Membership 101- To be held on Saturday Jan. 26, 10am-3pm

What is it?

Membership 101 is a class held at different times throughout the year with the purpose of introducing new people attending Safe Harbour to what our church is all about as well as give them some instruction dealing with what we believe having membership in a church is all about.  Since there are people coming to Safe Harbour from all kinds of different backgrounds inside and outside the church we want to provide an opportunity for folks to become familiar with our vision and purpose.

The class itself is given in workshop format on one day over the course of five hours.

The basis for church membership at Safe Harbour can be summarized from Ephesians 2:19;

Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.  — Ephesians 2:19 (Living Translation)

From that scripture there are three key truths that can be observed:

1. The church is family.
2. God expects you to be a member of a church family.
3. A Christian without a church family is homeless.

We also stress that membership isn’t about a slip of paper you receive or adding another name to the membership roll or getting “in” on the “in-club”.  Membership is really about commitment.  When you become a member of Safe Harbour you are saying in effect, “I recognize Safe Harbour as the church family God wants me to belong to and in response to God’s leading I commit my abilities, my talents, my time, and my resources to what God would have me contribute to this body of believers.”  This is why we don’t take membership lightly.  We expect our members to follow through on their commitment.

Does this mean that we don’t value any non-members at Safe Harbour?  No!  We recognize that you can be used by God regardless of whether you are a member or not and we also don’t distinguish between members and non-members when caring for the people in the church.  Just because you are a member doesn’t mean you are “further up” on some mythical totem pole of recognition!  However, there are a few ministry roles and opportunities that are limited to those who are members of Safe Harbour.  The reason for this is because we want people to serve in those positions who have demonstrated their commitment and their agreement with what we believe God has called Safe Harbour to.