Dear Weekender:

We look forward to your arrival and fellowship with us! The enclosed notebook is your
lifeline to the upcoming Weekender. Please bring it with you when you come to
Washington, DC.

The first two sections of this notebook contain material for you to read in advance
of your arrival: “Church Documents” and “Reforming Documents.” You may wonder at
first how all the “Reforming Documents” fit together, but as our time together unfolds,
the purpose of each one should become clearer. Also, they will enable you to ask more
precise questions. Please be sure to review the enclosed resources as well. The enclosed
CHBC Timeline is not for distribution and we strongly discourage you from making
photocopies (some of the items mentioned may be difficult for individuals who are still
living). The rest of the notebook is full of handouts that will be discussed during the
Weekender, as well as several miscellaneous items such as directions to Capitol Hill
Baptist Church.

Orientation begins at 6:00pm. Please plan on arriving early as we will be preparing you
for what you will see and hear during the weekend, especially the Elders Meeting
immediately following. So you won’t want to miss the orientation time, or you’ll be lost
going into the 4+ hour Elders Meeting.

Feel free to email Karen Race <weekender@9marks.org> if you have any unusual
circumstances or needs that we should know. She can also be reached on her cell at
202-302-2172. Please forward this number to anyone who may need to contact you
during the weekend.

Again, we look forward to meeting you, and we pray the time bears great fruit for
Christ’s church.

Sincerely,

Ryan Townsend
Executive Director
 Table of Contents
CHURCH DOCUMENTS 5
Church Covenant 6
Statement of Faith 7
Constitution of CHBC 9
CHBC Budget 16
CHBC Membership Application 19
Conducting a Membership Interview 21
CHBC Timeline 1993-Present 25

REFORMING DOCUMENTS 31
Reforming Documents 32
Baptism of Children at CHBC 62
Cleaning Up the Rolls 64

ELDERS MEETING Insert Elders Packet Here (Will Receive Upon Arrival)

SEMINARS 77
Children’s Ministry 78
Core Seminars 80
Small Groups 88
Discipling 89
Internship Program 92
Choosing Elders 104
Displaying God’s Glory (Session Notes) 105
Church Discipline (Session Notes) 107
Discipling & Biblical Counseling (Session Notes) 108

SERVICE PLANNING 111

Sunday Morning Service 112
Sunday AM Template 113
Sermon Card 114
AM/PM Grid 115

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 Table of Contents
SERVICE PLANNING-Continued
Sunday Evening Service/Sunday PM Template 116
Lord’s Supper/Baptism 117
Service Review 118
Service Planning (Seminar Notes) 119

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS 121

Session 1: What is our Statement of Faith? 122
Session 2: Church Covenant 124
Session 3: Why Join a Church? 130
Session 4: What is the History of the Church? 135
Session 5: Missions & Outreach 139
Session 6: Our Life as a Church 144

SERMON PREPARATION & PREACHING 151

AM/PM Grid 152
Mark Dever Preaching Schedule 1994-2012 153
OT/NT Preaching Rotation/Depth and Breadth of Sermons 155
Application Grid Blank 156
Application Grid Sample 157
Sermon Card 158
“How Prayer Transforms Prep” 159

3
4
 Church Documents
Church Covenant 6

Statement of Faith 7

Constitution of CHBC 9

CHBC Budget 16

CHBC Membership Application 19

Conducting a Membership Interview 21

CHBC Timeline 1993 - Present 25

5
 Church Covenant

Having, as we trust, been brought by divine grace to repent and believe

in the Lord Jesus Christ and to give up ourselves to him, and having
been baptized upon our profession of faith, in the name of the Father and
of the Son and the Holy Spirit, we do now, relying on His gracious aid,
solemnly and joyfully renew our covenant with each other.

We will work and pray for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We will walk together in brotherly love, as becomes the members of a

Christian Church, exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over
each other and faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion
may require.

We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to

pray for ourselves and others.

We will endeavor to bring up such as may at any time be under our care,
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by a pure and loving ex-
ample to seek the salvation of our family and friends.

We will rejoice at each other's happiness and endeavor with tenderness

and sympathy to bear each other's burdens and sorrows.

We will seek, by Divine aid, to live carefully in the world, denying un-
godliness and worldly lusts, and remembering that, as we have been vol-
untarily buried by baptism and raised again from the symbolic grave, so
there is on us a special obligation now to lead a new and holy life.

We will work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical min-

istry in this church, as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and
doctrines. We will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of
the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the
spread of the Gospel through all nations.

We will, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with
some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and
the principles of God's Word.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fel-
lowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.

6
 Statement of Faith
I. The Scriptures—We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and
is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mix-
ture of error for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us; and therefore is, and shall remain to
the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and
opinions should be tried.

II. Of The True God—We believe that there is one, and only one, living and true God, an infinite, intelligent Spirit,
whose name is JEHOVAH, the Maker and Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth; inexpressibly glorious in holiness, and
worthy of all possible honor, confidence, and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost; equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great
work of redemption.

III. Of The Fall Of Man—We believe that Man was created in holiness, under the law of his Maker; but
by voluntary transgression fell from that holy and happy state; in consequence of which all mankind are now sinners,
not by constraint but choice; being by nature utterly void of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined
to evil; and therefore under just condemnation to eternal ruin, without defense or excuse.

IV. Of The Way Of Salvation—We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace; through
the mediatorial offices of the Son of God; who by the appointment of the Father, freely took upon him our nature,
yet without sin; honored the divine law by his personal obedience, and by his death made a full atonement for our sins;
that having risen from the dead he is now enthroned in heaven; and uniting in his wonderful person the tenderest
sympathies with divine perfections, he is every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient
Savior.

V. Of Justification—We believe that the great Gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in Him
is Justification; that Justification includes the pardon of sin, and the promise of eternal life on principles of righteousness;
that it is bestowed, not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith
in the Redeemer's blood; by virtue of which faith His perfect righteousness is freely imputed to us of God; that it brings us
into a state of most blessed peace and favor with God, and secures every other blessing needful for time and eternity.

VI. Of The Freeness Of Salvation—We believe that the blessings of salvation are made free to all
by the gospel; that it is the immediate duty of all to accept them by a cordial, penitent, and obedient faith; and that nothing
prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth, but his own inherent depravity and voluntary rejection of the gospel;
which rejection involves him in an aggravated condemnation.

VII. Of Grace In Regeneration—We believe that, in order to be saved, sinners must be regenerated, or born
again; that regeneration consists in giving a holy disposition to the mind; that it is effected in a manner above our
comprehension by the power of the Holy Spirit, in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to
the gospel; and that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance, and faith, and newness of life.

VIII. Of Repentance And Faith—We believe that Repentance and Faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable
graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger and
helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication
for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest and King, and relying on Him
alone as the only and all sufficient Savior.

IX. Of God's Purpose Of Grace—We believe that Election is the eternal purpose of God, according to which He
graciously regenerates, sanctifies, and saves sinners; that being perfectly consistent with the free agency of man,
it comprehends all the means in connection with the end; that it is a most glorious display of God's sovereign goodness,
being infinitely free, wise, holy and unchangeable; that it utterly excludes boasting, and promotes humility, love, prayer,
praise, trust in God, and active imitation of his free mercy; that it encourages the use of means in the highest degree;
that it may be ascertained by its effects in all who truly believe the Gospel; that it is the foundation of Christian assurance;
and that to ascertain it with regard to ourselves demands and deserves the utmost diligence.

7
 Statement of Faith
X. Of Sanctification—We believe that Sanctification is the process by which, according to the will of God, we are
made partakers of his holiness; that it is a progressive work; that it is begun in regeneration; and that it is carried on
in the hearts of believers by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the Sealer and Comforter, in the continual use
of the appointed means, - especially, the word of God, self-examination, self-denial, watchfulness and prayer.

XI. Of The Perseverance Of Saints—We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end; that
their persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors; that
a special Providence watches over their welfare; and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

XII. Of The Harmony Of The Law And The Gospel—We believe that the Law of God is the eternal and
unchangeable rule of His moral government; that it is holy, just, and good; and that the inability which the Scriptures
ascribe to fallen men to fulfill its precepts, arises entirely from their love of sin: to deliver them from which, and to restore
them through a Mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy Law, is one great end of the Gospel, and of the Means
of Grace connected with the establishment of the visible church.

XIII. Of A Gospel Church—We believe that a visible church of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers,
associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His
laws; and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His word; that its only scriptural officers are
Bishops or Pastors, and Deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are defined in the Epistles to Timothy
and Titus.

XIV. Of Baptism And The Lord's Supper—We believe that Christian Baptism is the immersion in water
of a believer, into the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost; to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem,
our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its effect, in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that it
is pre-requisite to the privileges of a church relation; and to the Lord's Supper, in which the members of the church
by the sacred use of bread and wine, are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ; preceded always by solemn
self-examination.

XV. Of The Christian Sabbath—We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord's Day, or Christian
Sabbath; and is to be kept sacred to religious purposes by the devout observance of all the means of grace, both private
and public; and by preparation for that rest that remaineth for the people of God.

XVI. Of Civil Government—We believe that Civil Government is of Divine appointment, for the interests and
good order of human society; and that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored, and obeyed; except only
in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience, and the Prince of the kings
of the earth.

XVII. Of The Righteous And The Wicked—We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between
the righteous and the wicked; that such only as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and sanctified
by the Spirit of our God, are truly righteous in His esteem; while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief
are in His sight wicked, and under the curse; and this distinction holds among men both in and after death.

XVIII. Of The World To Come—We believe that the end of the world is approaching; that at the last day Christ
will descend from heaven, and raise the dead from the grave to final retribution; that a solemn separation will then take
place; that the wicked will be adjudged to endless punishment, and the righteous to endless joy; and that this judgment
will fix forever the final state of men in heaven or hell, on principles of righteousness.

Revised New Hampshire Confession of Faith from 1853

8
 Constitution of CHBC
Adopted by the membership on May 17, 1998
Revised by the membership on May 18, 2003
Revised by the membership on September 17, 2006
Revised by the membership on November 16, 2008
Revised by the membership on March 15, 2009

Preamble

Since it pleased Almighty God, by His Holy Spirit, to call certain of His servants to unite here in 1878 under the
name Metropolitan Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., for the worship of God and the spread of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, and He has sustained and prospered this work to the present day; and
Whereas we, the members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, having searched the Scriptures under the guidance of His
Spirit, have recognized the need to reconstitute ourselves to more closely conform to His will for the Church in this age
and prepare ourselves for greater efforts in His name;
Now therefore we, the members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, do hereby organize ourselves in accord
with the D.C. Nonprofit Corporation Act and adopt this Constitution as our articles of governance, to be interpreted at all
times to reflect the character of and bring glory to Jesus Christ, as revealed in the Holy Bible and articulated
in the standards set forth in the Statement of Faith (1878) and Covenant (1996) of this church.

Article 1 – Name

The name of this church is Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

Article 2 – Purpose

This church exists by the grace of God, for the glory of God, which shall be the ultimate purpose in all its activities.
This church glorifies God by loving Him and obeying His commands through:
Worshipping Him;
Equipping the saints through Bible instruction and study;
Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ through preaching and personal evangelism, and any other means
consistent with the teachings of Holy Scripture;
Encouraging, supporting, and participating in missions work, local, domestic, and international;
Administering the ordinances of baptism and communion;
Encouraging Biblical fellowship among believers;
Serving other individuals, families, and churches by providing for physical, emotional, and spiritual needs,
in the name of Jesus Christ; and
Calling fellow churches to biblical faithfulness and purity through instruction and encouragement about
the nature of the local church.

Article 3 – Membership

Section 1 – Qualifications
To qualify for membership in this church, a person must be a believer in Jesus Christ who gives evidence
of regeneration, who has been baptized, in obedience to Christ, following his or her regeneration, and who wholeheartedly
believes in the Christian faith as revealed in the Bible. Each member must agree to submit to the teaching of scripture
as expressed in the Statement of Faith and must promise to keep the commitments expressed in the Church Covenant.
The elders shall be responsible for determining each person’s qualification for membership. In making this determination,
they may rely on a person’s profession of faith, or such other evidence, as the elders deem appropriate.

Section 2 – Admission of Members

To be admitted into church membership, applicants shall be recommended by the elders for admission and accepted
by vote of the members at any regular or special meeting of the members, and shall at that point relinquish
their membership in other churches.

Section 3 – Duties and Privileges of Membership

In accord with the duties enumerated in the Church Covenant, each member shall be privileged and expected to
participate in and contribute to the ministry and life of the church, consistent with God’s leading and with the gifts, time,

9
 Constitution of CHBC
and material resources each has received from God. Only those shall be entitled to serve in the ministries of the church
who are members of this congregation; non-members may serve on an ad-hoc basis with the approval of the elders. Not-
withstanding, non-members may serve the church for purposes of administration and professional consultation.
Under Christ this congregation is governed by its members. Therefore, it is the privilege and responsibility of members
to attend all members’ meetings and vote on the election of officers, on decisions regarding membership status,
and on such other matters as may be submitted to a vote.

Section 4 – Associate Membership

Students and others temporarily residing in the Washington, D.C. area who are members of an evangelical church
may apply for associate membership. Qualifications are identical to those for full membership as set out above,
except that home church membership must be retained. A letter of commendation will be sought from the applicant’s
home church.
Duties and privileges of associate members are the same as for other members except that:
(a) when absent from the Washington, D.C. area for extended periods of time they are released
from the responsibility to attend our church services;
(b) while they will be encouraged to participate in members’ meetings they will not be eligible to stand for any
office or to vote.

Termination of associate membership as a disciplinary measure will be as it is for other members, except that
the elders shall notify the pastor or elders of the home church of that termination. Associate membership will normally
terminate immediately upon the ending of the period of temporary residence in the Washington, D.C. area.

Section 5 – On Church Discipline

Any member consistently neglectful of his or her duties or guilty of conduct by
which the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be dishonoured, and so opposing the welfare of the church, shall be subject
to the admonition of the elders and the discipline of the church, according to the instructions of our Lord
in Matthew 18: 15–17 and the example of scripture. Church discipline, then, should ordinarily be contemplated
after individual private admonition has failed.
Church discipline can include admonition by the elders or congregation, suspension from communion for a definite
period, deposition from office, and excommunication (see Matthew 18: 15–17; 2 Thessalonians 3: 14–15;
1 Timothy 5: 19–20; 1 Corinthians 5: 4–5).
The purpose of such discipline should be for the repentance, reconciliation, and spiritual growth of the individual
disciplined (see Proverbs 15: 5; 29: 15; I Corinthians 4: 14; Ephesians 6: 4; I Timothy 3: 4–5;
Hebrews 12: 1–11; Psalm 119: 115; 141: 5; Proverbs 17: 10; 25: 12; 27: 5; Ecclesiastes 7: 5;
Matthew 7: 26–27; 18: 15–17; Luke 17: 3; Acts 2: 40; I Corinthians 5: 5; Galatians 6: 1–5;
II Thessalonians 3: 6, 14–15; I Timothy 1: 20; Titus 1: 13–14; James 1: 22);
For the instruction in righteousness and good of other Christians, as an example to them (see Proverbs 13: 20;
Romans 15: 14; I Corinthians 5: 11; 15: 33; Colossians 3: 16; I Thessalonians 5: 14 [note this is written
to the whole church, not just to leaders]; I Timothy 5: 20; Titus 1: 11; Hebrews 10: 24–25);
For the purity of the church as a whole (see I Corinthians 5: 6–7; II Corinthians 13: 10; Ephesians 5: 27;
II John 10; Jude 24; Revelation 21: 2);
For the good of our corporate witness to non–Christians (see Proverbs 28: 7; Matthew 5: 13–16; John 13: 35;
Acts 5: 1–14; Ephesians 5: 11; I Timothy 3: 7; II Peter 2: 2; I John 3: 10); and
Supremely for the glory of God by reflecting His holy character (see Deuteronomy 5: 11; I Kings 11: 2;
II Chronicles 19: 2; Ezra 6: 21; Nehemiah 9: 2; Isaiah 52: 11; Ezekiel 36: 20; Matthew 5: 16;
John 15: 8; 18: 17, 25; Romans 2: 24; 15: 5–6; II Corinthians 6: 14–7: 1; Ephesians 1: 4; 5: 27;
I Peter 2: 12).

Section 6 – Termination of Membership

The church shall recognize the termination of a person’s membership following his or her death, and may do so
after he or she has voluntarily resigned or joined with another church. Membership may also be terminated as an act of
church discipline (ordinarily, but not necessarily, at the recommendation of the elders) upon the vote of at least two-thirds
of the members present at any regular or special meeting of the members.
The church shall have authority to refuse a member’s voluntary resignation or transfer of membership to another
church, either for the purpose of proceeding with a process of church discipline, or for any other biblical reason.

10
 Constitution of CHBC (cont.)
Article 4 - Meetings

Section 1 – Worship Meetings

Worship services shall be held each Lord's Day, and may be held throughout the week as the church determines.

Section 2 – Members’ Meetings

In every meeting together, members shall act in that spirit of mutual trust, openness, and loving consideration
which is appropriate within the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There shall be a regular members’ meeting at least every other month, at some time apart from a public worship service
agreed upon by the membership.
An elder designated by the elders shall preside as moderator at all members’ meetings of the church. The elders
shall see that the stated meetings of the church are regularly held and that required reports are submitted to the church by
the responsible members.
Provided all constitutional provisions for notification have been met, a quorum shall be understood to be met by
those members present. All votes shall be tallied based on the number of votes cast by members present.
A budget shall be approved by the membership at a members’ meeting not more than three months after the start
of the fiscal year. Prior to this approval and subject to the elders’ discretion, expenditures may continue at the prior year’s
level.. At any regular or special members’ meeting, officers may be elected and positions filled as needed, so long as all
relevant constitutional requirements have been met.
Special members’ meetings may be called as required by the elders, or at the written request, submitted to the
elders, of five percent of the voting membership. The date, time, and purpose of any special meeting shall be announced
at all public services of the church within two weeks preceding the meeting. In the event of a written request from the
members, the elders shall call a special meeting to be held within one month of their receipt of the request.

Article 5 – Officers

Section 1 – Summary
The Biblical offices in the church are elders and deacons. In addition, our church recognizes the administrative
positions under this constitution of clerk and treasurer. All officers must be members of this church prior to assuming
their responsibilities.

Section 2 – Elders
The elders shall be comprised of not less than three men who satisfy the qualifications for the office of elder set
forth in I Timothy 3: 1–7 and Titus 1: 6–9. A majority of the active eldership shall be composed of church members not
in the regular pay of the church, and no elder shall hold the office of deacon during his tenure.
Subject to the will of the congregation, the elders shall oversee the ministry and resources of the church.
In keeping with the principles set forth in Acts 6: 1–6 and I Peter 5: 1–4, the elders shall devote their time to prayer,
the ministry of the Word (by teaching and encouraging sound doctrine), and shepherding God’s flock.
The church shall recognize men gifted and willing to serve in this calling, in accordance with the constitutional
provisions on elections. These men shall be received as gifts of Christ to His church and set apart as elders.
This recognition shall be reaffirmed by the church triennially. After an elder, other than the senior or associate pastor(s),
has served two consecutive three-year terms, he may only be elected to the office of elder after at least one year.
An elder's term of office may be terminated by resignation or by dismissal. Any two members with reason
to believe that an elder should be dismissed should express such concern to the elders and, if need be, to the congregation.
Any such action shall be done in accordance with the instructions of our Lord in Matthew 18: 15–17 and
I Timothy 5: 17–21. Any of the elders may be dismissed by a two-thirds vote of the members at any members’ meeting
of the church.
The elders shall take particular responsibility to examine and instruct prospective members, examine
and recommend all prospective candidates for offices and positions, oversee the work of the deacons and appointed
church agents and committees, conduct worship services, administer the ordinances of baptism and communion, equip
the membership for the work of the ministry, encourage sound doctrine and practice, admonish and correct error, oversee
the process of church discipline, coordinate and promote the ministries of the church, and mobilize the church for world
missions. The elders are further to ensure that all who minister the Word to the congregation, including outside speakers,
share our fundamental convictions.

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 Constitution of CHBC (cont.)
The elders may establish ministry positions or committees to assist them in fulfilling their responsibilities.
The elders may also propose funding for new paid staff positions. The membership shall approve all candidates to fill
the positions of senior and associate pastor. The scope and approval of job descriptions for any staff position shall reside
in the hands of those with hiring authority for that position.
The elders shall have primary responsibility for the employment, supervision, and evaluation of staff members.
This responsibility may, on a case-by-case basis, be delegated to another staff member.

Each year the elders, after consultation with the deacons, the deaconesses, and the membership, shall present to the
church an itemized budget. This budget shall be presented for discussion at a specially-called budget meeting and called
up for a vote at the following members’ meeting. No money shall be solicited by or on behalf of the church or any of its
ministries without the approval of the elders.
The elders shall elect a chairman of elders’ meetings and shall also elect one of their number to serve as moderator
of members’ meetings. For purposes of compliance with the nonprofit corporation laws of the District of Columbia,
the elders shall elect one of their number to serve as the president of the corporation.

Section 3 – The Senior Pastor

The senior pastor shall be an elder. He shall perform the duties of an elder described in Section 2, above,
and shall be recognized by the church as particularly gifted and called to the full-time ministry of preaching and teaching.
His call shall not be subject to the triennial reaffirmation or to the term limitation set out in Article 5, Section 2,
for elders. His call shall be defined as per Article 6, Section 3.
He shall preach on the Lord's Day, administer the ordinances of baptism and communion, and perform such other
duties as usually pertain to that office, or as set forth in the constitution.
In the absence or incapacity of the senior pastor the elders shall assume responsibility for his duties, any of which
can be delegated.

Section 4 – Associate Pastors

The church may call additional pastors whose relationship to the senior pastor is that of associate.
An associate pastor shall be an elder. He shall perform the duties of an elder described in Section 2, above,
and shall be recognized by the church as particularly gifted and called to the full-time ministry of preaching and teaching.
His call shall not be subject to the triennial reaffirmation or to the term limitation set out in Article 5, Section 2,
for elders. His call shall be defined as per Article 6, Section 4.
He shall assist the senior pastor in the performance of his regular duties and shall perform any other duties
as usually pertain to the office of pastor, or as set forth in the constitution, or which may be specifically assigned to him
by the congregation.
In the absence or incapacity of the senior pastor for defined periods of time (such as sabbatical or illness),
the associate pastor(s) shall assume the responsibility for his duties under the oversight of the elders.

Section 5 – Assistant Pastors

The church may call additional pastors, from within the congregation only, whose relationship to the senior pastor
is that of assistant.
An assistant pastor shall be an elder. He shall perform the duties of an elder described in Section 2, above,
and shall be recognized by the church as particularly gifted and called to the full-time ministry of preaching and teaching.
His call shall be subject to the triennial reaffirmation and term limitation set out in Article 5, section 2, for elders.
His call shall be defined as per Article 6, Section 5
He shall assist the senior pastor and associate pastor(s) in the performance of their regular duties, and shall perform
any other duties as usually pertain to the office of pastor. The elders shall define the responsibilities of the assistant
pastor(s).

Section 6 – Senior Pastoral Assistants

The elders may hire additional staff to assist with pastoral ministry, designated as senior pastoral assistants. These
shall not be pastors, though they may be recognized as elders should they be nominated by the elders and elected by the
congregation, in accordance with Article 5, Section 2.
The elders shall define the responsibilities of the senior pastoral assistant(s). They shall serve at the will
of the elders for an initial term up to four years, though that term may be extended with the approval of the elders.

12
 Constitution of CHBC (cont.)
Section 7 – Pastoral Assistants
The senior pastor may hire additional staff to assist with pastoral ministry, designated as pastoral assistants. These
shall not be pastors, though they may be recognized as elders should they be nominated by the elders and elected
by the congregation, in accordance with Article 5, Section 2.
The senior pastor shall assign the responsibilities of the pastoral assistant(s). They shall serve at the will
of the senior pastor for a term of one year, though that term may be extended with the approval of the elders.

Section 8 – Deacons & Deaconesses

The office of deacon is described in I Timothy 3: 8–13 and Acts 6: 1–7. The church shall recognize, in accordance
with the constitutional provisions on elections, men and women who are giving of themselves in service to the church,
and who possess particular gifts of service. These members shall be received as gifts of Christ to His church and set apart
as deacons and deaconesses. They shall be elected to one term lasting for a maximum of three years and may only be
elected to another term after one year.
Deacons and deaconesses shall care for the temporal needs of members, attend to the accommodations for public
worship, and encourage and support those able to help others and those with gifts of administration.
The deacons and deaconesses shall receive, hold, and disburse a fund for benevolence, reporting on its use
to the elders at their request, and reporting to the church its total receipts and total disbursements only.
The deacons and deaconesses, with the agreement of the elders, may establish unpaid administrative positions
or committees of members to assist them in fulfilling their responsibilities in the church.

Section 9 – Clerk
It shall be the duty of the clerk to record the minutes of all regular and special members’ meetings of the church,
to preserve an accurate roll of the membership, and to render reports as requested by the pastor, the elders, the deacons,
or the church.
The clerk shall be nominated by the elders and elected by the congregation to serve a term of one year.
In the absence or incapacity of the clerk the elders shall appoint a member to perform the duties of the church clerk.
For purposes of compliance with the nonprofit corporation laws of the District of Columbia, the clerk shall serve
as the secretary of the corporation.
The church clerk shall ensure that dated copies of the most recent revision of this constitution shall be available
for all church members.

Section 10 – Treasurer
The treasurer, who shall not be an active elder, deacon, or paid church staff member, shall ensure that all funds
and securities of the church are properly secured in such banks, financial institutions, or depositories as appropriate.
The treasurer shall also be responsible for presenting regular reports of the account balances, revenues and expenses
of the church at each members’ meeting. The responsibility may be delegated with the approval of the elders.
The treasurer shall also ensure that full and accurate accounts of receipts and disbursements are kept in books belonging
to the church, and that adequate controls are implemented to guarantee that all funds belonging to the church are
appropriately handled by any officer, employee, or agent of the church. The treasurer shall render to the elders annually,
or whenever they may require it, an account of all transactions as treasurer and of the financial condition of the church.
The treasurer shall be nominated by the elders and elected by the congregation to serve a term of one year.

ARTICLE 6 – ELECTIONS

Section 1 – Principles
The process for church elections shall be interpreted and carried out to fulfill the following principles:
Substantial prayer, both individually and corporately, should be an integral part of the election process;
Nominations should proceed with the support of the elders;
All candidates for church office should be treated with the grace, kindness, and honesty appropriate in evaluating
fellow members;
The election process shall express that spirit of mutual trust, openness, and loving consideration that
is appropriate within the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

13
 Constitution of CHBC (cont.)
Section 2 – Selection of Officers
The election of officers shall be held at a members’ meeting of the church. Names of nominees to serve as elders,
deacons, clerk, or treasurer shall be presented by the elders at the previous members’ meeting (providing that previous
meeting occurred at least eight weeks prior), and the election shall proceed as directed by the moderator.
The elders should seek recommendations and involvement from the general membership in the nomination process.
Any member with reason to believe that a nominated candidate is unqualified for an office should express such concern
to the elders. Members intending to speak in opposition to a candidate should express their objection to the elders as far
in advance as possible before the relevant church members’ meeting.
The moderator shall declare elected all men receiving a 75% majority of all votes cast for the office of elder. For all
other offices, the moderator shall declare elected all persons receiving a simple majority of all votes cast; abstentions will
not be considered as votes cast.
The persons elected shall assume their respective offices upon election, unless another date has been specifically
designated.

Section 3 – Calling of the Senior Pastor

In the calling of any man to this position, the same basic process of calling an elder must be followed. In addition,
however, the church must be given adequate opportunity to assess the preaching gifts of any potential senior pastor and,
before being asked to express its judgment, must receive assurance from the elders that, having interviewed the man
concerned, they are in no doubt as to his wholehearted assent to the Statement of Faith and Church Covenant. Notice
of the nomination of a man to be elected to membership and called as senior pastor (which shall include, if necessary,
election to membership of his wife if he is married) must be given at two Sunday morning services following
the nomination, prior to the vote at a members’ meeting.

Section 4 – Calling of Associate Pastor

In the calling of any man to the position of associate pastor, the same basic process of calling an elder must be
followed. In addition, however, the church must be given adequate opportunity to assess the preaching gifts of any
potential associate pastor and, before being asked to express its judgment, must receive assurance from the elders that,
having interviewed the man concerned, they are in no doubt as to his wholehearted assent to the Statement of Faith and
Church Covenant. Notice of the nomination of a man to be called as associate pastor (which shall include, if necessary,
election to membership of him and his wife if he is married) must be given at two Sunday morning services following
the nomination, prior to the vote at a members’ meeting.

Section 5 – Calling of Assistant Pastor

The calling of any man to the position of assistant pastor requires that that man have been recognized and called
by the congregation to the office of elder, according to the process described in Article 6, Section 2. Such a man may then
be called by the elders to serve as assistant pastor with defined duties for a fixed period of time specified by the elders
in the terms of his call.

Article 7 – Indemnification

Section 1 – Mandatory Indemnification

If a legal claim or criminal allegation is made against a person because he or she is or was an officer, employee,
or agent of the church, the church shall provide indemnification against liability and costs incurred in defending against
the claim if the elders determine that the person acted (a) in good faith, (b) with the care an ordinarily prudent person
in a similar position would exercise under similar circumstances, and (c) in a manner the person reasonably believed to be
in the best interest of the church, and the person had no reasonable cause to believe his or her conduct was unlawful.

Section 2 – Permissive Indemnification

At the discretion of the elders, the church also may indemnify any person who acted in good faith and reasonably
believed that his or her conduct was in the church’s best interest and not unlawful.

Section 3 – Procedure
If a quorum of the elders is not available for an indemnification determination because of the number of elders
seeking indemnification, the requisite determination may be made by the membership or by special legal counsel
appointed by the membership.

14
 Constitution of CHBC (cont.)
Article 8 – Dispute Resolution

Believing that the Bible commands Christians to make every effort to live at peace and to resolve disputes
with each other in private or within the Christian Church (see, e.g., Matthew 18: 15–20, I Corinthians 6: 1–8), the church
shall require its members to resolve conflict among themselves according to biblically based principles, without reliance
on the secular courts. Consistent with its call to peacemaking, the church shall encourage the use of biblically based
principles to resolve disputes between itself and those outside the church, whether Christian or pagan and whether indi-
viduals or corporate entities.

Article 9 – Amendments

The Statement of Faith and Church Covenant may be amended by a three-quarters vote of the members present
and voting at a members’ meeting, provided the amendment shall have been offered in writing at the previous members’
meeting, and shall have been announced from the pulpit at church services two successive Sundays prior to such vote.
This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting at a members’ meeting,
provided the amendment shall have been offered in writing at the previous members’ meeting, and shall have been
announced from the pulpit at church services two successive Sundays prior to such vote.
The revised version of this constitution shall be made available to all church members by the church clerk.

15
CHBC 2012 Budget

16
CHBC 2012 Budget

17
CHBC 2012 Budget

18
CHBC Membership Application

19
CHBC Membership Application

20
 Conducting a Membership Interview

Preliminaries

 Introduce yourself briefly, along with anyone else in the room

 You can be filling out the Date and Staff Attending Interview portions during this time.
 It can be intimidating for females to be in a room with two or three other males, so feel
free to take the time to explain why the other men are there and to put them at ease.
 For these interviews, if she is really nervous, you will likely need to ask questions
to help ‘draw’ out their understanding. The goal is not to feed them the informa-
tion, but to draw out what is already there.
 Give a brief overview of the interview. There are four parts:
1. Biographical information (Address, phone, spouse, children, etc…)
2. Gospel presentation
3. Miscellaneous information (small groups, etc…)
4. Personal testimony
 Pray

Biographical Information

 Fill out basic biographical information.

 Get the full name, including middle name. Also ask for what name they normally go by.
 Don’t forget to ask for apartment numbers!
 If the person gives you more than three phone numbers, ask them for their preferred two
numbers and indicate that on the application. Make sure you also indicate if the number
is home, work, or cell.
 Don’t assume someone is single, make sure you ask, Are you married? Have you ever
been married? Do you have any children?”
 Fill out prior church membership and baptism information.
 Ask for the previous church of which they were a member or attending.
 Ask if they have been baptized as a believer, and if so, where and when.
 The date of baptism can be very general. The year of the baptism would suffice.
 A good way to see if there might be any issues to discuss regarding the baptism
would be to ask if the person was baptized: 1) In a church, and 2) By a pastor. If
the answer is no to any of these, then you can explore the details further.
 For applicants who are coming from a paedo-baptist or Church of Christ back-
ground and have questions about baptism, we have baptism readers that we can
give to them to read (check w/ a Pastoral Assistant).
 Fill out general CHBC information
 Ask when they started attending CHBC and how they found out about us.
 Ask when they attended Membership Matters and what they thought of it.
 Fill out divorce information
 If the person has been divorced, you will need to explore this further and take more notes.
Some questions to consider:
 How long ago was the divorce?
 Why did you divorce your spouse? The point here is to determine whether or not
this was a biblical divorce.
 Were you and your spouse Christians when you got divorced?
 Have you tried to reconcile with your ex-spouse? Are they open to reconciliation?

21
 Conducting a Membership Interview
Gospel Presentation

 Ask the person to briefly share with you what the Gospel is
 You’re basically looking for the four main points: God, man, Christ, response (repentance
& faith)
 Make sure they understand substitution
 Following their presentation, feel free to ask questions that will clarify what they mean or
draw out their understanding of certain things.
 For example, if they’re shaky on repentance, you can ask: “What if someone
claimed to believe in all that, but continued to live in sin?”
 If needed, ask, “And you believe this to be true for you?”
 If this person seems to give a credible profession of his faith, then you can continue with the
membership interview.
 For those who are not strong on their understanding of the Gospel, you can also recom-
mend that they attend the Core Seminars on Two Ways to Live or Christianity Explained.
Another option is to ask if they would be interested in going through a study of Mark
(Christianity Explained) one-on-one with another member of the church. If so, let the
pastoral assistant know and he can try to set that up.
 However, if you don’t think this person is a Christian, at this point you would end the in-
terview and suggest they go through Christianity Explained. Once they have gone
through the class and have come to understand themselves to believe the Gospel, you
can re-schedule and continue the interview.
 Check off whether this person understands the Gospel or not, and include any important
notes.

Miscellaneous Information

 Ask if they’re interested in a small group and what kind of group (men’s, women’s, community,
young married [which is only for young married couples]).
 Not required, but a great way to get connected with other Christians during the week and
be encouraged.
 Ask what night of the week would work best for them.
 Ask if they’re interested in 1-on-1 discipleship
 Encourage them to pursue discipling relationships on their own by taking initiative with
members that they get to know. Small groups are a great place to pursue discipling rela-
tionships. If after several months, they have been unable to find anyone to meet with,
they can contact someone in the church office.
 Ask if they’ve attended Wed. Evening Service and what they thought of it.
 Wednesday Evening Service is not required, but we do encourage people to make it if
they can.
 If they’ve never been to Wed. Evening Service, encourage them to come at least once
and see whether this would be a good fit for them.
 Ask if they’ve attended Sunday Evening Service and what they thought of it.
 Let them know that regular Sunday Evening Service attendance is expected for all mem-
bers and explain why.
 It’s good to actually ask, “So will you plan to come on Sunday nights?” We want to draw
out a verbal commitment from them, and root out any excuses that might not be valid.
 Ask if they’ve attended Sunday Morning Service and what they thought of it.
 Obviously, regular attendance is also expected for members.
 Ask if they’ve read What is a Healthy Church?

22
 Conducting a Membership Interview
 This is how the elders intend to lead the church.
 If they haven’t read it, ask that they read it and email you once they do with any thoughts
or comments or questions.
 Ask if they‘ve been disciplined (excommunicated) by a church before.
 If so, you will need to explore this further.
 Ask if they would be willing to sign the Statement of Faith and Church Covenant.
 Ask if they have any questions about it (though it probably hasn’t changed since they last
studied it in Membership Matters)
 Make sure they sign and print their name and date it.
 Make sure you sign and date it, too!

Personal Testimony

 Ask the person to walk through their personal background and spiritual testimony. This could
include (but is not limited to):
 Where they were born and grew up
 Family background
 Church background
 Life pre-conversion
 Conversion
 Life post-conversion
 Where they went to school
 Where this person has been since finishing school (jobs, cities, etc…)
 Marriage, family
 How they got to DC
 The main goal here is to understand how this person became a Christian, and how they’ve given
evidence of following Christ since then.

Wrap Up & Five Expectations

 Explain what happens next:

 Application will go before the elders.
 Their membership will be voted on at the next members’ meeting in _________. They
should not plan to attend that members’ meeting.
 Someone from the office will contact them after the members’ meeting.
 Five basic expectations for new members:
1. Attend regularly
 Including Sunday morning and Sunday evening
 Encourage them to see this as their primary ministry for the first few months: be-
ing here regularly, getting to know people, and letting others get to know them
2. Attend Lord’s Supper
 1st Sunday of the month, usually in the Sunday evening service.
3. Attend Members’ Meeting
 3rd Sunday of the month, every other month, after the evening service. Bring a
snack!
 You can give a brief explanation of members’ meetings, if there’s time.
4. Give faithfully

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 Conducting a Membership Interview
 The NT doesn’t command a percentage, but 10% is a good place to start for rich
Americans, and increase from there as the Lord enables you.
5. Pray for the church
 Encourage them to pray regularly for others, and one way to do that is by praying
through the membership directory.
 Give them a directory before they leave, or if there aren’t any out, then let them
know they can pick one up at the church office on Sundays.

Any questions?

24
 CHBC Timeline ‘93-Present
1993
Jan Previous pastor resigns
Mar Capitol Hill Metropolitan Baptist Church talks about “5 year window of opportunity,”
Schmucker talks of “staying for those yet to come”
July Elders, reformed theology, and pastor living on Capitol Hill addressed with Pulpit
Committee
Nov Invitationals discussed at members meeting with prospective pastor
Dec CHBC extends call to Dever; Dever accepts

1994
Jan-Apr Main Hall renovated ($250,000)
May-Nov Pastor’s home renovated
Aug Dever arrives; attends regularly, addresses missions committee, interviews older
members about previous pastors, encourages use of membership directory as prayer
list, encourages a culture of spiritually significant conversations
Oct Dever installed as pastor; first Church Card; Dever takes responsibility for all public
services; special music disappears; choruses appear in morning service; Wednesday
night prayer meeting re-constituted as Bible study; new member interviews begin

1995
Jan Church’s name changes -- drop “Metropolitan”
Sunday evening service re-constituted as family gathering for praise and prayer. De-
cision was made to go more corporate/congregational rather than pursuing seg-
mented demographics
Spring New exterior signs
Spring “Reverse Membership Interviews” begin
May Flag crisis
Fall End Wednesday night dinners
Nov Organ goes silent

1996
Jan Pastor prints proposed new covenant in newsletter
Feb Church adopts new covenant
April Members meeting out of public service
Mar Pastor asks all members to sign statement of faith and covenant by May
May “Great Purge” drops 256 members; constitution revision process begins
May-Aug West Hall renovated ($70,000); begin book & tape stall; hospitality hour begins
after a.m. service
Nov Menikoff designs “Membership Matters” course

1997
Feb-June Office renovated
Spring Internships begin
Dec A. (Hurst) Byrd implements child protection policy

1998
Jan Center for Church Reform (CCR) begins—now 9Marks
May Pass new constitution; pastor requests elder suggestions

25
 CHBC Timeline ‘93-Present
Aug Elders nominated by pastor
Oct All elder nominations rejected by congregation
Nov Elder nominations passed on second try; purchase of #4 6th St. approved

1999
Jan New task-oriented deacons approved
Mar Church approves requiring all members to sign statement of faith and covenant
Silent reflection at end of services begin
Summer Elders deal with severe staff problems
Fall Core seminars begin largely replacing age-graded adult Sunday School

2000 STAFF TRANSITION

Jan Radio begins
Pastor lays out temporary staff struc-
ture
May Membership passes 300
Child Development Center closes
Nov Seminarian financial support from the
budget begins
2001
Spring Elder Andy Johnson begins chairing
public members meetings
Teaching on gender roles in dating
and marriage
May West Hall doors raised for morning
service – first time in over 30 years
Summer Floors 2 and 3 of education
wing renovated for expanded chil-
dren’s program ($70k)
Elders begin using members meet-
ings as teaching time
Aug Pastor receives rash of angry letters
(end of “de facto church split”)
Fall 514 East Capitol St. renovated
Sept Members hear why we don’t neces-
sarily publicly read resignation letter
Nov First elder reaffirmation completed
(unanimous)
First million dollar budget passed (unanimous) -- doubled Cooperative Program giving
Foreign missions giving reaches 12% of total budget
Members taught on small groups
Organ haltingly re-begins
First CHBC black member dies
Pastor declared “unproductive presence” by DCBC Executive Director
June 91 Matt Schmucker, administrator
Nov 96 Aaron Menikoff, pastoral assistant
April 97 Brad Byrd, administrator
Dec 97 Abi (Hurst) Byrd, pastoral asst. for
children
Jan 01 Matt Schmucker, administrator, 9M
director
Mar 01 Michael Lawrence called as associate
pastor
Mar 02 Michael Lawrence, associate pastor
June 03 John Folmar, senior pastoral assistant
(children and families)
June 04 Mike McKinley, senior pastoral asst.
Aug Mike McKinley, s.p. of church plant
(Guilford Fellowship, Sterling, VA)
John Folmar, s.p., UCCD, Dubai, UAE
Thabiti Anyabwile, assistant pastor
(children and families)
May 05 Jeremy Eng, administrator; Matt
Schmucker to 9Marks full time
Jan 06 Andy Johnson, associate pastor
July 06 Thabiti Anyabwile, s.p. of First Baptist,
Grand Cayman
Aug 07 Deepak Reju, associate pastor
Aug 08 Greg Gilbert, asst. pastor (planting)
May 09 Jamie Dunlop, associate pastor
July 10 Greg Gilbert, s.p. 3rd Ave. Bapt.
Louisville, KY
Sept 10 Brad Wheeler, associate pastor

2002
Jan Radio ends
Removed four deacon positions (Radio/Web, Service Prep, Grounds, Building) and
added one (Weddings)

26
 CHBC Timeline ‘93-Present
Summer Wedding policy established. Couples must complete four sessions of pre-
martial counseling and receive approval from counseling pastor before setting date
and reserving church facilities
Fall Office expanded: new workroom, intern room and administration wing
Dec CHBC annual revenues exceed $1,000,000 for first time

2003
Jan Internship grows to 12 interns/year
Feb CHBC turns 125 years old
Mar “The Fabulous 40!”—40 new members taken in at March members meeting
Elders hold “day away” to discuss growth issues. Elders affirm continued single ser-
vice
Oct CCR becomes 9Marks
Nov CHBC passes $1,500,000 budget with 14% designated for international missions
Dec Main Hall expansion feasibility study. $16M expansion proposed

2004
Jan Age of baptism discussion, premarital sex teaching, and the Main/West Hall becomes
pretty full
Fall 640 A St willed to the church

2005
Feb Elders Day Away to discuss expansion of 9Marks, new hires, feasibility study for
housing, office and education space, internship expansion, CHBC purchases 101 5th
St. (Bull Moose) for $2.05M

2006
Mar CHBC members begin writing for Focus on the Family’s boundless.org
April First Together for the Gospel conference
Sept New budget process approved

2007
March 9Marks holds first workshop in Maryland

2008
Easter Sunday morning attendance reaches about 900 for the first time since mid-1950s
April Second Together for the Gospel

2009
June 9Marks attends the Southern Baptist
Convention and hosts 9Marks at 9
Sept Mark Dever’s 15 year anniversary
2010
Spring Renovated West Hall and Main Hall
April Third Together for the Gospel
ONGOING ELDERS DISCUSSION
Growth issues / building constraints
Elder board make up: staff vs. non-staff
Mission of the church and caring for the poor
Unanimity on elder nomination
Planting and revitalization
Percentage of budget to foreign missions
Discipline: don’t discipline the repentant?
Divorce and re-marriage

27
 CHBC Timeline ‘93-Present
BOOKS PUBLISHED
1997
Nine Marks (booklet), by Mark Dever

2001
Display of God’s Glory (booklet), by Mark Dever
Nine Marks (booklet; 4th ed.)
Polity, by Mark Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (book, Crossway), by Mark Dever

2005
The Deliberate Church, by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander
Promises Kept (New Testament overview sermon volume), by Mark Dever

2006
By Whose Authority?: Elders in Baptist Life (booklet), by Mark Dever
Promises Made (Old Testament overview sermon volume), by Mark Dever

2007
Preaching the Cross, edited by Mark Dever
What is a Healthy Church? By Mark Dever
The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, by Mark Dever

2008
What Is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile

2010
The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love, by Jonathan Leeman
What is the Gospel?, by Greg Gilbert
Church Planting is for Wimps, by Michael McKinley
Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church, by Michael Lawrence
It Is Well, by Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence
What Does God Want of us Anyway?, by Mark Dever

2011
Reverberation, by Jonathan Leeman
Am I Really a Christian, by Michael McKinley

2012
Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, by Thabiti Anyabwile
The Church: Making the Gospel Visible, by Mark Dever
Preach, by Mark Dever and Greg Gilbert
Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, by Jonathan Leeman
Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus, by Jonathan Leeman
Church Essentials (video and study guide), by Mark Dever
Healthy Church Study Guides, by Bobby Jamieson

28
 CHBC Timeline ‘93-Present
TIMELINE LESSONS
1. Consider future generations in decisions the church makes.

2. Be straight forward with search committees, even telling them the things they may not like
about you. This helps to force you to put the candidacy into God’s hands, not your own.

3. As a candidate, tell the church what they can (or cannot) expect from your wife.

4. Move slowly. Generally speaking, don’t plan on changing any practices in the beginning. If
there’s something you will change immediately, tell them before they hire you.

5. Every element of the public service (music, prayer, preaching) teaches and leads the
congregation. Therefore, it should be given elder/pastoral oversight.

6. In your services, beware entertainment culture; beware of manipulating emotions.

7. Be deliberate about each gathering of the church. What is its purpose?

8. Beware sacred cows. Choose your battles wisely.

9. Promote congregational singing! Consider the advantages of music that’s mere and
enhancing.

10. Clean your membership roles as quickly and as wisely as you can.

11. Ask yourself, what am I doing to raise up future pastors?

12. Consider whether or not members of the church know what’s expected of them as members.
Is there a church covenant? Is it used? How do you teach your church what it means to be a
member? How are these lessons reinforced?

13. Don’t lead your church through change before they are ready. Don’t lead your church through
change before there is a consensus.

14. Expect to be opposed from unexpected places when leading change.

15. Once, maybe twice, in the process of transition, you may have to be willing to put your job on
the line.

16. Always hold your job with a loose grip.

29
30
REFORMING DOCUMENTS

Reforming Documents
New Member Letter 32
Messenger Article on New Church Covenant 33
Letter regarding new Statement of Faith & Church Covenant 37
Use of Church Property 38
Music in the Church 40
A Pastoral Letter for April 1997 41
Goals for Year 1998 42
Pastoral Questions to Leadership (pre-Elders) 45
Timetable for New Constitution 46
Constitution Transition Timetable 47
Letter asking for Elder Nominations 48
Elder Response Form 50
Elder Nomination Announcement 51
Elder Confirmation Thoughts 52
Elder Vows 56
Inactive Member Letter 57
Original 9Marks Letter 58

BAPTISM OF CHILDREN AT CHBC 62

CLEANING UP THE ROLLS 64

“Why We Disciplined Half Our Church” 66
“Regaining Meaningful Church Membership” 68

31
 Reforming Documents
New Member Letter

Dear New Member,

Welcome! On March 20, 2005, the assembled congregation of the Capitol Hill Baptist
Church voted you into membership. We are grateful the Lord has brought you
into our local body.

As church members we are responsible to one another. Scripture uses the metaphors
of a building, a body and a family to help us understand the corporate nature of our
faith. As you commit yourself to the life of this church, keep in mind the following
priorities.

Be constant in your attendance both on Sunday mornings and evenings.

These gatherings are the primary means for you to get to know others and be known
by them. Such participation will root you in the growth and development of our
church.

Pray for us daily. The community of faith God is building here will be buttressed
and strengthened by prayer - prayer for our services, witness, evangelism
and members. We suggest you pray through the church directory, praying
through the page that corresponds to the day’s date.

Give proportionally. Work toward contributing a percentage of your income

regularly to the ministry of this church as we serve one another, our community,
and the world.

Make a priority of being at our monthly celebrations of the Lord’s Supper.

This is our opportunity to examine ourselves as we verbally renew our covenant
with God and one other, and to commemorate the dying love of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.

Set aside the evening of the third Sunday of every other month to be at our members’
meetings. These meetings occur regularly every other month beginning in January.
Whether the meetings are long or short, exciting or routine, they are a crucial part
of our functioning as a congregation.

As we come together and pray, as we give and obey, as we deliberate and decide,
we have the opportunity and responsibility to show God’s glory to this neighborhood,
this city and beyond. Welcome to the challenge and the privilege of being a member
of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

Your pastor,

Mark Dever

32
Reforming Documents
Messenger Article on New Church Government

33
Reforming Documents
Messenger Article on New Church Government

34
Reforming Documents
Messenger Article on New Church Government

35
Reforming Documents
Messenger Article on New Church Government

36
 Reforming Documents
Letter regarding new Statement of Faith & Church Covenant

March 1996

Dear Member of Capitol Hill (formerly Metropolitan) Baptist Church

In our desire to witness faithfully to the Good News of Jesus Christ, we send you the enclosed
documents for your signature and return to us by May 1, 1996. These documents are, respectively,
the Statement of Faith and the Church covenant of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, of which you are currently
recorded as a member.
Our Statement of Faith was adopted by the church at its founding meeting in February of 1878.
It is a concise, nineteenth-century expression of the Christian faith. Since then, it has been the document
which has officially expressed the way this church understands the truths revealed by God in the Lord Jesus
Christ and through the Bible.
The Church Covenant is one of several which our church has had over its history. It is a recently re-
adopted and slightly amended version of our church’s second covenant (1896-1945).
From their earliest gatherings in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries congregational and especially
Baptist churches have written and made church covenants. A church covenant is a statement of how we
pledge, by God’s grace, to live out the Christian faith together. Historically, church covenants were affirmed
either verbally or in writing by new members of a church and were regularly read together by members
before taking communion. In fact, one hundred years ago, it was the practice of this church to meet together
the Thursday evening before communion was taken in order to have a “Covenant meeting.” Here
the members would re-affirm their commitment to God and each other in the words of the covenant.
If you are able, in good conscience, to sign each of these documents and return them to us
by May 1, 1996, then we will rejoice at your partnership in living the Christian life and spreading
the Christian gospel here on Capitol Hill. If for some reason you are not able to sign, please take
the voluntary commitment that you made some time ago seriously enough to write to us indicating
the reasons for your failure to affirm the Statement and the Covenant.
Barring extenuating circumstances which the church acknowledges and accepts, those who have not
been active at CHBC within the last year and who have not returned both the Statement of Faith and
the Church Covenant with their signatures attached will be made the subjects of a motion to remove
their names from membership. This motion will be made in response to the lack of interest in or support of
the work here, evidenced by the failure to sign and return the Statement and the Covenant.
If God, in His providence, has moved you elsewhere and you’ve simply neglected to move your
church membership, let me encourage you, as a pastor and a Christian, not to attempt to live the Christian
life alone, but to affiliate with a Bible-believing church. Some of you may already be involved in such
a church. We here at Capitol Hill do not want to encourage you in anything which would harm your spiritual
life by allowing you to continue a form of membership with us when the reality has long since departed.
We rejoice that God had put us in a place where so many people pass through and move on to serve
God elsewhere. But we struggle, as a result, to keep our membership lists meaningful and accurate.
If you’re having trouble finding a church, or have any questions about the above, please do phone me, Mark
Dever, your pastor, at 202-543-6111.
If you, like me, are an active member of our church, rejoice with me in this opportunity to express
your agreement with us in our understanding of the gospel, and of our obligations as Christians in this place.
With sincere love and prayers in Christ,

Mark E. Dever

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Use of Church Property

Use of Church Property

An informal paper for the deacons
Prepared by Mark Dever
June, 1996

This investigation has been occasioned by questions raised by the church’s use of a parking lot
for a Lobster sale, and by the consideration of renting a corner of a roof on the church building to Cellular One
for a considerable return. When discussed at the May 1996 deacons meeting, it became apparent that this decision
involved a number of other closely related issues. It is the purpose of this paper to clarify these issues
for our deacons.
In discussion with Eric Pelletier, and other deacons and church members, it is clear that the specific
concerns raised have been the following. (My responses are in italics.)

1. Shouldn’t Jesus running the money-changers out of the Temple (Matthew 21:12-16, Mark 11:15-18,
Luke 19:45-47, John 2:13-16) effectively prohibit economic transactions from taking place in a church
building?
The account of Jesus and the money-changers does not prohibit economic transactions from taking place
in the church building for a number of reasons:
a. In Christianity, the church building is not a holy place in the sense that the Temple was; the Temple,
according to the NT is Jesus (e.g, John 2:19).
b. Extortion was a serious problem with those who exchanged “secular” money for “religious” money.
c. In the most general sense, this is a caution against the purpose of the church being obscured by other
activities, including economic ones.

2. More abstractly, couldn’t such worldly activities as lobster sales and telephone antennae being associated
with a church be said to be profaning the holy, and so bring dishonor to God?
The idea of other uses for the church’s properties profaning the sacred and so dishonoring God is not
fundamentally about things being done on church property as what it is the church (as the people of God)
are doing, wherever they’re doing it. It cannot be over-stressed that this property is no more or less sacred
or holy than our homes, and than the rest of God’s creation. Therefore no more strictures need to be put on
the use of this property for this reason, than on the use of any other property.

3. Similar to the last question, but distinct, couldn’t other activities being associated with the church confuse
the church’s message to the outside world?
The idea that other activities could confuse the surrounding world about the church’s message is a more
debatable, but also a more real objection than any of the previous objections. Certainly one question which
should be asked the church (or its delegates, such as deacons, trustees, house committee, or administrator)
is “would this confuse the world about our message.” One may reason that the more strong and clear
the presentation of the gospel is by the church, the more room we may have to allow greater usage
by the building without overwhelming our witness. Disagreements may occur here.

4. Couldn’t the church suffer from guilt by association, in that we must then take responsibility for appearing
to endorse the product or group in question?
Concern over guilt by association, or a kind of tacit endorsement of a product, service or group is a serious
concern. The church should never allow itself to be in the position of advancing sin. Yet what someone does
with a telephone call, while their car is parked, in advocating a particular hunger bill, by putting their child
in daycare, or while attending church can never finally be determined by us. We must pray and use
our judgment here, as well as in the previous area of concern.

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Use of Church Property

5. Shouldn’t the church survive financially on members’ giving alone without depending on earned income?
The church should ideally survive primarily on the members’ giving. This is greatly superior to churches
surviving on bazaars (where they sell to each other rather than give to God), endowments (where the
congregation may long ago have ceased being vital or viable), or other money-raising schemes. However, in
the same way that we financially support gospel work in needy areas that cannot support itself, so we can take
advantage of the difficult area God has us in, and use the valuable property to extend our ministry. We currently
use earned income from the bank, rental money from apartments, parking spaces, the CHC & CDC to augment
our ministry. Great care must be taken here. My preference would, of course, be to see the members’ giving
the majority of our income.

6. Couldn’t we actually be hindered in using our properties for the very reason which we have them by losing
flexibility in our use of them, particularly through long-term leases?
Again, the concern about lack of flexibility for our use of facilities is a sensible one. Renting rooms
in the church, under long term contracts, may reduce the short term ability of the church to respond to growing
needs for more rooms for Sunday School, youth group activities, music ministries. Care would have to be taken
over contracts, and the work of the church should, on the whole, be not hindered, but helped.

7. Doesn’t the increased wear and tear on facilities make it uneconomic for us to rent out our facilities?
The added economic costs involved in the increased wear and tear on facilities should be determined on a case
by case basis. This forms no barrier in principle to the use of our church property.

8. Are there legal questions which prohibit us from even thinking about such uses?
Finally, any legal questions should be carefully investigated before launching into any agreement.

MY CONCLUSION
My conclusion is that there is no block in principle on us using the church property as we have been receiving
interest from the bank, taking rent from the apartments and CDC, the CHC and parking lots. Indeed, we have
an important charge and trust given us to be good stewards of our physical resources (Matt. 25:15; Luke 16:1-18;
Acts 6:1-4; 1 Cor 4:2; 16:1-4; 1 Timothy 3:3; 1 Peter 4:10). This is particularly important given our difficult location.
But the very circumstances which make some things difficult here can be used for the good. Valuable land can be sold
or rented as needed, and ministries funded through this or other means. Many smaller benefits may accrue to the church,
like greater positive visibility in the area, more contacts with people. Besides that, those things which we allow to use
the church property (even for rent) can be good ministries in and of themselves without financially costing us directly.
Questions to be raised whenever any particular possibility is suggested should be those embodied in the concerns
above. As a church we have the privilege of thinking through the use of our corporately held physical property in each
specific proposed use. Situations may vary, as the outline below suggest.

Different categories of use of facilities

I. Regular
A. Our Own Financial Uses—giving offerings, selling tapes & books
(directly part of our ministry)
B. Rented to others
1. more of a ministry--
a. that we are in some way responsible for and subsidize—CDC
b. quite separate and no clear subsidy—CHC
2 less of a ministry—parking spaces
C. Unrented but allowed to use
(Scouts & Neighborhood Watch Meetings)
II. Special
A. Rented (movie company)
B. Unrented (Campus Crusade, prayer groups)
An example of this consideration is the proposal by Cellular One. To help us in our discussion,
we could proceed through the concerns outlined above, applying each one in turn.

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Music in the Church

QUESTIONS:
A Consideration of Music in the Church
FOR THE PASTOR’S FELLOWSHIP, MEETING AT CHBC 18 JUNE 1996

Is the music sung congregationally and performed by others during the Sunday morning worship
service a concern of the pastor’s? Is the pastor in any way particularly responsible for it? If so,
what criteria are to be used in determining the appropriate music?

The Pastor and the Music

I think that the pastor does have special responsibility for the music at the stated meetings
of the church for two reasons. First, the music is part of the time used in those meetings, which
meetings have been entrusted by the congregation to the leadership of the pastor/elders in trust
for the church in trust for God. Second, the pastor/elders have responsibility most particularly
for the doctrine clearly taught, the doctrines implied, and, more subtly still, the emphases given
to the services, which therefore reflects and constitutes the emphases of the church.

Criteria for Determining Appropriate Music

As would be expected from my comments above, the words, the topics more generally,
the styles, and the performers are all areas of legitimate concern and oversight for the pastor/elders.
Certainly we would not want to sing or have sung anything which we believe to be false. Therefore,
we do not want to sing about the glories of infant baptism. Furthermore, we would not want
something to be implied which we would consider dangerous. Therefore, it may be our judgment that
in an age which perceived no alienation between themselves and God we must be particularly careful
about singing hymns which would diminish the distance between a careless world and God.
We should also examine the balance of our music. Are they all songs about our experience of God,
rather than about God Himself, and the truth of the gospel message? Do they encourage us
to misconceive of God—as casually unconcerned with sin, for example?

About the style, is the style either inappropriate given our congregation, or given
the seriousness of the lyrics? Are any styles ever completely inappropriate? What implications
does this have for children’s music?

As for those who lead in worship, singing or leading singing, do they understand what they’re
doing? Is worship essentially equated with music? If so, what are we communicating to the person
who is being emotionally moved to tears by a chorus, and yet who is holding malice in their hearts
against someone, engaging in gossip, or in an adulterous affair? Is that person worshipping? Are
they being encouraged to think that they are worshipping? Also, is congregational singing to be pre-
ferred above performed music? What impact should the entertainment expectations of our congrega-
tion or of visitors have on what we choose to do or not to do?

I look forward to our discussion!

--Mark E. Dever

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A Pastoral Letter for April 1997

Messenger, April 1997

A Pastoral Letter for April 1997

Looking back over March, I am encouraged at God’s work here. The tone
of prayers in our evening prayer meeting, the numbers of people (both new
and old to us), the conversations around the studies in John’s gospel –all have
been encouraging to me.
After two and a half years here, I certainly see some faults of our fellowship
more clearly than I ever could have before I came, and even more clearly
than I could have in my early months here. Furthermore, the imperfections
of my own ministry have probably added to that list. I leave you to identify
what you feel are our faults, to pray for them, and to act to compensate
for them, or correct them.
And yet, after two and a half years here, I also am deeply thankful to God
for the good things that are going on among us. One of my concerns
when I came here was the financial state of the church. We were composed
of many faithful givers, but they were mostly quite advanced in years. This did
not bode well for the future of the work here. But God has in this time very
clearly blessed us through you. While I don’t know if you personally are being
a faithful steward of what God has entrusted to you, I know that through us
corporately God is supplying our needs, and more.

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Goals for Year 1998

Address: Goals for our Church, Mark Dever

Intro:
Hope is a great motivation.
Use of Goals:
Utility of statement of faith, covenant, nine marks
Dangers:
Jere Allen question

“God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal
of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 27.

Christ’s vision for the church, from the Bible, applied by your pastor.
This isn’t saying stop doing anything & everything else,
Or what God will do;
This is just letting you know where my heart is,
What some of my hopes are for us in 1998
Perennial:
9:39
1. Preaching should continue MD
ROMANS 10:17 (cf. 1 Cor. 1:21)
Tradition here; I value; the church values
Why preaching first.

9:42
2. Evangelism should continue and increase ME
MATTHEW 28:19-20 (Romans 10, 1 Peter 3:15)
Seems to be growing
Counter-narcissistic; using us for others; not so much a service center as an equipping center

9:45
3. Worship & Membership, mindset about should continue to improve MD
1 CORINTHIANS 5:8, shared distinction; locking arms, walking together
Difficult setting today—largely misunderstood & forgotten;
Whole of life is worship, including all of our meetings together

9:48
4. Corporate Prayer continue to improve MD
ACTS 2:42
Growing interest
Improvement I have seen
Perhaps small groups

9:51
5. Budget increase—giving increase (missions increase) BB
PSALM 24:1; 2 CORINTHIANS 9:7; 1 PETER 5:10
Growth in giving
Growing percentage of giving in our lives
Growing percentage of money overseas

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Goals for Year 1998

9:54
6. Participation increased congregational understanding of and attendance at Sun PM, Wed PM, Sunday
School, extras MD
HEBREWS 10:24-25
Church isn’t a spectator sport; Don Whitney “call ourselves humble servants, but the first time we’re treated
like one!…”
Thank God for all those who do participate.
Church activity is not necessarily a distraction from our Christian lives.
Attendance of members.
There are reasons for Sunday Evening, Wednesday Evening, Sunday School, occasional opportunities

9:57
7. Discipleship multiplying through one-on-one and small groups
MATTHEW 28:20; 2 TIMOTHY 2:2
Happens in Sunday evening & Wed evening
Happens in families
Happens in small groups
Being intentional in relationships

10:00
8. Other Churches, encourage reformation of
GALATIANS 1:11; TITUS 1:5; 1 PETER 1:1
This is why I accept most of the outside speaking that I do.
I feel called to this. Strategy. SBC involvement; Founders involvement; seminaries. Writing.
Longevity here important for us & them.
Mailed out Nine Marks to pastors

Specifically for our Church in the year of 1998

10:03
1. Constitution should be ratified and implemented—elders (restructure deacon responsibility)
Importance; need for prayer; importance for so many things. Pray for elders.
Agreement on process. EVERY CHURCH HAS A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION

10:06
2. New member assimilation
Praise God for the growth. Difficulties of growing community.
Aaron’s job. But we all must do this. Happens Sun PM, Wed PM, dinners, coffee time

10:09
3. Child Protection Policy implemented
Church has spoken. Simply need volunteers to carry this out. Praise God for the volunteers we have
(can be difficult to volunteer for—miss services, advance preparation). And patience as we practically re-
educate.

10:12
4. Benevolence new structure, think through mercy ministries
Concern about our community, the city, mercy ministries & our benevolence fund coming together. We have
a special responsibility to each other as members of this congregation, and to other Christians; and we have a
special opportunity with the needs around us.

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Goals for Year 1998

10:15
5. Communication improved leadership/congregational
Mail boxes, openness, E-mail David Schmucker; agendas beforehand; available staff.
Good communication happens when people come to meetings. And when they ask questions.

10:18
6. Visitation improved for older members
Importance of caring for older members. Older folks do serve in visiting one another; Don Ward offers rides.
Need coordinator. Pastoral staff can do some. What is really needed are relationships.

10:21
7. Internship Program begin to formulate plan (Dee Summer)
Responsibility for Dee AND “OTHER CHURCHES” above. NOT accomplished in this year. Long-term goal
for here, moving toward it in this year. Multiply usefulness of what we do here. We’ve talked to pastors this
summer: Buster Brown, John Piper, Al Jackson.

10:24
8. Radio begin to formulate plan for use
Multiplying effectiveness of what we’re already doing. Reforming churches.
Ministry of demanding more from preachers; AND of spreading the gospel.
DOES NOT MEAN we will have in 1998!

10:27
9. Children’s Ministry Abi’s coming
Responsibility for those we have; and for those around who are coming, or could come. Opportunities
for evangelism.
As Connie Dever says, “Preach and they’ll come; have a children’s ministry and they’ll stay.”
Stuff is going on here; more needs to.
Great opportunity to establish a postion.
Great opportunity with Abi Hurst.

Closing Discussion

10:30 Closing Prayer

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Pastoral Questions to Leadership (pre-Elders)

20 NOVEMBER 1997

TO THE DEACONS

Dear Brethren,

Due to the lack of a recognized body of elders in this congregation,

or even of an effective local Baptist association, I need your help
on a pastoral matter.
What should I do as the pastor about situations in which members are
in serious violation of the Word of God, and particularly as we have said
that we understand it in our church covenant?
The specific situations I am vexed about are these:
1. What if a member becomes engaged to be married to a non-Christian?
2. What if an unwed member becomes pregnant?
3. What about members who do not attend for lengthy periods of time?

In this, the church must consider a number of perspectives:

1.What can we do to best reflect God’s holy and loving character?
If we are Christians, our characters are to resemble His.
2.What does this behavior communicate to those outside the church
about what it means to be a Christian?
3.What affect does our response to these behaviors have on the church?
What does this do to our attempt to create a counter-cultural
community?
4.What kind of responsibility do we have to the other individual Christians
in the church? How will the church’s action or inaction affect them?
5.What kind of response do we want to see in these erring brothers
and sisters? What can we do that will help or hinder that?
Please consider these matters prayerfully and come ready to discuss them
when we gather together again soon.
With thanks,
Your pastor,

Mark Dever.

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Timetable for New Constitution

APPROVAL TIMETABLE (moved Feb. 8, 1998)

January 1998
Deacons Vote.
Basically back to monthly meetings for 1998 because of the heavy volume of business

FEBRUARY 1998
2nd Sunday, 4 pm, Special Called Members Meeting
Establish Goal of Voting in May 1998 members meeting
Eric Pelletier will be clear on Amendment Process (None proposed after March)
Consider the Constitution from the Perspective of Budgeting
Accept Amendments

MARCH 1998
Regularly Scheduled Members Meeting
Vote on previous amendments
Consider the Constitution from the Perspective of change from Deacons/Deaconesses to
Elders/Deacons & Reporting
Accept Amendments

APRIL 1998
1st Sunday, 4pm, Special Called Members Meeting
Vote on previous amendments
Consider the Constitution from the Perspective of Membership & Sunday School
APRIL MESSENGER DELAYED BEING PRINTED UNTIL PROPOSED
CONSTITUTION CAN BE INSERTED

MAY 1998
At Regularly scheduled Members Meeting Congregational Vote on the new Constitution.
2/3 required for approval.

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Constitution Transition Timetable

Proposed TRANSITION PLAN (28 April 1998)

May 1998
Congregational Vote
Nominating Committee stops
Tell congregation to “Keep doing the ministry you’re doing unless taken out of your hands”
[Bruce speech]
Ideas for Elders to be sought from members
Old budget process continues through Nov. 1998

July 1998
Chairs of Membership & Missions Committees give list of responsibilities to pastor

August 1998
Elders Nominated to Congregation by pastor in consultation with membership.
Disseminated in letter to the members.

October 1998
Specially called members meeting on 2nd Sunday after the evening service
Elders Recognized by Congregation
Replaces Membership & Missions Committees
Associate Membership Begins
Elders take responsibility for church discipline
Current deacons and deaconesses remain in effect till replaced
Chairs of Deacons, Deaconesses, Finance & House list of responsibilities to Elders

November 1998
Elders present vision for new deacons
The New Deacons Nominated to Congregation (by elders in consultation
with current deacons) at regular members meeting
New roles for clerk and treasurer take effect

January 1999
Deacons Recognized by Congregation at regular members meeting
Replaces Finance Committee & House Committee and current Deacons and Deaconesses
Incorporation
Including Corporate Filing, Transfer of Property and Cessation of Trustees

ALL IN EFFECT BY MARCH 1, 1999

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Letter asking for Elder Nominations

19 May 1998

Dear Fellow Church Members,

Greetings! I send you this letter to confirm to you one bit of good news and to request something
from you.
First, let me give you the piece of good news. After a two-year process in which all of us have
joined together in prayer and discussion, we passed a new constitution at our members’ meeting
this past Sunday night. This is a cause for great rejoicing. Thank you particularly for all of you
who have given so much time to the writing and re-writing of this constitution. I pray and believe
that this will improve our church’s ability to live out what we’re called to do, to bring glory to God
and to encourage one another in good work.
A Baptist church’s constitution is the third of three basic documents in the life of the church
which express what we understand God by His Spirit through the Bible is telling us to do in order
to serve Him. The first document is our statement of faith. This expresses what we understand
the Bible to teach about the truth. This document has not been changed since our church’s founding
120 years ago. The second document is our church covenant. This expresses what we understand
the Bible to teach about how we’re to live. This covenant has been modified four times in the life
of our church (most recently in 1996). The third document is the constitution. It describes
our organization and corporate activities. In it you’ll find our purposes, name, practices
of membership, meetings, officers, elections and other matters. The constitution has changed often
in the history of our church. The most recent large change was in 1968, though it has been altered
substantially many times since then. The constitution is, by nature, the most changeable of the basic
documents of our church, and I’m sure will continue to be.
This current constitution contains, however, the greatest change which our church has ever seen
in its history. Among other important revisions (which you can read in your own copy, enclosed)
note the section on church discipline, the recognition of the additional New Testament office of elder,
the lack of mandated committees, and the restructuring of the deacons.
This new constitution is to go into effect over the next few months. The transition plan, adopted
by the congregation Sunday night, is also included with this letter. Please note that the adoption
of this new constitution does not affect the way you are currently serving the church unless you are
personally and directly told that it does. The last thing that we need is for everyone to think that this
means that they can now stop serving! This new constitution is meant, in part, to encourage
involvement and service, not to eliminate them.
That is the good news.
Now for the request.
I need your help in fulfilling my duties as your pastor during this special time in our church’s life.
The new constitution calls for us as a church to recognize not less than two men (additional to myself)
“who satisfy the qualifications for the office of elder set forth in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9.”
For further information on what characteristics these elders should possess, read article 5 of the consti-
tution, the Scripture passages cited in it, the forthcoming article in the June Messenger, the plurality of
elders chapter in my booklet, 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, and perhaps check out some relevant sermon

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Letter asking for Elder Nominations

tapes.
In addition to all of the qualifications listed above, those who serve us as elders should be actively
involved in the life of the church, willing to serve in this capacity, and available for the additional meetings
which such service will require.
What I am asking of each and every church member is this: please send me a signed list
of all of those men in the church whom you would recognize as meeting the biblical qualifications
for serving as an elder in our congregation, and whom you could, at present, see yourself supporting.
Note, too, that I would appreciate this list being clearly signed so that I could contact you about some
of your ideas. Also, if you men could simply indicate whether you would be willing to serve,
if the church so desired to recognize you in this capacity. You can either use the enclosed form,
or write your own.
Please have your list mailed into me by late June or early July, then I should be able by late August
to mail out to you my nominations for those who are to serve us as elders. This information will be
vital in helping me to understand how various members would be received by the congregation
at large.
Let me give you an example of what I’m looking for.

Dear Pastor,
Below please find my list, after much prayer, of those men in our church whom I would happily
recognize as elders:
Sam ________,
Roger ________,
Doug _______,
Lloyd ________,
I myself would also be willing to serve if so recognized by the church.
With thanks and prayers, I am
A. Loving Member.

Your list can be either long or short. Membership lists can be obtained from the church office.
And remember, this is not an election (that will happen in the Autumn); this is something
which I am asking of you to help me in the process of determining who God has given to us as elders.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon, I am
Your Pastor,

Mark Dever.

PS – Enclosures – Constitution; Transition Plan; Elder Response Form

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Elder Response Form

ELDER RESPONSE FORM.

Dear Pastor,
I would recognize the individuals listed below as meeting the Biblical
qualifications for elders, and as being appropriate to serve us in this capacity
at present.

I would/would NOT be willing to serve as an elder if the church so wished.

(Circle one.)

Signed _________________________________

Name printed ___________________________

Date ___________________________________

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Elder Nomination Announcement

16 August 1998

Dear members,
This past May I wrote to you, asking you for your thoughts concerning who should
serve us as elders. Since then, I have received written responses from about 100
of our members. Thank all of you for your prayers, suggestions and advice
through these past few months. I trust that God has been at work among us calling
those who should serve us in what Paul termed in 1 Timothy 3:1 “that noble task”
of being an overseer.
In surveying your suggestions for who should serve us as elders, I am aware that
I have been surveying the fruit of many hours spent in prayer, consideration and
conversation. Thank you for your labor and God’s work among us.
After much consideration and prayer of my own, both concerning your forms and
conversations with others, I nominate the following members to serve Capitol Hill
Baptist Church, along with me, as elders:
Chris Bruce
Andy Johnson
Aaron Menikoff
Eric Pelletier
Matt Schmucker
These men have already shown great commitment to God’s work here
in this place, and in the lives of many of our number. All of them were nominated
by more than 10 of you, and all are willing to serve. If recognized by the congregation,
these five men will join me in bringing prayerful, spiritual oversight to God’s work
here. (There are others in our church who might be qualified to serve us as elders,
but who have, for various reasons, declined to serve at this time.)
According to our transition plan, we will vote on these nominations at a specially
called members’ meeting on October 11 after the evening service. If you have
questions about any of those nominated, please speak to me about them in the
intervening weeks. According to our constitution, both in order to lessen any
embarrassment and to bring to the fore anything important, if you are planning to vote
“no” on any particular nominee, please notify me as soon as possible of the reasons for
your vote (Article 6, Section 2, page 7, lines 22-24).
Having now given you the fruit of my prayers and consideration, I now commit
the matter again to you.
I am thankful for all of the members that God has given us, for His work among us
these last few years, and look forward to the future that He has for us in His service.
Upholding you in prayer, I am, your pastor,

Mark Dever

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Elder Confirmation Thoughts

Elder Confirmation Thoughts 23/29 October 1998

1. What about the congregation’s failure to recognize these nominees before?

1. I, the nominator, could be wrong. I certainly do not believe in pastoral inerrancy! . . .
After much reflection & prayer, I don’t believe that I was wrong in this matter . . . .
2. The congregation could be wrong.
I certainly do not believe in the inerrancy of congregational votes.
I am a congregationalist, in the sense that I recognize the workings of the market--it
isn’t always right, it’s simply reality.
I think the congregation that voted 90% to fire Jonathan Edwards was wrong.
I think thousands of Presbyterian congregations around the country are wrong
on baptism, and yet I love them, will preach in them, and will learn from them.
It’s a matter of perspective.
I told this congregation in Nov. ‘93 that if I came, I needed to know that I worked not
ultimately for the congregation, but for God. They could instruct me to give
invitationals (which are not expressly contradicted in Scripture) yet I would not do
it, because I believe that they would not be best for the church. So we work
together so long as our visions are sufficiently in sync.
I am not sure that this congregation was wrong, in that 65-73% of the congregation
present supported the nominees.
3. The constitution could be wrong in the percentage it requires. I have never suggested that
the constitution now adopted is inerrant. Thus, though we have people sign the statement
of faith and church covenant, I would be opposed to them being required to sign
the constitution. I already know of at least one other change we should make in
the constitution (we will not need annual meetings in the same way). I expect this to be a
dynamic document. Having greater consensus for decisions is usually better. Requiring it
is better only if you have it. If you require 75% agreement on a direction for the church,
and you only have 60% in the church, you hamper the work, not help it. The Bible no
where requires 75%. Roy Clements and others advised against it. We wanted it in order
to give the best possible start for the eldership here. The simple fact may be that we only
have 65% agreement on which direction we should pursue as a church.

2. What is the Lord saying through this?

Some have asked me how I would interpret the meaning of the congregation’s vote in Octo-
ber. Even if I think the congregation is wrong, they reason, still, if God is sovereign, what was He
“saying” to us through it. I think He could be “saying” any number of things to any number
of people. As a church, I think we have been helped by another month’s worth of conversations.
I think that issues surrounding the church, congregationalism, leadership, the role of the pastor --all
these and more have been clarified in the minds of many of us.

3. Why do I feel that I should nominate the same five again?

1. Because, after continuing to pray about it, I cannot see any others to nominate at this time.
2. Because, after continuing to pray about it, I cannot see not honestly nominating each one of
these to the church. I do think that each one of these men will serve the church well.

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3. Their behavior in discussion and failure in October compared to others only confirms that
they are the right choices. They endured the negative comments well, and they took the failure of the
vote well.
4. Their resolve to serve the church quite apart from being recognized as elders encourages
me.
5. The spirit and manner of their discussion among themselves about what to do only encour-
ages me to nominate them again.
6. A careful consideration of the vote encourages me.
1. The size of the supportive majority. (65-73%)
Particularly impressive given the newness of our community.
2. The nature of the supportive majority. The widespreadness of who they are.
3. The size of the no vote. (35-27%)
4. The nature of the no vote.
1. Some don’t think we should have elders at all.
2. Some didn’t turn in a list of suggestions; I have to be constructive.
3. Some didn’t talk to me before hand about their negative comments.
4. Some don’t normally come to Sunday evenings or members meetings.
5. Some didn’t sign the statement of faith & church covenant.
6. There is not a coherent alternative vision among them.

4. Why vote on the same thing again?

1. Because we need elders.
2. Because there must be a new election, therefore men must again be nominated.
But the one who must nominate has not changed.
3. Because the nominator’s understanding of God’s leading has not changed.
God has led me again to the same people.

5. On leaving the church

1. Me leaving. Finally, if I cannot honestly suggest that you have men whom an agreed upon
percentage of you agree with me should serve you, then you would be well within your rights to find
another pastor, who, you would be presuming, could find those nominees who would get a 75% vote
from you. I would take that as in some measure a release from God.
2. Others leaving. Some of you have said that you have heard that I have told people if you
don’t agree with me on this, then leave. Let me be clear. I have never* in anger told someone to
leave the church. I have told probably between 5 and 10 people over the years I’ve been here that
they should consider going elsewhere for any number of reasons. And I think that this is a loving
thing to do. Sass resettled at WCF with my encouragement. It is necessary that I do this in order
to NOT become manipulative and make people feel that it is either this local congregation or Hell. I
know that the Kingdom of God is much larger than us, and I am profoundly thankful for that fact. I
deliberately want to cultivate an open spirit which has an expansive view of the Kingdom of God.
Thus I, from time to time, lead us in prayer for other churches. This openness is essential so that peo-
ple will not even be tempted to threaten the church with their leaving, and so that they can feel a
genuine and continued love for them, even if they come to feel they should go elsewhere. No church
or pastor will ever be perfect. I must therefore not only accept the fact, but rejoice for them when
someone finds that they can be better cared for, or better serve God elsewhere than they’ve been able
to do here.

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6. My criteria for choosing to nominate these five men.

As specific implications of the Biblical qualifications for our particular time and place, I think
that four things are especially desirable for these men to have: 1. Above average interest in and
understanding of the Bible and it’s teaching; 2. Above average interest in and understanding of our
church’s distinctives; 3. Above average interest in and understanding of our life together; 4. Above
average interest in and understanding of those things which cause us to stand apart from the world
awkwardly. Some have suggested that these criteria are unbiblical; I simply disagree. While they are
not explicitly stated, they are implications of biblical truths.

7. Arrogance and bull-headedness.

Is it arrogant of me to nominate the same five again?
Secondary considerations:
1. Most of the church agrees with me
2. I have received much advice to do this
3. I do not do this lightly at all
Primary consideration: I do not understand this to be a matter of arrogance, but of in-
tegrity.
This hasn’t been an easy process for me . . . .
In the past I have worked by encouragement (cf. Henry Drummond’s the Greatest Thing in
the World)
Lord willing, that will be the case again in the future. . . . .

8. On the “wrong mix” concern.

One family of concerns about this list of nominees has been put with several different
nuances. It has been said that “the mix is wrong.” When asked to explain what this means, some
have suggested that these are all Mark’s friends. I should hope so! One would hardly want to work
with his enemies! But certainly though I have worked closely with Matt and Aaron, we have had our
difficulties. I have worked less closely with Eric. There are many men that I see in the church more
often than Eric. And Chris Bruce and Andy Johnson I see even less.
Others have said that these are all “yes-men.” On the contrary, all of them have exhibited
their ability to disagree with me, and with each other. They do, however, share the same
(or a similar) basic vision for the church, which vision I find to be good and right, and intend to give
my life to further, and so I happily nominate them to serve you. The vision we share is Biblical,
and it is healthy to share those things that we do. Indeed, I hope it is the vision of this church.
Others have said that they are too young. This group on average is probably older than
the average age of our congregation on Sunday’s, (since there are two in they’re late 20’s, one early
30’s, two late 30’s, and one early 40’s). It is also interesting to note that almost all of the people who
have said this to me are in their 30’s or 40’s. Almost no-one who is in their 20’s has said this (though
we all certainly appreciate the benefits of age . . . .). And almost no one who is above 60 has said
this; perhaps their longer life experience has taught them the humility to know that they can and
regularly do learn from people years younger than themselves.
Others have said that they are too inexperienced. Most of them are married (though I don’t
think that the Bible requires this of elders). Half of them are rearing children (a comparative rarity
in our church). All of them have responsible jobs. All of them have proved themselves in ministry.

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Matt and I have both planted churches. Aaron has been serving you as a pastoral worker for two
years. Matt and Andy have been on church staffs in the past. Eric and Chris have been very active
in churches, serving here in the youth group, and as deacons. Their lives have simply borne fruit.
Business-wise, Matt was the administrator, Chris has essentially managed a business, Eric, Aaron
and Andy have had jobs on the Hill where many of our members work.
Others have suggested that I need men on the eldership who will check me, balance me,
or challenge me; that is, that I need peers who can speak straight to me. I think that these are those
men. They are not all just like me; our common vision will only make it easier for me to hear them;
I know that I am challenged by them; and they have demonstrated abilities to speak straight to me
and to each other.
Others have suggested that I need men on the eldership that have a different vision
for the church than the one I have. I certainly think that God intends every different part of the body
to work together, supplementing and complementing each other. And I can certainly learn from oth-
ers, and have, and do. But I think a shared vision, if Biblical, is helpful rather harmful for a church.

9. The right balance in authority and trust.

WHERE WE WERE: older members in tears asking me what I wanted.
WHERE WE ARE: every decision being town-meetinged.
WHERE I’M TRYING TO TAKE US: I have led the way not in centralizing, but in decentralizing
power; and then putting it not in the hands of committees chosen by a nominating committee,
but by people meeting Biblical qualifications being recognized by the congregation. The attempt
is to do more easier.
We must let leaders lead.
Some of you who opposed me on the Abi Byrd hiring process have come up to me in recent
weeks and told me how thankful you are that Abi is here. I take that as confirmation not only of my
lack of experience in process, but of my pastoral call here and judgment in these matters.
When I was a member at Eden, I voted with the eldership, unless I had expressly biblical
reasons for not doing so. I trusted that God put them there for a reason.
It is a serious spiritual deficiency in a church either to have leaders who are untrustworthy,
or members incapable of trusting.
In coming to this church, I knew that I would be coming in to a trust-poor area. . . . . I have
been surprised who it is that has lacked trust . . . . I have certainly been frustrated by not being more
trusted. . . . Finally, trust is never perfectly earned, it is given. . . . Each member of the church should
consider if they are making it easier or harder for the staff to do what God has called them here to do.
Time is on our side . . . .

10. This is a referendum on the direction of the church.

I do see this as a clear referendum on the direction of this church, even more clear than when you
called me to be your pastor (though I was honest, I was unknown), and probably more than any other
that you will have until you call my successor (should the Lord tarry). It is, therefore, whether it is
recognized as such by those voting, a confidence vote on my pastorate.

*maybe once!

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Elder Vows

1. Do you reaffirm your faith in Jesus Christ as your own personal Lord and Savior? I do.
2. Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God,
totally trustworthy, fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, the supreme, final, and the only infallible
rule of faith and practice? I do.
3. Do you sincerely believe the Statement of Faith and Covenant of this church contain
the truth taught in the Holy Scripture? I do.
4. Do you promise that if at any time you find yourself out of accord with any
of the statements in the Statement of Faith and Covenant you will on your own initiative make
known to the pastor and other elders the change which has taken place in your views since
your assumption of this vow? I do.
5. Do you subscribe to the government and discipline of Capitol Hill Baptist Church? I do.
6. Do you promise to submit to your fellow elders in the Lord? I do, with God’s help.
7. Have you been induced, as far as you know your own heart, to accept the office of elder
from love of God and sincere desire to promote His glory in the Gospel of His Son? I have.
8. Do you promise to be zealous and faithful in promoting the truths of the Gospel
and the purity and peace of the Church, whatever persecution or opposition may arise to you
on that account? I do, with God’s help.
9. Will you be faithful and diligent in the exercise of all your duties as elder, whether
personal or relative, private or public, and to endeavor by the grace of God to adorn
the profession of the Gospel in your manner of life, and to walk with exemplary piety
before this congregation? I will be, by the grace of God.
10. Are you now willing to take personal responsibility in the life of this congregation
as an elder, and will you seek to oversee the ministry and resources of the church,
and to devote yourself to prayer, the ministry of the Word and the shepherding of God’s flock,
relying upon the grace of God, in such a way that Capitol Hill Baptist Church, and the entire
Church of Jesus Christ will be blessed? I am, with the help of God.

To the Congregation (Will the members please stand):

1. Do you, the members of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, acknowledge and publicly receive
these men as elders, as gifts of Christ to this church? We do.
2. Will you love them and pray for them in their ministry, and work together with them
humbly and cheerfully, that by the grace of God you may accomplish the mission
of the church, giving them all due honor and support in their leadership to which the Lord
has called them, to the glory and honor of God? We will.

Prayers for these elders:

Herb Carlson, Jim Cox, Bill Behrens, Brad Byrd, Deana Menikoff, Me.

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Inactive Member Letter

October 6, 2006

Dear [Member],

I hope this note finds you well. We continually remember you before the Lord in our prayers, and we pray
that you are still growing in your knowledge and love of the Lord, even though you are no longer able to
regularly worship with us due to your move to [new city]. Having you as a part of CHBC was a blessing to
our body, since your work was produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired
by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

As our church covenant states, we should “exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other
and faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion may require.” From our perspective, we find it
difficult to fulfill this covenant with you since you can no longer attend weekly. From your side, it is also
difficult to fulfill this covenant with us. However, we hope and pray that you are able to fulfill this covenant
with a local church in your new community as soon as possible so that your relationship with the Lord will
continue to grow in a community of like-minded believers. Have you been able to settle at a [new church
home] yet?

As you know, it is our practice to place members on the “care list” at the second Members’ Meeting after
they’ve moved away. In your case, this will be on November 19, 2006. In no way do we intend this to show
a lack of love for you. In fact, this is our way of being able to love you as you have moved away. By being
on the “care list,” we are letting the congregation know that you have not yet joined another church and that
we should be praying for you as you seek to covenant with a new body of believers.

At the third Members’ meeting after your move, on January 21, 2007, if we have not received a letter of
resignation from you, and barring any mitigating circumstances, the elders will likely recommend to the
congregation that you be removed from membership for non–attendance. Again, we do this out love for you
because we understand that being part of a local church is a benefit to you spiritually and also in obedience
to the Lord. We simply can no longer be your local church and can no longer fulfill our covenant with you.
In your new community, we pray that you will find a church that can provide spiritual accountability, fel-
lowship, examples of godliness, and encouragement so that you may continue to be built up in Christ and
grow in righteousness.

Because it gives us so much joy to hear when you are walking in faith, please let us know how you are do-
ing and how we can more specifically pray for you so that you can find a new church. If we can be of any
assistance, through recommendations, or just talking options through, don’t hesitate to call or e-mail. We
know that everyone has unique difficulties in finding another church in a new city and we want to be a help
to you if we can.

Until then, on behalf of all the elders, I remain

your pastor,

Andy Johnson
Associate Pastor

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Original 9Marks Letter

This is a reproduction of a letter Mark Dever wrote to the elders of a church he had pastored years earlier in
Massachusetts, which was now searching for a pastor. It is in this letter that Mark first laid out the “nine
marks of a healthy church.”

Dear brothers and sisters, 30 October 1991

I have for some time been thinking and praying about writing a letter to you. I will address this letter to the
elders, since Biblically you are the ones who are responsible for the spiritual well-being of the flock; but I have
no qualms about it being shared more generally.

I am delighted at the stability and growth God has graciously given you as a church over the last five years.
That has in no small part, I feel, been given through a faithful and committed eldership, and particularly
through Zane’s commitment to sound, Biblical preaching. As you approach this difficult time of transition, I
have a few thoughts about what you should look for in a pastor. Note, adherence to the nine items I intend to
outline here below will not insure that the person is a good pastor, but I feel that the lack of any of them would
be an inadequacy which would slowly, but cumulatively affect the church in a negative way. So, I would take
all of these to be essential, but not in and of themselves sufficient. For instance, you could have someone who
held to all of these inter-related points below, and yet was simply not gifted or called to be a pastor. Indeed, I
trust such is the case with the vast majority of members at New Meadows currently. On the other hand, let a
man be never so gifted in personal relationships and communications, even a strong adherent to the authority
of Scripture and to the practise of personal prayer, and yet miss any one or two of the matters below, and,
given time, I’m convinced that New Meadows would become the leaking bucket that too many churches are
today – holding no more living water than the world around them. I point these out after much thought and
prayer, because, unfortunately, they are rarely prized among those who profess themselves called to be pastors
and shepherds today. So, to summarize, I am not here giving you an exhaustive check list of what I think you
should look for in a pastor. There are many more issues which will play into that choice. I am, however, giv-
ing you a list of qualifications which are both needed and, sadly rare, which I pray God you will trust Him to
have for you in the pastor He intends.

The first quality I would tell you to make sure is present in anyone you would ever consider calling to the
eldership, but particularly to the pastorate, is a commitment to expositional preaching. This presumes a belief
in the authority of Scripture, but it says something more. I’m convinced that a commitment to expositional
preaching is a commitment to hear God’s Word. If you have someone who happily accepts the authority of
God’s Word, yet who in practise (whether intending to or not) does not preach expositionally, he will never
preach more than he already knows. When one takes a piece of Scripture, and simply exhorts the congregation
on a topic which is important, but doesn’t really preach the point of that passage, one is limited to only hearing
in Scripture what one already knew upon coming to the text. It is in being committed to preach Scripture in
context, expositionally, having as the point of the message the point of the passage, that we hear from God
those things which we do not already intend to hear when we set out. And, from the initial call to repentance
to the latest thing the Spirit has convicted you about, our whole salvation consists in hearing God in ways
which we, before we heard Him, would never have guessed. To charge someone with the responsibility of the
spiritual oversight of the flock who does not in practise show a commitment to hear and to teach God’s Word,
is to at least put a drag on, and at most put a cap on the growth of the church at the level of the pastor. The
church will slowly be conformed to his mind, rather than God’s mind.

The second quality I would hope you to require in anyone whom you would call to the eldership would be that
he be sound in his full theological system – and that means being what has come to be called “reformed”. To
misunderstand doctrines as fundamental as election (does our salvation issue ultimately from God or us?),

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human nature (are people basically bad or good? do they merely need encouragement and enhanced self-
esteem, or do they need forgiveness and new life?), the nature of Christ’s work on the cross (did he make
possible an option for us? or was He our substitute?), the nature of conversion (more on that particularly be-
low) and the certainly we can have of God’s continuing care based fundamentally on His character
rather than ours, is no simple matter of lunch-room humour at the seminary, but rather is of real importance
for faithfulness to Scripture and for real pastoral issues which constantly arise. For any Christian, but particu-
larly for an elder, to resist the fundamental idea of God’s sovereignty over all of life while practising Christian-
ity is really to play with pious paganism. It is to baptize a heart which is in some ways still unbelieving, and to
set up as an example a person who may well be deeply unwilling to trust God. In a day when our culture de-
mands us to turn evangelism into advertising and explains the Spirit’s work as marketing, in which God in
churches is so often made over in the image of man, I would be especially careful to find a man who had a bib-
lical and experiential grasp of the sovereignty of God.

The third quality which any elder should have who is to be active in leading the church is a Biblical under-
standing of the gospel. J. I. Packer lays out beautifully the relation of the last point to this one in his introduc-
tion to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. If you haven’t read that recently, re-read it
now while you’re in the process of praying and looking for a new pastor. A heart for the gospel means having
a heart for the truth – God’s presentation of Himself, of our need, of Christ’s provision, and of our responsibil-
ity. To present the gospel as simply an additive to give the non-Christian something they naturally want any-
way (joy, peace, happiness, fulfillment, self-esteem, love) is partially true, but only partially true. And, as
Packer says, “a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth makes it a complete untruth.” Fundamentally we
need forgiveness, we need spiritual life. To present the gospel less radically than this is to ask for false conver-
sions and increasingly meaningless church membership, both of which will make the evangelisation of the
world around us all the more difficult.

The fourth quality which any elder should be required to have is a Biblical understanding of conversion. If
conversion is basically presented as something we do, rather than something God does, then we misunderstand
it. Although conversion certainly includes our making a sincere commitment, a self-conscious decision, it is
more than that. Scripture is clear in teaching that we are not all journeying to God, some having found the
way, others still looking. Instead, it presents us as in needing to having our hearts replaced, our minds trans-
formed, our spirits given life. None of this we can do. We can make a commitment, but we must be saved.
The change each human needs, regardless of how we appear externally, is so radical, so near the root of us, that
only God can do it. We need God to convert us. I’m reminded of Spurgeon’s story of how as he was walking
in London a drunk came up to him, leaned on the lamp-post near him and said, “Hey, Mr. Spurgeon, I’m one
of your converts.” Spurgeon’s response was, “Well, you must be one of mine – you’re certainly not one of the
Lord’s!” American churches, Southern Baptist churches, are full of people who have made sincere commit-
ments at one point in their lives, but who evidently have not experienced the radical change which the Bible
presents as conversion. The result, according to one recent study, is a divorce which is 50% above the national
average. The cause, at least in part, must be the unbiblical preaching about conversion of thousands of South-
ern Baptists pastors. Again, if you’ve not held to the first three things mentioned above, it’s hardly surprising
that this one would go wrong as well. [Note, here please don’t mis-understand me as insisting on an emotion-
ally heated conversion experience at a particular point. I’m insisting on the theological truth underlying con-
version, not a particular experience of it. You know the tree by its fruit.]

The fifth quality which anyone you ever entrust with the spiritual responsibility of teaching (of which all elders
are to be capable, IITim.2.2) is the closely related idea of a Biblical understanding of evangelism. If your
mind has been shaped by the Bible on God and the gospel, on human need and conversion, then a right under-
standing of evangelism will naturally follow. Biblically, evangelism is presenting the good news freely, and

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trusting God to bring conversions. Any way in which we try to force births will be as effective as Ezekiel try-
ing to stitch the dry bones together. And the result will be similar. Again, if conversion is understood as
merely a sincere commitment at any given point, then we simply need to get everyone to that point any way
possible. Biblically though, while we’re to care, to plead, to persuade, our first duty is to be faithful to the ob-
ligation we have from God, which is to present the Good News He’s given us. He will bring conversion from
that. If there is a sizable discrepancy between the membership of a pastor’s church, and the attendance, I
would naturally wonder about what they understood conversion to be, and what kind of evangelism they had
practised in order to create such a large number of people, uninvolved in the life of the church, yet certain of
their own salvation, with the blessing of the church. I could give you bibliographies on each of these points,
but I won’t, assuming you would already know the books I would suggest. In a series of evangelistic addresses
I did this past February in the university here, I concluded that the three things which I must convey to people
about the decision they must make about the Gospel (God, Man, Christ, Response), is that they decision is
costly (and therefore must be carefully considered), AND urgent (and therefore must be made), AND worth it
(and therefore should be made). That’s the balance I should strive for in my evangelism.

Sixth, and following on from what I just said, I would require a Biblical understanding of church member-
ship. Sadly, if it were the case, my guess is that most Southern Baptist pastors would be more proud of the
6,000 members their church had, than they would be ashamed that only 800 attend. Written numbers can be
idols as easily – perhaps more easily – than carved figures. But it is God who will assess our work, and He
will weigh it, I think, rather than count. If the church is a building, then we must be bricks in it; if the church is
a body, then we are its members, if we are the household of faith, it presumes we are part of that household.
Sheep are in a flock, and branches on a vine. Forget the particular cultural ephemera for a moment – white
cards with names on them, lists on a computer – Biblically, if we are Christians we must be members of a
church. We must not forsake the assembling together of ourselves (Heb. 10:25). It is not simply a record of a
statement we must made; it is a reflection of a living, vital commitment.

Seventh, and perhaps most initially difficult in your situation, I would require that the person understand, and
be convinced of the New Testament practise of having a plurality of elders (see Acts 14:23; the regular prac-
tise of Paul of referring to a number of elders in any one local church). I am completely convinced of this as
the New Testament practise, and as particularly needful in churches then and now without an apostolic pres-
ence. That does not mean that the pastor has no distinct role (look up in a concordance references to preaching
and preachers), but that he is also and fundamentally part of the eldership. This means that decisions involving
the church, yet which do not come to the attention of the whole church, should not so much fall to the pastor
alone, as to the elders as a whole. While this is cumbersome at points (as I’m sure you know only too well) it
has immense benefits in rounding out the pastor’s gifts, and in giving him good support in the church, and in
too many other ways to mention now. Anyway, this would have to be made quite clear when calling a pastor.
If he is a typical Southern Baptist he will assume that the elders are either deacons, or there simply to help him
do what he wants to do. He may well not have a good appreciation for the fact that you are inviting him fun-
damentally to be one of the elders, and, among you, the pastor, the primary teaching elder. I’m convinced that
if most pastors understood this idea, they would leap at the idea, given the weight it removes from their shoul-
ders. And, I’m also worried that many of those who wouldn’t, wouldn’t do so because of unbiblical under-
standings of their own role, or, worse, unsanctified self-centeredness.

The eighth issue I would want to have clearly understood and affirmed by any new elder in the church is the
issue of church discipline. This is one of the things which gives meaning to being a member of the church,
which has been universally practised by the church, and yet which has almost entirely faded out of Southern
Baptist church life in the last three generations. Jesus’ words in Matthew 18, Paul’s in I Cor. 5:4-14 (along
with other passages) clearly show that the church is to exercise judgment within itself, and that this is for re-

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demptive, not revengeful purposes. If we cannot say what a Christian does not live like, we cannot very well
say what she or he does live like. One of my concerns with church’s discipleship programs is that they are,
again, like pouring water into a leaking bucket. While this issue is fraught with problems in pastoral applica-
tion, the whole Christian life is, and that should never be used as an excuse to leave either unpractised. It
should mean something to be a member of the church, not for our pride’s sake, but for God’s name’s sake.

Finally, the ninth issue which I would require an elder to understand is the role of the church in promoting
Christian discipleship and growth. As I mentioned above, when the church does not exercise discipline, I
think one of the unintended consequences is the increased difficulty in that church growing disciples. Exam-
ples are unclear, models are confused. The church has an obligation to be a means of God’s growing people in
grace. Yet if they are places which are taught only the pastor’s thoughts, in which God is more questioned
than worshipped, in which the gospel is diluted and evangelism perverted, in which church membership is
made meaningless, and a worldly cult of personality is allowed to grow up around the pastor, then one can
hardly expect to find such a group being either cohesive or edifying to each other, let alone glorifying to God.
When we can honestly assume that those within the church are regenerated, and that those who are regenerated
are committed to the church, then the corporate New Testament images of the church can become not merely
good sermons, but thrilling lives together. Relationships imply commitment in the world; surely we wouldn’t
think it would be any less the case in the church?

Well, friends, I could go on for much longer. You’ve been patient to read this far. I don’t mean to suggest that
you don’t already know all of the above, and are not committed to it yourself, but I do care deeply for New
Meadows, feel some sense of obligation in my heart and in prayer. I thought it right to express that on paper. I
do not have a vote in the eldership or in the church (nor should I!) but I wanted to write this with the hopes that
it might be helpful in some of your discussions, prayers and evaluations. Know that more importantly than
sending this letter, I’ll be daily joining with you in prayer for the church, especially during this crucial time,

as your brother in Christ,

Mark.

61
 Baptism of Children at CHBC
The Baptism of Children at CHBC
(2004)
We, the elders of the Capitol Hill Baptist
Church, after prayerful searching of the Scrip-
tures and discussion conclude that, while Scrip-
ture is quite clear that believers only are to be
baptized, the age at which a believer is to be
baptized is not directly addressed in Scrip-
ture. We do not understand the simple impera-
tive command to be baptized to settle the issue,
nor do we understand the imperative to be bap-
tized to forbid raising questions about the appro-
priateness of a baptismal candidate's matur-
ity. We do understand that the consideration of
an appropriate age for a believer to be baptized
is a matter not of simple obedience on an issue
clearly settled by Scripture, but rather is a matter
of Christian wisdom and prudence on an issue
not directly addressed by Scripture. Though the
baptisms in the New Testament seem largely to
have occurred soon after the initial conversion,
all of the individuals we can read of are both
adults and coming from a non-Christian con-
text. Both of these factors would tend to lend
credibility to a conversion. The credibility of
the conversion is the prime consideration, with
the effect upon the individual candidate and the
church community being legitimate secondary
concerns.
We believe that the normal age of bap-
tism should be when the credibility of one's con-
version becomes naturally evident to the church
community. This would normally be when the
child has matured, and is beginning to live more
self-consciously as an individual, making their
own choices, having left the God-given, in-
tended child-like dependence on their parents
for the God-given, intended mature wisdom
which marks one who has felt the tug of the
world, the flesh and the devil, but has decided,
despite these allurements, to follow
Christ. While it is difficult to set a certain num-
ber of years which are required for baptism, it is
appropriate to consider the candidate’s maturity.
62
The kind of maturity that we feel it is wise to
expect is the maturity which would allow that
son or daughter to deal directly with the church
as a whole, and not, fundamentally, to be under
their parents' authority. As they assume adult
responsibilities (sometime in late high school
with driving, employment, non-Christian
friends, voting, legality of marriage), then part
of this, we would think, would be to declare
publicly their allegiance to Christ by baptism.
With the consent and encouragement of
Christian parents who are members, we will
carefully consider requests for baptism before a
child has left the home, but would urge the par-
ents to caution at this point. Of course children
can be converted. We pray that none of our
children ever know any lengthy period of con-
scious rebellion against God. The question
raised by baptism is the ability of others to be
fairly confident of that converion. The malle-
able nature of children (which changeableness
God especially intends for the time when they
are living as dependents in the home, being
trained in all the basics of life and faith) is a gift
from God and is to be used to bring them to ma-
turity. It should also give us caution in assum-
ing the permanence of desires, dreams, affec-
tions and decisions of children. Nevertheless,
should the young person desire to pursue bap-
tism and membership in the normal course set
out by the church, we will examine them on a
case-by-case basis, with the involvement of the
parents.
In the event of young persons from non-
Christian families coming to the church for an
extended period of time, professing faith and
giving evidence of the reality thereof, requests
for baptism and membership would be consid-
ered without the involvement of the par-
ents. While all the previous comments on the
nature of immaturity still pertain, the fact that
such a young person would be doing so despite
indifference, or even opposition from their par-
ents would or could be evidence for the reality
of their conversion.
 Baptism of Children at CHBC
Nothing in this statement should be con- tians around the world are still much more cau-
strued as casting doubt about the legitimacy of tious than modern American Christians, often
the baptism of any among us, regardless of how waiting in Europe, Africa and Asia to baptize
young they were when they were bap- until children are grown and are in their 20's.
tized. Because they have continued in the faith
into their adult years we assume the legitimacy
of their initial profession made at baptism. The
question we are concerned with here is looking
forward, not backward. To put it another way,
we are raising the question about how many
people have been baptized at this church in the
past as younger people and children who went
on to give no evidence of ever having been sav-
ingly converted, and what damage was done to
them, and to the witness of the gospel through
the church's premature baptism of them. It is
our judgment that while there is some danger of
discouragement on the part of those children
who do give some good evidence of being con-
verted and yet are not baptized and welcomed
into communicant membership in the church,
through good teaching in the home, and through
the loving inclusion of the families in the church
as we currently do, that danger is small. There
is, however, we believe, a greater danger of de-
ception on the part of many who could be
wrongly baptized at an age in which people are
more liable to make decisions which are sincere,
but ill-founded and too often short-lived.
Two other notes in conclusion. First, we
realize that this issue is an issue of great emo-
tion for some, and we in no way are trying to
lead anyone to disobey their conscience on this
matter; we simply are trying to inform and edu-
cate our consciences from the Scriptural neces-
sity of a credible profession of faith for bap-
tism. Second, while it is not generally known
among American evangelicals today, the prac-
tice of baptizing pre-teenage children is of re-
cent development (largely early 20th century)
and of limited geography (largely limited to the
United States, and places where American evan-
gelicals have exercised great influence). Baptists
in the past were known for waiting to baptize
until the believers were adults. Baptistic Chris-

63
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
Though I hear stories from church leaders around the country almost every day, I was still stunned by the fol-
lowing email from a faithful deacon in a Baptist church:

“I would appreciate the opportunity to talk with you regarding cleaning up the church roll. I began
compiling a list of widows from our membership database yesterday and found that of the 141 total
widows in our database, 38 were deceased and 4 had transferred membership to other churches (not
counting the ones who are classified as "Inactive" or "Non-Resident Members."

You can just imagine how the late-night talk show hosts would poke fun at this: “Did you hear about the thirty-
eight dead members of Faith Alive Baptist Church? Talk about the need to change the church’s name!” This
might be funny if it did not characterize churches around our nation and others.

Bad records and outdated rolls trouble any faithful pastor’s existence. Yet before you sweep things clean, con-
sider both why and how this should be done.

Why should churches clean up their membership roles?

1) Christ’s name and honor is at stake in the world. Think about the Apostle Paul’s passionate concern for
who was associated with the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 5).
2) Membership in a church should reflect, as best as possible, membership in Christ’s Kingdom. We
should neither receive nor dismiss members lightly. “Dropping someone from the rolls” should be
treated with utmost care, even if the member himself has been careless.
3) Pastors, elders, and leaders will “give an account” to God someday for their shepherding (Heb. 13:17).
God took Israel’s shepherds to task for repeated unfaithfulness (e.g. Ezek. 34).
4) Congregations will also give an account to God for how they receive members. Consider who Paul
addressed in 1 Corinthians 5!
5) Less mature Christians are at risk of being confused about the importance of the church in the growing
Christian’s life and could be led toward complacency themselves.
6) The member who has moved out of the area should be encouraged to link arms with a church in his
new hometown and make himself known to believers there. If he does not, his former church should
encourage him to do so by letter or phone. If he remains unresponsive, the church should inform him
that they will remove his name in the next members’ meeting, thereby sending the message that they
can no longer account for his life.

How should churches clean up their membership roles?

If you tackle all the problematic membership cases at once, you will run into fire. But it’s difficult to predict
where. Will your members be happy to remove local non-attenders? Out-of-the-area members? The dead? Pas-
tor, be wise and only do what your people can tolerate. Be patient and teach until they are ready to move.

So where do you start? Picture multiple concentric circles (like a dartboard) with the center (the bull’s-eye)
representing meaningful membership. The outer rings represent meaningless membership, and hopefully they
are easiest to clean up. As you move from the outer rings to the bull’s-eye, your membership rolls should in-
creasingly consist of confessing believers who are actively involved in your church. Let’s start from the outside
and work in:

1) Members who are dead. (At my church we found 10!) This outer-most ring should be the easiest to
clean up. At you church’s next meeting for conducting business, put these names before the congrega-
tion with a motion to remove them from membership in the following meeting. Don’t ask the congre-
gation to immediately remove these names, but give them time to think about the motion.

64
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
2) Members whom you cannot find. Probably the next easiest group to remove. Two women in our
church hunted for seventy members for six months in vain! These names were then put before the con-
gregation asking for help. When all efforts were exhausted, a motion was put to the congregation to
remove them.
3) Absent and disinterested members. Our church had dozens of members who we found but who
wanted nothing to do with us. We found one woman in Germany who had become a Unitarian and was
upset that we contacted her.
4) Members out of the area. These are people who are unable to attend on a regular basis due to distance,
and any meaningful accountability is near-impossible. You will no doubt encounter people who have a
wrong understanding of membership in this group: “I’ve held my membership in that church since I
sang in the Junior Choir in 1959” or “I walked the aisle in that church in 1970, and I promised my
mother I would remain a faithful member.” Despite their emotional attachment to your church, this
group needs to be taught a right understanding of church membership. Remember pastor, you will give
an account for these individuals. Don’t be caught with names on your rolls of people whom you have
never met. Make a motion to remove these individuals “for non-attendance” at your next business
meeting.
5) Non-attending members in the area. Certainly we’ve reached one of the toughest circles. These peo-
ple want to maintain their membership and they can attend; but they want little to do with the church.
This circle is often difficult because of the relationships these individuals maintain with attending
members. Maybe it’s a grown child or an old friend from the choir. Again, teaching is required and
movement must be slow.

These first five categories are the biggest and most obvious targets. There are other categories like “attends, but
won’t sign the statement of faith” or “in the area, but cannot attend.” Old age or an infirmity might prevent a
member from attending; they should not be dismissed, but specially cared for! Also, we encourage special
charity toward elderly members who have moved out of the area and into retirement homes. Why? They often
grew up with a different understanding of church membership and are unlikely to change. Out of love, consider
allowing them to remain on the rolls.

Once again, out of love for your people, do not clean the roles more quickly than your congregation can han-
dle. For some, this may take years to work through the different rings. Churches are too often divided over
careless pastoral exercises when the goal should be unity. Remember, each listing on your roll is more than a
name; it’s a soul.

Matt Schmucker
9Marks
9/1/2005

65
Cleaning Up the Rolls

66
Cleaning Up the Rolls

67
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
Regaining Meaningful Church Membership
Baptist Distinctives Conference— SWBTS, Ft. Worth, TX—Sept. 29, 2006
Introduction of the Problem
Did you hear the one about the
Baptist church and their problem with
squirrels? The squirrels had gotten
inside the church building, up in the
attic, even down into the news from
medicine and in kitchen. Finally
someone came up with a solution.
They baptized the squirrels and now It
was a scene in misfeasance and low
am they only see them on Christmas
and Easter!
That is the sad reflection of
the culture of many of our churches.
Few today remember Transfer Church
Membership Week. This was inaugu-
rated by the Southern Baptist Conven-
tion in 1953 as an attempt to deal with
the large percentage (almost 30%) of
Southern Baptists who were identified
as non-resident members. A few
years later, in 1962, James Leo Garrett
wrote that “Inactive and nonparticipat-
ing church members and the problem
of this team the time and only use and
some nonresident membership have
become major Southern Baptist diffi-
culties.” If this is accurate it was not a
recent development. In the 1938
Southern Baptist Convention meeting
at Richmond, Virginia, concern was
expressed about this problem, and a
committee appointed to investigate it.
And, decades later, the problem re-
mains.
In fact, the problem of non-
residential membership seems to have
worsened, and perhaps to have given
way to the even greater problem of
two-thirds of Southern Baptists being
non-attending members. I certainly
appreciate the fact that any church
may have members not in attendance
on any given Sunday. Perhaps they’re
on the mission-field, or in a retirement
home. Some are ill and permanently
at home. Others may have moved and
simply not yet moved their member-
ship. Some are in the military or other
overseas government service, and
By Mark Dever
others at college for part of the year.
I fear, however, that most of
our members are perfectly able most
Sunday’s to attend church, either here
or elsewhere. But they don’t. They
should join where they attend. And if
they are able and do not attend, then
they should not be allowed to be a
member of a Christian church. They
are, in fact, in sin. Hebrews 10:25
instructs us not to be like those who
forsake the regular assembling of
themselves together. Disobeying this
clear instruction does not inspire con-
fidence in the non-attender’s on-going
repentance and faith.
A member’s regular, tolerated
non-attendance begins to bring up
further questions. What kind of lead-
ership must a church have to allow
such a misrepresentation to grow up
and flourish? What kind of expecta-
tions are communicated to those who
are joining? What discipline is prac-
ticed? In fact, tolerated non-
involvement among members may
even call into question the kind of
evangelism being done, the church’s
understanding of conversion, and even
of the gospel itself. Allowing such
non-attending members to retain their
membership would seem to be such
blatant disobedience to Scripture, and
such a brazen disregard of the spiritual
health of those concerned, that it
would even seem to call into question
the teaching that has brought about
such an unhealthy tolerance in the
body.
This, then, is a difficult
topic—regaining meaningful church
membership. How do you regain
what is not understood? How do you
make meaningful something that you
don’t believe in? After all, many Bi-
ble-believing Christians today deny
that church membership is biblical as
quickly and easily as many Jehovah’s
Witnesses deny the trinity, or Muslims
Christ’s divinity! “Show us the verse”
68
they say. But the truth God has re-
vealed in His Word is not limited to
simple, explicit statements. Much of
the most important teaching of Christ,
His relationship to His Father, and the
Spirit’s relationship to the Father and
the Son is best and most clearly un-
derstood when passages are compared
and the teaching systematically con-
structed. So it is with church mem-
bership. But then, today, we must
even ask, what does membership
mean in such an amorphous group as
a local church? Among many today
from popular writers to mission strate-
gists, even that definition has faded.
This is a difficult topic, but even more
than it is difficult, it is important.
The plan for this talk [chapter]
is then first, to define the church.
Much of the work that needs to be
done here is in this initial and founda-
tional work. Then, the membership of
the church must be defined. Reasons
for the practice and requirements for
specific members must be considered.
One can’t regain what one doesn’t
even understand has been lost. Then,
when we have considered what par-
ticularly constitutes membership as
meaningful, we will consider what
steps can be taken by a local congre-
gation to regain such meaningful
membership. So, in summary, we
want to consider the church, then
membership in it, then how it is by
definition meaningful, and conclude
by considering steps we can take to
regain for a congregation an apprecia-
tion of membership’s meaning. All of
this is undertaken with a desire to see
local congregations built up to the
glory of God.
Definition of a Church
What is a church? It’s a com-
monplace that a church is not a
building. And it’s true that churches
do not need to have buildings. For
their first few centuries, Christian
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
congregations owned no buildings.
They met in private homes. A mis-
understanding of salvation and the
church that grew up in the patristic
period led to the church being con-
ceived of as regularly requiring spe-
cific, consecrated spaces. But at the
Reformation, it again became appar-
ent that a building was not required
for a Christian church; but what was
required for a Christian church?
Members.
A church is composed of re-
generate members. Those members
may meet in a building owned by
them corporately (a “church”) or indi-
vidually (a home), or in a rented
space, but it is the people that are es-
sential. Without a specific community
of people, a Christian church does not
exist.
Samuel Jones defined a
church well in his Summary of Church
Discipline: “A particular gospel
church consists of a company of saints
incorporated by a special covenant
into one distinct body, and meeting
together in one place, for the enjoy-
ment of fellowship with each other
and with Christ their head, in all his
institutions, to their mutual edification
and the glory of God through the
Spirit.”
What are these “institutions”
of Christ? They are, fundamentally,
the preaching of the Gospel, the prac-
tice of baptizing believers, and the
regular celebration of the Lord’s Sup-
per. Why did Christ institute them?
For the benefit of Christians, to supply
advice and edification, to have the
Gospel preached to us by word and
sign, by lip and life.
A church conducts the public
worship of God, and works to extend
the kingdom of Christ through witness
and evangelism. With Christ as its
head, such a body is able to choose its
elders and deacons, admit and dismiss
its members, administer discipline to
members as it sees fit, and follow
Christ together however else they may
discern God’s Word teaches.
A Christian church is inde-
pendent of outside control, but is natu-
rally in a relationship of peace, love,
prayerful mutual concern and action
with other Christian congregations.
Denominations are not churches, but
rather are merely para-church organi-
zations of local churches, made to
facilitate the obedience and growth of
the local congregations in their num-
ber.
A local congregation is in-
structed by Scripture in all the ways it
must organize its life together—(e.g.,
having elders and deacons, preaching,
baptizing and observing the Lord’s
Supper). Other matters of organiza-
tion which might seem useful (e.g.,
the creation of an office such as
church clerk) are allowable, but not
necessary. It is able to handle its own
affairs in organizing its internal busi-
ness, receiving and disbursing funds
and other assets, and reporting on
such to the church.
So, a church is required to
worship and serve God, bear witness
to His Word, evangelize, administer
baptism and the Lord’s Supper, serve
Christians, live life together with love,
holiness and unity, govern its own
affairs and show goodness and mercy,
especially to its needy members.
The church is to show itself
united around the truth, loving to God
and each other, and marked by a holi-
ness of life that reflects to the world
around God’s own holiness. The
church has a mission to be a display of
God’s glory to His Creation (John
13:34-35; Eph. 3:10-11; Phil. 2:14-
16). It is an exclusive community in
that it is only those who have been
adopted into His family by faith in
Christ who have a rightful place in it.
That place is called membership.
Definition of Membership
Positively, how does the Bible
present the Christian life? It is a life
not lived in isolation, but lived out
with other Christians. Christianity is
personal, but not private. Truly fol-
lowing Christ is committed and regu-
lar, not casual and occasional. This is
what we mean when we think of being
a church member. It is a formal com-
mitment to love and to be loved by
those Christians we live around, that
69
we regularly interact with, that we
desire to hold accountable and be held
accountable by. A certain assembly
has accepted the responsibility to
teach us, to lead us, to love us, to care
for us and to correct us when we need
it. The local church is not a natural
group of homogeneous friends. In
fact, carnal homogeneity obscures the
supernatural unity that draws and
holds Christians together, and that
displays the Gospel to the surrounding
world.
When church membership is
properly understood, it is an expres-
sion of the common life Christians
share (e.g., I John 1:3). It is an ex-
pression of relationship, as we to-
gether comprise one spiritual house,
one home (I Peter 2:5). It is a rela-
tionship that implies a partnership in
the Gospel (as in Phil. 1:5; Gal. 2:9).
It involves the kind of fellowship that
we see in the early church in Acts 2.
Our sharing with each other reflects
the way God has so graciously given
to us.
Church members are to be
those who have been called into fel-
lowship with Jesus Christ. That’s
what Paul assumed as he wrote his
letters in the New Testament (e.g. I
Cor. 1:9; cf. Ps. 27:4). Christians are
called to be in Christ, and to abide in
Christ (John 15:4-5; cf. Col. 2:6-7).
Daily communion with God is to be
expressed in our regular fellowship
with the same community of Chris-
tians. This is how the image of the
local church as the body of Christ
becomes a reality (see Rom. 12:5).
Christians share the same Spirit in-
dwelling; we are called to live that out
in our concern for each other (I Cor.
12:25).
The love Christians share as a
result is to shape our life together.
While we could say that all Chris-
tians are to be characterized by obey-
ing certain duties toward each other,
individual Christians can’t live out
these duties to all other Christians.
In reality, we live them out most
fully to those we’re regularly around,
and especially to those we’ve com-
mitted to work with in our local con-
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
gregations. In this context espe-
cially, we are to honor each other
(Rom. 12:10), correct one another
(Rev. 3:19), pray for one another,
and encourage one another (Heb.
3:13). We should build one another
up by teaching God’s Word to each
other (e.g., I John 1:1-3; Ps. 119:13;
Prov. 27:17), being open to and ac-
countable with one another (James
5:16; Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:21).
Individual friendships, and
small group Bible studies may satisfy
some aspects of these commands, but
the biblical pattern from Acts 2 on is
for Christians to be made members
of local congregations, to whom they
are responsible to so live out the
Christian life corporately. Even as
He did in the Old Testament, so more
fully and obviously, in the New Tes-
tament, God dwells in the middle of
His people. Built together, we are
God’s temple, the “place” where His
Spirit specially dwells.
If we are members of a con-
gregation, we will be working to-
gether for the spread of the Gospel
(Phil. 1:3-5). We will give money to
this end, and pray to this end. We
will, as Peter says “use whatever
gift” we’ve been given “to serve oth-
ers, faithfully administering God’s
grace in its various forms,” (I Peter
4:10). God is glorified by the local
body being built up through the gifts
that God has entrusted to it. Love for
each other will also lead church
members to sacrifice for each other’s
good (e.g., Heb. 13:16; cf. Rom.
12:13; 15:26-27; II Cor. 8:4; 9:13; I
Tim. 6:18). By so doing, we obey
God’s commands, we experience
something of His joy, and we bring
God glory. Church members are
those who are committed to sharing
their material provisions with their
teacher and so providing for his min-
istry (Gal. 6:6; cf. I Cor. 9:14).
Church members are also
those who are committed to sharing
in Christ’s sufferings, not in any way
helping Christ to atone for the
world’s sins, but rather in following
Him in faithfulness, and so experi-
encing the world’s rejection (e.g.,
Phil. 3:10). We are called to suffer
for and with Christ, and with other
believers, whether because of our
own sin, or the sin of others. And we
are called to serve one another in
love (Gal. 5:13), and even to enjoy
one another’s company (Acts 2:42;
cf. Luke 15:23; I Cor. 10:31).
To consider church member-
ship another way, consider who de-
fined the membership of a Christian
congregation in the New Testament.
Did the individual himself? It ap-
pears not. The man in I Cor. 5 had
no right simply to decide that he
himself would remain a member of
the Corinthian church. That was the
congregation’s responsibility; thus
Paul addressed the congregation as a
whole in his letter, not the man in
sin.
Most fundamentally, of
course, God defines the membership
of a local congregation. In Acts 2 it
was the Lord who added to their
number daily those who were being
saved. In a secondary sense, how-
ever, the local church is entrusted
with the responsibility of defining its
own membership. In II Cor. 2:6 we
find Paul appealing to the church
members to readmit a disciplined
member who had repented. In I Cor.
5 and Matt. 18 it was the congrega-
tion who had publicly to act to prop-
erly define who it was that comprised
their membership, because they de-
cided who was to be excluded from
it. So, for example, in the case of the
adulterous man in Corinth, the con-
gregation had evidently decided to
allow him to remain a member, and it
is for precisely this decision that the
Apostle takes them to task and re-
bukes them.
In none of these cases did the
individual himself have the simple
power to make himself a member of
a congregation, in the way regular
attenders in our own day often sim-
ply consider themselves members by
virtue of their choice to attend. Join-
ing was a congregational act. An
individual’s desire was necessary,
but not sufficient. Once the individ-
ual was willing the willingness of the
70
congregation still had to be secured.
In the New Testament, it was the
church members who admitted and
excluded members, because it was
the congregation and her leaders that
would have to give account for them
(e.g., Heb. 13:17).
Who chose the leaders of a
congregation? It was the church
members (see Acts 6:2-6). Who ad-
judicated differences? The church
members (Matt. 18:15-17; I Cor. 5-
6). Who finally discerned the ortho-
doxy of the preaching? The church
members (Gal. 1:6-9; II Tim. 4).
Who commissioned missionaries?
Church members (Acts 13:1-3).
Who acted together with their leaders
to do important business for the king-
dom? Church members (Acts
15:22). Publicly defined church
membership is an idea implicit in the
New Testament.
Essentially, the membership
of a church is composed of those
who are regularly admitted to the
Lord’s Table. Paul in I Corinthians
(chaps 5-6) excoriated the congrega-
tion for allowing to remain in their
number those who were unrepentant
sinners. In chapter 11, he specifi-
cally criticized their undisciplined
practice of the Lord’s Supper. And
in II Corinthians chapter 2, Paul re-
fers to one who had been punished
“by the majority” (2:6), evidently
referring to an action of a majority of
a defined group—the members of the
church at Corinth.
Occasionally the truly regen-
erate may be discouraged from com-
ing to the table, and hypocrites ad-
mitted, but what a local church basi-
cally intends to do is to admit to the
Lord’s Supper those that they take to
be regenerate, and who are not
known to be living in any way con-
trary to the Gospel, or the Word of
God. This is the bare outline of
membership. It presumes that the
person is not in any unrepentant sin.
Therefore it presumes that they have
been baptized. It presumes too, then,
that they are in regular attendance
(with a few, particular exceptions).
And, it presumes furthermore, a level
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
of relationship being developed in
which one is known honestly and
transparently, and known to be re-
penting. Christian churches are only
for sinners, and, among sinners, only
for repentant sinners.
From the earliest of times,
Baptist churches have tended to sum-
marize such duties in church cove-
nants. These Christians accepted that
they had duties to pray for their pas-
tors, to pay them as they could, to
respect them, to obey them (Heb.
13:17), and to defend them. They
usually took these covenants publicly
as a way of making themselves ac-
countable to fulfill their duties. They
also acknowledged in them that they
had a duty to those other members of
the congregation, to care for them
and watch over them. That care in-
cludes confronting, and even work-
ing to excommunicate them if the
attempt to bring the sinning member
to repentance fails. By covenant,
they would pledge personal holiness,
carefulness for each other, prayer,
burden-bearing, working together to
advance the Gospel, and to regularly
meet together on the Lord’s day.
Such covenants gave a summary
shape to what they understood
church membership—and indeed, the
Christian life—to involve.
According to the Somerset
[southwest England] Baptist Confes-
sion of 1656 a host of Scriptures en-
couraged these framers to exhort their
readers (in article XXV) that “in ad-
mitting of members into the church of
Christ, it is the duty of the church, and
ministers whom it concerns, in faith-
fulness to God, that they be careful
they receive none but such as do make
forth evident demonstration of the
new birth, and the work of faith with
power.” In John 3:3, Jesus taught that
no one would see the kingdom of God
unless they were born again. In Mat-
thew 3, John’s baptism was to be ad-
ministered only upon confession and
repentance. They also cited God’s
condemnation of Israel for bringing
those “uncircumcised in heart and
flesh” into his sanctuary (Ezek. 44:6-
7) as presaging the regenerate nature
of the church. Of course Peter’s reply
in Acts 2:38 was also used showing
the initial commands of repentance
and baptism that Christians (and
therefore by implication, church mem-
bers) were to obey. They cited Paul’s
assurance in II Cor. 9:14 of God’s
grace having been given to the Corin-
thians as evidence that they practiced
a regenerate church membership.
David’s refusal of fellowship with the
wicked (in Pss. 26 and 101) they also
took to be foreshadowing a believing
church.
In summary of this point, the
Bible’s teaching about church mem-
bership is occasional, implicit and yet
clear. Churches are obligated to de-
fine those for whom they will take
responsibility. Christians are nor-
mally obligated to attend and to join a
Gospel-preaching church near them.
It should be noted, too, that Baptists in
particular have been leaders in the
sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries
in recovering such New Testament
practices. Their rejection of infant
baptism made the inclusive geographi-
cal units of the Roman church
(parishes, dioceses) practically impos-
sible. They recovered the radically
voluntary nature of association with a
local congregation as being composed
of believers only. Such commitment
implied duties to fellow members and
their pastors. Every member ministry
appeared vigorously in this acting out
of the doctrine of the priesthood of all
believers.
Clarity on believing church
membership is the chief contribution
of Baptists to the wider Christian
community. And yet it is this very
clarity which has been sacrificed in
the pragmatism and reductionism of
Baptist church life—and especially in
seeking for numerical growth—in the
last century.
The local church itself is un-
dermined by an evangelistic fervor
that ends up tolerating and even pan-
dering to an individualistic consumer-
ism. And a large body of nominal
Christians will subvert the churches’
ministry in the world, in itself, and
even in their own lives. When the
71
lives of those in the church lie about
Jesus, the church has lost its purpose
and the surrounding world its light.
The recovery of a biblical understand-
ing of membership is a task that is
both urgent and important. In the
remainder of this talk [chapter] we
will consider an understanding of
membership that must be taught, and
some practical steps to implement
meaningful membership in a local
congregation.
Making Membership Meaningful as
Committed Love
Pastors today cannot assume
that Christians understand either
church membership or its importance.
In fact many pastors seem to have
forgotten anything more than the most
pragmatic arguments for it. But in
Baptist history, pastors have recog-
nized the vigorous practice of mem-
bership, not only as a matter of pru-
dence but of principle. It would not
merely be unwise to neglect it; such
neglect would itself be sin, and would
lead others into sin.
How can we again make
membership meaningful to ourselves
and to our congregations? I suggest
that we speak of it as a matter of love,
and teach it as the appearance of love
in many ways. Let me simply give
five, as examples.
The witness of love. Jesus
said in John 13:34-35 that the world
would know that we are His disciples
by the love we have for one another.
The church is Jesus’ evangelism
plan. Our love for each other is to be
the compelling witness to the non-
Christians around us that the life and
society they desire so much can ex-
ist. Even in this fallen world, we can
know lives lived in the context of
unconditional, inconvenient and in-
conveniencing self-sacrificial love
for one another. The Christian gos-
pel necessarily includes a message
about sin that is convicting; but the
Christian gospel is also to be illus-
trated by lives of love that are com-
pelling. This God of justice is a God
of mercy. This God of holiness is a
God who has Himself borne the
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
weight of His own opposition to evil.
The love of Christ on the cross is
displayed in the lives of Christians in
the church. Our lives are to back up
the witness of our lips. We were
made in the image of God, and we
long to live again in that image, even
while we are in rebellion against
God. The local church is used by
God to bring those longings to the
surface, to testify to the truth of
them, and to hold out a foretaste of
their ultimate fulfillment someday in
the visible presence of God Himself.
Membership witnesses to Christ’s
love.
The assurance of love. Paul
said in I Cor. 5 that the Corinthian
congregation was to wake up to the
truth and to realize that they had
someone in their number who was
living as an enemy to the Gospel that
he professed. A man was commit-
ting adultery with his father’s wife (a
serious crime even in pagan Cor-
inth)! But the man is not the direct
object of Paul’s rebuke; that is re-
served for the congregation. Why?
Because it was the congregation who
was allowing the man to continue
thinking of himself as a follower of
Jesus, when he was in open and unre-
pentant sin. His sin was as leaven in
the loaf (as Paul goes on to say); or,
it was infection in the body. The
infection itself was serious, but not
nearly as serious as the congrega-
tion’s toleration of it. To be welcom-
ing and tolerant at this point was not
simply an individual infection; it was
a failure of the body’s entire immune
system. It showed that something
essential to the body’s life and con-
tinuance was missing. And it would
quickly lead to the death of that local
body if not immediately addressed.
A body that could not resist such an
intrusion would soon succumb to it.
Considered from the point of
the individual disciplined, such an
action as Paul was calling them to
was an act of love. Given that this
man was obviously continuing to
regard himself as and was being re-
garded by others as a Christian, he
was clearly self-deceived. We know
that professing Christians can be self
-deceived. Paul wrote later to the
Corinthians “Examine yourselves to
see whether you are in the faith; test
yourselves,” (II Cor. 13:5; cf. II Peter
1:10-11). We should realize that our
immediate assurance to someone else
of their salvation based merely upon
their profession of faith in Christ
may not be the most loving thing we
can do. And if that’s true for us as
individuals, it is doubly true of our
congregations. Joining a church is
joining an assurance of salvation
cooperative. We are to observe evi-
dences of God’s grace in each others’
lives and to encourage one another.
And we are to correct one another
when occasion requires. Paul was
urgent in I Cor. 6 that the Corinthians
not be deceived about who would
inherit the kingdom of God. That
warning sprang from love. So mem-
bership functions to assure us that we
have known God’s love truly, and
that we are truly loving God in re-
sponse.
The nature of love. This is
especially important because we are
so confused about what true love is.
John said that “This is how we know
who the children of God are and who
the children of the devil are: Anyone
who does not do what is right is not a
child of God, nor is anyone who does
not love his brother,” (I Jn. 3:10).
Love is a necessary attribute of a
Christian. It is not merely mature
Christians who give themselves to
loving other Christians; it’s what real
Christians do. The commitment of
church membership begins to give a
shape and appearance to our love.
Membership tests its claims and calls
for particular obediences.
“But surely we know God,”
one might say, “because our hearts
are moved, and tears roll down our
cheeks when we sing this hymn or
that chorus!” “No,” says John. “We
know that we have passed from death
to life, because we love our brothers.
Anyone who does not love remains
in death. . . . This is how we know
what love is: Jesus Christ laid down
his life for us. And we ought to lay
72
down our lives for our brothers,” (I
Jn. 3:14, 16). Our lives are the pic-
tures that illustrate the text of our
words. “If anyone says, ‘I love
God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a
liar. For anyone who does not love
his brother, whom he has seen, can-
not love God, whom he has not
seen,” (I Jn. 4:20).
I sometimes say to young the-
ologues in my own congregation “If
you love to read Wayne Grudem and
John Piper, but won’t inconvenience
yourself to go pick up an older per-
son and give them a ride to church, I
don’t know if you’re a Christian.” It
is the nature of loving real people
that it will at times be difficult and
inconvenient. That’s why we cove-
nant together with a flock of imper-
fect sheep. The lack of commitment
fostered by a lack of formal member-
ship is a temptation to our flesh and
an opportunity for self-deception.
Homogenous congregations are filled
with the more natural empathy for
those who are like us. The inconven-
iences of love are minimized. The
worth of our love is therefore less
compelling evidence of its divine
nature. Membership functions to
instruct us in the very nature of
Christian love, and to encourage its
expression.
The obedience of love. The
writer to the Hebrews said “Obey
your leaders and submit to their au-
thority. 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
of no advantage to you,” (Heb.
13:17). Church membership is
showing a committed love to particu-
lar leaders. Eph. 4:11 teaches us that
pastors are gifts Christ gives to His
church. Christians are to accept that
gift by obeying those pastors.
“Obedience” is an awkward
word for sinners. By nature, we
don’t like it. We immediately think
of abuses of authority. Abuse is
widespread and at times terrible in its
consequences. But such abuses do
not de-legitimize authority itself.
Satan’s attack on God from the very
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
beginning has been to tell humans
that authority and love cannot go
together. And his great proof is
God’s call for us to deny ourselves
when our own desires contradict His
commands (e.g., in the garden of
Eden). And yet, God has shown
Himself unbelievably loving as He
has in Christ sacrificed His comfort
for our good (e.g., in the garden of
Gethsemane). God is worthy of trust.
Throughout creation, authority is to
be an expression of God’s own char-
acter (see Eph. 3:14-15). David’s
final words are a beautiful reflection
of authority’s divine nature: “When
one rules over men in righteousness,
when he rules in the fear of God, he
is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning, like the
brightness after rain that brings the
grass from the earth,” (II Sam. 23:3-
4). Authority well exercised blesses
those under it. This is as true in the
home as it is in the nation, and as true
in church as it is in marriage.
Very practically, pastors need
to know for which Christians they’ll
be giving an account to God. In our
own congregation, we may have six
or seven hundred attending, but only
four or five hundred of those have
made themselves known to me. Only
they, the members, have told me their
understanding of the Gospel and their
experience of God’s grace. Only
they have pledged themselves to me
and other members of the congrega-
tion to pray for us, to support us, to
care for us and love us. Some of the
other attenders may in fact do those
things, but for some reason they’ve
not told us that they will, and so we
don’t know how to pray for them, to
count on them, to care for them.
Practically, membership functions to
facilitate loving obedience to the pas-
tors God has placed there, and to
facilitate loving care among all the
members.
The glory of love. When Saul
was going to persecute the Christians
in Damascus, “he fell to the ground
and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul,
Saul why do you persecute
me?’” (Acts 9:4). The Risen Christ
did not ask Saul why he was going to
persecute Christians, or the church;
He asked Saul “why do you persecute
me?” Christ so identifies with the
church he founded (in Matt. 16) and
purchased (Acts 20:28) that He takes
an attack upon the church as an at-
tack upon Himself.
The local church was not the
idea of a preachers’ union trying to
create jobs; it is the idea, the creation
of Christ Himself. It is the expres-
sion of His own nature and character.
It’s acts reflect on Him. It’s evident
goodness brings Him glory. So we
read the words of Jesus in Matt. 5:16
“let your light shine before men, that
they may see your good deeds and
praise your Father in heaven.” Or, as
Peter later wrote, “Live such good
lives among the pagans that, though
they accuse you of doing wrong, they
may see your good deeds and glorify
God on the day He visits us,” (I Peter
2:12). Note the connection between
our actions and God’s glory. Some-
how, He is praised and glorified by
our good actions. This is the work of
the church, to bring such glory to
God from His creation as we display
His character in our lives.
If Jesus is the image of the
invisible God, how do we see Jesus
today? Jesus is not to be worshipped
through physical icons, images. We
have no account of Him teaching His
disciples to draw or sketch or sculpt.
We have books they wrote, but no
images they made remaining for our
adoration. In fact, the earliest image
we’ve found of Christ was made in
derision. It’s found on the wall of a
Roman catacomb. It is a cross, with
a stick-figure, and an ass’s head, with
the mocking inscription scrawled
beneath “Aleximenos worships his
god.”
John of Damascus said that to
deny icons was to deny the incarna-
tion. It may be in his day that some
who opposed the use of icons did
deny the incarnation, but those who
went before him neither denied the
incarnation, nor used icons. The
point of the incarnation was never the
mere physical appearance of Christ.
73
It was the life of flesh and blood that
He lived out. Christ probably could-
n’t be identified in a photograph of
Him with the twelve disciples. There
was nothing distinctive in his appear-
ance, unless that is we could guess
He was the most ugly one (Isa. 53:3).
But let that become a moving picture,
and I think by His loving interaction
with others, His glory would begin to
appear.
Don’t misunderstand me. I
don’t mean to deride our desire for
the visible. People say this is a visual
age. Every age is a visual age. We
are made to crave the immediacy of
sight. We naturally desire to see God
immediately, but that blessing was
taken from us at the Fall. We live in
salvation history in the era not of the
eye, but of the ear. One day that glo-
rious immediacy of seeing God will
be restored to us—that’s the climax
of the Bible! That’s the Consumma-
tion we find in Rev. 22:4—they shall
see God!
Until then, God is made most
visible, it seems, not in 2 -
dimensional paintings, but in the
lives lived out in the local church.
That is His plan, it seems—for
church membership to display the
glory of His nature of goodness and
love, and so bring Him praise.
Twelve Steps to Regain Meaningful
Membership
In conclusion, here is a sug-
gested 12-step recovery plan for pas-
tors to regain meaningful church
membership.
1) Regularly proclaim the
Gospel in your preaching. Be certain
to include clear statements of the
nature of God, of human sin, of
God’s provision in Christ, of His
substitutionary death and bodily res-
urrection. Be clear in calling for re-
pentance and faith. Even in the way
you explain what repentance looks
like, you can make it clear that peo-
ple who don’t give themselves in
loving commitment to each other
have no reason to think that they
have given themselves in loving
commitment to God. Define what it
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
means to be a Christian again and
again in provocative ways that cause
complacent evangelicals to obey
Paul’s exhortation to “examine your-
selves,” (II Cor. 13:5).
2) Have and use a congrega-
tionally agreed upon Statement of
Faith and Church Covenant. Congre-
gations are best served by documents
shorter than that Presbyterian elders
must agree on, but longer than a
mere profession of faith. With mem-
bership in the congregation comes
responsibility. The statements of
what the congregation together be-
lieves, and how together they will
live are important. They are a clear
ground of unity, a tool of teaching,
and a fence from the worldly who
would erase such distinctions, or the
divisive who would narrow them.
3) Require attendance at
membership classes before admitting
someone into membership in a con-
gregation. It is a loving thing to pre-
sent carefully the expectations others
will have of them, and what they, in
turn, can expect from the congrega-
tion. This is an opportunity to teach
carefully through the statement of
faith and the church covenant before
they would be asked to sign them.
You can also explain membership,
something of the history of Christi-
anity, and of your denomination, and
even of your own particular congre-
gation. It’s a good time, too, to ori-
ent them to the practical nuts and
bolts of how your own local church
works.
4) Require an interview after
they have been through the member-
ship classes, but before they’ve been
recommended to the congregation for
membership. This interview can be
the occasion for the actual signing of
the two documents they’ve studied in
the membership class. In the past,
Christians have conducted such
membership interviews by a commit-
tee of members, or deacons, or eld-
ers, or even in front of the entire con-
gregation. It’s the practice of our
own congregation to do this with an
elder and one or two others present
(usually staff or an intern). In this
interview ask them to share the gos-
pel with you, and to give you a de-
tailed account of their own conver-
sion, and their discipleship since
then. Re-iterate the expectations the
congregation has for them to be pre-
sent at gatherings on the Lord’s Day,
at the Lord’s Table and at Members’
meetings. Also remind them of their
obligation to build relationships as
they get to know others, and allow
themselves to be known, to pray for
the other members, and to give finan-
cially.
5) Stop baptizing and admit-
ting children into formal local church
membership. Here’s what a former
Baptist pastor and professor of evan-
gelism at Southwestern said a few
decades ago now, as he noted the
trend to younger and younger bap-
tisms: “At a time when he is too
young to choose his clothes for him-
self, at a time when he is too young
to choose a life’s vocation, at a time
when he is too young to serve on a
church committee, at a time when he
is really too young to vote intelli-
gently on business matters in the
church, at a time when he is not con-
sidered legally responsible by any
agency in the community, there has
been a tendency to feel that he is
sufficiently responsible to make a
life-binding, permanent-type deci-
sion concerning his relationship to
Christ and his church. If we are un-
willing to feel that the child is capa-
ble of making lesser decisions, how
can we justify our confidence in the
efficacy of this greater decision at
this age?” The question is not
whether a 5 or 10 year old can sav-
ingly confess Christ. The question is
one of the congregation’s ability to
discern. The large number of nomi-
nal Christians and re-baptisms in
Southern Baptist churches seems to
answer the question clearly in the
negative. We are not meant to be
able to fully distinguish a child’s
love and trust in God, from their love
and trust in adults, especially their
own parents. That grows up over
time, as the distinct outlines of the
young adult’s life comes into place
74
as they feel the pull of the world, the
flesh and the devil, and yet follow
Christ. Baptists around the world
know this; Baptists here in America
used to. We can again.
6) Realize that admission into
church membership is an act of the
congregation. This is clearly implied
in II Cor. 2:6. Whether that is done
in the most direct manner (by a con-
gregational vote) or in a less direct
method by publicizing the names for
a set period of time and asking for
feedback, the congregation should be
taught that it acts to admit someone
into its membership, and that (apart
from death) it acts to release some-
one from its membership.
7) Publish a membership di-
rectory in which the members of the
church are represented by name, pic-
ture, physical address, email and
work and home phone numbers.
Publish it regularly so that it is accu-
rate. Teach the members to update
their information regularly. Culti-
vate using this directory as a prayer
list for the pastors and members of
the church. In our congregation, we
ask members to try to pray through a
page each day in their own personal
prayer time.
8) Give active pastoral over-
sight to the members. Try to make
sure that every member is in regular
conversation with some elder or
some mature Christian in the congre-
gation. Take initiative in trying to
know what’s going on in the mem-
bers’ lives. Lunches, phone calls and
emails, book recommendations, and
conversations after church gatherings
are obvious tools. The pastors can
also make more structured efforts at
member visitation.
9) Work to create a culture of
discipleship in the church. Rather
than basically relying on programs of
small groups or shared interests, en-
courage members to deliberately give
themselves in love to each other.
Encourage them in their responsibili-
ties to care for each other. Use the
staff to facilitate relationships, with
the goal that everyone in the congre-
gation would have multiple natural
 Cleaning Up the Rolls
relationships with others in the con-
gregation in which they are being
built up as Christians. Help them to
understand that their welfare is the
business of their brothers and sisters.
10) Limit some activities,
events and areas of service to mem-
bers. For example, there should be
meeting at which only members at-
tend. These could be on Sunday
night or Saturday, but they would
need to be separate from the public
services to which all are welcome. A
biblical practice of church member-
ship requires discussions that are
both church wide, but which are only
of the church. (Matthew 18:17
seems to imply something like this.)
Make sure that only members can
hold offices in the church, lead in
various kinds of service, take public
roles that would seem to imply the
congregation’s knowledge and con-
sent. In our congregation, except for
evangelistic small groups, we have
small groups available for members
only. As part of our congregation’s
discipleship plan, we take responsi-
bility for them, and so we need to be
able to approve the leaders and settle
any difficulties that occur. (Of
course, our members are free them-
selves to arrange Bible studies with
whomever they would like, from
however many different churches.
We as a staff simply do not take re-
sponsibility for training those lead-
ers, and filling those groups. We
don’t rely on them for our own con-
gregation’s life.)
11) Only after membership is
recovered, consider reviving the
practice of corrective church disci-
pline (including excommunication or
exclusion). Too many pastors at-
tempt to recover meaningful church
membership by first recovering the
practice of corrective church disci-
pline, but this is normally a jarring
transition in congregational life. One
must first take steps to recover a
positive, understanding and experi-
ence of membership, before one be-
gins to exclude members for demon-
strable unrepentant sins of non-
attendance, adultery, etc.
12) Finally, we must recover
something of the grandness of God’s
plan. Pray for God’s blessings on
other local evangelical congregations
by name in your Sunday morning
services. Remind the congregation
of the story we’re involved in that is
greater than our local congregation.
Pastors must again meditate
on Heb.13:17 and consider the seri-
ousness of the accounting to God we
are to give for those to whom we
have given assurance of their salva-
tion. Continued membership in our
congregation is giving such assur-
ance. If there are no signs of a sinner
being repentant and reconciled with
God, we do not love them by simply
adding their name to our church’s
role, and counting them among our
number. And remind yourself
of the One who finally determines
the meaning of church membership.
I love this quotation of the Scottish
pastor John Brown in a letter of pa-
ternal counsels to one of his pupils
newly ordained over a small congre-
gation: “I know the vanity of your
heart, and that you will feel mortified
that your congregation is very small,
in comparison with those of your
brethren around you; but assure
yourself on the word of an old man,
that when you come to give an ac-
count of them to the Lord Christ, at
his judgment-seat, you will think you
have had enough.”
Ultimately that is the meaning
of church membership.

End Notes

1. James Leo Garrett, Baptist Church Discipline (Nashville; Broadman Press, 1962) p. 1.
2. Samuel Jones, A Summary of Church Discipline in Polity, ed., Mark Dever (1774; reprinted 2001; IX Marks Ministries; Washington DC) p. 118.
Note that “Church Discipline” was not historically associated only with corrective actions taken by a church with a member (e.g., rebuke, excommunica-
tion). It was a wider phrase approximating “polity” and “practice,” a usage still continued in some circles (e.g., the United Methodist’s Book of Disci-
pline is hardly about their practices of excommunication!). A “disciple” is a follower; a “discipline” is a way of following, of living, and for a local
congregation, of living together. It is, therefore, roughly equivalent historically to the words “polity” and “practice.”
3. E.g., “The Solemn Covenant of the Church of Christ, meeting in White-street, at its Constitution; June 5, 1696” reprinted in Mark Dever, ed., Polity
(1697; rpt. IX Marks Ministries, Washington DC, 2001), pp. 90-91.
4. J. L. Reynolds, in the 19th c., wrote elegantly and movingly of the importance of a regenerate church membership. “It becomes the disciples of the
Saviour to guard well the door of admission into their fraternity. Upon their fidelity, in this respect, depend its efficiency, prosperity, and safety. An
accession of nominal Christians may enlarge its numbers, but cannot augment its real strength. A Church that welcomes to the privileges of Christ’s
house, the unconverted, under the specious pretext of increasing the number of his followers, in reality betrays the citadel to his foes. They may glory in
the multitudes that flock to their expanded gates, and exult in their brightening prospects; but the joy and the triumph will be alike transient. They have
mistaken a device of the enemy for the work of God. They hailed, as they thought, an angel of light; they have received Satan. I admire and love the
many sincere and zealous Christians that are found in such [pedobaptist] Churches; but I fear that this Trojan horse will finally prove their ruin. On the
subject of infant baptism, and what seem to me to be its legitimate tendencies, I have recorded my sentiments without reserve, and, I trust, without of-
fence. I impeach no man’s motives; nor do I question the piety and sincerity of those my Christian brethren who believe that this practice is sanctioned
by the divine command. Many pedobaptists are among the lights and ornaments of the age; their ministry has been blessed of God to the extension of
the Redeemer’s kingdom, and their Churches present numerous examples of pure and unaffected piety. Such men would not, knowingly, contravene the
law of Christ. They would welcome the obloquy of the world, and even the agonies of martyrdom, in obedience to the command of their Lord and King,
and rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake. It is impossible not to admire and love men whose faith and practice associate
them with Baxter, Leighton, Edwards, and Martyn, and who breathe their heavenly spirit. While I think I see and regret their errors, I would extend to
them the same indulgence which I ask for my own,” Church Polity (1849), reprinted in Mark Dever, ed., Polity (Washington, DC: IX Marks Ministries,
2001), pp. 327-328. The equivalent “Trojan horse” today is the retention of merely nominal, uninvolved, non-attending Christians as members in Baptist
churches.
5. Kenneth L. Chafin, “Evangelism and the Child,” (Review and Expositor, Vol. LX No. 2 (Spring, 1963) p. 166.
6. Cited in Richard Sibbes Works Volume I, p. 294.

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76
Children’s Ministry 78

Core Seminars 80

Core Seminar Outlines 81

Seminars
Core Seminar Resources 86

Small Groups 88

Discipling 89

Internship Program 92

Choosing Elders 104

Displaying God’s Glory (Session Notes) 105

Church Discipline (Session Notes) 107

Discipling & Biblical Counseling (Session Notes) 108

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 Children’s Ministry
Capitol Hill Baptist Church Children’s Ministry exists to glorify God by:
 Supporting and encouraging parents who are primarily responsible for teaching biblical truths
to their children (Ephesians 6:4). Any class for children that we offer is designed to reinforce
what children are learning at home or to encourage parents in making disciples.
(Deuteronomy 6:6-9, Ephesians 6:4)

 Making the whole counsel of Scripture known to children with special emphasis on the Gos-
pel. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Romans 1:16-17) We want our children’s ministry to teach the chil-
dren how all of Scripture points to Christ. (Luke 24:27; Romans 1:16-17; 2 Timothy 3:16)

 Praying for the children and relying on the Holy Spirit to regenerate their hearts through the
faithful teaching of His Word (Romans 10:17; Ephesians 2:4-10). We humbly acknowledge
that no parent and no Sunday School teacher can convert a child. We seek to be faithful in
proclaiming the Gospel and pray that God, in his kindness will bring our children to repen-
tance and faith. (Romans 10:17; Ephesians 2:8-9)

 Living faithfully before the children and modeling for them how Christians are called to re-
spond to God, interact with each other, and with the world around us. (Matthew 5:16; 1 Corin-
thians 11:1)

To that end:
 We provide a safe, secure environment for children. We want parents to attend services so
they can be spiritually fed in order that they in turn can be strengthened and enabled to fulfill
their role as the primary disciplers of their children. Parents should not have to worry about
the safety of their children while they are in our care.

 We aim to create a children’s ministry that reflects the priorities of CHBC. CHBC is sim-
ple, deliberate, and centered on the Word of God. We aim for our children’s ministry to be
the same. Crafts, activities, and games are all designed to be vehicles for truth, not ends unto
themselves.

 Our goal is to prepare children for corporate worship. We want our children’s ministry
classes to faithfully teach children while we prepare them to participate in corporate worship,
not to be an alternative to corporate worship or a means for delaying participation in corporate
worship.

 The heart of our children’s ministry is our trust in God’s Word. CHBC is built on the
regular preaching of God’s Word. It is this preaching that feeds the hearts of the parents in our
congregation, equipping them to make disciples of their children in their homes. The regular
preaching and teaching of God’s Word also feeds our children’s ministry teachers and informs
our curriculum development team.

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 Children’s Ministry
Recommended Resources

 For information regarding CHBC Children’s Ministry classes, resources and policies, please
refer to the following link:
 http://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/we-equip/children/
 For curriculum and classroom management information & resources, please refer to the fol-
lowing link:
 http://praisefactory.org/
 For information regarding CHBC Children’s Ministry administration, please contact Gio
Lynch, CM Administrator at:
 gio.lynch@capbap.org

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Core Seminars

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 Core Seminar Course Outlines
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS
Week 1: Statement of Faith
Week 2: Church Covenant
Week 3: Why Join a Church
Week 4: Church History
Week 5: Missions & Outreach
Week 6: Living as a Church

BASICS
FEAR OF MAN EXPLAINING CHRISTIANITY
Week 1: What is the fear of man? Week 1: Jesus, Son of God
Week 2: What is the fear of God? Week 2: The Crucifixion
Week 3: How do we fear man? We fear that people will Week 3: The Resurrection
physically hurt us Week 4: Salvation by Grace, Not Works
Week 4: How do we fear man? We fear that people will Week 5: What is a Christian? Repentance
reject us Week 6: What is a Christian? Faith
Week 5: How do we fear man? We fear that people will
expose us
Week 6: Panel Discussion—Living and growing in the fear
of the Lord
Week 7: A new vision for life: loving God and loving
neighbor

MEETING WITH GOD JUMP START

Week 1: Introduction: The What, Why and How of Meet Week 1: Saved by God
ing with God Week 2: Living God’s Ways
Week 2: Meeting with God in His Word: Hearing and Week 3: Listening to God
Reading Week 4: Talking to God
Week 3: Meeting with God in His Word: Studying, Medi Week 5: Meeting with God’s Family
tating and Memorizing Week 6: Meeting the World
Week 4: Meeting with God through Prayer Week 7: Living in Hope
Week 5: Prayer, Hindrances and Practicalities
Week 6: Panel Discussion

GUIDANCE HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE

Week 1: God’s Providence Week 1: What is the Bible
Week 2: God’s Will Week 2: Translations
Week 3: God’s Word Week 3: Genre
Week 4: Our Ears Week 4: Purpose and Context
Week 5: The Church Week 5: Structure and Parallels
Week 6: The World Week 6: Narrator’s Comments
Week 7: Panel Week 7: Linking Words
Week 8: Tone and Feel
Week 9: Repetition
TWO WAYS TO LIVE Week 10: Quotations and Allusions
Week 1: Loving Ruler & Creator Week 11: Time Lines
Week 2: Humanity in Rebellion Week 12: Using Commentaries and Other Resources
Week 3: Judgment Week 13: Bringing it all Together
Week 4: Jesus Died for Rebels
Week 5: Jesus Risen Ruler
Week 6: Response

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 Core Seminar Course Outlines
Bible Overview
OLD TESTAMENT - PART 1 NEW TESTAMENT - PART 1
Week 1: Intro to the Old Testament Week 1: Intro to the New Testament
Week 2: Genesis 1-11 Week 2: Hebrews
Week 3: Genesis 12-50 Week 3: Intro to the Gospels
Week 4: Exodus 1-19 Week 4: Matthew
Week 5: Exodus 20-40 Week 5: Mark
Week 6: Leviticus Week 6: John
Week 7: Numbers Week 7: Luke
Week 8: Deuteronomy Week 8: Acts
Week 9: Joshua & Judges Week 9: Intro to Pauline Epistles
Week 10: Ruth & 1&2 Samuel Week 10: Romans
Week 11: Job Week 11: 1 Corinthians
Week 12: Psalms Week 12: 2 Corinthians
Week 13: Proverbs Week 13: Philippians

OLD TESTAMENT - PART 2 NEW TESTAMENT - PART 2

Week 14: Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs Week 14: 1 Timothy
Week 15: 1&2 Kings Week 15: Titus
Week 16: Isaiah Week 16: 2 Timothy
Week 17: Hosea & Joel Week 17: Ephesians
Week 18: Amos & Obadiah Week 18: Colossians & Philemon
Week 19: Jonah & Micah Week 19: Galatians
Week 20: Nahum & Habakkuk & Zephaniah Week 20: James
Week 21: Jeremiah & Lamentations Week 21: 1 Peter
Week 22: Ezekiel Week 22: 2 Peter & Judy
Week 23: Daniel Week 23: 1, 2, & 3 John
Week 24: 1&2 Chronicles Week 24: 1 Thessalonians
Week 25: Ezra & Nehemiah & Esther Week 25: 2 Thessalonians
Week 26: Haggai & Zechariah & Malachi Week 26: Revelation

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 Core Seminar Course Outlines
History & Theology Christian Roles
CHURCH HISTORY BIBLICAL MANHOOD & WOMANHOOD
Week 1: Persecution and Expansion Week 1: Introduction, Complementarianism/Egalitarianism
Week 2: The Early Church (100-300) Week 2: Biblical Masculinity Defined, Part 1
Week 3: Church and State (300-500) Week 3: Biblical Masculinity Defined, Part 2; Femininity Defined,
Week 4: The Church at War (5th, 6th and 9th centuries) Part 1
Week 5: High Middle Ages (950-1500) Week 4: Biblical Femininity Defined, Part 2
Week 6: Martin Luther and Protestant Reformation Week 5: Q & A
(1493-1546) Week 6: Biblical Manhood & Womanhood in the Home, Part 1
Week 7: Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformed Churches Week 7: Biblical Manhood & Womanhood in the Home, Part 2
Week 8: English Reformation Week 8: Biblical Manhood & Womanhood in the Church, Part 1
Week 9: Puritanism Week 9: Biblical Manhood & Womanhood in the Church, Part 2
Week 10: Great Awakening and Jonathan Edwards Week 10: Biblical Manhood & Womanhood in the World
Week 11: Enlightenment, Modernity and Revivalism Week 11: Answering Objections to Complementarianism
(1750-1850) Week 12: Men’s Panel Discussion
Week 12: Baptist History and the World Missions Week 13: Women’s Panel Discussion
Movement
Week 13: Capitol Hill Baptist Church
MARRIAGE
Week 1: A Biblical Theology of Marriage: Creation
BIBLICAL THEOLOGY Week 2: A Biblical Theology of Marriage: Fall
Week 1: What is the Bible Week 3: A Biblical Theology of Marriage: Redemption
Week 2: Exegetical Tools Week 4: The Duties of Husbands and Wives
Week 3: Biblical Theology Tools 1 Week 5: Marriage and the Gospel
Week 4: Biblical Theology Tools 2 Week 6: Biblical Communication
Week 5: Systematic Theology Tools 1 Week 7: How to Deal with Conflict
Week 6: Systematic Theology Tools 2 Week 8: Panel
Week 7: Creation Week 9: Biblical Sexuality
Week 8: Fall Week 10: Blessings of Children
Week 9: Love Week 11: Money
Week 10: Sacrifice Week 12: Divorce and Remarriage
Week 11: Promise Week 13: Panel
Week 12: Preaching
Week 13: Everything else

LIVING AS A CHURCH
13-week course

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
13-week course

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 Core Seminar Course Outlines
Week 7: Fasting
Christian Roles Week 8: Evangelism
Week 9: Serving
(cont.) Week 10: Stewardship
Week 11: Cultivating Spiritual Fruit, Part 1
SINGLENESS AND COURTSHIP Week 12: Cultivating Spiritual Fruit, Part 2
Week 1: Singleness and Identity Week 13: Silence and Solitude
Week 2: The Gift and Freedom of Singleness
Week 3: Singleness & Relationships BIBLICAL COUNSELING
Week 4: Singleness & Contentment 13-week course
Week 5: Panel
Week 6: An Introduction to Courtship
Week 7: Initiation
Week 8: The Early Stages of Courtship Engaging the World
Week 9: The Intermediate Stages of Courtship
Week 10: Engagement and Preparing for Marriage MISSIONS
Week 11: How Far Should We Go Week 1: Missions? - The Goal is the Glory of God
Week 12: Panel Week 2: Why Missions? - A Biblical Theology
Week 13: Things that Go Wrong in our Courtship Culture Week 3: How Suffering and Prayer Display the Worth of
the Gospel
PARENTHOOD Week 4: The Role of the Local Church in Missions
13-week course Week 5: Christian Worker Interview
Week 6: The Justice of Hell and the Need for Conscious
Faith in Christ
Christian Discipleship Week 7: Becoming a “World Christian” - Biblical World-
view for Missions
Week 8: The Gospel to All Nations - People Groups and
SUFFERING History of Missions
Week 1: The Problem of Suffering Week 9: Short-term Missions: Their Nature and Usefulness
Week 2: God’s Revealed Purposes for Suffering Week 10: Taking the Gospel around the World from Here at
Week 3: The Future of Suffering Home
Week 4: God’s Grief Over Suffering Week 11: Doing Missions in a Restricted-access country
Week 5: Unbiblical Reactions to Suffering Week 12: Capitol Hill Baptist’s Vision for Missions
Week 6: Fighting for Faith, Part 1: God’s Sovereignty and Week 13: Getting “here” to “there” - Steps to Moving Out
Goodness in Missions
Week 7: Fighting for Faith, Part 2: The Local Church
Week 8: Sharing Their Burdens
Week 9: Suffering as Witness
Week 10: Applying Scripture in Practical Scenarios,
Part 1: Depression and Death
Week 11: Applying Scripture in Practical Scenarios,
Part 2: Natural Disasters, Poverty and War
Week 12: Panel Discussion
Week 13: The Secret of Contentment

DISCIPLING
13-week course

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
Week 1: Introduction: Biblical Spirituality & Sanctification
Week 2: All of Life Worship
Week 3: Bible Intake, Part 1
Week 4: Bible Intake, Part 2
Week 5: Prayer
Week 6: Confession of Sin

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 Core Seminar Course Outlines
Engaging the World What is a Healthy
(cont.) Church?
EVANGELISM GROWING ONE ANOTHER
Week 1: Introduction Christian Discipleship
Week 2: God’s Sovereignty, Man’s Responsibility
Week 3: What is the Gospel - Defining the Truth that Saves
Week 4: Sharing Your Personal Testimony in Evangelism LEADING ONE ANOTHER
Week 5: They Believe This Too? - The Power of Corporate Church Leadership
Witness in Evangelism
Week 6: Two Ways to Live and Christianity Explored
Week 7: Christianity Explored BUILT UPON THE ROCK
Week 8: How Do I Become All Things to All People? - The Doctrine of the Church
Contextualizing the Gospel
Week 9: How Do I Get Started? - Being Intentional and
Strategic in Evangelism HEARING GOD’S WORD
Week 10: How Do I Talk with Family, Friends and Co- Expositional Preaching
Workers about Christ?
Week 11: Fighting the Fear of Man and Rejection
Week 12: But What if they Ask… Answering Objections in
THE WHOLE TRUTH
Evangelism Biblical Theology
Week 13: Evangelism Panel Questions
GOD’S GOOD NEWS
APOLOGETICS/CHRISTIANS & The Gospel

GOVERNMENT
13-weeks total REACHING THE LOST
Evangelism
MONEY
6-week course REAL CHANGE
Conversion
CHRISTIANS IN THE WORKPLACE
Week 1: Vocation
Week 2: Idol or Idle
Week 3: Jesus’ Work Changes Our Work
Week 4: Do What You Are
Week 5: Christ’s Representatives
Week 6: Christians are not Balanced People
Week 7: Panel

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 Core Seminar Resources
BASICS

Explaining Christianity:
Bennett, Michael. Christianity Explained: Discovering the Christian Message from Mark’s Gospel.
Surrey: Scripture Union, 2005.

Jump Start:
Just for Starters. 3rd ed. Kingsford: Matthias Media, 2004.Beynon, Nigel, and Sach, Andrew.
Dig Deeper! Tools to Unearth the Bible’s Treasure. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005.

Guidance:
Jensen, Philip and Payne, Tony. Guidance and the Voice of God. Kingsford: MatthiasMedia, 1997.

Two Ways to Live:

Jensen, Philip and Payne, Tony. Two Ways to Live. 3rd ed. Kingsford: Matthias Media, 2003.

Fear of Man:
Ed Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small
C.J. Mahaney, Humility
John Murray, The Fear of God: The Soul of Godliness
Lou Priolo, Pleasing People: How not to be an Approval Junkie
Ed Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry and the God of Rest

BIBLE OVERVIEW

Old Testament:
Motyer. The Story of the Old Testament.
Dillard, Raymond and Longman, Tremper III. Introduction to the Old Testament. 2nd ed.
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.
Goldsworthy, Graeme. The Goldsworthy Trilogy: Gospel and Kingdom. Paternoster Press, 2000.

New Testament:
Carson, Don and Moo, Douglas. An Introduction to the New Testament. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Zon-
dervan, 2005.
Bruce, F.F. The Message of the NT. Grand Rapids: Erdmands, 1998.

How to Study the Bible:

Beynon, Nigel, and Sach, Andrew. Digging Deeper: Tools to Unearth the Bible’s Treasure

HISTORY & THEOLOGY

Church History:
Dowley, Tim, ed. Erdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity. Carmel, NY: Guideposts, 1977.

Systematic Theology:
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.

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CHRISTIAN ROLES

Biblical Manhood &Womanhood

Grudem, W. & Piper, J. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical
Feminism, Wheaton, ILL: Crosswords, 1991

WHAT IS A HEALTHY CHURCH?

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004

What is a Healthy Church

Dever, Mark. What Is a Healthy Church?, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005, 2007

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Small Groups

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 Discipling
Encouraging Discipling Relationships among the Members of Capitol Hill
Baptist Church

Considering membership in a new church raises a lot of questions. One common question asked is “how do I
get connected in a discipling relationship?” We hope that this article will help answer some of your questions
and help you to get connected in a spiritually encouraging discipling relationship. Of course, the CHBC staff
and elders (and members, for that matter) are happy to talk with you further about any questions you may still
have. It’s our prayer that our deliberate love and spiritual care for each other will build up the body of Christ at
CHBC, will make the work of the gospel more visible in our lives, and ultimately will bring glory to God.

What do we mean by “discipling?”

In one sense most everything we do as a local church is about being and making disciples. The songs we
sing, the prayers we pray, and certainly the sermons preached all aim to grow us as God-glorifying disciples.
Our corporate relationships as we live, serve and learn at CHBC are also an important part of our growth in
discipleship. But, for the purposes of this short paper we have something even more specific in mind. When
we write “discipling” we are thinking particularly about individual relationships. More formally stated, we are
talking about the intentional encouragement and training of disciples of Jesus on the basis of deliberate, loving
relationships.

One place where we can read about these loving relationships between Christians is the gospel of John.
There, in John 15:17, Jesus says “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” Jesus goes on
to describe how he has loved us and, by implication, gives us ideas about how we should love one another as
his disciples.

We can’t take the space here to unpack all of John chapter 15, or even verse 17 for that matter. Simply notice
a few of the things Jesus tells us about his love toward us and, by extension, our appropriate reflection of that
love toward one-another. We see in this chapter that Christ’s love for his people is intentional, purposeful, rela-
tional, joyful and normal.

Intentional – “You did not choose me but I chose you…” (John 15:16a) Jesus did not merely stumble across
his disciples – he took loving initiative. He chose them. Christ-like love is not passive…it takes initiative. And
so when we seek to love others as Christ has loved us this must imply we will take some kind of similar initia-
tive, too.

Purposeful – “…and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” (John 15:16b) Christ’s love for his
disciples is purposeful. He has something in mind; that they would bear fruit for God’s glory. Christ’s love is
not merely sentimental. It has a wonderful, God-glorifying agenda. As finite and fallen men and women, our
love for other members of CHBC will of course have less certain effects…but if we are to love one-another as
Christ has loved us surely we will at least have an agenda of similar intent – the spiritual good of our friend and
God’s glory through their joy in the gospel.

Relational – “As the father has loved me, so have I loved you.” (John 15:9) and “Instead, I have called you
friends,…” (John 15:15a). Jesus is clear that his relationship with his people is one of loving friendship, even
though he is infinitely far above us in majesty, holiness and honor. Surely then if we are to love fellow fallen
humans after the pattern of Christ’s love for us we must relate to them as loving friends. We must not treat
them merely as projects, nor only as master and student. We should pour out our very lives for one another’s
good in Christ-like, loving relationships.

Joyful – “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11).
Jesus’ purpose in his instruction to love one-another is that we would know his joy. Caring for other Christians
and purposefully setting out to encourage them to grow in grace may be very hard work. But it is wonderful
work. According to Christ, it is joy producing work.

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 Discipling
Normal - Jesus makes this kind of loving discipling his basic command to all his people and, thus, normal for
all Christians. We read in verse 15 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” The idea that
basic Christian discipleship involves encouraging other believers is found throughout God’s Word. So in He-
brews 3:13 we are told “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you
may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” In Romans 12:10 we are told “Be devoted to one another in brotherly
love. Honor one another above yourselves.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5: 11 we read “Therefore encourage one
another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” We could go on and on; one of the main con-
cerns of the New Testament writers is that all the Christians in the various churches would be active in encour-
aging one another in the faith. As a member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church we want you to help us sustain this
culture of discipling by letting other members get to know you and by working to get to know members. And
we want you to do this with the aim of encouraging and being encouraged by one another. By this we hope
that as a church we be characterized by a culture of discipling where we do what Christians have done for two
millennium – “to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded
us.” (1 John 3:23).

What do we mean by a “culture of discipling?”

Most dictionaries define a “culture” as something like “the shared values, goals and practices that characterize
a group.” That’s kind of what we have in mind when we talk about wanting to encourage a “culture of disci-
pling” at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. We want to see discipling one-another as an obvious characteristic of our
church - not merely as program or activity but as a basic part of the fabric of our community, part of our church
culture. While formal programs are not necessarily bad, in this case we think that would fall short of the Bibli-
cal ideal. We want to encourage a culture where it is simply normal for members, out of love for Christ and
one-another, to take the initiative to build relationships with other members with the deliberate aim of doing
them spiritual good. We want to encourage a culture where members don’t have to sign up for anything or get
any special permission before they can begin to love one-another in this Biblical way. We hope and pray for a
culture where member initiative, not a staff-sustained effort, keeps these deliberate, loving relationships going.
In short, we want CHBC to have the culture of a Biblically healthy church!

What should I do in a discipling relationship?

I think it’s safe to say that the most significant aspects of any discipling relationship are not what you do or
when you meet but THAT you do something and that you have Biblical truth at its core. There is no “set pro-
gram” or form for discipling relationships at CHBC. Some folks get together once a week and talk about the
prior Sunday’s sermon, some read a book from the Book Stall one chapter at a time and meet up to talk about
it, some outline through a book of the Bible and meet to compare outlines, some attend a Core Seminar to-
gether and meet up to talk about application to their lives, some regularly invite an unmarried member to sit in
on their family devotions, some schedule “play dates” for their kids and talk about the Sunday night talk. I
could list many more but I trust you get the point. We think it’s not so important exactly what you do but that
you simply decide to relate to another member of CHBC with the intentional aim of encouraging them with truth
from God’s Word. Be creative! Be flexible! But be intentional about loving one-another in the best, the high-
est, the most Biblical way - by deliberately setting out to relate to one-another with the aim of doing the other
person spiritual good. If you would like even more help thinking through discipling relationships we have a 13-
week Core Seminar class on Discipling. Feel free to check it out the next time it’s offered on Sunday morning
at 9:30 AM. Or download the Discipling class manuscripts from www.capitolhillbaptist.org.

How can I get into a discipling relationship?

There are basically three ways to establish a discipling relationship at CHBC. First, as a member of CHBC you
are simply free to take personal initiative to try to work out a discipling relationship with any other CHBC mem-
ber (of your same gender, please). You don’t need to sign up for anything or get permission from staff. It’s our
hope that as you get to know other members of CHBC you will find a member whose schedule and availability
match up with your own. If so, you should feel free to invite that person to meet up regularly to pray and be

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 Discipling
encouraged by God’s Word in some way. Second, if you choose to join a small group, you can talk to your
small group leader for some suggestions and assistance. They may not be free to meet up with you person-
ally, but as they get to know you chances are they can help connect you with another CHBC member who
would love to meet up regularly. Third, if for whatever reason neither of these avenues results in a regular dis-
cipling relationship, feel free to contact one of the CHBC staff for help. There are always quite a few members
who because of schedules, geography or other reasons aren’t able to connect with another CHBC member
one-to-one. In those cases the CHBC staff is happy to try to help out. Just call the CHBC office and ask for
Jonathan Worsley. But, we do encourage you to give your own personal initiative a try first. You might just
find that taking the initiative to be a source of spiritual encouragement for others is one of the most satisfying
experiences in your life as a Christian. And you just might find yourself understanding even more clearly what
Jesus meant when he said “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John
13:35)

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 Internship Program
Internship Description
What do you get when you drop six budding theologians into the perfect church, and attempt to grow their preaching,
teaching, and other ministry gifts by plunging them headlong into practical and theological training? We aren’t really sure.
You will have to check with some other church.

Nothing fancy happens in the Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC) pastoral internship program. We simply want to unveil
regular, day-to-day ministerial life and provide men aspiring to be pastors with an ecclesiological and pastoral grid for
doing the work of ministry. How should the church be organized? Who should lead the church? Does the Bible discuss
church membership? How does church polity affect the functionality of the local church? In addition to observing church
life today, CHBC interns will spend much of their time engaging in conversation with great pastors and theologians from
the past.

Through these conversations and their interaction with our church’s life, interns will discover that we believe God’s
church is the main sounding board of the gospel, but a sounding board that’s largely ignored in Christian circles today.
Not only that, they will consider what it means to build a church, not according to the latest cultural waves or "whatever
works," but according to all that the Bible says about our life together as the local church. Praise God that his Word is not
silent on matters of ecclesiology and pastoring.

Internship Structure and Work

We offer the internship program to six men twice a year. It lasts approximately five months, and occurs from January to
May as well as from August to December. A man must have completed his undergraduate degree, but beyond that our
interns have consisted of everything from young men just out of college to senior pastors on sabbatical.

Due to the shortness of the internship program, men coming from outside of CHBC should not expect to use it to help
them answer the question, "Am I called to the ministry?" Five months is not enough time to confirm someone’s ministe-
rial qualifications. Instead, we view the church sending a man into the program as bearing that responsibility. Moreover,
CHBC does not build ministry on interns (teaching publicly, leading small groups, etc.), and men should not expect the
internship to be a time where their gifts are tested.

The bulk of the intern’s office time will be spent reading over 5000 pages of text, writing about one hundred papers (5 per
week), and discussing those papers. While the list of books is constantly updated, here is a general guide to the books that
are covered:

To be read before the internship

 When People are Big and God is Small, Ed Welch
 Humility, C.J. Mahaney
 Theology of the Reformers, Timothy George
 "Church History Lectures," delivered by Michael Lawrence

To be read during the internship

 "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" (sermon), Harry Emerson Fosdick
 "Christianity and Race Prejudice" (sermon), Francis Grimke
 What Is a Healthy Church?, Mark Dever
 A Display of God’s Glory (booklet), Mark Dever
 By Whose Authority? (booklet) Mark Dever
 The Reformation of the Church, Iain Murray
 The Christian Ministry, Charles Bridges
 The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes
 Polity, Mark Dever ed.
 Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Mark Dever
 The Deliberate Church, Mark Dever and Paul Alexander
 Elders in Congregational Life, Phil Newton
 "Ecclesiology" chapter by Mark Dever in A Theology for the Church, edited by Danny Akin
 Give Praise to God, edited by Phil Ryken et al (chapters by Ligon Duncan)
 Worship by the Book, Don Carson (chapter by Don Carson)
 Engaging with God, Eugene Peterson

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 “What Do Miserable Christians Sing?” (article), Carl Trueman
 9Marks Leadership Interview: Worship (CD), Mark Dever, Bob Kauflin, Chip Stam, Ligon Duncan
 “Blended Worship” (article), Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence
 The Worship of the American Puritans, Horton Davies
 Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, Don Carson
 Evangelicalism Divided, Iain Murray
 Confessions of a Reformission Rev., Mark Driscoll
The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Mark Dever

Two or three additional books to be selected by Mark Dever during the internship.

Every week, Senior Pastor Mark Dever reads the reflection papers written in response to the above reading. All the interns
and most of the pastoral staff then join him for three hours on Thursday morning to discuss and defend their papers. Pastor
Dever will highlight a number of aspects from those papers and allows the interns to critically discuss the matters among
themselves and present pastoral staff.

Additionally, each intern is required to complete three sermon comparisons, each of which involves comparing two, pre-
approved sermons based on the same biblical text.

Who is Eligible?
We welcome applications from men who are interested in pastoral ministry and who are able to affirm the CHBC church
covenant and statement of faith. Six men a semester are invited to participate. Housing is normally provided for single
men or married men with no children. Interns will also receive a $1200/month stipend for food and miscellaneous ex-
penses. We do not provide health insurance.
All housing is in close proximity to the church, therefore no vehicle is necessary during the program (though parking is
provided for those with a car). Also, the DC Metro system offers easy access to most parts of the city.

What Does an Intern’s Typical Week Look Like?

In addition to the reading and writing assignments mentioned above, the intern’s week includes include mandatory atten-
dance at staff meetings, theology breakfasts, elders meetings, all public services of the church, staff prayer times, intern
discussions, weddings, wedding rehearsals, funerals, weekly service reviews, intern accountability and supervision times,
and any spontaneous meetings that arise in the course of a week. Interns can expect to serve once a week in children’s
ministry administration as well as general office administration. Interns will also travel together to at least one of Mark
Dever’s non-local speaking engagements during the course of the program.
Additionally, we ask interns to schedule one-on-one lunches with each church elder, deacon, staff member, and church
officer. Interns also have the opportunity to schedule lunches with new and old members of the church. These lunches
provide the interns with an opportunity to learn about various aspects of the church’s history and life.
We also ask interns to become members of the church during the time of their internship in order to best fold them into the
life of the congregation. (Yet we do have a "no-dating" policy—the folding only goes so far during these five months!)
Lastly, we ask each intern to be an active member of a small group.

Is The Internship For You?

If you believe this internship would benefit your development as a minister, we encourage you to submit an application!
The form is available on this website and contains further instructions. Due to the large number of applications, we cannot
guarantee either acceptance or your first choice of program dates. If you are flexible about what start-dates work for you,
please indicate this on your application. Acceptance decisions are usually announced two months prior to the program’s
commencement.

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Intern
Pastoral Intern
January 8 – May 28, 2010

Welcome intern, to CHBC Staff!

Knowing what to expect is key to making the most of your internship. To that end, Intern Orientation is scheduled for Monday, Janu-
ary 11, from 2:00p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Library. Michael Lawrence will give you an overview and some encouragement as you
begin the program. Bring this packet, your reading schedule, something to write with, and something to write on.

SCHEDULE

 While you can see that a good portion of your time is scheduled, prepare to be flexible; God is sure to change this schedule
without prior notice. There will also be numerous meetings called that we will want you to attend on little notice. This is all part of
life in a church. Be aware: this is an intensive program and while your time may be unstructured, there is little free time.

 Because you are new to this church, it would be good for you to get to know a variety of people in the congregation. On average,
you should schedule two (2) meals a week through the length of the internship. It is your responsibility to schedule a meal with
five (5) newer members who have joined since January, 2009, five (5) older members who joined prior to Mark’s arrival in
1994, and five (5) middle-of-the-road members who fall in neither of the two previous categories. Geoff Chang can provide you
with lists to assist you.

 You are also expected to schedule a meal with each of the elders, deacons, 9Marks and church staff. These meals need to be
initiated and arranged by you.

 Office hours are M 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. and T–F 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. During these hours, if you are not meeting with someone,
plan to be on the church premises. As a measure of accountability, please be sure to let Kasey know where you are at all times.
Office dress code is business casual.

 Plan on participating in Staff prayer Wednesdays mornings from 8:30–9:30. During this time we pray for the members of the
church and each other.

 Each Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. you will meet with Michael for 30 minutes to go over your plans for the week. Although this time
is “regularly scheduled,” it is subject to change or cancellation based upon availability of staff and apparent need.

 Additionally, you will meet weekly with ______________ to discuss how the internship is going and how you are doing person-
ally. You are responsible for contacting him and setting that up.

 You will be paired with _______________ and___________ for the purpose of accountability. You will meet with your account-
ability partners each Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.

 You will be placed in __________________ small group Bible study, which meets on Mondays. While your small group leader
should contact you within a week to let you know where and when the group meets, go ahead and take the initiative to intro-
duce yourself to the leader and find out the exact time and location of their meeting.

 You will attend the Biblical Manhood & Womanhood core seminar through Feb 21; and you will be advised at a later date of
the core seminar that you will attend from Feb 28 through to the end of the semester.

 Each Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday, by 5:30 pm, you must hand in papers on your assigned reading to Mark
Dever’s study (based on your reading schedule, attached. For more information, see below). However, during the first week of
the internship and second week of February please turn in all papers to Michael. Hand in these papers in his staff mailbox in
the work room. Lastly, late papers are not accepted.

 Each week, starting January 18, you will have the opportunity to provide administrative assistance in 9Marks, archiving, chil-
dren’s ministry, and general office tasks. You will receive a schedule detailing your particular intern admin schedule. Note that
you are responsible for seeking out the appropriate staff when you are scheduled to serve.

 On Fridays, starting January 15, from 10:30-11:30 a.m., -you will receive biblical counseling training with Deepak Reju.

 On Tuesdays, from 2:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m., you will attend a planning meeting in the Study for the Sunday services.

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 On Thursday mornings, at 7:00 a.m. you are expected to attend theology breakfast in Mark’s study. After a brief break, the
Intern Reading Discussion will follow in Mark’s study from 8:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. Your papers will serve to drive this discussion.
Note: When Mark is not here, you will have intern discussion in the Library.

 Each Sunday morning, all Core Seminar teachers meet for prayer at 9:00 a.m. in the library. You are expected to attend.

 On the 1st Sunday of each month, you will participate in the college student and intern lunch after the service, unless otherwise
directed by Mark or Michael.

 After the Sunday evening service, you are expected to attend the service review from 9–11 p.m.

 You also have the option of attending one Saturday, mid-day meeting with Mark to go over the application grid for the next day’s
sermon. If you are interested in this option, you must seek out Mark the week before to coordinate.

 Please be at each service at least fifteen minutes early to greet visitors and be available for any last-minute needs. Please
stay after the services for at least fifteen minutes. You will be assigned to a door to greet and thank visitors after the Sunday
morning service.

 Much of your time is not scheduled. Please be proactive in filling it. You are welcome (and encouraged) to spend time during the
day meeting with members & visitors of the church, reading, working on your projects and helping around the church office.

 You are expected to attend all of the elders’ meetings and members’ meetings.

 You are expected to attend two weddings, along with their respective wedding rehearsals and any funerals that occur, and may
accompany the other pastoral staff on hospital and home visits.

 First week Meetings/Orientations: On Monday, January 11, you will receive an orientation from BreakThru Technology at 9:45
a.m., and Gustav Pritchard will orient you to the office at 11:00 a.m. On Wednesday January 13 at 2:00 p.m, Matt Schmucker
will give you a 9Marks overview. Finally, Jamie Dunlop will give an administration overview on Thursday, January 14, at
1:30p.m.

 Your intern welcome dinner and CHBC membership interviews will be held at the home of Michael and Adrienne Lawrence
on Monday January 11 at 6:30pm. To the married interns, do bring your wives as they will also be interviewed at this time.

 Finance Seminars with Jamie Dunlop: On Tuesday January 12, and Wednesday January 13, at 9:30AM you will attend a 2-
hour seminar by Jamie Dunlop on personal finance and investment.

 You will also have the opportunity to accompany Michael Lawrence to Gaithersburg, MD for the Sovereign Grace Ministries
Pastors’ College Lectures on Church History. (February 16-19). This trip will take the form of a daily commute between
Washington DC and Gaithersburg.

 Expect to attend and participate in two 9Marks Weekenders (March 11-15 and May 13-17).

 You will have the opportunity to accompany Mark Dever to Louisville, KY for the Together for the Gospel Conference (April
12-15). The church will pay for most of the expenses associated with this trip. You may ask for financial help from the elders if
needed.

 A final evaluation with Mark will be scheduled in late-May. This will consist of: (1) going over your final paper, and (2) Mark
evaluating you as an intern. You may also schedule a final evaluation with Michael.

Reading, Study, and Papers

 Plan on reading and discussing with Mark Dever and the rest of the pastoral staff the following:
Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry
Colin Marshall & Tony Payne, The Trellis And the Vine
Iain Murray (ed.), Reformation of the Church
Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love
Mark Dever (ed.), Polity
Mark Dever, The Deliberate Church
To help these discussions, you’ll be preparing papers as assigned by Mark. These summaries are to be 2–3 pages
long. The first paragraph is a summary of the reading. The next few pages should be a critical interaction with the
reading. The discussion sessions pertaining to these papers begin January 28, although the general discussion
begins January 14.

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 STARTING PAPER: Write a paper at the start of your internship that answers the following: What do I expect to learn in my
internship? The paper should be 3 pages in length and is due at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12.

 ENDING PAPER: Due 72 hours from your final evaluation, please turn in to Mark two papers. Paper #1 is to be an assess-
ment of CHBC. What do you see here? What do you see working well? Where do see improvement that could be made? At
least one paragraph should focus on the function and work of the elders. Paper #2 should be a summary of your internship ex-
perience. In this paper, you should look back at your starting paper where you articulated what you hoped to learn and accom-
plish during the internship, and then evaluate that. This paper is not an evaluation of the internship itself, but of your experience
during the internship. Know that the other elders will get copies of both papers. Papers should be 5–10 pages each. These pa-
pers will be discussed at your final evaluation with Mark.

 Additional listening, reading, & writing

 Read By Whose Authority? Write a 1–2 page summary (one paragraph) and interactive analysis. Due 5:30 p.m., Monday,
January 11.

 Read A Display of God’s Glory. Write a 1–2 page summary (one paragraph) and interactive analysis. Due 5:30 p.m., Mon-
day, January 11.

 Read What Is a Healthy Church? Write a 1–2 page summary (one paragraph) and interactive analysis. Due 5:30 p.m.,
Tuesday, January 12.

 Read Francis Grimke’s sermon, “Christianity and Race Prejudice” (two parts). Write a 2–3-page response. Due 5:30 p.m.,
Thursday, January 14.

 Read Harry Emerson Fosdick, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” Write a 2–3-page response. Due 5:30 p.m., Thursday,
January 14.

 Listen to two EXPOSITIONAL sermons on the SAME New Testament Epistle text but by different preachers, drawn from the
archives or other sources. You must get the sermons approved by Mark Dever or Michael Lawrence before you listen to
them. The paper should be 3–5 pages. The first paragraph should be a summary of the sermons. The remainder should be an
evaluative comparison of the sermons, including one page on what you learned for your own preaching. Be sure to include in
each paper both what you learned about preaching in general and preaching that particular type of text. These papers are due at
5:30 p.m. on Friday, February 15.

 Read Steve Boyer’s white paper, “Caring for the Poor”, Mark Dever’s talk from the 2009 SGM Pastors’ Conference, “The Pastor
and the Community”, and Tim Keller’s article in Themelios, “The Gospel and the Poor”. Write a 1–2 page summary (one para-
graph) and interactive analysis. Due 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 21.

 Several additional books/ assignments will also be read. Prepare a 3–5 page, double-spaced summary and interactive analysis
of the following:

 January 15: Thabiti Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member?

 January 19: Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

 March 4: Mark Dever, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism; & J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

 May 3: Mark Dever’s chapter, “Regaining Meaningful Church Membership” in Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches.

 May 18: Jonathan Leeman’s article, “Theological Critique of MultiSite: Leadership Is the Church”, in the 9 Marks E-Journal

 Baptism paper: Prepare one 10 page double spaced summary and interactive analysis of:
 Paul Jewett, Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace
 Tom Schreiner and Shawn Wright, Believers’ Baptism (of which you are to read only the introduction and
chapters 3,4,7 &10)
 CHBC Elders 2004, The Baptism of Children at CHBC

Your paper should discuss the meaning and significance of baptism, its practice in the NT, and its relationship to circumcision in the
OT. Discuss the relationship of baptism to participation in the Lord’s Supper and church membership, whether it is really necessary to
adopt a specific position on baptism in the context of a local church, and whether it is appropriate to delay due to the young age of the
candidate. Your paper is due February 2.

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Worship paper: Prepare one 10 page double spaced summary and interactive analysis of:

 Don Carson, Worship by the Book (only chapter 1)

 Ligon Duncan, Give Praise to God (only chapters 1 & 2)

 David Peterson, Engaging with God (the whole book)

 Mark Dever, The Deliberate Church (only chapter 12)

 Carl Trueman’s article, “What Do Miserable Christians Sing?”

 Michael Lawrence’s “Blended Worship” chapter, from Perspectives on Christian Worship

Your paper should discuss 1) The nature of worship, 2) the theological foundation for the regulative principle, and 3) the application
of the regulative principle in the context of the local church, and is due April 27.
Prepare a 5 page double-spaced summary and interactive analysis paper for each of the following:

 February 19: Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Commu-
nity (2007) (American edition 2008)

 March 9: Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith (pp. 582-695)

 April 16: Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church (2009)

 May 20: Mark Dever, “Ecclesiology” in A Theology for the Church

 May 18: Kluck and DeYoung, Why We’re Not Emergent

 May 25: Iain Murray, Evangelicalism Divided

All papers due at 5:30 p.m. on Mark Dever’s table in his study.

 The final piece you will write is a letter to an incoming intern. This letter should be completed and placed in the mail box of
Gustav Pritchard by May 27. Also please send a soft copy of the letter to Gustav Pritchard.

 A CHBC Theology Reader will be available for your personal reading pleasure.
Formatting papers: In the upper right hand corner, include your name, date, book title, pages read, and the page number. When
referencing the author of your assigned reading, always cite the page number. Use footnotes or in-text parenthetical citations, not
endnotes. Double-space and omit cover pages.
Teaching Ministry

We intend your time here to be mainly spent observing the church. You may have other opportunities for teaching and speaking. Exam-
ples of this are: intern outreach events, men’s small group Bible study, area student ministry events. Michael and Mark will advise of op-
portunities as they occur.

Children, Youth and Student/Intern Ministry

Consider if you would like to be involved in these ministries and to what extent; and discuss with Deepak Reju. Together with
_______________, you will be expected to spend Sunday, March 14 entirely (AM & PM services) upstairs on the children’s floors.

Stipend

On the 15th and the 30th (approx.) of each month, you’ll receive $600.00 (this does not include taxes taken out). This is for a 5-month in-
ternship. If there are any problems, please see Jeremy Eng.

This information is not all that you need to know, but it’s a start. It is our prayer that through your time here, you will be better
equipped to follow Paul’s command to Timothy:

“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many
witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:1-2)

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Spring 2010 INTERN READING SCHEDULE
Specific Pages Date Paper Date of Discussion
Papers - Books Read Day Paper Due Due (Thursday)
1)
Welch,When People are Big and God is Small Book Monday 21-Dec-09 14-Jan-10
Mahaney, Humility Book Monday 21-Dec-09 14-Jan-10
Display of God's Glory Booklet Booklet Monday 11-Jan-10 14-Jan-10
By Whose Authority Booklet Booklet Monday 11-Jan-10 14-Jan-10
What Is a Healthy Church? Book Tuesday 12-Jan-10 14-Jan-10
Starting Paper Tuesday 12-Jan-10 14-Jan-10
2)
All Church History Stuff (paper and timeline) Friday 8-Jan-10 21-Jan-10
Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church Book Friday 8-Jan-10 21-Jan-10
Grimke, "Christianity and Race Prejudice" and preceding sermon Sermon Thursday 14-Jan-10 21-Jan-10
Fosdick, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" Sermon Thursday 14-Jan-10 21-Jan-10
Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member Book Friday 15-Jan-10 21-Jan-10
3)
Sibbes, The Bruised Reed Book Tuesday 19-Jan-10 28-Jan-10
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 7-23 Thursday 21-Jan-10 28-Jan-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. x-xii, 1-23 Friday 22-Jan-10 28-Jan-10
Dever, Polity pp. ix-x, 3-56 Monday 25-Jan-10 28-Jan-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 11-36 Tuesday 26-Jan-10 28-Jan-10
Marshall & Payne, The Trellis And the Vine pp. 5-39 Tuesday 26-Jan-10 28-Jan-10
4)
Ordinances Paper Tuesday 2-Feb-10 11-Feb-10
- Jewett, Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace Book
- Schreiner and Wright, Believers' Baptism Intro, 3,4,7,10
- CHBC Elders' 2004, The Baptism of Children at CHBC article
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 25-77 Thursday 4-Feb-10 11-Feb-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 24-67 Friday 5-Feb-10 11-Feb-10
Dever, Polity pp. 57-91 Monday 8-Feb-10 11-Feb-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 37-74 Tuesday 9-Feb-10 11-Feb-10
Marshall & Payne, The Trellis And the Vine pp. 41-80 Tuesday 9-Feb-10 11-Feb-10
5)
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 79-119 Thursday 11-Feb-10 25-Feb-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 69-81 Friday 12-Feb-10 25-Feb-10
Sermon Comparison Monday 15-Feb-10 25-Feb-10
Dever, Polity pp. 93-112 Monday 22-Feb-10 25-Feb-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 75-126 Tuesday 23-Feb-10 25-Feb-10
Marshall & Payne, The Trellis And the Vine pp. 81-126 Tuesday 23-Feb-10 25-Feb-10
6)
Extra Book (See Syllabus) Book Friday 19-Feb-10 4-Mar-10
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 121-172 Thursday 25-Feb-10 4-Mar-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 82-102 Friday 26-Feb-10 4-Mar-10
Dever, Polity pp. 113-133 Monday 1-Mar-10 4-Mar-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 127-168 Tuesday 2-Mar-10 4-Mar-10
Marshall & Payne, The Trellis And the Vine pp. 127-167 Tuesday 2-Mar-10 4-Mar-10
7)

Dever, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism; Packer, J.I., Evangelism

and the Sovereignty of God Book Thursday 4-Mar-10 18-Mar-10
Systematic Theology Reading on Ecclesiology Section Tuesday 9-Mar-10 18-Mar-10
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 173-230 Thursday 11-Mar-10 18-Mar-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 103-165 Friday 12-Mar-10 18-Mar-10
Dever, Polity pp. 135-158 Monday 15-Mar-10 18-Mar-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 169-195 Tuesday 16-Mar-10 18-Mar-10
Marshall & Payne, The Trellis And the Vine pp. 169-196 Tuesday 16-Mar-10 18-Mar-10
8)
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 231-280 Thursday 18-Mar-10 25-Mar-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 165-183 Friday 19-Mar-10 25-Mar-10
Dever, Polity pp. 159-245 Monday 22-Mar-10 25-Mar-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 195-227 Tuesday 23-Mar-10 25-Mar-10
Dever, The Deliberate Church pp. 13-50 Tuesday 23-Mar-10 25-Mar-10

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9)
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 281-307 Thursday 25-Mar-10 1-Apr-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 185-222 Friday 26-Mar-10 1-Apr-10
Dever, Polity pp. 247-292 Monday 29-Mar-10 1-Apr-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 229-250 Tuesday 30-Mar-10 1-Apr-10
Dever, The Deliberate Church pp. 51-74 Tuesday 30-Mar-10 1-Apr-10
10)
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 309-340 Thursday 1-Apr-10 8-Apr-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 222-239 Friday 2-Apr-10 8-Apr-10
Dever, Polity pp. 293-404 Monday 5-Apr-10 8-Apr-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 250-270 Tuesday 6-Apr-10 8-Apr-10
Dever, The Deliberate Church pp. 77-95 Tuesday 6-Apr-10 8-Apr-10
11)
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 341-353 Thursday 8-Apr-10 22-Apr-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 239-283 Friday 9-Apr-10 22-Apr-10
Extra Book (See Syllabus) Book Friday 16-Apr-10 22-Apr-10
Dever, Polity pp. 405-476 Monday 19-Apr-10 22-Apr-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 271-293 Tuesday 20-Apr-10 22-Apr-10
Dever, The Deliberate Church pp. 97-114 Tuesday 20-Apr-10 22-Apr-10
12)
Boyer, "Caring for the Poor"; MED article from SGM/Keller "The Gospel
and the Poor" articles Wednesday 21-Apr-10 29-Apr-10
Worship Paper Tuesday 27-Apr-10 29-Apr-10
- Carson, Worship by the Book Chapter 1 29-Apr-10
- Duncan, Give Praise to God Chapter 1 & 2 29-Apr-10
- Peterson, Engaging with God Whole Book 29-Apr-10
- Trueman, "What do Miserable Christians Sing" Article 29-Apr-10
- Michael Lawrence’s “Blended Worship” chapter, from
"Perspectives on Christian Worship" Chapter 29-Apr-10

- Dever, The Deliberate Church pp. 115-127

13)
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 355-376 Thursday 29-Apr-10 6-May-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 283-339 Friday 30-Apr-10 6-May-10
Dever, Polity pp. 477-523 Monday 3-May-10 6-May-10
Dever, "Regaining Meaningful Church Membership," in Restoring Integ-
rity in Baptist Churches chapter Monday 3-May-10 6-May-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 293-323 Tuesday 4-May-10 6-May-10
Dever, The Deliberate Church pp. 131-170 Tuesday 4-May-10 6-May-10
14)
Murray, Reformation of the Church pp. 377-414 Thursday 6-May-10 13-May-10
Bridges, Christian Ministry pp. 341-383 Friday 7-May-10 13-May-10
Dever, Polity pp. 525-550 Monday 10-May-10 13-May-10
Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love pp. 325- 356 Tuesday 11-May-10 13-May-10
Dever, The Deliberate Church pp. 173-204 Tuesday 11-May-10 13-May-10
15)
Leeman, 9Marks article on Multisite churches article Tuesday 18-May-09 27-May-10
DeYoung and Kluck, Why We're Not Emergent Book Tuesday 18-May-09 27-May-10
Dever, "Ecclesiology" chapter Thursday 20-May-09 27-May-10
Murray, Evangelicalism Divided Book Tuesday 25-May-09 27-May-10
Final Papers TBD TBD TBD
Dever Bibliography Discussion 27-May-10

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An Overview of Counseling Sessions

Foundations for our Counseling

 Modeling the Gospel-centered life. You want folks to see that regardless of the problem, the gospel applies. The
gospel is robust enough to speak to all of life. Most people live with a functional assumption that the gospel is limited in
its application.
 Non-confidentiality rule.
 You are God-representative/Ambassador (2 Cor 5), which means you have inherent authority from God and they are
looking to you for truth.
 Lay-counseling training. The more they are prepared with the Word, the less folks will show up in your office. See
the War word-picture below.
 In short form, biblical counseling is (1) asking questions and listening with the goal of trying to understand the con-
text of the person and their problems; (2) drilling down to get to the heart.

War Analogy
Someone in football once said, “The best offense is a good defense.” In counseling, the reverse in true: “The best de-
fense is a good offense.” In this case, the “offense” is a healthy culture of discipleship. A church with a well-developed
culture of discipleship is one of the best ways to aggressively head off life’s struggles as they emerge.

Think of discipleship in terms of a battle. The front line is not the counseling room, but the conversations that take place
every day in homes, over lunch meetings, in Bible study, in conversations after church, over the phone, and even on
emails! All of life involves counseling and each of these opportunities gives us a chance to counsel the Word. If people
have at least one or two people in their lives who are willing to share in the ugly details of life, to be open and honest
about their struggles, to hold one another accountable, to admonish, encourage, and exhort one another, then God can
use these experiences to shed light on the darkness and confusion.

One step back from the front line is not the counselor, but wise and godly older men and women in the faith who take
time to pour themselves into the lives of younger Christians. These are the ‘captains’ and ‘generals’ of the faith, who by
their wisdom and experience direct the soldiers in battle. Any culture of discipleship that encourages younger members
of the faith to seek out the wise older ones will honor Christ by making good use of the rich relational resources that
God has built into his church.

To carry the war analogy one last step, let’s think of the counseling room as the MASH unit that sits far behind the front
line. It is only when people are beaten up, bleeding, or maimed so badly that they are no longer useful in the battle that
they must be sent to get medical help. Most people only retreat to the counseling room when their problems get too
far out of hand, they are at a complete loss for wisdom, or can no longer tolerate their own struggles. As counselors (or
doctor of souls?) we do our best to patch them up, help them heal, and then in a Christian War, we send them back into
battle.

Structure: Short-term model

Overall structure: Ideally, 6 to 8 sessions.
Session 1: The Initial Meeting
Sessions 2-5: The ‘bulk’ of the counseling
Session 6: The Final Meeting
Why do pastors limit to usually five sessions only? Primarily time. (Also, expertise.)

The Request for Help

 A phone call or email or request at the back door after service.
 Get a preview of the problem.
 “Pastor, can I come in to see you sometime this week?” / “Sure, Bill, how about coming around 9 a.m. on
Friday to my office?” / “That works just fine.” / “Bill, tell me just briefly what the appointment is about.”
 Most people will happily explain. Some won’t be able to (i.e. spouse is the problem and they are standing
right next to person).

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 Sometimes I’ve asked folks to send me a paragraph or two about the problem in advance so I can get more
details. Useful in technology-savvy situations.
 Why get a preview?
 Mobilize resources before session 1 (people, books, other professionals)
 Prepares you mentally & spiritually for what you are going to face.
 It lets you pray about the problem and the meeting in my QT.
 Encourage them to bring their Bibles.

Session 1: The Initial Meeting

 Joining
 Usually there is some ‘small talk’ at the beginning of sessions. Don’t let this persist for too long.
 Option at this point: Boundary setting
 At some point you should say…
Purpose of session one (to get an overview of the problems)
Time frame (1 hr. usually)
5 session maximum (and then reassess?)
I like to do boundary setting at the end
 Transition points / Openers
 You are responsible for the transition!
 “Transitions are necessary, are expected by the counselee, are the responsibility of the pastor, and do not
have to be introduced with the smoothness of a talk show host.” (Benner, p. 68)
 Start with an opener: “How can I help you today?” or “So what brings you in?”
 If you already know the presenting problem, try as an opener: “You mentioned to me on the phone what
you are struggling with, but tell me again how you think I can help you…”
 Exploring the central concern
 Listening and impatience.
 How good of a listener are you? Most of us don’t have the patience to really listen to people.
 Impatience – our inability to appreciate the present.
 Bible model: “listen first and speak last. This is true for anyone but especially for the counselor,
who is charged with listening to people in the midst of their difficulty” (Lambert, 83). References:
Prov 18:2; James 1:19.
 The big 3 in counseling relationships
 Loving – Incarnating the love of Christ; what you say and do.
 Mercy – showing concern/compassion for the problem
 Respect – valuing as an image-bearer, despite the foolishness of their sin.
 Ask open ended questions; ask a combination of survey and focused questions; ask questions to uncover
what you do not know; ask a progressive line of questions.
 Some counselors like to take notes during the session, others don’t. Both are valid options. If I don’t take
notes during the session, then I try to record a page of notes sometime that day (preferably immediately
after the session). I usually take notes because: (1) I’m tired and it helps me focus; (2) it helps me to organ-
ize the data as the person “spews” all the details of their life in a disorganized way.
 Get an overview of the problems.
 Life is complex. It’s hard to narrow problems to just one.
 Do your best to narrow the focus.
 Tip: Will have to cut off certain lines of conversation.
 People will tell you much more than you need.
 “Giving direction to an interview means focusing on some things and ignoring other things. This is
a crucial skill…” (Benner, p. 69)
 People don’t speak in organized categories. They usually ‘spew’ the data (verbal vomit!). So you must or-
ganize the data in a biblical framework.
 Situation: What is going on?

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 Response: What do they do in response to what is going on?
 Thinking and feeling: What do they think and feel? (HEART)
 Motives: What do they want, purpose, desire, hope for? (HEART)
 Consequences: What is the result of what is going on?
 What do folks want to usually camp out on – situation, thinking/feeling. You can serve them by helping
them to think about response and motives and consequences. Story of young lady: “If I had only known
the consequences, I would not have done it.”
 Don’t focus so narrowly on the problem that you forget the person! i.e., Guys are like surgeons, fix it and
get out ASAP.
 Open the Bible at least once. Important to set the example.
 Be careful of the ‘last-minute’ bomb.
 Response to the bomb: “What you just said is hugely important, and because it is so important I
want to start the next session with that as our very first item.” Exception: Suicide or other life-
threatening.
 If it is a huge issue, really messy and complicated, etc. then consider an 1 ½ to 2 hours for just the first
meeting. OR, if I see a couple less frequently (maybe once a month) then sometimes I’ll have them stay
longer than one hour.
 Wrap-up.
 With about 15-20 minutes left.
 Give feedback: Summarize the problems. What do you see as the agenda?
 Give them an idea of how you might help.
 Assign homework.
 Never let them leave without hope.
 Boundary setting (my preference to do it here).
 Set up next appointment.
 Offer to pray for them. Remember their problem(s). Pray as specifically as you can for each prob-
lem listed. In later sessions, offer to pray with them.

Sessions 2-5: The ‘Bulk’ of the Counseling

 Look for entry gates. Not the person or the problem, but the person’s interpretation/experience of the problem.
 Be gracious, compassionate, merciful.
 Keep in mind feelings.
 Window into the problem.
 Good barometer of the severity of the problem.
 Emotions often naturally come out in the discussion.
 Are you scared to engage people’s emotions?
 Be gracious when you correct and confront.
 Exceptions: infidelity, sexual abuse, strip clubs. When it is blatant sin and there is very little self-control,
they need to feel some “pressure” and the weight of their sin.
 Re-examine their situation through a scriptural lenses.
 Let them argue with God, not with you.
 Think of change in terms of sanctification; not just a fixing of the problem. Use biblical paradigms for sanc-
tification: Old Self & New Creation / Creation, Fall, Redemption / Being renewed in the image of Christ.
 What is there understanding of God? Faulty understanding of God’s goodness or sovereignty.
 Depsychologize; Reframe in a biblical framework.
 Sowing and Reaping: Explore payoffs of good and bad thinking and behavior.
 Functional vs. confessional assumptions.
 Be concrete, specific, and realistic about remedies/changes.
 Graciously show alternative perspectives. Show options.
 We live for pleasure, not for pain. But, is God using the pain?
 Ask about homework. (strength for NANC)

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 Questions (to keep in mind, but not necessarily ask)
 Are they saved? Do they understand the gospel?
 Where do you see sin in them?
 Where have they been sinned against?
 Where do you see abuse or neglect?
 Trust vs. Confrontation with unbelievers
 Counseling is problem-centered. If you don’t provide relief for the problem or don’t address it, they won’t
stay.
 Earning trust first allows you to speak into their life more powerfully.
 When do they have ears to hear?
 Do they have a hard heart? Will your words make their heart harder or softer?
 Ultimately they need the gospel to be saved and experience real change.

Session 6: The Final Meeting

 Evaluate how things have gone.
 Any more concerns? (seldom is everything resolved.)
 Break for several weeks before the last session, giving time for the person to work on their issue(s)? Maybe, but
often the sessions have been spread out enough that there is plenty of time to work on stuff.
 Referral
 Don’t feel like a failure. You can’t help every situation.
 Be aware of resources in our community.
 Pastoral tool: Build a good referral system.
 How?
 Contact the conservative churches in your area and ask them for their list.
 Build a list of your own.
 Get feedback from the people you refer from your congregation.
 Discipling a counselor? At very least, give them CCEF resources.
 Termination
 Beware of boundary-less, dependent people.
 Exception: Crisis or significant stress.

Practical Tips for Counseling in Your Office

 Always have tissues on hand.
 Put a clock on the wall in front of you, within your natural line of sight.
 No phone calls. Turn off the cell phone.
 Put a glass window in your office door and have someone seated outside the door.
 Situate the coach so that the person cannot be seen.
 Put yourself in the line of sight of the window.
 Good books vs. bad books.

Other Issues
 Be careful about counseling females.
 Be careful about emotional attachments.
 Only during office hours.
 Proper/protective office set up: Visible at all times; door slightly propped open; always have secretary at
desk just outside of your office.
 The range of care: some pastors don’t at all (no fair if you don’t have women who can care for them?);
others with proper boundaries and limited time frame; some only with their wives (difficult w/ pressures
on your family; ideal, but really hard to manage).
 Growing number of women in the “gap” (between parents and marriage). They are looking to shepherds
for guidance and help.

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 Choosing Elders

Qualification Quandrant

CORE THEOLOGY DOCTRINAL DISTINCTIVES

 Authority & Sufficiency  Believers’ Baptism

of Scripture  Congregationalism
 God’s Sovereignty
 Divinity & Exclusivity
of Christ
 The Atonement

LOVE FOR THE CONGREGATION CULTURAL DISTINCTIVES

 Attending Regularly  Gender Roles in the

 Discipling Selflessly Church & the Home
 Serving Consistently  Opposition to
Homosexuality

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 Displaying God’s Glory
Orientation Handout
Theological Foundation—Churches that Display God’s Glory

Part 1: IMAGING HIS GLORY…

Creation

Fall

Israel

Christ

Church

Glory

Four Lessons:
Lesson 1: God intends to use the corporate life of the local church to accomplish His creation pur-
poses– displaying His wise, holy, and living image for all the world to see.

Lesson 2: The local church is to be marked off from the world. It’s to be distinct.

Lesson 3: The evangelistic, outreach and missions work of a local church is bound up in its distinct-
ness– in its display.

Lesson 4: The local church finds its life in the proclamation of and the continual rehearsing of the
gospel.

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 Displaying God’s Glory
Part 2: ...BY LISTENING TO HIS WORD
Creation

Fall

Israel

Christ

Church

Glory

Four More Lessons:

Lesson 1: More than anything else, your job as church leader is to center your church on God’s
Word.

Lesson 2: Success = faithfulness to God and His Word.

Lesson 3: We want to be faithful to God’s Word in terms of what we do, what we say and how we
organize ourselves.

Lesson 4: Simplify and solidify.

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 Church Discipline
Session Handout
Twelve Steps for Leading Toward Church Discipline
Introduction: Discipline for love; discipline for growth and vitality; formative and corrective

Before You Discipline, Teach the Congregation…

1. About Membership

2. About Holiness and Repentance

3. About Discipline
 Matthew 18:15-17; Titus 3:10; 1 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 2:6; Galatians 6:1; Ephe-
sians 5:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; 1 Timothy 5:19-20; 2 Timothy
3:5, etc.
 Discipline as remedial, prophetic, and proleptic

Before You Discipline, Be Sure to…

4. Get Your Documents in Place

5. Ensure Proper Legal Foundations: “informed consent”

6. Clean Your Rolls

When You Discipline, Carefully Consider…

7. Which Sins Require Discipline: outward, serious, unrepentant

8. How Quickly to Act

9. Whether a Preemptive Resignation Avoids Discipline

10. How To Involve the Congregation

After You Discipline, Carefully Weigh…

11. How to Interact with the Former Member

12. When to Restore Someone from Discipline

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Discipling & Biblical Counseling
Session Handout

Discipling

 Common false assumption: The discipleship and care of members’ is the responsibility of profes-
sional pastors, not the congregation.

 Goal: For your congregation to disciple one another in the Word.

 “One another” passages: John 13:34-35; Romans 12:10; Rom 13:18; Romans 15:7; Romans 15:
14; Ephesians 4:2; Ephesians 4:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

 Structural Fixes vs. Organic care.

 Culture of discipling. Definition: the whole personality of the congregation is making and shep-
herding disciples.

 The How-To’s of creating this culture:

 Meaningful membership.
 Small groups vs. 1-on-1.
 Model it as leaders.
 Reproducible fruit.
 Teach it.
 Set the expectation as they join.
 Use small groups to get people into 1-on-1 discipling relationships.
 2 or 3 months after they join, check on members.
 Sunday PM services.

 Our primary goal: For the members to be committed to discipling and caring for each other with
the Word.

 Obstacles to Discipling
 They are too busy.
 They just don’t see it as all that important.
 They prefer to exist with masks when they are at church.
 They don’t want to get involved in the mess.
 They’re too quick to pass off problems to pastors or counselors.

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Discipling & Biblical Counseling

Biblical Counseling

 Primary goal of BC @ CHBC: To train members/to equip the congregation to use Scrip-
ture to take care of each in difficult situations.

 Secondary goal: to do the actual counseling. To care for weak and difficult sheep and
thorny issues.

 Pastor: Do you have a defensive posture (putting out fires) or pro-active in training?

 GOLD mine: CCEF www.ccef.org >> training materials, books conferences, etc.

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 Service Planning
Sunday Morning Service 112

Sunday AM Template 113

Sermon Card 114

AM/PM Grid 115

Sunday Evening Service/Sunday PM Template 116

Lord’s Supper/Baptism 117

Service Review 118

Service Planning (Seminar Notes) 119

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 Sunday Morning Service
1. The necessity to get the church card printed
kicks off all this “service planning.” Typically,
we do this 3 times a year to cover 4 months
each time. (see p. 106)
2. After establishing which Sunday’s I’ll be here,
then we determine how long and exactly
when each series will be during that 4-month
period (e.g., factoring in my travel away, special
guests here, perhaps holidays, etc.).
3. I pick the book of the Bible according
to my OT/NT rotation in preaching. I divvy up
the Bible into sections (see below).
OT NT
Law Gospel
Prophecy Pauline Epistle
Wisdom General Epistle
History
* Sometimes preach overview, poetry, and topical
sermons. Look at MED preaching schedule for more
details (see p. 143)
4. I divide that book or section of a book over that
many Sunday’s by outlining that book.
5. Either by myself or with the staff and interns,
we come up with series & sermon titles.
6. I find what to do with the other Sundays.
7. I write out my AM/PM Grid for the semester.
(see p. 107)
8. I fill in the evening text, which will be a text
the opposite testament.
9. I fill in the evening preacher.
* By this meeting, I have already met
with the pastoral staff to decide preachers. We
fill in the preachers with elders, then men who
we may be considering to be elders, then men
on staff, members who may feel called to min-
istry, and sometimes interns.
10. I establish the AM themes (theological &
answering anthropological).
11. Then I take my template for the service & make
a word document with that template for each
Sunday.
12. I go through and establish the form
for the service.
A. I establish how many and what kind
of Scripture readings
B. I determine how many hymns and what
location hymns go in service
C. I type in message title & preacher
13. I fill in the particulars in each service.
A. Scriptural Call to Worship
B. Beginning of Service with a Creed,
Article from our Statement of Faith,
Ten Commandments, et al.
C. Prayer of Praise
D. Confession of Sin / Assurance of Pardon
E. Offertory Hymn
F. Scripture readings
G. Hymns
i. I rotate through sections of 10 PH&SS
ii. I rotate through sections of 100
in Baptist Hymnal
iii. I fill in with hymns & choruses from other
sources. These hymns & choruses will
then be printed in bulletin.
H. Add in Lord’s Supper on first Sundays of
Jan, July & September
I. Add in Baptisms as they happen
14. I establish the service leader (who will be
in charge of asking for other readers
or pray-ers).
* Service leader should be an elder or staff
member since this is a teaching position
15. I give electronic copies to music person &
bulletin maker (office).
* The hard copy goes to the office
on the Tuesday before that Sunday’s service
16. After our service planning meeting, we inform the
in
music people of our upcoming Sunday’s ser-
vices.
* Service leader leads this service prep
time. The service leader makes the final
decisions on hymns & those leading
the Scripture readings & prayer; this is done
in consultation with the pastor.
17. I or a pastoral assistant selects the preparation
music that occurs from 10:30-10:45 AM.
The preparation music is typically printed in the
bulletin.
18. We have a bias for congregational music, rather
than performed music. Therefore, we have
a bias for mere and enhancing accompaniment
music, rather than full and enveloping
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 Sunday AM Template
Theological Theme:
Anthropological Theme:
Service Leader:
Preacher:
Scripture on front of bulletin:
TEMPLATE FOR SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE

“We gather this morning to praise….” (something about God from the theological theme)

Welcome
Announcements (events, communion, baptisms, members meetings, etc)

Scriptural Call to Worship: 1Chron 29:10-13; Ps 16:7-8; 19:14; 27:14; 29:2; 34:1-3; 43:3; 46:10;
51:15; 84:2; 89:1-2, 8, 11, 13-15, 52; 94:14; 95:1-4, 6-7; 96:9; 99:9; 100:2-5; 105:1-3; 118:24; 121:1-2;
122:1; 124:8; 145:18; Isa 40:3, 5, 31; 49:6; 53:6; 55:6-7; 57:15; 60:1-3; Jer 14:9; lam 3:22-23;
Dan 9:9-10; Joel 2:13; Hab 2:20 (omitting the initial “but”); Mal 1:11; Matt 6:33 (omitting the initial
“but”); 7:7; 11:28-29; Mark 8:34; 13:32-37; Luke 15:17-24; John 1;14; 4:23-24; 8:12; Acts 1:8;
1Cor 15:57; 2Cor 4:5-6; Eph 2:19; Phil 1:2; Col 1:12; 3:1; Heb 9:24; James 4:8-10; 1John 1:8-9;
Rev 4:8; 5:12-13; 21:3.

Alternate: the Ten Commandments before a prayer of confession (Move prayer from later in service),
or a Psalm, or Lord’s Prayer or Apostle’s Creed or Nicene Creed of 325AD or Nicene Creed of 381AD
or Nothing or Invocation or Church Statement of Faith

Hymn or Chorus or choruses (double or triple)

Prayer of Praise

Scripture Reading [alternate b/t 14 combinations]: read aloud; read/read; read/corporate; antiphonal/
read aloud; read/responsive; corporate/read; corporate/corporate; corporate/read; corporate/responsive;
read aloud; read/read; read/responsive; read aloud; read/read

Prayer of Confession: Scriptural Assurance of Pardon: 2Chron 7:14; Ps 34:17-18; 65:2-4a; 68:19-20;
103:1-4, 10-12; 130:3-4, 7-8; 145:13b-14; Isa 1:18; 43:1; 53:4-5, 6, 10-12; 55:6-7; 57:15; Ezek 36:25, 26
-27a, 28b; Joel 2:12-13; Micah 7:18; John 3:16; 5:24; 6:35; 11:25-26; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:7-8; 5:8-9;
6:8-9; 8:1-2; 10:12-13; 11:33, 36; 1Cor 15:55-57; 2Cor1:21-22; 3:18; 5:17, 21; Eph 1:7-8; 2:4-5, 8, 13;
2Tim 1:9-10; Titus 3:4-5a; Heb 7:24-25; 9:24, 26, 28; 1Pet 1:23; 2:24-25; 1John 1:8-9; 2:1-2; 4:10; Rev
1:5-6

Hymn or Chorus or choruses (double, triple)

Pastoral Prayer and Prayer of Petition

Daniel 9:18-19 “Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see” the need of those that bear
your Name. “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great
mercy. O Lord, Listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, our God, do not delay,
because…your people bear your name.”

Hymn 609 We Give Thee But Thine Own (1st verse only) [alternate with Doxology Hymn 253 Praise
Go from Whom all Blessings Flow]; 144 When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (4 th verse only); 27 All
Creatures of Our God and King (5th verse only); Give Thanks (#7; Red Maranatha Praise).

Prayer of Thanks
Offertory
Message
Hymn
Benediction (2Cor 13:14)
Silence for Reflection and Meditation.

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Jan-May 2012 Sermon Card

114
AM / PM Sermon Grid

115
 Sunday Evening Service
1. I plan evening services by applying the PM template.

2. I type in the message & preacher.

3. I select opening hymns and songs.

*I always include non-hymnal songs for the coming Sunday morning

4. I select the closing hymn.

5. I add in Lord’s Supper on first Sunday’s of the other 9 months.

6. I establish PM service leader.

Generally, I am the PM service leader on the weeks I am in town.

7. HOW WE PREPARE FOR THE LORD’S SUPPER

8. I give electronic copies to music person & bulletin maker (office)

The hard copy goes to the office on the Tuesday before that Sunday’s service

9. At our service planning meeting, we go over the upcoming Sunday’s services with music people.
* The service leader leads this service prep time.
* The service leader makes the final decisions on hymns. This is done in consultation
with the pastor.

10. I decide what to share & pray for on Sunday evening. The final decision generally is made early.

Sunday PM Template
Service Leader:

Opening Songs

Opening Prayer

Welcome and Announcements

Family Sharing and Prayer

Address

Closing Hymn

Benediction

Silence for Reflective Prayer and Meditation

116
 Lord’s Supper
Directions: 1 Cor 11:27-29: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty
of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks
of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”

Church Covenant (to be read silently)

Confession of Sins: Almighty and most merciful Father; we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have
followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone
those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your
gracious work in Christ, there is not health in us.
O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men; we acknowledge with great sorrow
our many sins and wickednesses, which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed,
against Your divine majesty, provoking most justly Your wrath and indignation against us.
But, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare all, O God, who confess their faults. Restore all who
truly repent; according to Your promises declared in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for our wrongs; remembering them now grieves us; the burden of them is
intolerable to us. Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father, for Your Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. Forgive us all that is
past. And grant, most merciful Father, for His sake that we may hereafter swerve and please you in newness of life, by living
a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of Your holy name. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous
things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:4-5).

Church Covenant (to be read aloud)

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Words of Institution 1 Cor 11:23-24: “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the
night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do
this in remembrance of me.’”
And so these elements, otherwise common, are now set apart and sanctified to this holy use, by the words of Christ,
and by prayer.

Baptism
Bread (taken individually). It is our custom here to take the bread individu-
ally, as it is served to us, as a token of our individual discipleship.

Cup (taken together). 1 Cor. 11:25 “In the same way, after supper he took
the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever Introduction of Baptism
you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ It is our custom here to hold the cup until
we’ve all been served, and then to take it together as a symbol of our unity as a Introduction of Candidates
body of Christ.”
Testimony of Candidates
Hymn (to be sung seated during distribution of the cup)
Formal Questions
Read 1Cor 11:25-26 again “In the same way, after supper he took the cup,
saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink
1) Do you make profession of re-
it, in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, pentance toward God and of
you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’” Jesus said, “I tell you I will faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Lk 2) Do you promise, by God’s
22:18). grace, to follow Him forever in
the fellowship of His church?
DRINK
Prayer
Prayer of Petition for those separated from us, and of praise for hope we have
in Christ. Hymn (during which candidates
are baptized)
Hymn

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 Service Review
Not to be confused with the time of review and critique in the television show American Idol, the Capitol Hill
Baptist “service review” is held every week following the Sunday evening service (or following members’ meet-
ings when they are held). Attendance is required for pastoral staff and interns. It’s requested of anyone partici-
pating in the day’s services, such as the Sunday evening devotional speaker. And it’s open to any elder who
wants to attend.

Purposes
The goal of service review is pastoral education. More specifically, the service review provides a time of
feedback for participants in the day’s services:
 “What did you think of the sermon?”
 “Were the prayers instructive?”
 “How did the music flow?”
We hope this feedback serves both the participants, as well as the congregation in coming weeks.
Second, and no less significantly, we intend the review to be a time of discipleship, both for those who
receive feedback, as well as for everyone else involved. It provides an opportunity…
 to learn how to give and receive criticism in a godly and humble manner.
 to teach the younger men how to think through each element of the church’s gathering deliberately and
carefully.
 to cultivate pastoral instincts and loving care for the congregation
 to benefit from new ideas.

Types of Comments
There are three types of comments a person can make in service review. Picture three concentric circles:
At the center are biblical/theological comments, which are always welcomed. Moving outward, the second
circle would include comments of pastoral prudence, which are also welcomed. This second circle has less to
do with something that’s clearly right or wrong according to Scripture, and more to do with matters that may be
unhelpful or distracting in our church’s cultural context. The third, most outward circle pertains to matters of
personal opinion. No doubt, the lines between circles 2 and 3 aren’t always clear, but we strive to keep com-
ments from circle 3 to a minimum. In fact, teaching men to think carefully about circles 1 and 2 is one of the
most important things we can do in training shepherds!

Order
The service review typically takes about 90 minutes. The most senior pastor present leads it by walking
through every element of the both services and soliciting opinions: Sunday Schools, service leading, music,
prayers, sermon, and baptismal testimonies (when they occur). The review leader is responsible to “keep the
ball moving” efficiently. Elders and pastoral staff are asked to contribute on every matter. Interns are asked to
comment once for each service.

Critics or Pastors?
Sometimes men wonder whether we’re cultivating critical hearts through the service review. Yes, that is a
risk, particularly among younger men—just as pride is a risk of theological education. Yet we don’t want to
throw the baby out with the bathwater in either our pastoral or theological education. Instead, we should teach
men to learn and review with maturity and grace. Paul told the church in Corinth to “examine yourselves,” and
that must start with the leaders (2 Cor. 13:5).
Prayer and instruction are two ways to keep everyone’s focus where it should be: making the church “holy,
cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,” so that she might be presented to Christ on the
final day “as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:26
-27).

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 Service Planning
Seminar Handout
Colossians 3:16 | “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all
wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

Guiding Theological Goals:

To Glorify the Triune God

To Celebrate and Proclaim the Gospel

To Submit to God’s Word – including how it regulates our worship

To Edify Believers

To Be Intelligible for Non-Believers

Suggested Resources on Worship & Service Planning:

The Deliberate Church, Mark Dever and Paul Alexander
Engaging with God, David Peterson
Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship, Eds. Philip Graham Ryken, Derek W. H. Thomas, J.
Ligon Duncan III
Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views, “Blended Worship,” Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence
Worship by the Book, Ed. D. A. Carson
Worship Matters, Bob Kauflin

9 Key Takeaways
1. Consider publishing your sermon passages in advance.

2. Consider using the evening service sermon as a complement to the morning sermon. (Perhaps op-
posite testament, shorter, more application)

3. Consider sharing your pulpit in order to train others and to ensure the congregation is not overly
built into you.

4. Consider giving each service central theological and anthropological themes.

5. Consider devoting one prayer solely to praise and one prayer solely to confession.

6. Consider that it is the pastor’s job to oversee song selection.

7. Consider designating a qualified “service leader.”

8. Consider simplifying instrumental accompaniment to maximize congregational singing.

9. Consider shaping the culture of your prayer meeting by prioritizing requests that are evangelistic
in nature.

Questions/Comments? Want to share worship & music resources?

Please e-mail matt.merker@capbap.org

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120
 Membership Matters
Session 1: What is our Statement of Faith? 122

Session 2: Church Covenant 124

Session 3: Why Join a Church? 130

Session 4: What is the History of the Church? 135

Session 5: Outreach & Missions 139

Session 6: Our Life as a Church 144

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 Membership Matters
Session 1: What is our Statement of Faith?
You may be wondering why we would begin Membership Matters with a class reviewing our Statement of Faith. Does
anyone really use these things anymore? Aren’t they a bit antiquated, useful for theologians perhaps, but irrelevant in our
every day Christian lives? I don’t think so. The single most important thing about a church is what it believes. The only
reason this church exists, the only reason I’m standing before you now is because this statement is true – because what we
believe matters. What we believe, in fact, is a matter of life and death.

Now some Christians are opposed to statements of faith. Christian revelation, Jesus, they say, is too great to be reduced to
mere mechanical formulas. In one sense this is true. No statement of faith can perfectly plumb the depths of God’s
knowledge and purposes. And yet the good news of Jesus Christ is nonetheless about news, about truths, propositional
truths about God, ourselves, Christ, and these truths must be understood, believed, and lived out (see Stott here) if we are
to have any hope in this life and the life to come. And so what we want to do in the next few minutes is consider what it is
that we as a church believe.

Before we begin, a few general words about statements of faith. First, they are biblical. We see them in Scripture. So for
example we read Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day…” and Paul
goes on to list more factual statements about the gospel that the church in Corinth knew from Paul, Jesus and the apostles,
and that they must maintain in order to be faithful. They are also biblical in an obvious second sense, in that they are
summaries of the Bible’s (as opposed to man’s) teachings. Second, they are historical. That is to say, they’ve been used
widely by the church since the first century to clarify the Bible’s teaching and thereby build unity and guard against I her-
esy, or false teaching. So we think of the Nicene Creed, written in the fourth century to guard the church against teaching
that suggested Jesus could not be both fully man and God.

Now you might be surprised to learn that historically, Baptists have had more statements of faith than any other group.
It’s been said that Baptists, “have no creed but the Bible.” Actually, that was Alexander Campbell in the eighteenth cen-
tury who said that over and against the Baptists and all their confessions of his day. And our statement of faith, otherwise
known as the New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1853), is the most widely used Baptist confession amongst English
speaking churches.

Third, confessions, or creeds (either can be used interchangeably) are mere statements. They are not meant to be exhaus-
tive statements of doctrine, but rather summaries of some essential elements of the Christian faith laid out in Scripture. So
while I hope you believe all that is here (and if you choose to join this church, we will ask you to sign this statement) I
hope this statement is not all that you believe. For example, I hope you believe that God knows the future, that he is not
limited by time, and yet our statement doesn’t make any explicit comment on the matter. In this sense confessions are
minimalist documents. They are thorough enough to establish clarity and therefore build unity around our common faith,
and yet not so specific that they would cause unnecessary division over tertiary matters such as eschatology, your view of
the end times (pre-millenialist, amillenialist, post, etc.).

So we’re going to proceed by reading through each article and taking questions. If you take out this chart (chart explain-
ing divisions), you’ll see we’ve grouped our 18 articles into four categories. First, there are those articles that are Histori-
cally Christian. So these are articles that would be affirmed by any historic Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Protes-
tant church. And you’ll notice that that is the majority of articles in our statement. You’ll notice that I said Historically
Christian. That’s because there have been two great divides in Christianity in the past 1,000 years. The first was the Ref-
ormation in the 1500s which would lead to the recovery of the gospel and a split between Protestant churches and the Ro-
man Catholic Church. The second was a liberal/conservative divide during the Enlightenment of the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries. Not in a political sense, but in regards to Scripture and authority. During this period there was a move
away from traditional conservative beliefs that the Bible is God’s inerrant Word – fully trustworthy and sufficient in all its
teachings. And in its place people began to believe and teach that our final authority is not Scripture, but human reason.
Human reason, not divine revelation, would be our guiding principle. This affected most every Christian church. So
whereas in 1700 no Christian church would deny that Christ was born of a virgin, by 1900 reason has taught us that such
supernatural occurrences don’t happen, and so Christian churches across the board wouldn’t affirm such a statement. For
our discussion, we’re concerned with that that is historically Christian, leaving aside the confusing mess that liberalism
has brought in the last two centuries. So again, the majority of our statements are Historically Christian statements that
any historically Christian church, whether Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant would affirm.
PLEASE SEE PGS. 7 & 8 FOR THE CHBC STATEMENT OF FAITH

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 Membership Matters
Session 1: What is our Statement of Faith?
And then there are a number of articles classified as Evangelical. These are the articles that mark us out as a Protestant
church, over and against our Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox friends. We love and care for them, but feel they have
made some crucial errors in these specific matters, such as justification, that cannot be overlooked.

Then we have our one Baptist article that distinguishes us from the rest of our Protestant brethren, such as Presbyterians,
Anglicans, Episcopalians, Methodists, etc. We love them and have great unity on the Gospel and many other matters.
We’re happy to have a Presbyterian preach in our pulpit and affirm there are many wonderful and godly men and women
in such denominations. And yet unfortunately we think they have baptism wrong. We wish it weren’t the case, and yet
because it affects the very nature of the visible church, who is part of that visible body of Christ and who is not, we feel
we cannot ignore Jesus’ and the apostles’ teaching and practice that baptism is for believers, not believers and their in-
fants.

Lastly, we are a Congregational church. Again we have to divide with our other Protestant brethren because we think that
the final authority in matters of life in doctrine is not a bishop or priest somewhere (Episcopal), or a General Assembly
(Presbyterian), but the local congregation gathered.

STATEMENT OF FAITH OVERVIEW CHART

[SEE P.7-8]. Most simply, our statement says that CHBC is a Christian, Evangelical, Congregational, Baptist church.
Our statement of faith is divided into eighteen articles, which speak to the fact that we can be called by each of these
names. The Christian articles simply show what Christians have always believed, in other words, issues that there
has traditionally been little dispute over in Christendom. The evangelical category highlights the critical issues related
to the gospel that were recovered during the Reformation. The Baptist and Congregational categories highlight
the distinctive features of CHBC.

Take a moment and notice just how much of our Statement of Faith is devoted to stating the essentials
of the Christian faith; essentials that we would have little to no disagreement over with any other Christian denomina-
tion. Then notice how in just half a statement we express what signifies us to be a Baptist church.

Article Historically Christian Evangelical Congregational Baptist

I. Of the Scriptures √
II. Of the True God √
III. Of the Fall of Man √
IV. Of the Way of Salvation √
V. Of Justification √
VI. Of the Freeness of Salvation √
VII. Of Grace in Regeneration √
VIII. Of Repentance and Faith √
IX. Of God’s Purpose of Grace √
X. Of Sanctification √
XI. Of the Perseverance of Saints √
XII. Of the Harmony of the Law & Gospel √
XIII. Of a Gospel Church √
XIV(a) Of Baptism & the Lord’s Supper √
XIV(b) Of Baptism & the Lord’s Supper √
XV. Of the Christian Sabbath √
XVI. Of Civil Government √
XVII. Of the Righteous and the Wicked √
XVIII. Of the World to Come √

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Membership Matters
Session 2: Church Covenant

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 Membership Matters
Session 2: Church Covenant Teacher’s Notes
All modern, professional sports contracts now have a portion given over to what is referred to as the “moral clause.”
It is an agreed upon standard of conduct. It stipulates that a trade or dismissal is contractually lawful if the athlete engages
in certain unlawful or immoral conduct. Professional sports team owners know that bad behavior among the athletes
makes for bad publicity, which makes for bad box office receipts, which makes for bad business.

Example: Jason Kidd, now of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, was unceremoniously traded by the Phoenix Suns
after repeated reports (and police attention) for alleged spousal abuse. The Suns in no way wanted to be
associated with Kidd’s behavior, despite his enormous basketball talents.

Before the days of casual dress in the workplace, companies like IBM were vigilant in enforcing certain standards
for dress code. An employee could only wear a dark blue or gray suit, white shirt, and a modest tie. IBM wanted
to portray a certain image to the outside world: An IBM man is well-groomed, clean cut, works hard …. IBM knew that
their representatives reflected on their business and that approval in the marketplace was at stake.

How Much more the church? The book of James from the New Testament warns:

“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and
his religion is worthless.” James 1:26

In other words, if you profess to be a Christian, but you don’t live a changed life, you should take no comfort in your faith.
The Apostle John writes,

“We know that we have come to know him IF we obey his commands.” (1 John 2:3)

In short: How we live matters. This Membership Matters course is an attempt on our part, before you join the church,
to say that how you live matters. More specifically, we are claiming that it is dangerous for the Christian to attempt
to live outside the church and it is positively encouraging and good to live inside the church, to grow up in Christ within
the family of God just like children grow up in a family. In this class we’re particularly focused on how we live together
as members of a local church and how we believe the local church is far more central in the individual Christian’s life than
perhaps you’ve thought before.

The document that summarizes or encapsulates how we’re to live is known as a church covenant. Let’s begin by defining
what a church covenant is.

WHAT IS A CHURCH COVENANT?

A church covenant is a promise.

 A promise made to God.

 A promise made to a local church.
 A promise made to one’s self.

A church covenant is a summary of how we agree to live.

While our Statement of Faith is a good summary of what we believe, our church covenant is a summary of how we agree
to live – more importantly, it is a summary of how God would have us live. It does not include every explicit command
regarding obedience, but it does give a general summary of what it means to live as a disciple of Christ.

A church covenant is a sign of commitment.

 A sign of commitment to God.

 A sign of commitment to His church.
 A sign of commitment to personal holiness.

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 Membership Matters
Session 2: Church Covenant Teacher’s Notes
A church covenant is an ethical statement.

One church historian wrote this, “A church covenant is a series of written pledges based on the Bible which church mem-
bers voluntarily make to God and to one another regarding their basic moral and spiritual commitments and the practice
of their faith.” (Baptist Church Covenants, page viii, Charles W. DeWeese)

One theologian calls church covenants the “ethical counterpart to confessions of faith.” A church covenant can be an im-
portant part of applying a Christian worldview to every aspect of our lives. Inherent in the purpose of a church covenant is
the understanding that church membership involves being held accountable to live in a manner consistent with a common
understanding of Scripture.

A church covenant is a biblical standard.

A covenant is helpful in a church that is practicing biblical church discipline (more on this subject at the end of this talk
and in the next session). Simply put: As members of a church, we exhort one another to live holy lives, and we chal-
lenge brothers and sisters persisting in sin. We need a biblical, agreed upon standard by which to rightly judge and exhort
each other when unrepentant sin exists in the church.

WHERE DO COVENANTS COME FROM?

You won’t find a church covenant in the Bible in the sense that you can turn to the “Book of Covenants, chapter 3.” But
beginning in the Old Testament you see Moses in the book of Exodus as a mediator of a covenant between God and man –
between God and the People of Israel. You see Joshua very concerned at the end of his life in the book of Judges that the
people not forget God and that they keep their covenant with God and be holy, distinct people unlike the other nations.
When the people of Israel come out of exile you see Nehemiah and Ezra renew the covenant where Ezra the priest/prophet
reads God’s word and calls the people of Israel to repent, turning away from sin and be like God – holy, not idol worship-
pers.

In the New Testament, of course, you see Christ as a mediator of a new covenant (1 Cor 11, Heb 9:15).
This is a covenant, like in the Old Testament, that is made between God and man. Covenants can also be made
between man and man. Both are to encourage holy living.

WHO CAN SIGN THE CHBC COVENANT?

Churches are to be composed of people who are truly born again. This is what we call regenerate church membership.
In the 16th century men and women of deep conviction broke away from the Roman Catholic Church to form congrega-
tions which understood the importance of the doctrine known as justification by faith alone in Christ alone.
 No longer did baptism or membership bring supposed new life.
 Joining and being a part of a church was no longer a civic duty or just a part of growing up, it was finally recog-
nized for what it has always been – a response to faith.

Who can sign the CHBC covenant?

 It is those people who have been born again.
 It is also those who agree to be held accountable by this particular body of believers, this local representation of
Christ’s church. Likewise, it is those who agree to hold accountable this body of believers. To hold accountable
simply means to “take responsibility for.” A church covenant void of this responsibility is a worthless document.

CHBC’S CHURCH COVENANT

The first thing our church did upon constituting as a church in 1878 was to:
 Adopt a Statement of Faith (what we believe)
 Adopt a church covenant (how we agree to live)
 So on February 27, 1878 the Metropolitan Baptist Association of the City of Washington at the District of Colum-
bia became the Metropolitan Baptist Church, now known as Capitol Hill Baptist Church. The original church
covenant is hanging on the back wall of the West Hall.

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Session 2: Church Covenant Teacher’s Notes
WHAT DOES OUR CHURCH COVENANT SAY?

You can divide the covenant into three parts:

· The introduction
· The promises (which is the bulk of the document)
· The benediction

The Introduction

[lines 9-12]
Having, as we trust, been brought by Divine Grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to give
up ourselves to Him, and having been baptized upon our profession of faith, in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, relying on His gracious aid, solemnly and joyfully renew our cove-
nant with each other.

Three interesting points in this introductory paragraph:

 First, the covenant is to be made by Christians only. On line 9 you see Jesus’ words from the opening verses
of Mark, the CHBC covenant is to be made by those who “repent and believe” in Jesus Christ.
 Second, the covenant is to be made by baptized Christians. It is to be made by those who have been baptized
upon their “profession of faith” (line 10). Infants cannot profess faith. We practice believer baptism here.
 Third, the covenant can only be kept with God’s help. End of line 11 reads, “relying on His gracious aid…”
Any ability we have to fulfill the promises of this covenant is attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit, not to us!
We should have no reason to be proud of spiritual success in our lives. God gets all the credit and all the glory.

The Promises

As you read the promises you’ll see they are directed in three ways:
 To the whole body
 To another believer
 To yourself

Let’s look at these promises.

[Line 14]
“We will work and pray for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Unity in any organization is a fragile thing, but particularly in a group who chooses to voluntarily associate. Jesus calls us
sheep for a reason. Sheep need to be in a herd and they need a shepherd. We should be careful not to separate ourselves
or others from the flock. We should be careful to protect unity.

Therefore, we should be careful with each other’s reputations, we should view charitably another’s viewpoint, we should
not major on the minor issues, we should be careful how we speak to leaders publicly in members meetings and we
should pray for one another and we should put on love at all times.

[lines 16-18]
“We will walk together in brotherly love, as becomes the members of a Christian Church, exercise an affec-
tionate care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion
may require.”

Are we bearing each other’s burdens? Are we challenging each other when we see sin? Are we entreating one another
to a holy walk? When we see intimacy that exceeds commitment between two unmarried people, do we feel responsible
in any way to lovingly entreat the couple? Do we care for the widow? The child of a single mom?
Exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness…

[lines 20-21]
We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for ourselves and others.

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 Membership Matters
Session 2: Church Covenant Teacher’s Note
Christians gather together to bring glory to God. As we learn Scripture together, praise God together, pray together and
serve together, Christ’s bride is being made ready for her bridegroom. So we don’t gather to merely have our needs met.
Nor are we here so that we can watch others be convicted and respond to the preached Word like a Billy Graham rally
issuing an altar call.

Attending regularly is vital because it is the first step toward being held accountable. If you fail to attend, then I can’t
know you and you can’t know me. If we don’t know each other, we’re not going to take responsibility for each other and
encourage each other toward a holy walk.

We often see non-attendance as one of two things:

 A portal to sin (you may not be in sin right now, but not hearing the Word of God for its formative and correc-
tive aspects will, no doubt, lead to sin).
OR
 A reflection of sin (you are already in sin and the last thing you want to do is hang out with “holy people.” That
idea is a wicked tool of Satan’s to further discourage you in your walk with the Lord and should be resisted).

[lines 23-25]
We will endeavor to bring up such as may at any time be under our care, in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, and by a pure and loving example to seek the salvation of our family and friends.

Being a part of this church, we may find ourselves in a special relationship with a particular child or senior citizen
or a friend who is mourning the loss of a loved one or simply someone spiritually younger who we’re discipling.
Covenanting together is a commitment to being a part of each other’s lives.

Regarding the salvation of our family and friends, we need encouragement. It’s easy to witness to just about anyone
except our family and friends. But I don’t know your family and I don’t know your friends. God has placed you in those
relationships to be a faithful witness and as a covenanted member of this community it is my job to encourage you in that
task.

[lines 27-28]
We will rejoice at each other’s happiness and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other’s
burdens and sorrows.

One Hollywood star said this, “Seeing our friends fail makes us feel better.” In a world of envy, jealousy and greed,
we are called to see other’s happiness and praise God for it. We’re not pregnant, but rejoice to hear the announcement
that someone is. We don’t have a job, but we rejoice when someone finds one.

Regarding bearing each other’s burdens and sorrow we need to know that we’re not designed to go through difficulty
alone; God ministers to us through others. (Note: Give an example of seeing someone bear a burden or sorrow (e.g. Har-
din and Helen Young).

[lines 30-33]
We will seek, by Divine aid, to live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and remem-
bering that, as we have been voluntarily buried by baptism and raised again from the symbolic grave, so there
is on us a special obligation now to lead a new and holy life.

We live IN the world, but we’re not to be OF the world. We need encouragement to stay to the narrow path of righteous-
ness and say “no” to the world. We need encouragement to seek satisfaction only in Christ and not in the things of this
world. Scripture calls us aliens, but we too often feel right at home. Covenanting with other believers reminds us of our
status as pilgrims and sojourners. Covenanting with a church should bring both the needed challenge and support.

[lines 35-38]
We will work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in this church, as we sustain its
worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines. We will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of
the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all na-
tions.

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Session 2: Church Covenant

Through prayer, commitment to Biblical teaching, finances and other means, each individual member has an important
role in supporting the church body. There is no outside body (like a presbytery or bishops) that is responsible for the
teaching or the finances; it is the members of this church, by God’s grace, who take responsibility for what happens here.
If you join CHBC, you’ll own a part of that responsibility for all that goes on here – worship, evangelism, doctrine, relief
of the poor and a whole lot more.

[lines 40-42]
We will, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry
out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.

Membership isn’t about a particular affection for one group of Christians. Membership is about unity with the body
of Christians God has physically placed you around. You are building the local church as you willingly transfer your
membership. We all look forward to being together in heaven, until then, we divide and conquer for the Kingdom of God.

The Benediction

[lines 44-45]
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us
all. Amen.

These words are from 2 Corinthians 13:14. They conclude most services of CHBC. If you are in Christ, you know
the grace of Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This benediction is a prayer for still more.

CONCLUSION

Remember I started out this time by talking about Jason Kidd and the IBM man and that sports teams and businesses alike
care about who is associated with their name. The people known as Capitol Hill Baptist Church care, too. We wish that
all churches cared more, not merely so that the attendance was more clearly reflected in the membership roles, but so that
the name of Christ would only be associated with those who are truly born again, who are committed to honest disciple-
ship, who are committed to loving each other (even though we have nothing in common, save Christ), who are committed
to caring for the flock (even when it’s inconvenient).

In our next session, Why Join a Church?, Mark Dever will speak about what happens when you have someone who claims
to be in Christ, is a member of your church, but stops believing in the Statement of Faith or fails to keep the church cove-
nant.

When I was in an airport in Holland a few years ago, everywhere I went there were tulips – real ones, wooden ones, etc. I
came upon a postcard that I didn’t know at first what the photo was about. As it turns out it was an aerial shot of a tulip
farm. From the distance of a plane in the clouds you could only see large blocks of red or yellow; you couldn’t tell they
were tulips.

Allow the tulip farm to serve as a picture of Christ’s church. Each of is an individual tulip that will give an account for
our own discipleship, our own stewardship of the gifts and time God gave us on earth. Each of us has decisions to make
and have individual responsibility – we’re our own tulip, if you will.

But together we become more than an individual tulip: We become RED. We become YELLOW – like a collection of
tulips on a farm when viewed from a distance. Together, assembled in a local church, we become an army of pray-ers, a
hospital for the spiritually weak and wounded, a collective voice calling brothers and sisters to righteousness, and a great
big evangelistic tool in the hand of the Redeemer. Together, we’re different. Together we’re more. Alone I’m a tulip.
Together I’m part of a big, beautiful field of red that interrupts an otherwise colorless, lifeless landscape.

The love we express and the care we demonstrate for one another is what shows the world that we are disciples of Jesus
Christ. This covenant reminds us, pushes us, calls us onto live out that which we believe. We both want to KNOW (our

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So far, you have probably learned about what we believe as a church in our “Statement of Faith”, and then how we
practically live that out in our “Church Covenant.” Now, we turn and look at

WHY JOIN A CHURCH?

It seems like such an unusual topic doesn’t it? Perhaps for a number of reasons:
 Many people today don’t think about church membership.
 Maybe they just take it for granted.
 Maybe they just spend a lot of time looking and hopping around.
 Maybe people ignore it, or simply are opposed to the idea.

It is unusual today but I’m convinced that we’re in special need of addressing it. I don’t have to convince you that we’re
in a very consumer driven culture where we are brought up and cultivated to think that we are consumers to be serviced.
I hate to say it but even some church leaders are pushing consumerism, but that is not what a church is about.

If you are a Christian, you are to join a church: either this one or some other one that preaches the Bible. You are
to become a provider there. You are not a consumer. We, as in the elders, are not here in that sense to tailor the church
to meet the needs of the consumer. We don’t do that. We will however, look to scripture to see what is there and assume
that if we keep doing what is biblical, that all our needs will be met in the church.

Often questionnaires are created and polls are taken to find out what people like. Then, the results are used to craft
a church service where people can take a little bit more of this and a little bit more of that. Now of course, we can discuss
our differences, have conversations, we can disagree and we can pray, but fundamentally, we understand that we are
to come here as people who are providing a ministry to other people: to each other as Christians, to other Christians who
come and visit, and then to non Christians who attend for one reason or another.

This mentality materializes in many ways. One way is how we commit ourselves to attend regularly.
 What if everyone were to have the church hoppers attendance pattern?
 Would the church close down because half the time, it wouldn’t even be here?
 Would 2 out of 3 meetings vanish immediately?
 I mean what would happen if that were to be the case?
 So we stress regular attendance.

What about being here punctually?

 I realize I may be preaching to the choir, but do you slip in the morning service, at 11:10, because “Oh well,
you got up late”?
 Isn’t it good that a lot of other people don’t do that?
 Isn’t it good that you can actually come and something is provided for you?
 That’s because there are brothers and sisters that consider themselves providers who come early in order
to get things ready, to greet people, and to try to make it a welcoming place.

We try and instill in people the attitude of seeing themselves as providers, not just consumers.
 As providers, we understand that we are committing ourselves to each other.
 One incredibly practical way we do this is by encouraging members to pray through the church directory
for our brothers and sisters.

I feel too often, church attendees fool themselves about the fellowship they claim to have with God because they have
nothing to do with other Christians.
 I don’t think church membership is essential for salvation, but I do think that as fallen people, we can
deceive ourselves.
 The main thing in scripture that God has set up for us to deal with self deception, is the local church.
 The church is kind of like an assurance of salvation co-op. It is being in a community of people where we get
to know them and we allow them to get to know us. That’s how we see whether or not we are living out this
Christianity we profess with our lips.

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NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES TO THE CHURCH

When you read through New Testament references to the church you’ll see that there are various images used for it.
 Sometimes Paul uses the image of building (1 Cor. 3:9, Eph. 2:21, 2 Cor. 6:16)
 Sometimes of course the very famous image of a body (Rom. 12:4-5, Heb. 12)
 Sometimes the church is a flock (1 Peter 5:2).
 Sometimes the image of a family (1 Tim. 3:15. Eph. 1:5).

But in all these things, we have to ask, “If we are Christians, what should our relationship to the church be?” Using those
images…
 “Where are the bricks? They are in a building, and if they aren’t in the building then they can’t really iden-
tify with it.
 If we are members of physical body, then how can we not be attached to it?
 If we are sheep, we are going to be in a flock.
 If we are called to be God’s children, we are going to be in his family.

All the images that are used about being a Christian in the New Testament have this corporate aspect to it. So, let’s move
on and let me give you five particular reasons to join a church.

FIVE REASONS TO JOIN A CHURCH

First, join a church for non-Christians.

There's that famous passage in 1 Corinthians 5 where Paul writes to the Corinthian church.

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur
even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been
filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not
physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did
this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with
you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is preset, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful
nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”

One of the reasons that we join a church is because it is there to help you understand if you are truly living as a Christian.
I’ll bet you that the man in 1 Corinthian 5 thought of himself as a Christian. I’ll bet he went to church regularly. I bet he
did all the things a person would do in that community. And that precisely the reason why Paul had to write and tell them
to take action. Somehow they had to make it clear to him, for his sake, that his life’s actions were that of a non- Christian.
That is a loving thing to do. One reason why you need to join a church is because the Gospel is made clear. It is defined
and made visible by Christians who gather together to form congregations of believers. One of the most important results
is that non Christians will be able to see “Oh- I’m calling myself a Christian, but I'm not really living like one. Perhaps
I’m not a Christian.” Or those who are outside the church can see “Ah… this is what Christians are like. Not like this.”

Unfortunately, one way negligent church membership has been encouraged and evidenced itself in America, has been the
use of “altar calls.” Sadly, I think American churches that have used altar calls have filled their seats with non-Christians,
with people who sincerely intend to be Christians. Perhaps they may have prayed a prayer, any number of times, but they
don’t genuinely know Jesus. They don’t give any signs of really knowing the Lord. That is why Mark and the leadership
in this church put an end to them. If that kind of evangelism can create many false conversions, then they had better end
it. After all “invitationals” weren’t around before the 1800’s. In the history of the church, it is a fairly new thing. Some-
how the great awakening occurred in America without invitationals like that.

So what do we do? What is the solution? We call people to repent and believe. We don’t have to ask people to associate
repentance with any physical activity like walking down an isle or an extra biblical sinner’s prayer. We don’t have to

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associate those things with being a Christian. If you want to become a Christian, do what Jesus said in Mark 1... “repent
and believe.” Repent of your sins and turn to Christ. Believe in him – who he said he is. One thing that we as a church
should do is make the gospel clear for non- Christians.

Second, join a church for weaker Christians.

I am sure we all know people who we think are Christians, but have been badly wounded and have been taught the
American Christian consumer mentality. They take it upon themselves to be their own shepherd, wandering around man-
aging their own spiritual portfolio, alone, for months or even years. But all Christians are to be part of a church: where
there is baptism and the Lord’s Supper, where the Word of God is rightly preached, where there are people you can re-
spect spiritually. That is the normal way to be a Christian.

Now I’m not saying that you can’t be Christian on your own. But I am saying that I’ve seen many sheep wandering out-
side the fold and in great danger because they have accepted a wrongly selfish idea of what it means to be a Christian.
One of the reasons you should join a church is for weaker Christians. You should help dry up that market so that it is no
longer socially acceptable to call yourself a Christian and not be involved in a local church.

We, as Christians in America should try and clean up our act on this. We should tell the sheep “Into the fold, or else stop
calling yourself a Christian.” Unfortunately, the current situation is one where the church is seen as an added option if
you happen to like it.

Mark speaks of a conversation with a friend at Cambridge who was a very earnest Christian. This guy, kept slipping into
church just in time to hear the sermon. And Mark asked him and said, “Well, why don’t you come any earlier? Why
don’t you come for the whole service?” And he said, “Well, I don’t get anything out of it.” Mark said, “So have you
every thought of joining the church?” This was his response…“No not really, why would I do that?” “Why would I do
that?” by which he meant, “What would I get out of it if I did do it.” Then he used the expression, “If I joined the church
and linked arms with them, I’m scared they would just slow me down.” This man was very earnest Christian, involved
with a para-church ministry, in evangelism and discipling. The church to him just seemed like a needless peripheral
thing. Mark said to him, “Well… did you ever think that maybe if you link arms with these other people, that yeah per-
haps they’ll slow you down, but maybe you’ll help to speed them up and that maybe that is part of God’s plan?”

So maybe God’s plan is not all about you in an individualistic sense, about how can you make sure you witness to 7.2
more people on average each month, and your quiet times get 16 minutes longer over the year, and your individual holi-
ness is in some measure developed. Although those things aren’t bad, but maybe God is concerned about something lar-
ger and grander than that.

It is something that he wants you to be a part of. Perhaps by you, throwing your lives into other people in a committed
fashion, those who may be weaker in the faith, will be strengthened. That is part of what God is about in the church. I
would encourage you to join a church for the sake of weaker Christians.

Third, join a church for stronger Christians.

How do you define a “Strong Christian”? Does it include being a committed member of local church? Or is it an option?
If you think the latter, I want to challenge you on that. It is very interesting what Jesus says in John 13, “A new command
I give to you, to love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you
are my disciples if you love one another as I have loved you.” It seems like the kind of love that we as Christians should
have for each other is a fundamental part of God’s plan for evangelizing the world.

Unfortunately, in all of man’s great plans for evangelism we forget the church. But I think when it works as it should, it’s
a tremendous witness for Christ. “This is how we know what love is, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Christian love is not just a general sense of kind disposition toward every-
body we run across through the day. It may include that, but at the heart of it, is something much stronger. It is a love
that is especially focused on other Christians and particularly on other Christians that you are a part of, the same local
congregation that you can actually see.

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John says in 1 John that “If anyone loves himself yet hates his brother he is a liar; for anyone who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command whoever loves
God must also love his brother.”

If you think of yourself as a strong Christian and you get really excited to listen to a worship CD or read a John Piper
book, but you can’t be committed to a group a people who are different than you, who the only thing they may have in
common with you is Jesus Christ, with all their faults and foibles, then I think you might not have much reason, maybe, to
think you are converted. The more we’ve known about our own sin and known the way God has forgiven us in Christ,
then surely that kind of love must find a way out of our hearts to other people, particularly those who are your brothers
and sisters in Christ.

That’s what a local church is about. A local church is about seeing, experiencing and showing that. That, I think, is the
true definition of strength. It’s being able to continue in love in that way, with a limited group of people who will not
always be your favorite people- but with whom you have in common, Jesus Christ. That is the third reason- Join a church
for stronger Christians.

Fourth, join a church for church leaders.

If you are not a member of this church, the elders, deacons and staff may not know your name. We may not remember it,
and we don’t pray for you regularly. We don’t even know if you are a Christian. We’ve not heard your testimony. Mem-
bers of this church have had at least one staff pastor and other elders hear their testimonies. Elders have asked them ques-
tions about their understanding of the Gospel, and they have committed to pray for them regularly. Not only by the eld-
ers, but many other members of this church. That’s what we understand it means to be a member of a church.

Certainly we as church leaders cannot function if everybody were just a consumer. Imagine if no one would commit and
people just kept hopping and shopping around saying, “Well I like this one over here, I like this one over there a little bit
more, I like the praise music over here, I like the sermons over there”, well, there wouldn’t be any churches. The only
reason there are churches is because people realize “Ok, no church is perfect.” “I’m going to settle in this place and I’m
going to try and prosper here spiritually. I agree with what they teach, their statement of faith, I agree with the summary
on how we should live, the church covenant. These are things in good conscious I can commit to, I will do this, I will live
for Christ with these people.” I think that’s the kind of thing that will allow the church leadership to grow up, and to
serve you and others as well.

Finally, join a church for God.

It’s interesting if you look through the book of Acts, it is the Lord who adds people to their number and being added to
the Christians number meant being identified as the church. And who identifies with the church? If you look at chapters
2 and 4, it is fascinating that when Paul, or Saul is on the road to Damascus he has the vision of the risen Christ. He ap-
pears to him and Saul falls to the ground. Do you remember what Jesus says to him? He doesn’t say “Saul, Saul, why are
going to persecute those Christians”. He doesn’t even say “Saul, Saul, why are you going to persecute the church.” He
says, “Saul, Saul, why are you going to persecute me.” Jesus so clearly and closely identifies with the church that he re-
fers to the congregation of Christians as Damascus as “me.” That’s why I think Paul got his image of the church as the
body of Christ. His first Christian conversation I think- had that in it. In Acts 20, it says that the church is the body of
Christ, and that God bought the church with his own blood. I don’t know all the bits of your life and how you have been
brought up to regard the church but in the New Testament I can tell you, the church is regarded as the body of Christ
bought with God’s own blood. This is what God is about. So many of the things that we understand to be Christian are
not simply individualism but are actually virtues that express themselves in relationship with other people.

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CONCLUSION

To conclude “Why Join a Church?” 1) Join a church for non-Christians 2) Join a church for weaker Christians 3) Join
a church for stronger Christians 4) Join a church for church leaders and lastly 5) Join a church for God. Well, there’s
a lot more I could say about this. Because we take this seriously, for those who want to join, we will ask you to sign
the Church’s statement of faith and covenant. That’s how we understand that you share, with us, the same understanding
of the Gospel- basically. By signing the covenant, we then would understand that you share, with us, the desire and
understanding of what the Christian life should look like. We would know that you would commit yourself to live that
out. Together, as a congregation, we will try to be committed to living that out with you as people with whom you
necessarily have nothing in common with, except with Christ.

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In this next hour we want you to learn about the history of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. To adequately do so, we must
learn about the Baptists. To adequately do that, we have to learn a little about the Protestants. To learn about the Protes-
tants, we have to learn about what they were protesting against and what they sought to reform. So we want you to learn
not only a little about the history of this particular church, but also help you understand where CHBC fits into the big pic-
ture of what God has done in history. You can call this class “From John the Baptist, to Capitol Hill Baptist.”

THE CHURCH

One of the basic truths that the Bible reveals is that God creates, convicts, converts and conforms His people by His Word.
God’s Word is central to the life of his people. We see this in the OT with Adam & Eve as God speaks life into them, in
Abraham, as God calls him out of Ur. We see it with Moses - God’s spokesperson of His law for His people. And we see
it perhaps most vividly in Ezekiel 37 when the dry bones come to life by the very act of God’s Word as it is spoken and
heard. And we see it ultimately in the New Testament, with Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. It’s Jesus who saves us
from our sin through his death on the cross. But in saving us as individuals, he saves us into a community, an assembly of
people, called the church. You see, the church isn’t man’s idea. The church is God’s idea. Jesus founds the church, not
the apostles. Matthew 16:18. Jesus commissions the church. Matthew 28:18–20. Jesus builds the church through the
Spirit. Acts 2: 42–7. And Jesus rules the church through his word. Knowing this, the early church kept and preserved
the apostles’ writings. Because they recognized it from the first as Scripture–God’s word.

But it wasn’t long in the early church before error began to creep in. The Apostle Paul warned that there would come a
time when people would not want to hear sound teaching. (2 Tim 4:3–4) We know this obviously from the writings of the
New Testament. The church in one city tolerated perverse sexual immorality among its members; another embraced
Gnostic heresies, the church in another city showed gross favoritism to the wealthy and powerful. It’s all there in the Co-
rinthians, Colossians, and to the book of James.

It didn’t get any better as time went on. The history of the church from the death of the generation of the Apostles until
1500 is a long history of the spread of the church geographically, but also of the struggle of the church doctrinally. Re-
peatedly during this period heresies emerged which sought to undermine and redefine the faith. SEE HANDOUT. They
were the Gnostics, Montanists, Marcionites, Arians, and Pelagians. If you were to study the cult, we would see that as
Solomon said long ago, truly there is nothing new under the sun. Today’s cults and heresies are simply repackaging of old
mistakes.

In response to these heresies, the church repeatedly returned back to the Scriptures. And then confessed what they be-
lieved the apostles had taught. This is where we get some of the early creeds and confessions that we use here at CHBC,
such as the Nicene Creed. They weren’t creating new doctrines, but recognizing what the Scriptures taught and required.
They understood that the Gospel was at stake.

Not only did the early church hold fast to their faith through creeds and confessions, but also with their very lives. Organ-
ized persecution began with the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 and continued periodically -- but often brutally. The early
church martyrs illustrate for us what it means to be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ: someone who is willing to affirm
that Jesus is Lord, even unto death. This brings us to Constantine.

CONSTANTINE

There is perhaps no more important figure in the early church than Constantine, who became Emperor in 311 AD. In 312,
he associated himself with Christianity having had a vision of a cross in the sky and the words “In this sign conquer”;
frankly it’s unclear if he actually converted. Only God knows. But the result was that Christianity, which had been perse-
cuted, soon became the favored and the official, religion of the Empire through the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. This
brought an end to persecution, but it also brought worldliness. The church began to resemble the structure of the Roman
civil hierarchy. We see the growth of monarchical bishops and of course, the pope, who claimed to be the representative
of Christ on earth. And it was his word that now ruled the church.

Over the next many centuries, various people reacted and sought the purity of the church and would try and bring people
back to their spiritual identity. The effects were short lived. Meanwhile Popes attempted to consolidate their power and
authority, not everyone recognized the supremacy of the pope in Rome. In 1054 AD, after growing further and further

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apart for some 600 years, the church in the East broke from the Western church, in part over the doctrine of the Holy
Spirit and in part over the universal authority that the pope claimed. This is where we get the Orthodox family of
churches, 15 in all, including the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches.

In both the church in the East and the West, the distortion of the authority of the church grew over the centuries leading up
to the Reformation. The church began to claim to forgive original sin through baptism, and to forgive on–going sin
through the practice of confession and penance. Eventually, these theological innovations developed to the point that the
church claimed to dispense God’s grace as she saw fit. Other heresies crept in like doing one’s best as a prerequisite to
receiving the grace of God, indulgences to earn merit, penance for forgiveness, purgatory for further purging of sins, then
being made holy and justified. It was these practices and beliefs that led to the Reformation, and the recovery of the gos-
pel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

REFORMATION

One of the principal figures of the Reformation was Martin Luther. Born in 1483, he was a monk in Wittenberg, Ger-
many. He had long struggled with the question of how he was accepted by God. But after much struggle of soul, the
Lord brought him to a Biblical understanding of the Gospel. The insight Luther had was on a verse that had long been
oppressive to him. Romans 1:17. Read. Luther had always been taught that this meant his righteousness, and he knew he
didn’t have that. But finally, through his study of Psalms and Romans, the Lord brought him to realize that Paul wasn’t
talking about his own righteousness, but about an alien righteousness, a righteousness that was outside of himself– the
righteousness of Christ. That it was on the basis of Christ’s righteousness that he was justified. And this justification, be-
ing declared righteous before God, was based not on his own efforts, but was the free gift of God received by faith. Lu-
ther described this as the “sweet exchange”. Christ on the cross bore my sins, imputed to him, and died as a substitute in
my place, removing God’s wrath and obtaining my pardon; while Christ’s righteousness was imputed to me by faith thus
bringing me into a right relationship with God.

For the first time in his life, Luther knew the peace of soul that comes through the Gospel, of knowing that he was for-
given of his sins. And so it comes as little surprise the he was outraged at Church’s crass attempt to sell salvation through
indulgences. Luther didn’t set out to start a new denomination, and he certainly didn’t set out to break with Rome, which
was the only church he or anyone in western Europe knew. He wrote: “The first thing I ask is that people should not
make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine.
Nor was I crucified for anyone… How did I, a poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call
the children of Christ by my name?” But Luther did want to see reform of the teaching of the church, and so in normal
fashion at the time, he proposed a debate by nailing 95 theses, or debating points, to the door of the Wittenberg church on
October 31, 1517. Good reason to celebrate, not Halloween, but Reformation Day.

But the Church of Rome was having nothing to do with what they perceived as Luther’s novel ideas. He was tried before
the Diet of Worms in April 1521, and told to withdraw his books and teaching. His reply stands as a bracing call of
Christian conviction:

Unless I am convinced by testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear arguments that I am in error—for popes and
councils have often erred and contradicted themselves—I cannot withdraw, for I am subject to the Scriptures I
have quoted; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. It is unsafe and dangerous to do anything against
one’s conscience. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. So help me God. Amen.

And for this stand, Luther was eventually condemned by Rome. But what Rome condemned, when it condemned Luther,
was not an innovator or a revolutionary. It condemned the biblical gospel. For what Luther affirmed was that Scripture
was to be the final authority, not the pope, and that righteousness, or justification was the free gift of God in the Gospel,
not something that the church could dispense at will, and certainly not sell for money. Luther wasn’t the first or the only
person to have perceived the problems with Roman Catholic teaching. Similar reformers were popping up all over Europe:
Zwingli in Zurich, Calvin in Geneva, Bucer in Strasbourg, and Cranmer in England. Even before them, and throughout
the Middle Ages, we can point to John Wycliffe in the 14th century, Jan Hus in the 15th century and more. God never left
his church without a faithful witness. But it was Luther that God used in a unique way, to recover the faithful preaching
and teaching of the gospel so that the church would never be the same again.

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BAPTIST

Out of the Reformation came several strands of Protestants, or those who protested against the abuse and heresy of Rome.
There were the Lutherans, who affirmed a biblical understanding of the Gospel, the supreme authority of Scripture, and
the priesthood of all believers, but also maintained some similarities with Catholic doctrine, especially in their under-
standing of baptism and the Lord’s supper. There were the Anabaptists, whose main distinctive was the rejection of infant
baptism for believer’s baptism, but who also questioned original sin, rejected civil authority, embraced pacifism, and even
in some extreme cases, polygamy and anarchy.

There were also the Reformed churches: Presbyterians, Congregationalists and the Church of England, who along with
free grace emphasized God’s sovereignty in salvation, a Protestant view of baptism and the Lord ’s Supper, and God’s
ongoing work in making each believer’s life more holy. Out of this last group came the Baptists. As early as 1608, some
in the Church of England such as John Smyth were rejecting infant baptism. By the middle of the seventeenth century, a
small but growing number of Congregationalists in England were becoming Baptists. And it is out of this Reformed
stream, rather than the Anabaptist stream, that Baptists in America come from.

At the same time that some Puritans in England were realizing that the Bible commanded baptism for believers, in the
new World of America, Roger Williams and eleven others in Providence, RI founded the first Baptist church in America
in 1639. The Congregational authorities in Massachusetts had exiled them for their beliefs, and Williams sought a charter
for the colony of RI that would specifically grant religious toleration. Though Williams himself soon went off the theo-
logical deep end, more and more Baptists began emerging in England, and many emigrated to America. These late 17th
and 18th century Baptists almost all shared a Reformed, confessional understanding of the faith: A sovereign God saves
us not through our good works or even our wise choice, but through His grace realized in Christ’s work on the cross.

Baptists in England distinguished themselves in literature (e.g., John Bunyan) and government, and in America contrib-
uted significantly to the cause of religious liberty. One example is John Leland who wrote on religious liberty. An inter-
esting fact is that during the debates over the Constitution and Bill of Rights, Leland either corresponded with or met with
George Washington and James Madison, and seems to have been quite influential in developing the First Amendment’s
guarantee of religious freedom.

Baptists have also pioneered the world missions movement. Luther Rice, who founded what is now George Washington
University, helped form the Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions, which was the precursor to the Southern
Baptist Convention, intended to help churches cooperate in financing and sending missionaries. Another example is
Adoniram Judson went on to be a pioneering missionary in Burma.

Towards the late eighteenth century, Baptists grew at an astonishing rate. Because of their emphasis on personal conver-
sion, the Gospel’s simplicity, relatively informal worship services, individual conscience, and congregational church gov-
ernance, Baptists appealed to people in the new democratic nation. Throughout their growth, most Baptists continued to
hold to reformed confessional standards.

At the end of the nineteenth century, when this church was being founded, Christianity encountered another formidable
threat: the rise of theological liberalism and modernism. After theological liberalism and modernism spread around the
world and matured, it rejected the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, His miracles, and His bodily resurrection. At its heart,
was the questioning of the authority of scripture. As respect for the Bible decreased, respect for humanity increased. By
1930, almost every Protestant denomination in America had been captured or greatly influenced by theological liberalism.
Eventually, denominations splintered as those holding onto orthodox beliefs were forced out or simply left. Conservative
Baptists out of the Northern Baptists; the OPC out of the PCUS; the Missouri Synod out of the ELCA.

There were the Fundamentalists in the 1930s and 1940s sought to preserve orthodox Christianity by withdrawing from an
increasingly secular and irreligious culture. Similar to the Fundamentalists in doctrine, but frustrated by the cultural and
intellectual marginalization, a new movement known as neo-evangelicalism sought to re–engage the culture while also
defending the inerrancy of Scripture and the necessity of supernatural grace for salvation.

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Neo-evangelicalism was led by men like Billy Graham, Carl F.H. Henry, John Stott, and J.I. Packer. Neo-evangelicals
came from a variety of denominational traditions, but united around a shared commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture,
the necessity of being born again in Christ, the imperative to evangelize, and the importance of engaging with the culture.

CAPITOL HILL BAPTIST CHURCH

In the late 1860s, Mrs. Celestia Ferris began a prayer meeting in her house in the 200 block of A Street, NE. The
neighborhood in the area was expanding, and there were a lot of children who needed to hear the Gospel, so in 1871, the
group incorporated as the Capitol Hill Baptist Sunday School Association, and started holding Sunday school for the kids
in a building on the corner of 7th and A. In 1872, the lot where the main church now sits was purchased. At this time, the
closest Baptist churches were Second Baptist down at the Navy Yard, and Calvary Baptist and E St. Baptist, over in
Northwest.

By 1878, this group decided that a formally organized church was needed, and so, in association with delegates from
other Baptist churches from the city, Metropolitan Baptist Church was organized on February 27, 1878, with 31 members.
You can see their signatures on the copy of the original church covenant, which hangs on the wall right behind you. The
first pastor of the church was Stephen Mirick, but he lasted only a year. The church had five pastors in the next 15 years,
but still by 1892 had grown to 244 members. In 1888, a new chapel was built, replacing the old Sunday School chapel.

Stability was right around the corner. In 1903, John Compton Ball became pastor, a position he would hold for 41 years.
Under Dr. Ball, the current main sanctuary was built in 1911, and the membership roll grew to over 3,000, peaking at
3,577. This growth paralleled the growth of DC during the course of the expansion of the Federal Government during two
world wars and the Great Depression.

While American Protestantism struggled through the tumultuous theological battles of the 1920s and 30s, by the grace of
God, this church remained a church in which the Bible was believed and preached as the inspired and inerrant Word of
God. And the Articles of Faith, first adopted in 1878, remained unchanged as the congregation’s confession of faith.

In 1944, Dr. Ball became pastor emeritus, and was succeeded for the next 6 years until 1950 by Dr. K. Owen White, a
future president of the SBC. 5 pastors then served the church over the next 20 years. Those short pastorates paralleled
years of slow but steady decline. Like lots of cities around America, DC was slowly draining of people as they moved out
to the suburbs. The membership of the church became a commuter membership, and many eventually stopped commut-
ing, having found churches closer to home. This process was accelerated by the urban riots of the late 1960s. In 1967, the
church’s name changed to CHMBC.

From 1980–88, the church was served by a pastor that tried to take the church to a seeker–sensitive, Willow Creek type
model, which was not well received. And in 1990 another pastor came whose preaching was well liked, but who badly
wounded this church through marital infidelity. When he left in 1992, many wondered if this church had a future. While
the membership roll stood at 500, attendance was barely above 100.

But there were some, like Matt Schmucker, who thought it was worth trying to keep this church going. And in September
1994, Mark Dever began his ministry here as Senior Pastor. The past ten years have seen another name change, to CHBC,
and a new era in the history of this church. The membership roll is back to 1920’s level at roughly 490, but attendance is
now well over 650. Our support for foreign missions is growing at a pace faster than our budget, and the church is once
again more rooted in the neighborhood.

Most importantly, as I hope you have experienced since you’ve started coming, it is a church that resembles what we read
about in Acts 2: a community of believers who are committed to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship of believers,
to breaking bread and to prayer. By the grace of God, this church remains committed to the same Gospel believed by
Christians through the centuries, and proclaimed by the Christ who is the “same yesterday, today, and forever.”

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Introductions
What is your name, and how long have you lived in DC? (only for Core Seminar Class, not for the intensive session!)

Pray

New Testament Pattern for Caring for Others Outside of Our Church

Welcome to the Membership Matters class! This morning, we’ll be looking at how our church is engaged in outreach and
missions here in our neighborhood and around the world. But we’ll start at the very beginning: the Great Commission.

In Matthew 28, Jesus tells his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

And that’s exactly what happened. Over time, the gospel did go forth from Jerusalem to the nations.

Now, when we think of the Great Commission, we think primarily of personal evangelism. And it certainly does. As
Christians, we cannot help but share our faith. 1 Corinthians 9:16: “when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am
compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

But in Scripture we see categories of fulfilling the Great Commission that go beyond local evangelism. The church in
Antioch was involved in the Great Commission when they fasted and prayed, laid hands on Paul and Barnabas, and sent
them out to proclaim the gospel. 3 John is a book devoted to how we should support missionaries: “You will do well to
send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help
from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.” (v. 6b-
8) Partnering together for the gospel.

And beyond personal evangelism and global evangelism, we see yet another category in Scripture. As the Great Commis-
sion advances, we see in the New Testament a category for churches helping other churches. Think of Paul’s letters: Paul,
sent out by the church at Antioch, writing to encourage ongoing work in places like Ephesus and Corinth. Or in 2 Corin-
thians chapter 8, Paul talks about how the Macedonian churches had, out of their extreme poverty, given generously to
help churches in need back in Judea.

Three categories, then: personal evangelism, supporting missionaries, caring for churches. We try to encourage all of
these things at CHBC in our budget and in our life together as a congregation; I’ll spend the rest of our time explaining
what that looks like, but before I continue, any questions?

Personal Evangelism

We’ll start with personal evangelism. And it’s worth noting that evangelism in a local church should be both relational
and corporate. By relational, I mean that it is something that happens most often through relationships we have with
friends, family, and coworkers. And that means that we think evangelism is done by you in those relationships, not by
just bringing people to church for them to hear the gospel there. Of course, non-Christians are invited to come and listen,
and we want to make services accessible to them. But if the content of Sunday services never extends beyond what a non-
Christian can understand, we will fail to fuel the type of spirit-filled Christian community that we are called to. But not
only is evangelism relational, it is also corporate. The New Testament presents unity in the church body as a primary wit-
ness to the supernatural power of the gospel. In other words, people may be able to explain away the uniqueness of your
life as an individual, but it is much harder to explain away supernatural love that we see in a church. So we’d be silly to
share our faith with people without introducing them to what is perhaps the most powerful witness to the truth of the gos-
pel: the community of our local church.

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Let me take a few minutes, then, to outline how we try to equip members for evangelism in ways that are both relational
and corporate.
1. We train people in how to share their faith with those they know. On Sunday morning you’ll find a class called
“Two Ways to Live” which teaches you how to share a simple six-part presentation of the gospel. It’s essentially
six pegs on which you can hang conversations, helping you to get into the gospel from many different starting
points. And we have a class called “Christianity Explained” which goes through a six-part study in the book of
Mark that many people in our congregation have done with coworkers, neighbors, family, and friends. And we
have a class on the fuller topic of evangelism in general, helping our members think biblically through how they
can share their faith. If you’d like a good synopsis on how we approach evangelism, I’d encourage you to read
through “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” by our pastor, Mark Dever, available on the book stall.
2. Item number two: we host events that we hope will be good places for you to introduce your friends to the truth
of the gospel and other members of this church. Every Friday at the Capitol (and at times other locations around
the city) we host a brief evangelistic address and Q&A over lunch, open to anyone. We periodically have lec-
tures, we call them Henry Forums, on interesting and provocative topics such as A Spiritual Diagnosis of the
Financial Crisis; Bach and the Goldberg Variations; and Appreciating Hinduism. Those are great opportunities
to invite interested non-Christians to engage in dialog with this church around gospel-related topics. We have an
English for Speakers of Other Languages class for internationals where they can improve their English while also
learning about the Bible and meeting members of this church. Again: evangelism in the context of our church
community. Evangelistic addresses in local coffee shops. Parenting classes for unwed mothers. Free lunches for
university students and interns. Groups of members working at the Central Union Mission. A ministry through-
out the year to pair church members with the families of those in our neighborhood who are in prison. A bible
study for those in juvenile detention. All of these are things our church does to engage in evangelism as we in-
troduce non-Christians to the community of this local church.

Now, since many of these opportunities for evangelism that we set up fall into the category of what many people call
“Mercy Ministry,” I feel that I should address that topic briefly. A few things that we see in Scripture on this topic:
first, the Bible says a lot about caring for physical needs, but virtually all of those references are specifically regard-
ing other believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, there are only two exceptions to this in the New Testa-
ment: the parable of the Good Samaritan in which we are told to view outsiders as our neighbors, and Galatians 5:10,
where we are told “to do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” To summa-
rize what we see in Scripture, we have an obligation to help those in our church who are struggling in any way—
physical needs included. And as individual Christians, we are told to love all people, within and outside the church;
certainly providing for physical needs can be a part of that. But we see the charter of the church as an institution to be
very simple: preaching the Word of God to Christians and non-Christians. Not taking on the responsibility to care for
physical needs outside the church, but to focus on spiritual needs. What does that mean for us? It means that as indi-
vidual Christians, we are involved in all sorts of good things. But as a church, we do not involve ourselves—our staff
time, our budget—in things that are not directly related to our mission of making the gospel known. Do we have the
option as a church of engaging in mercy ministry that will serve to preach the gospel? Absolutely. Can we as a
church be involved in ministry to non-Christians that addresses physical needs without addressing spiritual needs?
We understand that we can not. Hopefully that distinction—theologians have called it the “spirituality of the
church”—will help you understand why some things (like the Bible study members lead at a nearby juvenile deten-
tion center) are encouraged but left to the initiative of members while others (like Sunday morning sermons) are
structured permanently into our life as a church.

In sum, our approach to evangelism as a church is to be as entrepreneurial as possible. We focus hard on giving
members the basic tools that they need, and we encourage them to be creative at the leading of the Holy Spirit to con-
sider all the many ways that they can communicate the gospel to our city.

Personal evangelism is the first way we see the great commission being fulfilled. Let’s talk about the second, then:
Global Evangelism.

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Global Evangelism / International Missions

We understand from Scripture that we have an obligation as a church to be involved in evangelism beyond our local
area. It’s what we call missions: proclaiming the gospel across language, cultural, and geographic barriers. One way
we do that is through our giving. We provide financial support to missionaries with multiple different missions or-
ganizations. And we also give money to the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Missions Board. The IMB,
as it’s called, is a bit different than most missions organizations in that rather than having to spend time raising their
own support, IMB missionaries are provided with support by the IMB and can focus more fully on their work of
church planting. As it turns out, because many other Southern Baptist churches give to the IMB, many of which are
much smaller than ours and are unlikely to be sending their own members overseas, we are able to send out many
more of our members than our finances would ordinarily support. So we try to make sure that roughly 15% of our
budget goes toward international missions, and that about half of that missions budget goes to the IMB.

In supporting missions, we try to be more involved than just writing checks, though. So for example, we seek to pro-
vide housing for missionaries when they are in the U.S. We try to visit each of our supported workers once each year,
and we regularly pray for them during our Sunday services. Our goal is to focus intense effort on a small group of
missionaries (we currently have about 30 individuals or families, most of whom are members of our church) rather
than provide a small level of support to a wide swath of workers. In that way, we want our supported workers to in-
creasingly look to us as their primary source of every kind of support. That’s good for them, and it’s good for us.

You may notice that much of our missions work is focused in the area known as Central Asia: the almost exclusively
Muslim region of the world that stretches from Eastern Turkey and Azerbaijan in the West, through Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China’s Xinjiang (SHEEN-geeong) province in the East.
Why is that? Well, it is one of the areas of the globe least reached by the gospel. And yet it is at least somewhat ac-
cessible to missionaries with the gospel. Not that accessibility is always easy; in fact, one of the missions-focused
ministries of our church is a group called Access Partners. They are a consulting firm, staffed by members of this
church and another church in our area, that develops for-profit businesses to provide missionaries with legally and
culturally-legitimate platforms for gospel ministry in places where being a Christian religious worker is either illegal
or discouraged by the culture.

How do members of CHBC get involved in missions? We pray. We go on short-term trips, helping out with child-
care at meetings of missionaries, for example, or distributing gospel literature in places where church planting teams
are about to go. We encourage missionaries when they are visiting us. And some of us quit our jobs, say goodbye to
our friends, and move overseas to join that work full-time. If you are thinking of going out as a missionary at any
level, you should—as soon as possible—have a conversation with Andy Johnson, our associate pastor with special
responsibility for our missions work. We understand from Scripture that missionaries are sent by churches—they
don’t just decide to go on their own. So if you’re interested in going, as many in this church eventually do, we want
to help guide and support that decision, and your eventual work overseas, so that you can be sent out by us.

You’ll hear a lot about missions in our church; by God’s grace it is one of the most exciting things that we’re able to
be involved with. But there is still another category of involvement I want to address, and that is caring for other
churches.

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Caring for other churches

A few ways in which we do this:

One way is by sending young men to seminary to train for pastoral work. At any point in time, we have roughly a
dozen and a half former members of our church in seminary whom we support financially. And we also give signifi-
cantly each year to directly fund the five seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention: Southeastern in Wake For-
est, NC; Southern in Louisville, KY; New Orleans Seminary, in Louisiana; Southwestern in Fort Worth, TX; Mid-
western in Kansas City; and Golden Gate in San Francisco, CA.

A second way that we encourage other churches is by training pastors here at CHBC. Every six months we get a new
crop of six interns who are headed to pastoral ministry. We pay them a stipend and provide housing and they spend
their time learning about what a church looks like in real life, observing everything that goes on here: services, staff
meetings, weddings, visitation, and so forth. They read extensively and write about a paper a day that forms the basis
of many conversations with each other and with the staff about what it looks like to be a healthy church.

A third way that we encourage other churches is through 9Marks Ministries, a parachurch organization based here in
our church. 9Marks is an organization that is helping other churches uncover the Biblical model for what it means to
be a church. They do that through conferences, pastor counseling, a website, a regular e-mail journal, the publication
of numerous books and articles, and 9Marks Weekenders where pastors, seminary students, and other church leaders
come for a weekend to observe and learn how we are ordering our lives together to build a healthy church. Every
other year, we assist them with their “Together for the Gospel” conference for pastors and church leaders that is
jointly done by our pastor, Mark Dever, CJ Mahaney—the head of a reformed, charismatic denomination based in
Maryland, Al Mohler—the president of Southern Seminary, and Ligon Duncan—pastor of 1st Pres Jackson, Missis-
sippi. Our goal with T4G, as we call it, is to show how we can disagree on things like church polity and yet work
together for the furtherance of the Biblical gospel.

The Southern Baptist Convention

Now, a significant part of missions and outreach in our church involves a partnership with the Southern Baptist Con-
vention. So before we finish up today, I’d like to give you an overview of what that partnership looks like, since so
many people who take this class tend to be new to the SBC. To do that, I’ll answer a few questions that we normally
get.

What does it mean to be a Southern Baptist Church?

A Southern Baptist church is a local church that has voluntarily chosen to be “in friendly cooperation with, and con-
tributing towards the causes of, the Southern Baptist Convention.” This may sound a bit strange to some of you, so
let me be clear that we mean no disrespect with this language, and we’re not using it to keep us at arm’s length from
the Convention, it’s simply the official language of the SBC Constitution. It means that every Southern Baptist
Church is completely autonomous. It doesn’t take orders from the SBC, it can be in friendly cooperation when it
wants, and disassociate itself when it wants. That meanst that the Southern Baptist Convention isn’t a church, but is
rather comprised of thousands of local churches that cooperate together for the primary purpose of missions and evan-
gelism. It is a parachurch organization to serve churches. And, frankly, if you use the term “denomination” in the
way that most people use it—as a body with authority over churches, that makes decisions that are carried out in all
its churches—as is the case with Presbyterian churches, Anglican churches, Lutheran churches, and many others—
then the SBC isn’t really even a denomination either. It’s basically a big pot of money that many different churches
contribute to that goes to fund missions and seminaries, and a few other things.

So when we say the words “in friendly cooperation with?” we mean that we have a shared theology and vision for
missions and evangelism. And when we say “contributing towards the causes of…,” it simply means that we financial
support to the work of the Convention.

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Where did the SBC come from?

The SBC emerged out of the need to better support and facilitate missions, both here in North America and around the
world. So in 1814, independent Baptist churches from South Carolina to Massachusetts came together to form the first
national Baptist organization in America. It became known as the Triennial Convention because it met every 3 years, and
its purpose was to coordinate the funding of international missionaries like Adoniram Judson, the famous missionary to
Burma.

In 1845 this association of churches and the Convention they founded split over 2 issues:
Should a central sending board, or local sending boards send missionaries? Secondly, and more significantly, over the
issue of slavery. The specific question that brought this to a crisis was “could slaveholders be sent as missionaries?”

Sadly, most of the Baptists (as well as Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian) churches in the south, didn’t believe
slavery was morally wrong. However, most northern churches, Baptist and non-Baptist alike, correctly understood that
American slavery was an abomination and antithetical to the gospel. At about this time, almost all of the major Protestant
denominations split on north/south lines, including Baptists, over the issues of slavery and secessionism, with the southern
churches in our case forming the Southern Baptist Convention. At the end of the war some of these splits were reversed
and denominations reunified, but in the case of the SBC the rift remained permanent due to theological disagreements
with what became the more theologically liberal Northern Baptist Convention (today’s ABC).

Fortunately, the SBC has since publicly repented and apologized for its past position, declaring that church members
must, “unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin” and “repent of racism of which we have been
guilty whether consciously or unconsciously.”

But that was only one of two big crises that has shaped the SBC. As American churches moved from the 19 th into the 20th
century, theological liberalism—a denial of the authority and truth of the Bible—began to grow in most major denomina-
tions, including the SBC. By the 1970s SBC pastors were being trained in SBC seminaries by professors who denied core
gospel doctrines like the divinity of Christ, the necessity of faith in Him for salvation, the authority of the Bible and more.
Like the racism before it, if this had continued, CHBC would likely not be an SBC church today. But, again, in God’s
mercy a change occurred.

Beginning in the 1980s there was something of a grass-roots rebellion in the SBC, something not seen in other major US
denominations, and the congregational polity of the SBC churches made this possible. Over time the seminaries and send-
ing boards were reformed, which meant that for the SBC, money was now supporting missionaries and seminary profes-
sors who would not actively work against the gospel. And so today we are especially excited about how our money is
used for pastoral training and for missions—and their partnership with us as we send out missionaries with them and send
our young men to their seminaries for training.

And that’s really why we continue to be in not just friendly but enthusiastic cooperation with them. A church of our size
would have great difficulty sending out the number of missionaries and pastoral trainees as we do with the budget that we
do if we had to do this all on our own. But because there are 40,000 SBC churches out there contributing to the same in-
stitutions—many of which are too small to have their own missionaries, for example—we are able to benefit from this
partnership, and contribute to it, in some very unique ways. It’s yet another example of how churches cooperating to-
gether can accomplish so much more for the gospel than they could do on their own.

Conclusion

So at CHBC we’re concerned to lead our church to be engaged in personal evangelism, missions, and caring for other
churches. It’s a basic part of what it means to be a church as defined and described in the New Testament.

So my call to you would be to join us in this work. Join here as a member. And work with us for the fulfillment of the
great commission, that God might be glorified in his people here on Capitol Hill and around the world.

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Introduction to Life as a Church

In Hebrews chapter 10 we see a blueprint for what our life as a church should look like, and what its purpose is. To give
you some context: up until this point in the book, the author has been displaying the superiority of Jesus Christ to those
tempted to compromise their faith. He is the great high priest, greater than Moses, greater even than Abraham. And
whereas saints in the Old Testament offered sacrifices endlessly, which could never finally make them perfect, Jesus has
offered for all time one sacrifice for sin: sufficient, perfect, and final. It is through his sacrifice that the Old Testament
prophecy is fulfilled: God has written his law not on tablets of stone, but on the hearts and minds of believers. And that
brings us to verse 19 of chapter 10. If this has in fact happened, if there is final forgiveness of sins and perfect union with
God, what should we do? Verse 19:

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us
draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty
conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who
promised is faithful.”

I read that and I think “Absolutely! I do want to draw near to God in faith. I do want to live in a way that pleases him!”
So how do we do that? Verse 24:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together,
as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

How do we remain faithful to the end? Through our life together as a church. Something that is fundamentally corporate,
not just about me and Jesus. We need to keep up the habit of meeting together. But what we see in Hebrews 10 is that the
focus is on more than just showing up on a regular basis for Sunday morning services. We are to “consider how we may
spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” We are to “encourage one another.” And the love that these Christians
had for each other was earth-shattering. Later on in the chapter we read that they “stood side by side” with those who
were “exposed to insult and persecution” for the sake of the gospel. We remain faithful through good times and bad by
forming in our local church a network of deep relationships, fueled by the word of God, that encourage us, and exhort us,
and spur us on to forsake worldliness and expend every ounce of breath for the kingdom of God. That’s our topic for this
morning.

At CHBC, we find this vision to be profoundly compelling. And it has had a huge affect on how we’ve tried to build this
church. Namely, when we answer the question of how people should be involved in our church, we think about culture,
not programs. I think that it can be easy when considering how to cement people in a church into real relationships to put
our org design hats on and start coming up with very mechanistic, neat and tidy approaches to doing this. Put everyone in
a small group and make sure that the small group leaders are responsible for them. Divide the church into parishes and
put an elder in charge of each parish. There are lots of churches that pursue that mechanistic approach, and while I’d
never say it’s sinful, we are committed to pursuing a different vision. Not programs but culture. When you ask how to
get involved here, we’re not going to roll out our “get involved formula” with a menu of programs to join, but we’re going
to tell you to invest in relationships. Because we believe that those mechanistic approaches, while they’re good for get-
ting everyone in the church in some form of relationship quickly, are not particularly effective in the long-run for achiev-
ing the deep, kingdom-focused relationships envisioned in Hebrews 10.

We want to see intentional, spiritual relationships as an obvious characteristic of our church—a basic element of the fabric
of our community, part of our church culture. We want to encourage a culture where it is very normal for members, out of
love for Christ and for one another, to take initiative to build relationships with other members with the deliberate aim of
doing them spiritual good. It’s entrepreneurial in nature: we don’t want you to have to sign up or get special permission
before you can love in this way. It’s organic and it’s messy: it’s not the type of thing you can map out on a spreadsheet,
but we’ve found that over time it results in community that is deeper, encompasses a wider cross-section of our church,
and is longer-lasting. Our vision as leaders in this church is to preach the Word faithfully, teach our people to study and
live the Bible deeply, and then act as a catalyst for the kingdom-minded relationships that develop. What does that look
like? It’s a Sunday prayer evening service that enables you to know and love the entire church, not just your small group

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or your close friends. It’s college students having families over to their dorm rooms for dinner, taking hospitality seri-
ously. It’s the elders rarely getting into a sticky and difficult member care situation without finding that other church
members have already been there first, faithfully doing good work. It’s the level of conversations you’ll have with people
here. Not: “great sermon. Are you watching the game this afternoon?” But “I’ve been thinking about your situation and
found that passage on hope to be incredibly encouraging.” It’s people who are willing to ask you that one last question
that, while at first feeling intrusive, actually pushed you to flee a dangerous dynamic in your dating relationship.

Personally, I can say that I have never been in a church where I have seen God create such a unique community. Where
people know me deeply, where they ask me hard questions, encourage me sincerely, and really push me (hard) to spend
my life for Jesus Christ. I often tell people who are new here that they will probably join the church initially because of
the excellent teaching they get here—but they will stay for years or even decades not because of the teaching per se, but
because of the type of community that that teaching has built. And if they never get beyond excellent teaching on Sunday
morning and into the fabric of that community, they will be missing out on much of the good and unique work that God
has done here.

So . . . how do we do that? Let me propose some ideas.

Membership

First, membership. I mentioned earlier that Hebrews 10 envisions more than just names on a church role. But it certainly
does not envision less. Of course, we have an entire class on why you should join a church. So I’ll not spend more time
here.

The Services of the Church

Once you’ve made that commitment of membership, the next most important piece of being an integral part of this com-
munity is being here on a regular basis. That’s my second thought for you on how to fulfill the vision of Hebrews 10.
Attendance is your most foundational ongoing ministry to the Capitol Hill Baptist Church. That’s why it is so explicitly
called out in Hebrews 10. So when do you have the opportunity to do that?

Core Seminars
Our week begins, each Sunday, with a day set aside to gather with the church and worship God together. That starts at
9:30am, with Core Seminars: classes that equip our members to live as Christians. They include a Bible overview, theol-
ogy, apologetics, how I can know God’s will for my life, dating, marriage, parenting, evangelism, and others.

Take advantage of these seminars. If you happen to make it through all of the courses, which takes about four years, then
take a young believer through them with you and use the material to disciple them.

Sunday Morning Service

After Core Seminars is our main worship service. And these follow the basic storyline of the gospel. God’s goodness,
our sinfulness, God’s mercy in Christ, and our response. We hear God’s word preached, which is the source of all of our
life together as a church. And this is when we celebrate baptisms. The entire service is our time of worship: the singing
to be sure, but also the readings, prayer, and sermon.

Let me encourage you to prepare ahead of time for these Sunday morning times together. Get enough sleep on Saturday
night. Take time during the week to read through the Scripture passage that’s going to be preached on. And join us 15
minutes early—at 10:30—for a time of singing to shut out the busyness of the week and prepare your soul for worship.

Sunday Evening Service

Then at 6pm on Sundays is our church prayer service. We begin by praising God in song, members share specific con-
cerns regarding them or the church, and then we pray for those things. Then we have a short devotional based on the
same theme as the morning service but from the opposite Testament. Other than three Sundays a year when we celebrate
the Lord’s Supper in the morning, we celebrate it at this evening service the first Sunday of every month.

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These services are special: it’s a time to hear who’s hurting and who’s rejoicing in our church. To know what to pray for
throughout the week. To send out missionaries and encourage members with big decisions to make. It may seem hard to
believe, but you can really know the whole of Capitol Hill Baptist Church—and Sunday nights are critical to that.

We expect all members to come to both the Sunday morning and evening services. So plan to be there whenever you are
in town—and if you’re going to be absent for an extended period, please let an elder know so that we can continue to care
for you.

Wednesday Night Bible Study

At 7:00pm on Wednesdays we have our church Bible study. It’s a great time to learn a passage of scripture better, talk
with others about how to apply it, and generally learn how to study the Bible better. We go through Scripture slowly and
work our way through a book the size of Galatians in about three years. We encourage our members to attend, but we
understand that many cannot make it because of work and commitments.

So those are our regular church services. And let me emphasize: your most important ministry is to attend regularly. This
will let you get to know us and us get to know you. It will honor God. So be here. It is far more important than you
probably realize.

I’ve mentioned the life of our church for adults; what about the kids? Well, children are welcome at all of our services—
and many are there each week. In addition, though, we do have special programs for them. During all normal services of
the church we have a nursery for children through age 36 months on the second floor. For older kids, we have Sunday
School for ages 4 through Junior High while adults are attending Core Seminars at 9:30. Then Praise Factory during the
morning service, which begins just before the sermon starts. That’s for kids aged five through nine. Classes during
church on Sunday evenings, and a program on Wednesday nights as well. If you have any other questions regarding the
children’s ministries of the church, please talk to Deepak Reju, our Associate Pastor for Counseling and Families.

Members’ Meetings
Those are the regular assemblies of our church together. But they’re not the only time that we meet. The third Sunday of
every other month after the evening service we have our regularly scheduled members’ meetings. The meetings are for
members only in discussing church business and is not a time for non-member friends or family. Topics of the meetings
range; we hear reports on membership, finances, buildings & property, children’s ministry, elder or deacon matters, and
various other new business.

At these meetings we vote on accepting new members. The most critical thing that we can do as a church is to ensure that
to the best of our knowledge, the members of our church are in fact Christians. So even though the elders do the hard
work in advance and review each of these applications, the entire church votes on each member. That same motivation is
behind our practice of church discipline as well. We practice discipline in order to bring about repentance in areas of un-
repentant sin. Now, I’ll admit, it may sound harsh to our ears, but it is one way God commands us to love each other.
Most discipline cases we’ve had have come from non-attendance, or the neglect to meet regularly with the church (Heb.
10:25). Of course, where there are special circumstances, like members who are stationed out of the area in the military,
we understand that regular attendance may not be possible. But do recognize that we take that command in Hebrews seri-
ously and will excommunicate you if you persist in refusing to meet with us as a congregation and will not resign your
membership to join another gospel-preaching church.

So far I’ve talked about our services and members meetings as ways to live together as a Christian community. But be-
yond these, there are countless other ways that we build the culture and informal relationships that are the glue of He-
brews 10.

Informal Relationships

Hospitality
One practical example is hospitality. This starts with normal attendance, coming early to greet and staying late. Getting
lunch with people after services. And much more. Attend weddings and funerals of church members. Visit the sick and
pray with them. We have a potluck meal every second Sunday of the month which is a great chance to get to know others.

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Some members rake leaves or shovel snow for some of the older members in church. Help with moving and transporta-
tion are always needed. And there are two structures members have set up to make informal opportunities like this more
accessible. First is the “CHBC Social” e-mail list-serve that alerts members to different opportunities to fellowship and
serve each other. You can get more information from the church office, or just find “CHBC Social” on Google’s Groups
website. Another opportunity is “Meals After Church”—which is an informal gathering for dinner somewhere in the area
after most Sunday evening services, with the location announced in our weekly church newsletter.

Discipling
A slightly more formal way to invest in relationships is through discipling, or mentoring. About half of our church mem-
bership is involved in that kind of intentional, one-on-one relationship where two people of the same gender meet up on a
regular basis to read through a book, study a portion of scripture, and generally focus on encouraging each other in the
Christian life. No special permission required—and we would encourage all of you to get involved in something like that.
If you’re having trouble finding someone to meet up with, talk with your small group leader when you get in a small
group, or call the church office.

Small Groups
I mentioned small groups. They’re a great way to be involved intentionally with other believers. For the most part, we try
to have as few demographic tags as possible on small groups, because we want to encourage these groups to be as hetero-
geneous as possible. We have groups limited to men, groups limited to women, Community Groups that meet in various
neighborhoods throughout the city and suburbs. And, the exception to our heterogeneity principle, groups for newly mar-
ried couples because we see that as an especially important time in life. Small groups are limited to church members—
with exceptions made for new Christians and other situations—because we want people to commit to the entire church
(which they’re commanded to in Scripture) before they commit to a small group (which, despite our best efforts, is almost
certainly less heterogeneous than the church body at large).

So, as you can see—many, many different informal ways to be forming relationships, spending your life strategically for
the kingdom of God, and building a culture focused on spurring each other on toward love and good deeds.

Giving
Of course, a church like ours is benefited not only through relationships but also through finances. Another way that we
can help build this culture is by giving financially toward the many ministries of the church.

Scripture suggests that what a person does with their money is a good indicator of where their heart is and where their
trust is. If you are a Christian, you know that God wants us to grow in every aspect of our Christian life, and this includes
our tithing. So we encourage members to begin tithing at ten percent and go from there in keeping with their income (I
Cor. 16:1-2). We want members of the church to be joyous in the privilege of being able to share in God’s work here at
Capitol Hill Baptist Church and to remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, he became poor
for our sakes that we might become rich.

So far, then, I’ve touched on membership, meetings, relationships, and giving as ways in which we can put into practice
the spiritual community of Hebrews 10. But the Bible doesn’t envision this community as a headless, organic mass. It
has very clear instructions for leadership and for how we make decisions as a church. Think of Hebrews 13:17: “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 of no advantage to you.” I’ll conclude our time with that as
my focus.

Leadership

Elders
We begin with the biblical office of Elders. And notice the word is plural and not singular. We understand that each
church is to function with a plurality of elders. We can see this idea plainly enough from Scripture. When we look at
passages such as Acts 14:23 or Titus 1:5, we can see that multiple elders were established in each local church.

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How has this been beneficial? Well, it helps round out the particular gifts that God has given to our Pastor. It helps us
make better decisions. Think of Proverbs 15:22—“plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.”
It helps keep our church leadership more permanent and does not tie the leadership of the church to a paid job that could
be resigned on a moment’s notice. And multiple elders helps in knowing a church of this size.

So who currently makes up the plurality of elders at Capitol Hill Baptist Church? List names and short description of
each elder.

And what do these men do? Quite simply – prayer, oversight, and teaching.

First, elders are to be in prayer. In our elder meetings, we always spend an extended time in prayer. We spend time prais-
ing God, praying for each other, and praying through the membership directory. And elders invest time in prayer as a
regular part of their lives. We find it is indeed a necessity in seeking to lead God’s people, and it is honoring to God as we
show our dependence on Him.

Second, elders are to extend oversight of the church, to shepherd the flock by being under-shepherds. So elders give at-
tention to areas of marriage, finances, worship, ordinances, discipline, doctrine, missions, recommendation of elders &
deacons & new members, and so forth.

Third, elders are responsible for the teaching in the church. The one distinct qualification of an elder in I Timothy 3:2 vs.
a deacon is that an elder must be able to teach. Men are given this role by God’s order of creation (I Timothy 2:12). This
does mean that the elders are necessarily doing all of the teaching in the church, but that they are overseeing it. So for
example, the elders selected the curriculum being taught in our Core Seminars. The Senior Pastor position is given to an
elder devoted primarily to the faithful, expository preaching of God’s word.

So what is the process of selecting an elder?

As elders we are always looking to see who is already doing the work of eldering in our church in their care for mem-
bers—so that we as a congregation can recognize them as such. The elders spend time considering future elders and then
meeting with those men. Over the course of time, if the elders are in agreement, the prospective elder is nominated and
will be voted on by the church. If the vote passes by at least a 75% majority, then the new elder will serve for three years.
After three years, he will need to be reaffirmed by the church in order to serve another three years. After six consecutive
years, the elder must take a sabbatical-type rest for a year before he can be voted on again. The exception to that sabbati-
cal rule are the five pastors of the church where eldering is part of their job.

Our constitution stipulates that a member must talk to an elder before voting “no” on a nominated elder candidate. That’s
simply because you may know something about them that we don’t, and we want to have the opportunity to withdraw
their name before coming to a vote if that information proves to be significant.

It’s worth noting that though we are called in Scripture to obey our elders, we also see that final responsibility for matters
of discipline and doctrine rests with the congregation. In places like 1 Cor 5 or the book of Galatians, when a problem
arose in the church, the apostle Paul went after the church, not the elders or the pastor. How can we be congregational in
that sense and also obey our elders? (Describe 2x2 of clarity vs. significance)

Deacons
We also have those who serve in the diaconate position called deacons & deaconesses. When I refer to this position, I will
be using the word “deacons.”

Acts 6 shows how the office of Deacon was established. An issue of logistics threatened to divide the church: Grecian
Jews complained against Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. To
address this issue of unity, the apostles designated men to oversee this administrative challenge.

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So what are the responsibilities of Deacons? Well, primarily, they are to promote the unity of the church, acting as shock
absorbers or peacemakers. And, as we see in Acts 6, to focus in specific areas of administration.

When selecting deacons, we look for people who will happily allow the church’s overall good to supersede their own in-
terests. It would not serve us well to put someone in a deacon role who is unhappy with the church no matter how good
an administrator they are.

Unlike the elder position, we do allow women to be deacons (i.e. deaconesses). The deacon position was not set up to
have spiritual oversight of teaching, and so we see indications in Scripture that the New Testament church had woman
deacons.

A deacon is also nominated by the elders and voted on by the church. A seventy-five percent majority vote is also re-
quired. Once elected, the deacon can serve three years and then must be off for one year before they can serve another
term.

Officers
Those are the two Biblical categories of church leaders. In addition, we have two officers: a church clerk who records
members’ meeting minutes and keeps an accurate role of the membership. And a treasurer who is responsible for main-
taining proper internal controls and ensuring church funds are deposited wisely.

Church staff
Finally, we have individuals who are paid by the church.

Staff elders, who function as the pastors of the church

Senior Pastoral Assistant for church planting
Pastoral Assistants – discipleship and teaching (build around a ministry) and assists pastoral staff
Children’s Ministry Director – children through 6th grade
Church Administrator – buildings, finances, projects, works with deacons
Assistant Administrator – helps with facilities
Administrative Assistant – office administration

We also have an internship program. The internship program is a way to help other churches in that we give training to
prospective pastors and provide them the opportunity to see what the inside of a church looks like—the type of things that
they can’t get in seminary. Each intern is paid a stipend and is required to go to everything, including all services, mem-
bers’ meetings, elders’ meetings, weddings and funerals.

To facilitate the work of our staff, the church owns property aside from this church building—houses on this block where
some of our staff live. Housing costs a lot in DC, and we would be hard-pressed to pay salaries in commensurate with
prices here. Those houses are there due to the faithfulness of saints earlier in the last century—and we recognize it is a
blessing from God and thank him for it.

Conclusion
Well, that pretty much concludes our time together. How we can work together to fulfill a vision of meaningful, word-
centered community in this church that spurs us on toward love and good deeds, giving glory to God along the way.

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 Sermon Preparation
AM/PM Grid 152

Mark Dever Preaching Schedule 1994-2012 153

OT/NT Preaching Rotation 155

Depth and Breadth of Sermons 155

Application Grid Blank 156

Application Grid Sample 157

Sermon Card 158

“How Prayer Transforms Prep” 159

151
AM/PM Sermon Grid

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 Mark Dever Preaching Schedule
1994-2012
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16

1994 Mark [G, 13] 2000 Bible Overview [OV, 1]

Total = 13 II Peter [GE, 2]
Zephaniah [P, 3]
1995 Ezra [H, 3] Matthew [G, 8]
I Thessalonians [PE, 7] Job [W, 2]
Ezekiel [P, 4] Galatians [PE, 4]
Gen. Epistle Overviews [GE, 9]
Proverbs [W, 5] 2000 Exodus [H, 2]
Mark 1:1-3:6 [G, 9] Hebrews [GE, 14]
Deuteronomy [L, 5] Total = 36
Total = 42
2001 Elders, Deacons, Membership & Congrega-
1996 I & II Timothy [PE, 6] tionalism [T, 2]
I & II Chronicles [H, 4] Ezra-Nehemiah [H, 4]
I John [GE, 5] Mark 8:27-9:37 [G, 5]
Joel [P, 4] Micah [P, 3]
Mark 3:7-6:6 [G, 6] Ephesians [PE, 7]
Song of Solomon [W, 2] Psalms [PO, 5]
Old Testament Overview [OV, 1] Revelation [GE, 5]
New Testament Overview [OV, 1] Total = 31
1 Timothy [PE, 3]
James [GE, 5] 2002 Overviews of the Law [L, 5]
Joshua [H, 5] Luke [G, 5]
Total = 42 Questions on Baptism [T, 2]
Overviews of O.T. Histories [H, 12]
1997 John [G, 11] Romans 1-3 [PE, 3]
Major Prophets Overviews [P, 4] Total = 27
Titus [PE, 6]
Wisdom Books Overviews [W, 5] 2003 Romans 4-16 [PE, 13]
1 Peter [GE, 13] Overviews in Minor Prophets [P, 12]
Total = 39 J. Edwards: “Sinners in the Hands of an An-
gry God”
1998 Leviticus [L, 3] Total = 26
Mark 6:6-8:26 [G, 11]
I & II Kings [H, 4] 2004 I, II & III John [GE, 14]
Colossians [PE, 8] Proverbs [W, 14]
Philemon [PE, 1] Total = 28
Jeremiah [P, 4]
Lamentations [P, 1] 2005 Acts [PE, 7]
Jude [GE, 8] Deuteronomy [L, 6]
Total = 40 Psalm 114 [PO, 1]
I & II Corinthians [PE, 14]
1999 9 Marks of a Healthy Church [T, 9] Total = 28
Ecclesiastes [W, 4]
Gospels & Acts Overviews [G,H, 5] 2006 II Corinthians [PE, 10]
Numbers [H, 3] Ruth [H, 4]
Prayer [T, 2] II Peter [GE, 8]
Paul’s Letters Overviews [PE, 13] Total = 22
Total = 36

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 Preaching Schedule (cont.)
2007 Daniel [P, 2]
Luke [G, 22]
Atonement [T, 2]
Total = 26

2008 Atonement [T, 7]

Gender [T, 4]
Psalm 14 [PO, 1]
Job [W, 4]
Philemon [PE, 4]
Genesis [L, 9]
Total = 29

2009 The Church and the Pastor [T,2]

Revelation [GE, 15]
I & II Samuel [H, 10]
Total = 27

2010 II Samuel [H, 1]

Conversion [T, 1]
Heaven [T, 1]
Sufficiency of Scripture [T, 1]
Mark 9:38-13:31 [G, 19]
Total = 23

2011 Psalms [PO, 3]

Great Commission [T, 1]
Mark 13:32-16:8 [G, 11]
2 Thessalonians [PE, 2]
Isaiah [P, 8]
Total = 25

2012 James [GE, 10]

Key:
G = Gospel PE = Pauline Epistle
GE = General Epistle P = Prophecy
H = History PO = Poetry
L = Law T = Topical
OV = Overview W = Wisdom
*The letter to the right indicates the type of literature.
The number to the right of each book indicates the
number of sermons in the series.

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 OT/NT Preaching Rotation

OT NT
Law Gospel

Prophecy Pauline Epistle

Wisdom General Epistle

History
* Sometimes preach overview, poetry, and topical sermons.

Depth and Breadth of Sermons

Mark 6:6-8:26 (11 Sermons)

Mark 8:27-9:37 (5 Sermons)

ACTS (7 Sermons)

OVERVIEW OF ISAIAH

OVERVIEW OF OLD TESTAMENT OVERVIEW OF MARK OVERVIEW OF ACTS

WHOLE BIBLE

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Application Grid Blank

KEY
Unique Salvation History—What about the passage is important for the way God unfolds his plan of
salvation in history? What’s unrepeatable by us but worthy of worshipping God for or needing further
explanation?
Non-Christian—How does the passage speak to the unbeliever? How does it call him/her to repen-
tance and belief? How does it warn, rebuke, correct, or prod the unbeliever? What does it say about
the danger of the unbeliever’s situation, the exclusivity of Christ, the sinner’s need for a Savior, or the
sufficiency of that Savior as a substitute for the sinner?
Public—What does the passage say about our lives and roles in the public sphere, both as Christians
and non-Christians (e.g. government, neighborhood)?
Christ—How is Jesus foreshadowed or typed? What particular perfection of Christ does that type
depict? How is Jesus remembered or described in character, authority, glory, or essence?
Unity in Diversity—How does this passage demonstrate the unity that we have in Christ? How does
it reflect the diversity of the body?
Work—What does this passage say to the employee and employer?
Gender/Marriage/Family—How does the passage speak to men? How does the passage speak to
women? How does this passage apply to the husband and wife and how does this apply to the family?
Individual Christian—What does the passage mean for the life of the individual Christian? How does
it call him/her to deeper repentance and belief? How does it warn, rebuke, correct, motivate, comfort
or encourage the Christian?
Your Local Church—What does the passage mean for the corporate life of our local church? How
does it call the local corporate body to tend to its corporate life together and corporate witness to the
unbelieving community around it?

156
Application Grid Sample

157
Jan-May 2012 Sermon Card

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 “How Prayer Transforms Prep”
How Prayer Transforms Prep Michael Lawrence, Senior Pastor, Hinson Baptist Church

I know you pray for your sermon at least once a week. As you're walking toward the front on Sunday morn-
ing, prayers are flying thick and fast: Help! You know people need to hear something more than an inspiring
thought or tip. They need to hear from God. And if it's going to happen, it's going to happen through you. So
you pray!

But beyond that moment of truth each week, and beyond asking God to give you understanding and a heart
for your people, does prayer play a role in your sermon preparation? Too many of us treat prayer as if it's
simply a step in the process between reading the text for the first time and finding our illustrations. We need
to regain a theological vision in which prayer becomes the posture of the preacher, for before our people can
hear from God through us, we must hear from God ourselves. And hearing from God through his Word is the
fundamental work of prayer.

We live in a culture and age that values self-expression above all else. When we pray, we're keeping it real
with God; we're telling him what's on our mind, what we're concerned about, or what we need. And that's a
problem, because in Scripture pouring out our hearts to God is never the essential point of prayer. The point
of prayer is realignment, as our hearts assume a posture of dependence and humility before God. Prayer
places our needs in the perspective of God's sufficiency, our problems in the perspective of his sovereignty,
and our desires in the perspective of his will. Prayer is not a monologue. Rather, prayer invites God to have
the last word with us, and for his Word to shape and define us.

So prayer must be the constant attitude of the preacher in sermon preparation. For me, that means medita-
tion and prayer on the text every morning as part of my own devotions. I'm not merely trying to get a jump on
sermon preparation. I'm seeking to humble myself before God's Word, so that when I finally come to preach,
I preach God's agenda, not mine. Prayer makes me a fit instrument in the hands of the Redeemer.

Through prayer, the Holy Spirit gives the preacher spiritual insight and understanding. As the psalmist says:
"I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes" (Psalm 119:99). Normally, this in-
sight comes as we pursue the hard work of study—translation, exegesis, reading, and so on—prayerfully.

One of the habits I learned from an older preaching mentor was to praise God in prayer for something I saw
revealed about him in the passage I was going to preach—and not just privately. We begin our elder and
staff meetings by reading the passage for the coming week and spending time praising God for what we see
about him in that passage. Week after week, I come away instructed about both the text and the God of the
text. At times I have thought that I had seen all there was to see in the passage, but as I pray with my fellow
staff and elders, the Holy Spirit instructs me through them, and I walk away with a richer vision of the text.
Through prayer, private and corporate, the Spirit teaches us what he has said, and what we need to say.

Preparing sermons requires knowing what the congregation needs to hear. If you're like most preachers, you
probably have an opinion about what your congregation needs to hear. But all too often, that means our ser-
mons are shaped as much by our own hobby horses as they are by the text or the Spirit. People in our con-
gregations need a bigger view of God, hope in the midst of discouragement, and comfort in the midst of sor-
row. People need to know the power of God to forgive, restore, and reconcile through Christ. They don't
need our agenda. They need the wisdom of God for their lives, according to his Word.

I pray each day for some of my members by name out of the text I'm going to preach on. As I do this, I move
beyond the circumstances of life—health, jobs, and relationships—to address spiritual realities as well.
Prayer like this produces divinely directed sympathy for the congregation and leads to divinely directed
agendas in our sermons. We're not content any longer with pious platitudes or personal hot-buttons. Instead,
through prayer, our sermons reflect the heart of God for his people.

Our people need to hear from God. It's his Word that saves them, conforms them to the image of his Son,
and leads them through this life. How will they hear, unless we preach? How can we preach, unless we have
first heard from God through prayer?

159