I love Starbucks coffee. I enjoy Starbucks so much I became a Gold Card member.

Starbucks’ Gold Card program requires enrollment and faithful patronage. As a card-carrying member, I get a few perks, such as free refills, coupons and special discounts. I like to treat others with my card.

As people decide which church to join, the default question is often “What’s in it for me?” This isn’t a bad question, but it may not be the first question we should ask.

When we become grafted into the True Vine (John 15:1), we give up the right to be queens and kings of our kingdoms. We live for a cause greater than ourselves. This is a 180-degree turn from our individualistic American culture, which doesn’t always make a membership card popular.

This month’s issue focuses on membership and includes articles from local, regional and national church leaders. Don’t miss the compelling story of Free Methodist Church member David Baker. We also connect you to our membership resources at fmcusa.org/membership and invite you to join the conversation at facebook.com/fmcusa.

Jason Archer, Executive Director of Communications

Is church membership still relevant? Does lack of membership demonstrate a lack of commitment? Join the dialogue. I’ll be reading your comments over a grande extra hot white mocha with caramel drizzle on top. ”

Free Methodists belong to a church with a mission statement that includes the call “to make known to all people everywhere God’s call to wholeness through forgiveness and holiness in Jesus Christ.”

That’s a good mission statement for our families too, but it is meaningless unless we act on it. Join LLM in exploring how to make your family missional.

Downloadable PDF: LLM Mar 2012

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Features

• Table of Contents
• [Feature]: Membership Matters
• [Bishops]: Sign Me Up
• [Foundation]: What’s a Body to Do?
• [History]: Membership Has Consequences
• [Action]: Jazz Great Puts God First
• [News]: Regional Gatherings Help Churches GROW
• [World]: Providence in Haiti Two Years After Quake
• [Discipleship]: Glowing and Growing Together

by Jeffrey P. Johnson

In 2004, I invited some pastors in Guatemala to join the Free Methodist Church. After several meetings, I gave each a copy of the “Book of Discipline” and asked them to read it to see if they agreed with the Articles of Religion, the History and Polity, and the Membership Covenant.

When we met again a month later, they said to me, “This book is our book; this church is our church,” and they decided to bring the Free Methodist movement to Guatemala.

In 1997, several years before I invited the Guatemalan pastors to review the Membership Covenant, the Free Methodist Church changed it from a list of do’s and don’ts to a series of principle-based goals and expectations. It includes our relationship to God, our relationship to ourselves and others, our relationship to the institutions of God, and our relationship to the church. The idea is to create a deeper commitment to Jesus Christ by experiencing grace and truth within a community of faith.

The preamble of the Membership Covenant says, “Members of the Free Methodist Church accept the principles of the Membership Covenant for their maturing life in Christ. Together they commit to obey the teachings of Scripture. Moreover, they receive the church’s wisdom as a guide for life. Under the guidance of Scripture and the church’s wisdom, they welcome the Spirit’s work to make them like Jesus.”

Not everyone was happy with this change. I remember showing the revised Membership Covenant to a retired Free Methodist pastor whose response was, “Well, there goes the Free Methodist Church!”

The previous Free Methodist idea of membership was to follow well-defined rules of Christian conduct that maintained church discipline and a holy witness, and helped guide members into godliness. Leaders called these rules “prudentials.” People were taught that keeping these rules was living a holy life. For many years, everyone knew what you had to do to be a member, but membership divided rather than united people.

Modification had replaced transformation; law had replaced grace. Membership courses were designed to produce acceptable social behaviors, but the teaching did not prevent legalism, sin management or holier-than-thou attitudes. Some people chose not to join the Free Methodist Church because of some members’ hypocrisy.

My own journey into the Free Methodist Church raised eyebrows and generated statements like: “You cannot be Free Methodist because you are too charismatic … too catholic … too different.” Someone even said to my face that I was a rogue United Methodist and would never be a true Free Methodist. I joined anyway.

The Free Methodist Membership Covenant is one of the best documents produced by our church. It is about covenant relationships (Exodus 20–23), kingdom connections (Ephesians 4–5), community order (1 Corinthians 12–14), and holy living (1 Peter 1–2). It is a confession of faith that Free Methodists will be Christlike in all they say and do. It is a guide for the Christian journey based on the Wesleyan principles of grace, holiness and assurance.

Historical Perspective
In a perfect world, membership would be the outcome of spiritual formation and obedience, but history has shaped the way we think and react about membership. The New Testament church inherited several prudentials from the Jewish faith. At the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15, these were redacted to encourage gentile Christians to grow in the grace of God.

The Didache (an early Christian writing sometimes called “The Teaching of the 12 Apostles”) tells how the first-century church used catechism to prepare new Christians for membership through baptism, communion, prayer and fasting. Christians in the second and third centuries knew that joining a church meant persecution, torture and even death. Membership often led to martyrdom.

When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, membership shifted from a closed community to an open, fashionable institution. People joined the church because it was the thing to do.

Throughout the Middle Ages, confirmation was used as the entrance to church membership, which church officials strictly monitored. The Protestant Reformation challenged the way church was organized and placed an emphasis back on justification by faith. New church groups were formed, and membership was used to distinguish different doctrines, communities and countries. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, stressed covenant discipleship in the 18th century and encouraged his members to develop the character of Christ through holiness.

In the 19th century, the Free Methodist Church was started when the membership rights of B.T. Roberts and his supporters were violated in an effort to squelch their challenge of the Methodist Episcopal status quo.

The first generation of Free Methodists preached scriptural holiness and declared freedom in worship, freedom from slavery and freedom for all to serve in ministry. Unfortunately, second-generation Free Methodists at the beginning of the 20th century stressed an outward holiness. This led to a culture of insiders versus outsiders.

In 1985, Bishop Donald N. Bastian summarized Free Methodist core convictions and helped launch the New Day Vision, which emphasized a “healthy, biblical community of holy people multiplying disciples, leaders, groups and churches.”

Jeffrey P. Johnson is executive director of Men’s Ministries International (mmifm.org), superintendent of the Mid-America Conference and a member of the Free Methodist Church – USA Board of Administration.

Solid Foundation
The Free Methodist Church is not the only group struggling with its membership history and the way people are invited into a membership covenant, but we have come a long way. For people to move from conversion to discipleship, and eventually into ministry, they must build their faith on a solid foundation.

The Free Methodist Membership Covenant gives them space where love and faith come together through the grace of God. It gives freedom for those who believe and expectations for those who are sanctified. It is a bit risky, but it is God, gospel and grace.

John Wesley always looked for ways to invite others on the journey of faith. In the “The Character of a Methodist,” he wrote:
For opinions, or terms, let us not destroy the work of God. Dost thou love and serve God? It is enough. I give thee the right hand of fellowship. If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any … mercies; let us strive together for the faith of the Gospel; walking worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called; with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; remembering, there is one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called with one hope of our calling; “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

To read more from Bishop Thomas, visit fmcusa.org/ matthewthomas or click on the picture.

by Bishop Matt Thomas

Most of us like to be a part of something positive, moving and fruitful. We like to be involved in the conversation and to be considered a valuable part of something moving forward.

When something good happens, people emerge to take at least partial credit for the success: “I was on the ground floor.” “I was on the committee that shaped this event.” “I bought in before it was popular to do so.”

Membership is a way to shape the most important institution in the world — the church. Being a member is a way of formally identifying with and committing to the church. It says, “You can count on me, and I will count on you.”

Nevertheless, an aversion to the idea of membership has grown in recent years. Some note there was no formal membership in the first-century church. Although today’s membership process was not involved, I do not think anyone would contend there were not members of the body of Christ or community of faith.

The protest is generally about a formal process of identifying who is committed and accountable to a specific fellowship. Whether or not a “sign on the dotted line” version of membership is included, the quest to identify who is committed to and accountable to the believing community is nothing new.

This argument is rarely if ever plied with such vigor to property ownership of churches, ordination and professionalization of the clergy, or the use of the term “missionary” as a vocation — none of which existed in the first century.

The idea of membership has Old Testament origins. Great pains were taken to define the community of Israel. The New Testament advanced the notion of reviewing what constituted the believing community. A sizable part of most epistles discussed who qualified to lead and to have voice in the community, who should contribute to it and how these things would happen.

Formal membership is a continuation of that conversation with an effort to add cultural clarity and regional specificity to what meaningful belonging to a community involves. Membership is a way to say “sign me up,” to be part of something significant, to have a voice, and to levy your gifts and abilities to help the community.

by Pam Braman

My body lets me know I’m getting older. Injuries take longer to heal. Weight goes on faster. My knees creak when I get up from kneeling.

So why don’t I get rid of my body? Well, it’s the only body I have. If I get rid of it, I die.

Then why do people say they can walk with God and be spiritually healthy without the church?

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). God has determined that we, the church, are to be the physical demonstration of Jesus to this world, but this body of Christ often seems to be like my body: injured, weak and creaking.

Many conclude it’s time to abandon the body and do spiritual life on their own, but how is it possible to be in Christ while rejecting His body? Some say as long as they follow Jesus they are part of the body of Christ, regardless of whether they belong to a local church.

But 1 Corinthians isn’t written to everybody. It’s written to “the church of God in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2), a local church.
“God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers,” according to 1 Corinthians 12:28, which implies a structure. The passage seems to suggest that belonging to the body of Christ is belonging to the organized church.
How can you play your part in the body of Christ (as we are called to do) if you remove yourself from any formal connection to other body parts? A foot can’t do it’s own thing and succeed (1 Corinthians 12:15).

I believe many people live as phantom limbs. They are convinced they are part of the body, but they have amputated themselves.

Be part of the body, and be prepared for a workout. The body needs to be in shape for the mission of saving others’ lives.

Josiah and Esther Jane Bastian (Photo courtesy of Bishop Emeritus Donald N. Bastian.)

by Bishop Emeritus Donald N. Bastian

Around 1905, a young couple emigrated from Lancashire, England, to the rolling prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada. They were in their early 20s and thought becoming homesteaders in the New World would give them a brighter future than staying in their coal-mining village in England.

Soon after they settled three miles south of the nearest town, however, the young wife became so homesick that, as she reported later, “she thought she would die.” In an effort to help her, the young husband got the horse and buggy out and took her to church on Sunday. The following week, the minister came out to their homestead and met them in the garden, but they did not sense a real interest in them.

The next Sunday, they visited another church with the same results. Then, on the third Sunday, they
attended a new white-clapboard-sided church in town. The sign read: Free Methodist. When the minister came to see them, a bond began to form.

In time, the young English woman was converted. She became a true believer in Jesus Christ. She joined the church. Members of the congregation came to their modest home for “cottage prayer meetings.” The couple found fellowship that nurtured faith and spoke to her homesickness.

I am the son of that couple. Years later, I was nurtured by the same congregation. Converted at age 16, I joined the church. The denomination gave me educational opportunities, ordained me and put before me more challenges to serve the Lord than I could ever take full advantage of. Our children and grandchildren have benefitted too.

How could my mother have guessed that presenting herself for membership after she came to faith in Jesus Christ would affect children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren? Membership in a church can have good, long-lasting consequences.

North Central Conference Superintendent Mark Adams (Left) chats with Nestor German, the senior pastor of First FMC in Aurora, Ill., during a GROW event at Wesley FMC in Waukegan, Ill. (Photo by Eric Lorenz.)

by Jeff Finley

How can a Free Methodist conference promote fellowship and unity when it stretches from Montana to Illinois?

The North Central Conference has found a way through annual GROW events, which allow congregations in each of the conference’s six districts to “gather to retool for outward focus and worship.” This year’s theme is “iPath: The Path from Skepticism to Christlife.” GROW events include speakers from conference churches (and occasionally from outside Free Methodism) plus breakout seminars.

“I established GROW events three years ago as an extension of annual conference, because we have eight states in the North Central Conference,” Superintendent Mark Adams said. “There were churches that were feeling isolated.”

GROW events were held Nov. 19 at Wesley FMC in Waukegan, Ill.; Dec. 3 at Iglesia Emmanuel in Albert Lea, Minn.; Jan. 14 at Pine Grove FMC in Loves Park, Ill.; Feb. 11 at Central Community Church in Des Moines, Iowa; Feb. 18 atMotley FMC in Motley, Minn.; and Feb. 25 at Emmanuel FMC in Janesville, Wis.

Speakers at the Waukegan event included Jim Charlton, the director of ministry development at Alpha USA. Charlton serves on the leadership team at Resolution Church, a rapidly growing Free Methodist congregation in Oswego, Ill. Charlton shared his practical definition of evangelism: “presenting the gospel in a way that is understandable to the listener and requesting a response.”

GROW participants said they learned a lot at the Waukegan gathering, and they will encourage fellow church members to attend future events.

“I enjoy getting to find out what other people are doing — what’s working,” said Jill Richardson, a Free Methodist elder who attends Resolution Church.

Bolivar Pena, assistant pastor of First FMC in Aurora, Ill., appreciated the discussion about bringing skeptics into life in Christ.
“Many times we are trying to evangelize the people, telling them ‘Jesus loves you,’ but we have to show the love to them first,” Pena said.

For in-depth GROW coverage, visit bit.ly/nccgrow.

Workers erect the first building at Haiti Providence University. (Photo by Linda Adams.)

by Michael J. Metts

Jan. 12 marked the two-year anniversary of the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti.

“In these two years, there have been a lot of things accomplished,” said Jean Marc Zamor, a Haitian church leader. “We thank God, and we thank the international community, which has stepped up and helped.”

International support remains important.

“When you drive down the street, you still see massive tent cities,” said Linda Adams, director of International Child Care Ministries (ICCM), citing recent estimates that between 500,000 and 900,000 people continue to reside in tents.

The Haitian people still have many reasons to be hopeful.

“I don’t see any of the lostness I saw in that first year,” said Bishop David Roller, who visited Haiti Jan. 13–15. “People are living with purpose.”

January marked another reason to believe in a bright future for Haiti. The new Haiti Providence University began classes, offering degrees in education, business, nursing and theology to its first class of nearly 60 students.

Zamor, who holds two master’s degrees and is pursuing a doctorate, serves as rector of the Christian university he co-founded.

“We have to train our students to be servant leaders,” Zamor said. “If we can do that, we will be salt and light to this
nation and not only to this nation, but to the nations of the world.”

The university has one multipurpose building and four areas of study. In the coming years, Zamor hopes to greatly expand the campus, open new areas of study, become more involved in research and grow the student body.

Adams is proud to announce a partnership between ICCM and the university, which will provide scholarships to selected students from ICCM schools to pursue a college degree in education. Scholarship recipients will teach at an ICCM school in Haiti for four years following graduation.

For an in-depth article, photos and videos, visit bit.ly/fmhaiti.

by David Pritchard

Have you heard the story about a pastor visiting a man who decided he didn’t need to attend church?

The pastor, without saying a word, grabbed tongs and pulled a burning ember from the man’s fireplace. They both watched the ember turn cold. The pastor put the ember back into the fire, where it immediately flared to life again. The man thanked the pastor for the fiery sermon and agreed to attend church.

Contrary to the belief that spiritual growth can be attained in solitude, those who worship in a community grow through corporate unity. Christian communities worship together the God who sent His Son so people could be made whole again. In worship and community with the Holy Spirit’s help, broken people build up one another as the body of Christ.

The Free Methodist Church’s “Book of Discipline” informs us that members within the body are a people who “trusting in the enablement of the Holy Spirit and seeking the support of the other members of the church” make a covenant to grow in the Lord through participation in their church.

Outside of God’s community, there is little hope for growth and little help in times of trial. Like a piece of coal outside the fire, usefulness grows cold and dies.

In John 17:1–26, Jesus prays for His disciples as a people joined together. He describes Himself and the Father as one, and prays community members reflect this union within themselves. As a covenantal community, Free Methodists seek unity through experiencing God in both individual and social holiness. Through worship and fellowship in faith, this community will live in the reality of the high-priestly prayer through God’s grace and power.

GROUP DISCUSSION:

[1] How do you view Christian community?

[2] Is church membership important?

[3] Are you part of God’s royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)?

So what if we were more intentional with what we talk about? When we launched the new LLM we asked readers to vote on possible issue themes. Below is a partial theme list for 2012; the asterisks show which themes got the most reader votes. (See the chart below for full results.)

January: The Missional Family **

February: Holiness in the Workplace **

March: Membership **

April: Can the Rural Church Survive?

May: A Christian’s Role in Politics

June: What Does it Mean to Be a Worldwide Church? **

July: My Two Cents – Stewardship Counts

August: The Urban Church

We still need you.

Other Great Ways to Have Your Say

• Like our Facebook page (facebook.com/fmcusa). We regularly use this outlet to search for good writers and keep up with the heartbeat of the FM community. Leave comments or join a discussion; your reach may just extend further than you realize.
• Submit something at Your Story (fmcusa.org/yourstory), the place for FMs to share what’s going on in their locales. Your piece might be featured in the LLM news section. You never know where your story will end up – with possibly eternal consequences.

Think of the redesigned LLM as “one book, one denomination.” Just imagine the connections the Holy Spirit could make if Free Methodists everywhere were learning and thinking about the same themes. This year, let’s “abide in the vine” together and see what kind of good fruit the Lord grows from our movement.