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DISCOVERING CHURCH MEMBERSHIP C.L.A.S.S. 101 Rick Warren

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DISCOVERING CHURCH MEMBERSHIP C.L.A.S.S. 101 Rick Warren DISCOVERING CHURCH MEMBERSHIP C.L.A.S.S. 101 Rick Warren Welcome to C.L.A.S.S. 101. This is the basic introduction to the Saddleback family. I'm Pastor Rick, the senior pastor here. I have taught this class over 150 times. I've taught it almost every month for sixteen years. I never get tired of it. In each class we get to know the folks in our church family and explain over and over why we do what we do. Turn to the very first page. "Welcome to Discovering Church Membership". This class is divided into four different sessions of about an hour each. I teach part of it. Other staff -- Pastor John Baker, our pastor of membership teaches some, Doug Fields teaches some. Tonight, Kay (she used to teach the entire class) is going to be here and teach part of the membership class. The basis of this class, on page 1, is Ephesians 2:19, "You are a member of God's very own family and you belong in God's household with every other Christian." Circle "member", "family", "belong", "household". These are four key truths. Out of this verse we gather some very important keys about the Bible and what the Bible says about the church. The key truths are these: 1. The church is a family. It says "God's household". It doesn't say the church is like a family. It says the church is a family. It's a spiritual family. In fact, your spiritual family is going to outlast your physical family. The Bible says there isn't marriage in heaven but there are Christians in heaven. So we're all going to be related in heaven -- together -- and this family will actually outlast the blood family that you have here on earth. Some families are sick, some are strong, some are weak, some are small, some are big. The same is true with church families. We're going to look at what makes a healthy church family. 2. God expects me to be a member of a family. Notice he says, "You are a member of God's very own family." That says it's God's will. It's not optional. Every Christian needs a church family. A Christian without a church family is like a person who says "I want to play NFL football but I don't want to be a part of any team" or "I want to be in the army but not serve in any platoon" or "I want to be a bee but I don't want to be a part of the hive" or "I want to play an instrument but not be in an orchestra." The fact is, we need each other to be strong in our Christian faith. You need to understand when the word "church" is used in the Bible it's used two different ways. First it's used to refer to every Christian who's ever lived throughout history. That's called the universal church. Every believer all around the world regardless of the denominational label, regardless of whether they're in a church building or out, in a tent or a little hut or wherever around the world is part of the universal church. But the other way the word "church" is used is to refer to a local group, a specific place. Like the church at Corinth, the church that met in Lydia's home, the church that was on the hill or like the church here at Saddleback church. It's used in a local sense. It's only used four times in the Bible to refer to a general universal sense. Almost every time you see the word "church" in the Bible it's used to refer to a specific group of believers like we are here today. Once you became a believer you are automatically a part of the universal church of God -- DISCOVERING CHURCH MEMBERSHIP - C.L.A.S.S. 101 automatically, the moment you gave your life to Christ. But you don't become a part of a local church until you make that choice. It's like when you were born physically, you were automatically entered into the human race. You didn't have a choice. You became a part of the human race the moment you were born. But you didn't become a part of any local family until somebody choose to take you home from the hospital. That's what we're talking about here. You need to be a part of a local church family. I had a woman tell me one time, "I don't need to be a part of any local church. I'm a part of the invisible church." I said that's great. When you get sick, in the hospital, who visits you? The invisible pastor. You need somebody in the flesh. There are over thirty commands in the Bible you cannot obey, you cannot follow, unless you're part of a local church and say, "That's going to be my church family." 3. A Christian without a church family is an orphan. It says, "You belong in God's household with every other member of the church." As I said, God has given us at least 30 instructions in the New Testament that you can't fulfill unless you choose to be a part of a local church. Only in America do we have, what I call, floating believers. These are people who, every week, pop around to a different church. "This week let's go to the Crystal Cathedral. Next week we'll go to Calvary Chapel. Next week we'll go to Coast Hills. Next week let's go to Calvary Chapel at Dana Point. Then the next week let's go over to Saddleback." You float all around in different places. The Bible says, if you're a Christian, it means you're apart of the body of Christ. You could be the hand, the ear, the eyes, the nose, the liver. What would you say if the liver said, "I think for one week I'll be a part of this body over here and the next week I'll be a part of that body over there and the week after that I'll be a part of this body over here..." Pretty soon what's going to happen is an unconnected liver shrivels up and dies. You need to be a part of a local church family. What's the difference between being a Christian and being a member of a church family. The difference is the word "commitment". I become a Christian by committing my life to Christ. I become a member of a church by committing myself to other Christians. I say, "That's going to be my church home where I'm going to give and be given to, where I'm going to serve and be served, where I'll love and be loved." What makes Saddleback a family? On Sunday morning we have about 12,000 people on a typical Sunday. They come from all different kinds of backgrounds, shapes, colors, race, intellect, even languages. We're different in so many different ways. What makes Saddleback a family? Four things. First let me give you the goal of this class. Goal: I will commit myself to Christ and to the Saddleback church family. What is it that makes a church family? On page 2 you'll see that there are four things that make us a church family. 1. Our Salvation. What God has done for us. 2. Our Statement. Why we exist as a church. 3. Our Strategy. How we fulfill our purpose. 2 DISCOVERING CHURCH MEMBERSHIP - C.L.A.S.S. 101 4. Our Structure. When and where we fulfill that purpose. In this class, what we're going to do is take about an hour on each of these and explain them in detail -- what the Saddleback family is and how you can be a part of that family. First a little background on how Saddleback got started. Both Kay and I were born and raised in California. I was raised in northern California up in the redwoods and my wife, Kay, was born in San Diego and raised in southern California. We happened to meet in college. After college, we went off the seminary to Fort Worth, Texas, to the largest seminary in the world to get my masters and then later my doctor's degree. While I was there I decided I would do a study on what is it that makes a church grow. What makes a healthy church? All on my own, I decided to write to the 100 largest churches in the United States. I found their names and wrote them a letter, asked them a series of questions. I got all the information back and began to study -- what is it that makes a strong church? One of the characteristics that I discovered was that in a strong church the pastor stays there for a long time. They don't keep changing pastors every two years. A church that gets a new pastor every couple of years is like a family that gets a new daddy. The kids would be schizophrenic. I told the Lord, "I'm willing to go anyplace in the whole world to be pastor, if You would give me the privilege of spending my entire life in just one location. I don't care where You put me if You'll just let me spend my entire life in one location.
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