Few things are as important to the issue of formation as that of the shape and expectation and demands of membership. This is an area where many a church has been impressed with what COS has accomplished, and seek to duplicate it, but are unwilling to start from scratch. The idea of a “commitment” to memebrship is anathema to our “numbers game” oriented culture. It also seems to “sectarian” to expect from “normal people”, and so the resulting “normalcy”, and the miraculous life of radical friendship, seeking and waiting and journeying toward call, and deep relatedness to each other (to the effect that the church and its concerns become number one over EVERYTHING. Over cultural “attractions” and diversions which the world tells us are signs of success. So, the below segment from Chapter Two, on The Integrity of Church Membership from Call to Commitment is something not often heard:

We believe that in Christ we have been confronted by the living, active God of the universe-that His is the name in which there is Life. So we say, “Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Saviour.”

Some will say these are traditional words or they will say, “Surely in this day no one really takes them seriously.” Our answer is that we do take them seriously. Jesus is the foundation of our congregation and is at the center of our individual lives. We are committed to him for time and eternity. The belonging we have to Christ and to one another deepens our belonging to the church of Christ wherever it is.
…

The foregoing thoughts remain for us and every church wishful thinking unless we are willing to cope realistically with the issue of entrance into the Christian Church. The current easy access to membership is disturbing to many thoughtful Christians, some ofwhom are ministers of “successful” churches, where plans are made, programs projected and projects adopted, which though in themselves worthy, do not serve the reconciling purpose. They become ends in themselves. Then people must be won to make possible the continuance of these programs rather than to enter a new life.

Once in a while in the Church of the Saviour we find ourselves thinking, “Now we ought to get hold of this person because he would be just right to help us with some project.” This is a dangerous feeling. We never need people simply to help us with a task which we have to do.

The Christian Church has a secret at her heart and the only call upon her is to share it. Whenever by repentance and forgiveness one enters into the community of grace, he or she discovers the very end of life. Another person is then the possessor of the news that must be told, and must run to find a housetop from which to proclaim it. Thrilling, costly projects come into existence in this way, but not as ends in themselves. People must never become means to an end. In too many worthy enterprises people serve faithfully, yet do not become aware of their own deep need for the acceptance and love which Christ offers, and which will enable them to give such acceptance and love to others.

There are many young ministers today who have inherited that which they feel they cannot perpetuate. They find an overemphasis on organization, but do not know how to change it. Resentment and love are intermingled. They love the church which has given them what they most treasure. At the same time they resent the restrictions that keep them from expressing the leading of the Holy Spirit. Many of them arc saying, “If I cannot find more meaning in the church, I will have to leave.”

The refusal to grapple with the issue of entrance into the Christian Church is not tolerance; it is betrayal of the gospel which we preach. No one claims that seeking to ensure integrity of membership is not fraught with danger and difficulty, but the answer does not lie in skirting the problem. The profound meanings of membership need to be rethought.

Surely entrance into the Christian Church presupposes total commitment to Christ as the Lord of the church. A surrender to Christ is a surrender to his people-total involvement in the life of the church and the awareness that participation in this community of forgiveness and love means that we must offer it to all people.

If the church is to move toward integrity of membership, a framework must be provided prior to membership in which the Christian faith may be explored with seriousness. Within this framework a person must have the opportunity to know deep person-to-person relationships. We must have opportunity in a community of acceptance and love to see ourselves, to let go of false saviours that we may come to know the real Saviour.

For the Church of the Saviour this framework is the School of Christian Living, which offers the six courses required for member ship in the church as well as elective studies for persons already members. The required courses are considered basic to an understanding of the Christian faith, while the elective courses are designed primarily to give members additional opportunity for structured study in special fields.

The content will always be unimportant alongside the experience of Christ himself This is why the courses are offered within the context of the Christian community, which is dependent on the inpouring of God’s spirit. The community keeps prayerful watch over newcomers, seeking to listen to them and to understand and encourage them. Al the needs of a person are of concern. The hope is that a person gain not only intellectual understanding, but also experience confrontation with the living God. Each course is planned to lead to that most decisive of all choices: total commitment to Christ.

Everyone who enrolls in a class is expected to attend regularly and punctually and to perform faithfully all requirements. Those who wish to audit -a class must have the permission of the instructor. Seekers after pleasant parleys have been warned that they will be disappointed.

Most of the participants have attended Sunday worship for three or more months before they enroll in the School, but often the classes have been an introduction to the Christian Church. When we describe the classes they sound formal, solemn, and serious.

There is deep seriousness of purpose, but the evening itself is characterized by the color and drama of a festival.

Call to Commitment, pp. 24,25,27

The School of Christian Living is a structure later assimilated into the separate church communities which sprung from the Church of the Saviour’s “New Land” metamorphosis in 1976, where 6 distinct “churches” were born, and “The Church of the Saviour” became something of an “ecumenical” center, or a “seed story” from which the other “new stories” were born.

Also, this idea of the INtegrity of Membership carried on.

The School of Christian Living was soon to be joined with and collaborated with another of the missions, The Servant Leadership School, which became a kind of “Seminary for Misison”, where the streets and missions were the laboratory. I’ll post some description of the Servant Leadership School later on.