At GracePoint, when we speak of church membership, we mean formal membership in which you go through a series of classes or a preparation process to get yourself ready for membership. In those classes and in that preparation you are instructed in all the main teachings of Scripture as GracePoint holds them. Then you make an official request to become a member before being interviewed by the elders of the church to confirm your genuine conversion. Finally you will stand up in front of the congregation and you will commit to your agreement of the church’s membership covenant before the entire church.

In that commitment you express your solidarity with and your commitment to the local church. And in formally becoming a member, you express your agreement with the teaching of the church that you are joining. You commit yourself to support the church financially. You vow to protect the unity of the local congregation. You show yourself willing and available to use your gifts in the church and to pursue the growth of the local church. And also, as you come to the elders to make your membership formal, you willingly place yourself under their spiritual care and oversight, expressing your readiness to submit to their admonition and also to church discipline should you become wayward in sin.

We firmly believe that formal church membership in a local church is biblical and is the only way believers can fully be obedient to many of the commands for Christian living given to us in the Bible.