The Process of Joining
There is no prescribed way to welcome new members to a church in the Scriptures. Churches are free in Christ to develop their own membership processes.
Because we are broken and fallen, we can easily hold the freedoms Jesus has given us too loosely or tightly. Churches who hold membership too loosely may have no process at all for accepting members. Those who hold membership too tightly may require adherence to extra-biblical rules.
Our hope is to safeguard our freedom from either extreme for God’s glory and our good. We’ve aimed to make joining Griggs a very simple and biblical process.
TO JOIN GRIGGS ONE MUST…
1. Attend the church for at least 6–8 weeks.
2. Have a couple of conversations with an elder about their story, faith in Jesus, church background (if any), and experience with Griggs so far. One must also share their vision for being part of a church in their current circumstances (i.e., what you need from a church community and where you see yourself serving a church community).
During these conversations, the elders will take time to share the history, mission, and vision of our church in detail and answer any questions.
3. Request a copy of the church bylaws, read through it in addition to this document, and confirm that they agree with all that is written.
4. Communicate with an elder about a date where they can stand before the church and commit to making Griggs their church family.
LETTER, STATEMENT, OR BAPTISM
In the bylaws, you’ll notice that members can join our church by “letter, statement, or Baptism.” Here’s what that means.
BY LETTER
Sometimes believers are coming to our church from an incredibly similar one. Perhaps they’ve moved here for work or simply feel led to transfer to our church and to participate in our mission.
Sometimes their former church will send with them a letter recommending them for membership in a like-minded church. We are glad to receive that letter as a part of your membership process. We would still have you follow the steps above to make sure the process is uniform for all.
Though it’s rare, if someone is seeking to join our body with unresolved discipline from another like-minded church, we will ask them for evidence of closure to that situation as part of their process of entering into fellowship with us.
BY BAPTISM
Sometimes someone wants to join our church but they have not yet received believer’s baptism for whatever reason. There are times when we ask them to either be baptized as part of their membership process or plan to be baptized in the future as part of their membership process.
BY STATEMENT
This is the most common way to join the church and it is simply by following the process outlined above. You are making a “statement.”
That statement is:
You have come to faith in Christ and been baptized in the past and have no unresolved church discipline elsewhere.
You are committing to sharing church life (as described on page 3–4 and 15–16 of this document) with Griggs Church and you are accepting the church’s commitment to you (page 16–17).
REMOVAL FROM MEMBERSHIP
Just as there are a few variations on how one might join our church family, there are variations on how one might exit the family.
As stated in the bylaws, one can resign their membership at any time for any reason, they can be erased from the membership if they are absent for an extended period of time, and they can be disciplined out of the church after the Matthew 18 process has been followed with those known to be in unrepentant, grievous sin.
Though it’s true that membership status can be changed quickly, we do not aim for members to make the change quickly. The decision to commit to a church family deserves serious consideration, and so does the decision to exit that family.
We ask that all those exiting members have a conversation with an elder before officially resigning their membership to talk through the reasons they are leaving, what our church can improve on, and their plans to find gospel fellowship in the future. If for any reason that conversation doesn’t take place, an elder will attempt to reach out to those who have exited and check in on these matters.
This is part of what we believe we’re committing to in family membership and the rest of those commitments are found here. One must agree to these commitments to be a member of Griggs Church.
