Membership

So Adam and I have been attending our church for almost two years now. I sang with the Easter choir our first Easter there, then I started teaching Sunday school that September, and Adam and I both started helping with the high school group. I sing with the worship team about twice a month, and this year I’m directing the Christmas play. Adam is on the Missions Board (that makes decisions about supporting missionaries and things like that). So we’ve been very involved almost from the get-go. We met with the deacons and deaconesses, and gave our testimonies. Because of the way our church is “governed,” they had to “vote” us in with a majority vote, which they were going to do during the second service (it’s just a formality, but that’s the way they do it). Before the first service, one of the church members said, “Oh, I have your membership certificates,” and handed me two certificates commemorating Adam’s and my becoming members. Since we hadn’t officially been voted in yet, I figured that meant it was a done deal (which it was anyway!). So during the second service, we went up in front of the congregation and they all voted us in to be members. We’re official!! It’s kind of nice :)

It’s definitely different than the Lutheran church we were attending before. The pastor knew I wanted to help with the Sunday school, and they put announcements in the bulletin that they needed volunteers to help, but I couldn’t because I wasn’t a Lutheran. To some extent, I can understand their hesitancy to make sure that the person teaching their youth is a believer, but I had been meeting with the pastor about once a week, and he knew that I was a Christian. It didn’t matter – I wasn’t a Lutheran. At our current church, they called me and asked if I wanted to teach Sunday school – after having attended the church for about eight months at that point. It may sound judgmental, but I’m really not trying to judge them or say that our church is better or something. I’m merely noting a difference.