURCH
But the Scriptures don't refer to Christians collectively as the ever-growing, international, interdenominational list of individuals who are followers of Christ. The Scriptures refer to Christians collectively with the Greek word, ecclesia. This word means, "called-out-ones". This is where we get words like ecclesiastical and ecclesiology. And this word comes through the language barrier into English as Church. Therefore, when we use the word church, we are referring to the collectivve "called-out-ones" in Christ. This fits very nicely with our original idea of the Church Universal. But the New Testament use of ecclesia does not often refer to Christians in the universal sense. It is usually used to refer to the gathered Christians in a particular location ("To the church of God in Corinth" — I Corinthians 1:2; "The the seven churches in the province of Asia" — Revelation 1:4). What we see in the New Testament is not a generalized reference to a theoretical group of people but a specific reference to a visible group of people. It is the gathered people of God in a particular setting that is referred to as the church. This does not deny the concept of the Church Universal. But it brings to light the idea that the Church has a visible manifestation on the earth. The New Testament Church was a group of people who united themselves to one another because of their oneness in Christ. This is often referred to as "The Visible Church".

THE INVISIBLE CHURCH
But another objection that many have to affiliation with a local church is the accusation of hypocrisy in the church. They see people who profess faith in Christ, but who live as if they are not sincere followers of Christ. Indeed, this accusation has always been with us. I John 1:19 speaks of professing believers who were not truly in Christ. In Romans 9:6 the Apostle Paul tells us that not all who are visibly identified with Israel were truly Israelites. The idea that is reflected here is that God's people have always been manifest visibly as an assembly of "called-out-ones". But this visible assembly has virtually always included some who were not truly God's people. Similarly, we might also assume that there were others who were truly God's people, but who were not visibly identified with God's people. Historically, this dynamic has led to a distinction between the visible church and the invisible church. The visible church is made up of those who profess to have faith in Jesus Christ; and the invisible church is made up of those who actually possess faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we know that there is an invisible church even as we outwardly assemble with a visible church. THis was true for Israel, and it is true for the New Testament Church.

GIFTS AND SERVICE
As God brings us together in His church, He calls us to love one another, bearing one another's burdens and spurring one another to service that edifies the Body of Christ. Consistent with this idea are the teachings of I Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 which speak of various Spiritual Gifts that God gives to each of us for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ. As we read these passages, we understand the focus to be on the edification of the Body of Christ, not on the exercise of particular gifts. In other words, the gifts are not an end in themselves, but they are means to an end — namely, the edification of God's people. In light of this, we believe that finding a place to serve in the Body is not merely a matter of identifying where there are needs and where God can use us. The point is that every part of the Body of Christ is called to serve.

ACCOUNTABILITY
Up to this point, we could agree with everything that has been said without affirming the idea of formal church membership. The Church Universal, and the Visible and Invisible Church, as well as serving in the Body of Christ all make sense without requiring us to affirm church membership. And while we, at EP Church, do not agree with those who would resist the idea of church membership on the grounds stated previously, we must admit that the idea of formal church membership does not seem to be commanded in the Bible.