Believing and Belonging - Covenant

My Covenant with Christ

and His Church

Believing Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, I accept Him as my own personal Savior and acknowledge Him as my Master and Lord.

I confess my sins, repent of them, and put my whole trust in the love and mercy of God, revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Trusting in the Holy Spirit for guidance, I shall seek to lead a consistent Christian life, honoring Christ in all of my relationships.

I promise to be a faithful member of the Church, supporting it through prayer, Bible study, regular attendance at worship, unselfish Christian service, and stewardship of my life and possessions.

Believing and Belonging IX

IX : THE SACRAMENTS

I Corinthians 11:23-26

Two sacraments are offered in Presbyterian churches – the sacrament of Baptism and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Both were established by Christ.

Baptism

In His last commission to His disciples, Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”[1] In the same way, Peter issued a call to baptism in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost. “Repent and be baptized every one of you,” he said, “in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”[2] Baptism is a symbol of cleansing from sin. So, Ananias said to Paul, “Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away.”[3] The sacrament of baptism is the ordinance of admission to membership in the Church. Generally, in the Presbyterian Church, baptism is administered by sprinkling, not by immersion. In this, the imagery is taken from the Old Testament. During the Exodus, the people of Israel were told to sprinkle the blood of a lamb upon their doorposts to show that they belonged to God’s people.[4] In the same way, we believe that this sacrament demonstrates that we also belong to God’s people. It is no sense a guarantee of salvation, simply a sign of obedience. It must be accompanied by faith.

However, it is not necessarily the person being baptized who must have faith. “Let the little children come to me,” said Jesus.[5] In the Presbyterian Church, children of believing parents are baptized in infancy and claimed for Christ. When they are old enough to understand and to accept Jesus for themselves, they must make their own profession of faith, confirming the vows made on their behalf by their parents. In this way, Presbyterians draw a comparison between the Old Testament ordinance of circumcision and the New Testament sacrament of baptism. Before we even know what it means to believe, we are shown what it means to belong.

The Lord’s Supper

The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion, was instituted by Jesus on the night on which He was betrayed. Gathering His disciples about the Passover table, “Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat, this is my body.’ Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”[6] This sacrament has always been at the heart of the Christian Church.

The observance of Holy Communion is a time of re-consecration, when Christian people come together at His table, in response to His invitation, and take a new oath of allegiance to Him. Therefore, all who love the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior are invited and urged to participate. It is not necessary for you to be a member of the Church to receive communion. In light of the seriousness with which this sacrament is regarded, it is only offered five or six times a year.

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[1] Mark 16:15,16

[2] Acts 2:38

[3] Acts 22:16

[4] Exodus 12:7

[5] Luke 18:16

[6] Matthew 26:26-28

Believing and Belonging VIII

VIII: THE PRESBYTERIAN FELLOWSHIP

I Timothy 4:12-16

Out of the Protestant Reformation there emerged several denominations which held to the same basic Christian faith as that witnessed to by the apostles but which differed in form of government. One of these denominations is the Presbyterian. Our church holds to a system of government shared by more than 90 million people around the world.

The Presbyterian Church has always stood for the sovereignty of God, the supremacy of the Scriptures, the freedom and responsibility of every human being, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, the necessity of works of compassion and justice, and the obligation to preach the Gospel to the whole world.

The Presbyterian Church has a representative form of government whose work is carried on by presbyters or elders elected by the people. There are four branches of government in the Presbyterian Church, all of which are made up of teaching and ruling elders.

The four elements of the Presbyterian system are: the session; the presbytery; the synod; and, the General Assembly.

The Session

Each local church is governed by the session composed of the pastor or minister, who is the “teaching elder”, and a group of lay people who have been elected by the members of the church and ordained to this office; these are called “ruling elders.” The number of ruling elders in each church is usually determined by the size of the church. The pastor is the moderator (convener) of session meetings. The session has charge of the spiritual oversight of the congregation. It is responsible for the five purposes of the church: worship, discipleship, fellowship, evangelism, and mission. This work is divided among various ministry teams or committees, consisting of both elders and members of the congregation. Generally, the session is a permission-giving body, deciding on general principles. Most of the work of the session actually takes place in the ministry teams. In every respect, these teams are responsible to the session.

Some churches still operate with a separate board of deacons, charged with the care of those in need and the administration of the finances of the church. Increasingly, these functions have been included in the responsibilities of the session.

The Presbytery

The presbytery is the governing agency of the Church through which individual churches in a particular area are united in ministry and mission. Pastors of local churches are members of the presbytery and not of the churches they serve. The presbytery consists of all of the pastors and representative elders from each church within its bounds. The presbytery oversees the process of ordination, which enables men and women to serve as pastors. It also plays a part in calling pastors to particular churches, and in dismissing them to serve elsewhere.

The presbytery has general oversight of the churches. Its chief duty is to unify and to make more effective the work of the individual churches, to make provision for evangelism and church growth, and to promote the work of the Church as a whole. Meetings of the presbytery take place three or four times a year; they are presided over by a moderator who has been elected by the body.

The Synod

The synod is made up of a group of presbyteries. Synod lines conform, roughly, to state lines with some having several states within their borders. Meetings of the synod are held on a regular basis, with representation from every presbytery. The moderator of synod is elected by commissioners.

In many respects, the functions of the synod are largely administrative. However, the synod does have the power to hear and judge all complaints and appeals from decisions of presbyteries. It examines the records of presbyteries and provides yet another check or balance to prevent abuse of any kind. It has no final authority on any matter that affects the doctrine and constitution of the Church.

The General Assembly

The General Assembly is the highest court of the denomination. It meets every other year, and consists of commissioners from the presbyteries. These commissioners are elected by presbytery. In this way, every local church has the opportunity to say who will attend General Assembly. Meetings of the Assembly are presided over by a moderator elected by the commissioners. As in the case of the presbytery or synod, this person may be either a teaching elder (pastor) or a ruling elder.

The General Assembly is the highest court of the Church. It has the power, when cases are referred to it, to uphold or reverse the actions of synods or presbyteries. However, the General Assembly speaks to the Church, not for it. Any decision which requires a change in the constitution must be approved by a vote of the presbyteries.

Through the work of the General Assembly, and its agencies, the denomination seeks to advance the Great Ends of the Church. These have been identified as:

· the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;

· the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;

· the maintenance of divine worship;

· the preservation of the truth;

· the promotion of social righteousness; and

· the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

Membership

Membership in the Church is open to all who will accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and, confessing their sins, will seek to follow Him. Members of the Church are expected to endeavor to live a Christian life, to attend worship regularly, to use their spiritual gifts for the building up of the body and to serve others, and to support the Church as the Lord enables them to do.

There are three ways by which an individual may be received into membership:

· By profession of faith (for those who have never confessed faith in Christ as Lord);

· By reaffirmation of faith (for those who have not been active members in any church for some time); and

· By transfer from another congregation.

Profession of Faith

The following questions are asked of those who wish to be received into membership by profession or reaffirmation of faith. The questions are normally asked during a meeting with members of the Session.

Pastor Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world?

Response I do.

Pastor Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, trusting in His grace and love?

Response I do.

Pastor Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying His word and showing His love?

Response I will, with God’s help.

Pastor Will you be a faithful member of this congregation, share in its worship and ministry through your prayers and gifts, your study and service and so fulfill your calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Response I will, with God’s help.

Pastor Will you devote yourself to the church’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer?

Response I will, with God’s help.

Believing and Belonging VII

VII THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Acts 2:38-47

The earliest records of the Christian Church are found in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles (Letters) of the New Testament. The growth of the Church was not really organized, but churches sprang up spontaneously wherever the Gospel was shared and as it was demonstrated in the lives of those who followed Jesus.

Christ left no definite plans for the organization of His Church; but He gave His disciples:

· A declaration of faith on which the Church would be founded – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”[1]

· A mission for the Church to fulfill – “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”[2]

· A promise of continuing fellowship – “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”[3]

All classes and types of people joined the Christian Church. As time went on its membership included some slaves and some free born; some poor and some very rich; some with pagan backgrounds and some raised in the strict Jewish tradition; some illiterate and some learned. The wonder, therefore, was not that there were differences of opinion within the group, but rather that there was a real sense of fellowship and an amazing growth of the Gospel throughout the known world. Within a hundred years, the apostles and those who followed them, empowered by the Holy Spirit, had carried the life and worship of the Church even beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, and had written the books and letters which we now know as the New Testament.

The unity of the Church was due, to some extent at least, to the fact that each group of Christians elected officers to preside over them. They called these men elders or bishops. The names were used interchangeably; elders and bishops were identical in their duties and responsibilities. In addition to these were deacons, who assisted the elders with the care of the poor. Other office holders were sometimes called apostles, pastors, teachers, or evangelists.

With the widely differing backgrounds within the Church, there naturally developed differing forms of government in different areas. The Christians of the first century seemed to trouble themselves very little about these differences. Each local church seems to have adopted the form of government best suited to its needs. All local churches were united in the basics of the Christian faith.

The early Church was definitely and passionately evangelistic. Born in a glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Church was gripped with a tremendous conviction of the power of Christ to save and the need of all people for that salvation. It was the strength of that conviction and the zeal of that evangelism which enabled the early Church to make so deep an impression on the pagan world.

In His teachings, Jesus always stressed the importance of the individual, but as centuries went by and the Church grew, there developed a system of graded priesthood; and, as the authority in the local church centered more and more in one leader, the head of the Church in Rome, because of Rome’s size and political importance, began to assume more and more authority. When Constantine became emperor, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the head of the Church in Rome began to use military and political measures to spread the power of the Church. Eventually, material values seemed to be of greater importance than spiritual truths.

During the Middle Ages, power-hungry men saw the Church as a means of personal advancement. Corruption set in. Yet, even in these dark times the Spirit of God spoke to His people; authentic Christianity survived, despite those who attempted to usurp the Gospel to their own ends. A new movement of the Spirit led some Christians to seek to recover what was in danger of being lost by translating the Bible into the languages of the people. A new desire for learning developed; the common people began to read the Word of God for their first time in their own tongues, instead of struggling with Latin, which few understood. In different countries, leaders arose to voice the yearnings of the people. So, we find in England, John Wycliffe; in Bohemia, John Hus; in Florence, Savonarola; and, later, in Germany, Martin Luther; in France, John Calvin; and in Scotland, John Knox – strong men of God who tried to reform the Church in accordance with the teachings of the New Testament. This resulted in the birth of the Protestant or Evangelical Church.

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[1] Matthew 16:16

[2] Mark 16:16

[3] Matthew 28:20