The Church Covenant

"Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

This verse from Ephesians 4:13 gives us the direction that every church should be moving toward. Our church covenant provides the path and parameters to see this maturity happen in our church, by the grace of God. The covenant talks about unity, it talks about growing in our knowledge of God, and it talks about holiness in our lives. It reminds us that we need each other in order to see the kind of growth that God wants in our lives, and it gives us a clear statement about how we are committing to serve and help others in the church as well - these are the family expectations so to speak, the stereotypical sign with the "family rules."

Since the church covenant gives the expectations for what it means to be a part of the church, we want to make sure that it is saturated with the Bible. The words and ideas should be rooted in the Bible, and the clear expectations for Christians. Likewise, we don't want to require things in the covenant that the Bible does not command. The Bible talks much about wisdom and folly, and one is better than the other, but wisdom can often look different in different situations. For this reason, the covenant sticks mainly to the commands of Scripture as the clear expectations of the church. In this way, we will be better able to encourage and admonish each other to strive for maturity and holiness in our relationship with God, having these elements clearly defined in the church covenant.