Church Membership

[snicker1986]

Originally Posted by NewWine

There was a church that I was visiting and praying about becoming a part of that congregation, but that didn't happen. A cousin of mine decided to become a member there and after wards he told me that he had to complete a survey with over 100 questions called "Spiritual Gifts". The test was to help the church decifer what 'spiritual' gifts people had and they would be used in that capacity. I looked at it and one of the 'spiritual gifts' was celibacy . After you complete this test it will be placed in your file. I found that to be weird. I did't like the manner in which the Pastor was harassing my husband and I about 'taking the hand of fellowship'. He put us on the spot one Sunday while we were walking out the door. My husband didn't appreciate that and neither did I. The whole thing was weird.

Have any of you ever heard of taking a 'spiritual gifts' test? At this point we do not attend anywhere and just worship in our home.

Than can be a good tool to help discern what gifts God might give you. At a former chruch, they were taken as part of the "dicipleship" class, just to help you see where you might be empowerd to lead. If used well, it is mearly a took for the leadeship to get members involved in ministry. It was not binding on anything.

I have never seen celibacy listed, but "martyrdom" is listed on some surveys. I used to joke that the problem with that gift is that you can only use it once!! (it's actually a measure of how willing you are to withstand persecustion for Jesus' sake)

[noeticknight]

Originally Posted by snicker1986

Than can be a good tool to help discern what gifts God might give you. At a former chruch, they were taken as part of the "dicipleship" class, just to help you see where you might be empowerd to lead. If used well, it is mearly a took for the leadeship to get members involved in ministry. It was not binding on anything.

I have never seen celibacy listed, but "martyrdom" is listed on some surveys. I used to joke that the problem with that gift is that you can only use it once!! (it's actually a measure of how willing you are to withstand persecustion for Jesus' sake)

Is this the current trend in some circles, to mine Christians for spiritual gifts in an attempt to streamline the movement of God's sovereign Spirit?

Testimonies like NewWine's will continue to keep me out of McChurch's indefinitely. Why does the theme from "The Addams Family" suddenly come to mind...?

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by Sam

Does your church have members?

Sam! This is just too funny!! LOL!

[Sherri]

Our people are required to attend four classes before they can sign a Membership Covenant. They also take a Spiritual Gifts test and then have an interview. The Membership Covenant is pretty generic - basically that you will love and support your church with giving, attendance, prayer, etc. and that you will not cause division among the brethren (loyalty).

If they do the interview and want to be involved in a front-line ministry, they are required to sign a Ministry Covenant, which is more involved. We feel like higher levels of ministry require higher levels of discipline. By the way, the staff has the highest levels of requirements of all because we feel like we should be examples of spiritual disciplines.) But if you just sign a Membership Covenant, there are still a lot of things you can do - ushering, greeting, hosting, assisting in various ministries, etc. To be on the platform or to teach or mentor or to lead a ministry, you are required to sign a Ministry Covenant.

We were told it would never work in a city setting, but it has worked. If you go to Birmingham to the fastest growing church in the U.S., their Ministry Covenant is even stronger than ours. People want lines, and I think sometimes coming out of UPC, we want to do away with all lines. But that's not necessarily a good thing.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by missourimary

Randy, try
http://archive.elca.org/evangelizing...iritgifts.html
http://mintools.com/spiritual-gifts-test.htm
http://www.kodachrome.org/spiritgift/

Google it, you'll come up with a ton of them!

I took the first one and it came back with wise crack about "The Star Wars R2D2 action figure on your desk is more in tune with the spirit then you are!".

What do you think that means?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by NewWine

There was a church that I was visiting and praying about becoming a part of that congregation, but that didn't happen. A cousin of mine decided to become a member there and after wards he told me that he had to complete a survey with over 100 questions called "Spiritual Gifts". The test was to help the church decifer what 'spiritual' gifts people had and they would be used in that capacity. I looked at it and one of the 'spiritual gifts' was celibacy . After you complete this test it will be placed in your file. I found that to be weird. I did't like the manner in which the Pastor was harassing my husband and I about 'taking the hand of fellowship'. He put us on the spot one Sunday while we were walking out the door. My husband didn't appreciate that and neither did I. The whole thing was weird.

Have any of you ever heard of taking a 'spiritual gifts' test? At this point we do not attend anywhere and just worship in our home.

I have seen a similar test, don't know if it's the same one or not.

You go through a series of questions on several different things. Some are comparing things with one another to see which you prefer. Then after the answers are all given, another area of the test tells you where your preferences and talents seem to lie and what you are cut out for or gifted for. I took it once and thought it was pretty accurate.

[NewWine]

Originally Posted by missourimary

Randy, try
http://archive.elca.org/evangelizing...iritgifts.html
http://mintools.com/spiritual-gifts-test.htm
http://www.kodachrome.org/spiritgift/

Google it, you'll come up with a ton of them!

The third link is the website for the test that this particular church uses. The test is 140 questions; I never took the test. My cousin did go to the new members orientation, where the Pastor put him on front street by saying "you couldn't find a babysitter". His wife is out of state and in the Army so he had no choice. Then he was told by other men in the church that he should call in sick to attend a men's fellowship day. Just too much drama. I may take the test online just to see what it says.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Sam

Does your church have members?
How does one become a member?

My church is the church of the Living God and it has many "members". One becomes a member by believing and obeying the Gospel meaning maintaining a faith in Christ, repentance from sin, water baptism, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost, and maintaining the communion of the Saints. All other classes and training are part of discipleship and training in Christian disciplines.