A week ago Sunday, we had a couple guys in our church stand before the congregation and answer the “membership questions” that our pastor asks all new church members.

The questions are as follows:

1. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?

2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?

3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?

4. Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?

5. Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

I’m very happy for what they’ve done, but I do have some major issues with the way it was done, and what was communicated to the congregation. The questions above are in the PCA Book of Church Order, in the section entitled, “The Admission of Persons to Sealing Ordinances”.

More than once, our pastor said that the boys were “new members”, and taking “membership vows”, which contradicts the fact that all three gentlemen had grown up in the church, and were in fact, members of the visible Church. Their actions this past Sunday were actions that continued their relationship to the church. The Book of Church Order states:

By virtue of being children of believing parents they are, because of God’s covenant ordinance, made members of the Church, but this is not sufficient to make them continue members of the Church. When they have reached the age of discretion, they become subject to obligations of the covenant: faith, repentance and obedience. They then make public confession of their faith in Christ, or become covenant breakers, and subject to the discipline of the Church.

But so what? Am I simply getting my knickers in a twist over a minor semantic difference? I don’t think so. The church today has an epidemic with keeping young believers in the church. When I was younger, I went through the same ritual that these guys went through, but always had that nagging feeling that I wasn’t any different. Even though I was supposedly a “new member”, how was I different.

How did my new vows in any way change my relationship to the church? The short answer is that it didn’t. The long answer is that I’m now personally responsible for my own actions, and subject to discipline, whereas before, the responsiblity belonged to my parents. But it didn’t make me a member of the church… it simply transferred the responsibility from my parents to me.

The big shocker to me was the fact that even though what happened falls under “Admission to Sealing Ordinances”, no mention of the Lord’s Supper was made, at all. Not one word. One person called it a dry baptism. It looked like any baptism service at a Baptist church… minus the water.

One of the main reasons we call ourselves “Covenantal” is because of our high regard for the continuity of God’s promises, both in terms of God’s people through history, and in His promises from parents in regard to their children. My four children are members of the visible Church, by virtue of their birth, and sealed in baptism. My job is not to convert them and make them “members of the Church”, but is instead to make sure they continue to grow as Christians.

If I keep telling my children they’re Christians, what will think after witnessing these “membership vows”? Would they not feel like second class Christians based on the words they heard during that service?