17-turning-attenders-into-members-congregation

17

Turning Attenders into Members

Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, … and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.

Ephesians 2:19 (LB)

In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Romans 12:5

Once you’ve gathered ^a crowd of attenders you must begin the important task of forming them into a congregation of members. The crowd must become a church. On our Life Development Process diagram we call this “getting people to

first base,” and we do it through the process of incorporation, or assimilation. Assimilation is the task of moving people from an awareness of your church to attendance at your church to active membership in your church. The community talks about “that church,” the crowd talks about “this church,” but the congregation talks about “our church.” Members have a sense of ownership. They are contributors, not just consumers.

Many American Christians are what I call “floating believers.” Anywhere else in the world, being a believer is synonymous with being connected to a local body of believers —you rarely find a lone-ranger Christian in other countries. Many American Christians, however, hop from one church to another without any identity, accountability, or commitment. This is a direct expression of America’s rampant individualism. They have not been taught that the Christian life involves more than just *believing—*it also includes belonging. We grow in Christ by being in relationship to other Christians. Romans 12:10 says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.”

C. S. Lewis once wrote an essay on church membership, reminding us that the word membership is of Christian origin, but it has been taken over by the world and emptied of all its original meaning. Today, most people associate the term membership with paying dues, meaningless rituals, silly rules and handshakes, and having your name on some dusty roll. Paul, however, had a very different image of membership. To him, being a member of the church did not refer to some cold induction into an institution, but rather it meant becoming a

vital organ of a living body (Rom. 12:4–5; 1 Cor. 6:15; 1 Cor. 12:12–27). We need to reclaim this image. Any organ that is detached from the body will not only miss what it was created to be, it will also shrivel and die quickly. The same is true for Christians that are uncommitted to any specific congregation.

The incorporation of new members into your church fellowship does not happen automatically. If you don’t have a system and a structure to assimilate and keep the people you reach, they won’t stay with your church. You’ll have as many people going out the back door of your church as are coming in the front door.

Many churches mistakenly assume that once a person has received Christ, the sale has been consummated, and it is now up to the new believer to follow through with his commitment and join the church. This is nonsense. Baby believers don’t know what they need! It is the church’s responsibility to take the initiative in assimilating new people into the congregation.

I believe that when God wants to deliver a bunch of baby Christians, he looks around for the warmest incubator he can find. Churches that make new member assimilation a priority and have a plan for doing it are usually blessed with growth. In contrast, churches that don’t care about new members, or are haphazard in assimilating themdon’t grow. In this chapter, I would like to share the strategy we use at Saddleback for incorporating and retaining the members of our congregation.

Developa Plan to Assimilate NewMembers

Because your congregation has a unique history, culture, and growth rate, you need to ask some important questions. The answers will determine the assimilation plan that’s best for your situation. Proverbs 20:18 says, “Make plans by seeking advice.” Here are the twelve questions we ask at Saddleback:

• 1. What does God expect frommembers of his church?
• 2. What do we expect fromour members right now?
• 3. What kind of people already make up our congregation?
• 4. How will that change in the next five to ten years?
• 5. What do our members value?
• 6. What are new members’ greatest needs?
• 7. What are our long*-*termmembers’ greatest needs?
• 8. How can we make membership more meaningful?
• 9. How can we insure that members feel loved and cared for?
• 10. What do we owe our members?
• 11. What resources or services could we offer our members?
• 12. How could we add value to what we already offer?

Next, you need to realize that prospective members have their own set of questions. These questions will also influence how you design your assimilation plan. Before people commit to joining your church, they want to know the answers to five unspoken questions.

Do I fit here? This is the question of acceptance. It is best

answered by establishing affinity groups within your church so that people with similar ages, interests, problems, or backgrounds can find and relate to each other. Everyone needs a niche, and small groups play a crucial role in meeting this need. You must show people that you have a place for them.

Does anybody want to know me? This is the question of friendship. You can answer this question by creating opportunities for people to develop relationships within your congregation. There are unlimited ways you can do this, but it does take planning. Remember, people are not looking for a friendly church as much as they are looking for friends. People deserve individual attention.

Am I needed? This is the question of value. People want to make contributions with their lives. They want to feel that they matter. When you can show people they can make a difference with their gifts and talents by joining your church, they will want to be involved. Position your church as a creative place that needs the expression of all sorts of talents and abilities, not just singers, ushers, and Sunday school teachers.

What is the advantage of joining? This is the question of benefit. You must be able to clearly and concisely explain the reasons and benefits of membership in your church. Explain the biblical, practical, and personal reasons for membership.

What is required of members? This is the question of expectations. You must be able to explain the responsibilities of membership as clearly as you state the benefits of it. People

have a right to know what is expected of thembefore they join.

Communicate the Value of Membership

Joining a church used to be an act of conformity in our society. You joined a church because everybody else did. Now the rules have changed and conformity is no longer a motivating factor. In fact, George Gallup has found that the vast majority of Americans believe it is possible to be a “good Christian” without joining (or even attending) a local church.

Instead, membership is now an act of commitment*.* The way you motivate people to join today is to show them the valuefor-value benefits they will receive in return for their commitment. At Saddleback, we’ve found that when people understand the meaning and value of membership, they get excited about it.

There are numerous benefits to membership:

• 1. It identifies a person as a genuine believer (Eph. 2:19; Rom. 12:5).
• 2. It provides a spiritual family to support and encourage them in their walk with Christ (Gal. 6:1–2; Heb. 10:24– 25).
• 3. It gives them a place to discover and use their gifts in ministry (1 Cor. 12:4–27).
• 4. It places them under the spiritual protection of godly leaders (Heb. 13:17; Acts 20:28–29).
• 5. It gives them the accountability they need to grow (Eph. 5:21).

In chapter 6, I suggested that you personalize the purposes of the church. This is especially important when convincing attenders in your crowd to join your congregation. You need to emphasize the fact that the church provides them with benefits they cannot find anywhere else in the world:

• Worship helps you focus on God. It prepares you spiritually and emotionally for the week ahead.
• Fellowship helps you face life’s problems by providing the support and encouragement of other Christians.
• Discipleship helps you fortify your faith by learning the truth of God’s Word and applying biblical principles to your lifestyle.
• Ministry helps you find and develop your talents and use themin serving others.
• Evangelism helps you fulfill your mission of reaching your friends and family for Christ.

There are many analogies for a Christian disconnected from a church: a football player without a team; a soldier without a platoon; a tuba player without an orchestra; a sheep without a flock. But the most understandable (and biblical) picture is that of a child without a family.

First Timothy 3:15 (NCV) refers to the church as “… the family of God. That family is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of the truth.” God does not want his children growing up in isolation from each other, so he created a spiritual family on earth for us. Paul reminded us in Ephesians

2:19 (LB): “You are members of God’s very own family, … and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.” A Christian without a church family is an orphan.

It is important to position the church as a family, rather than as an institution. Since the 1960s, Americans have become increasingly anti-institutional. The phrase “organized religion” is used contemptuously. Yet people are also longing for a sense of family and community.

A number of factors have fragmented the nuclear family in today’s culture: the high divorce rate, delayed marriages, the emphasis on individuality, “alternative” lifestyles, and women working outside the home, among others. The high rate of mobility is another. In our mobile society, people have few roots. People are no longer surrounded by the extended family of aunts and uncles, grandparents, and brothers and sisters that provided a safety net for previous generations.

Today we have a record number of single adults in America. Vance Packard calls America “a nation of strangers.” As a result, we’re experiencing an epidemic of loneliness in society. One Gallup poll reported that four in ten Americans admit to frequent feelings of “intense loneliness.” Americans are, in fact, the loneliest people in the world.

Everywhere you look there are signs that people are hungering for fellowship, community, and a sense of family. Beer commercials, for instance, don’t sell beer, they sell fellowship. No one is ever portrayed drinking alone; it’s always

done in the context of people enjoying each other’s company. Phrases accompany the commercials like: “It doesn’t get any better than this!” Advertisers have discovered that independent-minded baby boomers are suddenly longing to be connected as they enter middle age.

This “longing for belonging” provides the church with a timely opportunity. Positioning the church as an extended family, as “a place where you are cared for,” will strike a sensitive chord in many lonely hearts.

Establish a RequiredMembershipClass

A number of studies have shown that the way people join an organization greatly influences how they function in that organization after joining. This is true of joining a church as well. The manner in which people join your church will determine their effectiveness as members for years to come.

I believe the most important class in a church is the membership class because it sets the tone and expectation level for everything else that follows. The very best time to elicit a strong commitment from your members is at the moment they join. If little is required to join, very little can be expected fromyour members later on.

Just as a weak membership class will build a weak congregation, a strong membership class will build a strong congregation. Note that a strong class doesn’t necessarily mean a long class. Saddleback’s membership class (Class 101) is only four hours long and is taught in one day, yet it produces a high level of commitment in our membership because those who take the class find out exactly what will be expected of them as members. The strength of a membership class is determined by its content and call for commitment, not its length.

For a number of reasons, I believe the senior pastor should teach this class, or at least a portion of it. The opportunity to see the pastor’s vision for the church, feel his love for the members, and hear his personal commitment to care, feed, and

lead them is very important to new members. The following note from a new member expresses what many have written about Saddleback’s membership class:

Dear Pastor Rick,

Thank you for teaching the membership class (101) yourself. It was very moving to hear you express your love and commitment to your flock and your vision for our future. We wish we could have taken the class sooner. The comments and suggestions we made when we first came to Saddleback seem trivial now that we understand the philosophy, strategy, and vision of this church. It will be a privilege to follow your leadership and be under your care. We are really excited now to find our place ofservice at Saddleback.

Some churches’ membership classes cover the wrong material. Their content is based on spiritual growth or basic doctrine. These subjects are vitally important, but they are more appropriately covered in a new believers’ class or Christian doctrine class, both essential classes that should be separate from the membership class. Your membership class should answer the following questions:

• What is a church?
• What are the purposes of the church?
• What are the benefits of being a member?
• What are the requirements for membership?
• What are the responsibilities of membership?
• What is the vision and strategy of this church?
• How is the church organized?
• How can I get involved in ministry?
• What do I do now that I ama member?

If you are a church that targets the unchurched, you need to include a clear explanation of salvation in your membership class because you will have many people who want to join the church who are not believers! We always explain that trusting Christ is the first requirement for membership, and we have people who commit their lives to Christ in every membership class.

There are many elements you can use in your membership class to keep it interesting and interactive: video clips, a notebook with fill-in-the-blank curriculum, small-group interaction, and a good meal together. Be sure to include a lot of stories that personalize the history, values, and direction of your church. At Saddleback, we even include a quiz at the end of the class, testing the prospective members on how well they can state the purposes of our church and other important concepts.

Completion of a membership class should be required for membership. People who are uninterested or unwilling to learn your church’s purposes, strategy, and the meaning of membership are failing to demonstrate the kind of commitment that membership implies. If they don’t even care enough to understand the responsibilities of membership, they cannot be expected to fulfill those responsibilities after joining and should not be allowed to join. There are plenty of other congregations they could join that offer a meaningless membership.

It’s also important to think of the different age groups when

teaching a membership class. At Saddleback, we offer three versions of the membership class: a children’s version for older elementary kids (taught by our children’s pastor), a youth version for junior high and high school (taught by our youth pastors), and the adult membership class.

Outline of Class 101: Discovering Saddleback Membership

• I. Our Salvation

• A. Making sure you are a Christian

• B. The symbols of salvation

• 1. Baptism
• 2. Communion

• II. Our Statements

• A. Our Purpose Statement: Why we exist

• B. Our Vision Statement: What we intend to do

• C. Our Faith Statement: What we believe

• D. Our Values Statement: What we practice

• III. Our Strategy

• A. Brief history of Saddleback

• B. Who we are trying to reach (our target)

• C. Our Life Development Process to help you grow

• D. The S.A.D.D.L.E.B.A.C.K. strategy

• IV. Our Structure

• A. How our church is organized for growth

• B. Our affiliation

• C. What it means to be a member

• D. What is my next step after joining?

• V. The Saddleback Quiz

Developa MembershipCovenant

Why do churches have so many people on their membership rolls who give little or no evidence of Christian commitment or even conversion? Why do many churches find it difficult to motivate members to give, serve, pray, and share their faith? The answer is that the members were allowed to join with no expectations placed on them. You get what you ask for.

Paul mentions two different types of commitment in 2 Corinthians 8:5 (GNB): “First they gave themselves to the Lord; and then, by God’s will, they gave themselves to us as well.” At Saddleback, we call these the first-base commitments. You commit yourself to Christ for salvation and then you commit yourself to other Christians for membership in our church family. In our church we define koinonia (fellowship) as “being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ.”

Jesus said that our love for each other was to be the mark of discipleship (see John 13:34–35). I believe it’s an indictment of Christianity that most believers can quote John 3:16, but they can’t quote 1 John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” When was the last time you heard a message on this verse? Most churches are silent about developing that level of commitment to each other.

The phrase “one another” or “each other” is used over fifty times in the New Testament. We are commanded to love each other, pray for each other, encourage each other, admonish

each other, greet each other, serve each other, teach each other, accept each other, honor each other, bear each other’s burdens, forgive each other, sing to each other, submit to each other, and be devoted to each other. All of these commands are what membership in a local body of believers is all about. They are the responsibilities of membership. At Saddleback, we expect of our members only what the Bible clearly expects of all believers. We summarize these expectations in our membership covenant.

The most important part of a marriage ceremony is when the man and woman exchange vows, making certain promises to each other before witnesses and God. This covenant between them is the essence of the marriage. In the same way, the essence of church membership is contained in the willingness to commit to a membership covenant. It is the most important element of our membership class.

Throughout biblical and church history, spiritual covenants have been made between people for mutual edification and accountability. At Saddleback we have four requirements for membership: (1) a personal profession of Christ as Lord and Savior, (2) baptism by immersion as a public symbol of one’s faith, (3) completion of the membership class, and (4) a signed commitment to abide by Saddleback’s membership covenant.

I urge you to prayerfully prepare and adopt a membership covenant in your congregation if you don’t have one. It can revolutionize your church. You may worry, “If we adopt a membership covenant, there will be some who leave our church

over it.” You’re right. There will be some. But people are going to leave your church no matter what you do. Don’t be afraid of people leaving. People even walked away from Jesus. When your congregation adopts a membership covenant, at least you get to choose the kind of people that stay.

Make Your Members Feel Special

Completing a membership class does not automatically cause people to feel that they belong. They need to feel welcomed and wanted once they’ve joined your church. They need to be recognized and affirmed and celebrated by your congregation. They need to feelspecial. As a small church you may be able to do this informally, but as your church grows you will need to create some initiation rituals that say publicly, “You are now one of us!”

The Saddleback MembershipCovenant

Having received Christ as my Lord and Savior and been baptized, and being in agreement with Saddleback’s statements, strategy, and structure, I now feel led by the Holy Spirit to unite with the Saddleback church family. In doing so, I commit myself to God and to the other members to do the following:

• 1. I will protect the unity of my church
  • … by acting in love toward other members
  • … by refusing to gossip
• … by following the leaders

“So let us concentrate on the things which make for

harmony, and on the growth of our fellowship together” (Rom. 14:19 PHILLIPS).

“Have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart” (1 Peter 1:22 TEV).

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs” (Eph. 4:29).

“Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be no advantage to you” (Heb. 13:17).

• 2. I willshare the responsibility of my church
  • … by praying for its growth
  • … by inviting the unchurched to attend
• … by warmly welcoming those who visit

“To the church—… We always thank God for you and pray for you constantly” (1 Thess. 1:1–2 LB).

“The Master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes, and urge the people there to come so my house will be full” (Luke 14:23 NCV).

“So, warmly welcome each other into the church, just as

Christ has warmly welcomed you; then God will be glorified” (Rom. 15:7 LB).

• 3. I willserve the ministry of my church
  • … by discovering my gifts and talents
  • … by being equipped to serve by my pastors
• … by developing a servant’s heart

“Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you” (1 Peter 4:10 PHILLIPS).

“[God] gave … some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Eph. 4:11–12).

“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who … [took on] the very nature of a servant” (Phil. 2:3–4, 7).

• 4. I willsupport the testimony of my church
  • … by attending faithfully
  • … by living a godly life
• … by giving regularly

“Let us not give up meeting together … but let us encourage one another” (Heb. 10:25).

“Whatever happens, make sure that your everyday life is worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27 PHILLIPS).

“Each one of you, on the first day of each week, should set aside a specific sum of money in proportion to what you have earned and use it for the offering” (1 Cor. 16:2 LB).

“A tenth of [all your] produce … is the Lord’s, and is holy” (Lev. 27:30 NCV).

Of course, baptism for a new believer is an event that obviously fits this category. Our monthly baptisms are always big celebrations, with lots of laughter, applause, and shouts of joy. We have a professional photographer take a picture of each person just before he or she is baptized. Later we present those baptized with a photograph of their baptism and a baptism certificate together in a beautiful leatherette binding that people are proud to display.

When Saddleback was much smaller, we used to rent the Mission Viejo Country Club every three months and hold a new members’ banquet. Older members would pay for the meals of the new members. Each new member would be recognized and would give a two-minute testimony in front of all those in attendance. I never made it through hearing the

touching stories of changed lives without crying.

For years, Kay and I would host an informal coffee in our home on the fourth Sunday night of each month. Called the “Pastor’s Chat,” it was simply an opportunity for new members and visitors from the previous month to meet us face-to-face and ask any questions they had. We’d place a sign-up sheet out on the patio before Sunday services and the first thirty to sign up would get to come. The chats would last from 7 to 10 p.m. This simple act of hospitality brought in hundreds of new members and established many relationships that Kay and I cherish today. Hospitality grows a healthy church.

There are many other ways you can make members feel special, such as sending cards on their birthdays, recognizing their first anniversaries as members, recognizing other special days (births, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, achievements) in your newsletter, featuring a testimony in each service, holding staff receptions, and returning a “We prayed for you” note in response to a prayer request. The point is this: People need more than a warm handshake at the end of a service to feel like they really belong.

Create Opportunities to BuildRelationships

The importance of helping members develop friendships within your church cannot be overemphasized. Relationships are the glue that holds a church together. Friendships are the key to retaining members.

A friend told me of a survey he took in a church. When he asked, “Why did you join this church?” 93 percent of the members said, “I joined because of the pastor.” He then asked, “What if the pastor leaves? Will you leave?” Ninety-three percent said, “No.” When he asked why they wouldn’t leave, the response was, “Because I have friends here!” Notice the shift in allegiance from pastor to other members. This is normal and healthy.

Lyle Schaller has done extensive research that shows the more friendships a person has in a congregation, the less likely he or she is to become inactive or leave. In contrast, I once read about a survey where they asked 400 church dropouts why they left their churches. Over 75 percent of the respondents said, “I didn’t feel anyone cared whether I was there or not.”

It is a myth that you must know everyone in the church in order to feel like a part of a church. The average church member knows sixty-seven people in the congregation, whether the church has 200 or 2,000 attending. A member does not have to know everyone in the church in order to feel like it’s their church, but he or she does have to know some people.

While some relationships will spontaneously develop, the friendship factor in assimilation is too crucial to leave to chance. You can’t just hope members will make friends in the church. You must encourage it, plan for it, structure for it, and facilitate it.

Think relationally. Create as many opportunities as you can for people to meet and get to know each other. Since so many church meetings consist solely of lectures (“Sit still while I instill”), members may very well walk in and out of church for a year without developing any friendships. Try to include some kind of relational activity in every congregation meeting. It may be as simple as saying, “Turn around and introduce yourself to one person and find out something interesting about that person.”

Although we’ve used all kinds of events to build relationships within our church family (supper clubs, sports, game nights, picnics, and so forth), our weekend retreats have been the most effective tool for cultivating new friendships. Consider this: The amount of time a person spends with other members at a single forty-eight-hour retreat is greater than the time they will spend together on Sundays over a year. If you are a church planter and you want to develop relationships quickly in your church, take everybody on a retreat.

Since most people have a hard time remembering names, especially in a larger church, use name tags as often as you can. Nothing is more embarrassing than not knowing the name of someone you’ve seen at church for years.

Encourage Every Member to Join a Small Group

One of the biggest fears members have about growth is how to maintain that “small church” feeling of fellowship as their church grows. The antidote to this fear is to develop small groups within your church. Affinity groups can provide the personal care and attention every member deserves, no matter how big the church becomes.

Develop a network of small groups built around different purposes, interests, age groups, geography, or anything else. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what rationale you use to start new groups—just keep starting them. It is unlikely that very many new members will join existing small groups. New members assimilate best into new groups. You can even start new groups right out of your membership class. New members have their “newness” in common.

One of the sayings I quote to our staff and lay leaders repeatedly is, “Our church must always be growing larger and smaller at the same time.” By that I mean there must be a balance between the large group celebrations and the smallgroup cells. Both are important to the health of a church.

Large group celebrations give people the feeling that they are a part of something significant. They are impressive to unbelievers and encouraging to your members. But you can’t share personal prayer requests in the crowd*.* Small affinity groups, on the other hand, are perfect for creating a sense of

intimacy and close fellowship. It’s there that everybody knows your name. When you are absent, people notice.

Because Saddleback existed for so many years without owning a building, we’ve had to rely heavily on small groups for adult education and fellowship. Even though we now own a seventy-four-acre campus, we will continue to use homes for our small-group meetings.

There are four benefits of using homes:

• They are infinitely expandable (homes are everywhere)
• They are unlimited geographically (you can minister to a wider area)
• They are demonstrations of good stewardship (you use buildings that other people pay for, releasing more money for ministry)
• They facilitate closer relationships (people are more relaxed in a home setting)

The larger your church grows, the more important small groups become for handling the pastoral care functions. They provide the personal touch that everyone needs, especially in a crisis. At Saddleback we like to say that the whole church is like a large ship, and the small groups are the lifeboats.

I don’t have the space to give a detailed explanation of our small-group strategy and structure so let me just say this: Small groups are the most ef ective way of closing the back

door of your church. We never worry about losing people who are connected to a small group. We know that those people have been effectively assimilated.

KeepCommunication Lines Open

It is vital that clear lines of communication are established within your church. People tend to be down on what they aren’t up on. Informed members are effective members, whereas uninformed members, regardless of talent, can’t do much. Build redundancy into your communication system by developing several channels for disseminating congregational information.

At Saddleback, we use anything we can to communicate important messages out to the congregation: fax machines, voice mail, video, newsletters, cassette tapes, prayer chains, CARE callers, newspaper articles, postcards—even the Internet! (For those of you on-line, you can peek in at http://www.saddleback.comfor our Home Page.)

Just as important as staff-to-congregation communication is congregation-to-staff communication. It must flow both ways. Proverbs 27:23 says, “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.” The most important flock is God’s flock, so we pay special attention to what is happening with it. We use welcome cards, CARE callers, and Lay Pastor Reports to monitor the heartbeat of our church family:

The Welcome Card. I’ve already discussed how we use this in our seeker service. It is an incredible communication tool, considering its simplicity. Anybody can write me a note at any time. Because our members know that we read these cards and take them seriously, we have a continuous flow of information

coming in. It requires two full-time secretaries and a staff of a dozen volunteers to process all the cards we get, but it allows our pastors and staff to stay “close to the customer.”

CARE Callers. CARE stands for “Contact, Assist, Relate, and Encourage.” This lay ministry calls through the church directory on a systematic basis to find out what’s happening in the lives of our members. They make their calls in the evenings and ask three questions: (1) How are you doing? (2) Do you have any prayer requests? (3) Is there anything you’d like for us to report to Pastor Rick or a staff member? Each CARE caller takes notes on a form to insure accurate information is recorded. Then they update the people they’ve called on any coming events or church news. It’s just another way of keeping in touch with our members and saying “we care.”

Lay Pastor Reports. These are written reports we get back from the lay pastors who lead our small groups. The reports give us feedback on the health of the group and what is happening in individual lives.

We’re in This Together

In concluding this chapter on membership I want to stress the importance of continually emphasizing the corporate nature of the Christian life to your members. Preach it, teach it, and talk about it with individuals. We belong together. We need each other. We are connected, joined together as parts of one body. We are a family!

Almost daily, I receive letters from people who have joined our church and who have experienced the healing power of koinonia. I close with a recent example:

Dear Pastor Rick,

I have carried the pain of physical abuse in silence for many years. A year ago, after a devastating loss, I moved here to southern California. Disconnected from everything, I was very lonely. I cried solid for three weeks.

I finally decided that maybe I should try a church. From the moment I stepped inside my first service at Saddleback, I felt I belonged here.

To shorten my story, Christ became real to me, I joined our church, and am now serving in a ministry that is very fulfilling to me. I love being a part here!

I know everyone’s pain is different, but we all need God. My pain was almost unbearable without a church family. When I took the membership class I had to hold back tears of joy when you discussed how Saddleback is a family. It really is! I am so grateful for my brothers and sisters here and for a church that I can call home!