Date: 05/28/2019

Series: Family Talks

Key Speaker: Sam Choi

Since we planted the church, we were especially cautious about filling up our membership with a bunch of people who were lukewarm Christians who just didn’t like thee church they were at. Most church plants in the Twin Cities grow primarily with Christians who just like our church more. One way we fought against this potential problem was to create a more challenging membership pathway. So the pathway was created with Christians in mind. As a result, those who get through, are typically really “in.” This has created a very strong culture and generally mature founding group.

And yet, part of our mission statement is, “Our mission is to follow Jesus in everyday life, while helping others do the sam, especially those far from God.”

We’ve made it hard for these people to become members, too hard. We’ve also made it hard for them to be baptized.

Not so long ago, Cities church, our sending church, re-thought the way they approached baptism, especially in regards to children. And a few months ago, Dale Gruber (a pastoral candidate) made a strong biblical case to the leadership team that we were not being faithful to the biblical pattern of baptism.

Since then, we’ve been praying, researching, and dialoguing regularly. So this short talk is to give you and idea of where we’re heading as a church regarding baptism and membership and why. It won’t answer everything, but will be a good intro.