Life Together

I have thoroughly enjoyed the core seminar (CHBC's version of Sunday School) we have been attending entitled Membership Matters.

First of all, everyone meets together at 9:30 where each seminar teacher stands up and introduces which class they are teaching and what specific topic they will be covering that day, and where their class is located.

Throughout the internship, there are specific classes we are required to attend, and so far we have been to 4 Membership Matters classes.  At the beginning of each class they give out What is a Healthy Church to anyone who is new.

We have learned everything from why church membership is important, to the history of the church from Acts to the present day, to what CHBC believes as a church and why they do the things they do.  There is literally a reason behind everything they do.

This past Sunday, the class was entitled "Life Together", and was very interesting and informative, so I wanted to share some of my notes with you. (Anything in bold was on the study guide they gave us, but everything else are the notes I took in class. . . sorry for the long post!)

They base their life together as a church on Acts 2:42-47:

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 In essence, the four things mentioned in this passage and practiced by CHBC are  Regular Gatherings, Intentional Relationships, Biblical Leadership, and Prayer.


Regular Gatherings:

1.  Core seminars- these are lectures rather than interactive classes, and they see this as a time for individuals to grow and mature for the good of the church as a whole.

2.  Sunday Morning Service - Every Sunday morning is for the proclamation of the gospel, and the growth of the members.  They proclaim God's goodness and grace through content rich songs, prayers of praise, confession, petition and thanks.  They preach expositionally, and encourage their members to read the passage of scripture the week before because this allows more of the message to sink in and allows the spirit to work in them.

3.  Sunday Evening Service - This is more of an informal family time.  They have the same theme as the morning service, but use the opposite testament to show that the God of the NT is the same God of the OT and does not change.  The Lord's supper is on Sunday nights as a way to fence the table for members only.

4.  Member's meetings- six times a year, every other month for members only.  This is for finance updates, voting members in and out, etc.  When you join this church, you are not just joining a team, but committing to be a part of people who will get in your life, seek your good, and pull you into fellowship. 

5.  Wednesday night Bible Study - this is a more interactive, inductive Bible study, where they look at a text, dig in and figure out what it is talking about together.  Anyone is welcome to attend, and there is childcare for four and under.

For children, they have Sunday school during the core seminars, and then Kindergarten and up comes to the service until the sermon, where K-third grade is dismissed for "Praise Factory" (more on this in another post).

Intentional Relationships
(read a more in-depth article by an elder at CHBC about this here)

When new members say, "how do I get involved?" They tell them to commit to being known and knowing others.  They want to have a culture where it is normal for members to do spiritual good to other members.  They encourage their members to always reassess themselves, asking what type of diversity is present in their ministry. 

 CHBC is a relationship-based church rather than a program-driven church

Three ways to cultivate intentional relationships:

1.  Hospitality - Introduce yourself to people, invite people to your home for a meal, attend weddings and funerals (they are public services open to anyone at CHBC), help people move.  At CHBC, it is not uncommon for college students to invite an older couple, or a family with four kids over for dinner.

2.  Discipling - They want the members to push one another, so they encourage them to find someone of the same gender and go through a book or scripture together, though it may feel awkward at first.  If they have trouble, they are encouraged to call the church office to link them up with someone, or contact a small group leader.

3.  Small groups - Only members can join a small group, except for the ongoing small group Exploring Christianity.  This may come across as "cold" at first to only allow members into small groups, but they believe that far too often, people will commit to a small group but not to a church, and therefore supplement their small group for church. 

Biblical Leadership 
 (Our teacher was beginning to run out of time, so there wasn't as much detail given in this section. )

Elders

  Plurality of elders

  How do we recognize elders? 

  "undershepherds" of missions, finance, marriage, and teaching God's word 

  They expect men to already be "eldering" before they are picked as elders.  At the same time, the man teaching our class said he and others may not feel competent to be elders, because it is a tremendous and time-consuming calling, but they pray, and by God's grace they are made competent.

Deacons
  
  Primary responsibility: unity

  The deacons are "shock absorbers" and peacemakers, and this occurs through deliberate lines of service 

  Secondarily: administration

  Sound, childrens ministry, ushering, community outreach, etc

Prayer

At staff and Elders meetings, they pick a letter of the alphabet, and pray through the directory, last names beginning with that letter.  They also encourage their members to pray through two pages of the directory a day so that you to go through the entire directory in a month.  Even if you don't know the people, you can be praying general things- that they would be generous, patient, fruitful in ministry, faithful in devotions, bold to share the gospel, etc.  As a side benefit, you are getting to know other members.