SUNDAY SCHEDULE: Two Services 9 & 11 am and LIVESTREAM (11 am) at BIBLECHURCH.LIVE

Foundations (Membership Track)

March 20, 6 pm (Chapel)

Foundations

Membership Track at Chapel Hill Bible Church

Foundations is our membership pathway in which you will learn about our core beliefs, community philosophy, and missional heartbeat. Likewise, we also want to get to know you and get you connected to everything the CHBC has to offer. Our hope is that this process will help you feel welcomed, as well as get a better sense for what it means to be a family member of CHBC.

Why Membership?

A Plea for Church Membership

Committing to membership at the Bible Church is more than just a commitment to our church. It’s a declaration of citizenship in Christ’s kingdom. It’s a passport. It’s an announcement made in the pressroom of Christ’s kingdom. It’s the declaration that a professing individual is an official, licensed, card-carrying, bona fide Jesus representative.


More concretely, church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and a Christian characterized by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.


Notice that several elements are present:

  • a church body formally affirms an individual’s profession of faith and baptism as credible;
  • it promises to give oversight to that individual’s discipleship;
  • the individual formally submits his or her discipleship to the service and authority of this body and its leaders.


The church body says to the individual, “We recognize your profession of faith, baptism, and discipleship to Christ as valid. Therefore, we publicly affirm and acknowledge you before the nations as belonging to Christ, and we extend the oversight of our fellowship.” Principally, the individual says to the church body, “Insofar as I recognize you as a faithful, gospel-declaring church, I submit my presence and my discipleship to your love and oversight.”


Church membership, in other words, is not about “additional requirements.” It’s about a church taking specific responsibility for a Christian, and a Christian for a church. It’s about “putting on,” “embodying,” “living out,” and “making concrete” our membership in Christ’s universal body. In some ways, the union which constitutes a local church and its members is like the “I do” of a marriage ceremony, which is why some refer to church membership as a “covenant.”




Newcomers' Lunch (Optional)

If you haven't already, we hope that you will attend our next Newcomers' Lunch (optional) before proceeding with the following steps in our membership process.




We ask that you follow the steps below when it comes to gathering information about our church, exploring membership, and ultimately joining our church family:

Step 1

Complete the "Foundations" Course

You will receive a link to watch three required videos prior to attending our next dinner. These videos cover the “Foundations” of our church: from our beliefs, membership convictions, our mission and values. We use an online learning platform where you will be able to interact with the content and ask questions along the way.




Step 2

Attend Foundations DInner

Each semester we will host a Foundations Dinner to provide a space to begin building meaningful community with others in your parish. Following the dinner, we will spend time identifying your spiritual gifts for service and giving you a map for our philosophy of ministry and discipleship. You will walk away from this dinner more connected and with practical steps to grow deep roots at CHBC.




Step 3

Apply for Membership @ CHBC

Following the dinner, you will be sent an online application to apply for membership. As part of the membership application, you'll acknowledge you're in agreement with our Statement of Faith and your intention to abide by our Covenant of Fellowship, the Constitution, and Bylaws of the Bible Church.




Step 4

Membership Conversation

After you have participated in the Foundations Dinner and applied to become a member, the final step to confirm your membership is to have a conversation with two of our elders. Someone will reach out to you via email or phone in the days following the dinner. You will meet with two elders for about 30 minutes. The goal of this conversation is two things:

  1. That you get to know some of our elders and they get to know you, and
  2. To make sure you are ready for membership. This will be an opportunity to ask any questions that you haven’t already, as well as get more insight on the applicable impact of membership as it relates to you.