I warmly encourage every able-bodied Crestview member to plan to attend our next quarterly members meeting on May 17. After the gathered worship that day, we will enjoy a covered-dish lunch, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and conduct church business. We expect to finish around 2:00 pm. While there are important decisions we will make together, such as reaffirming elders and receiving new members, the primary reason we should attend is that we are God’s new covenant people. Crestview members participate in members meetings because we are a covenant family of born-again believers.

Stephen and Kirk Wellum describe congregationalism as the form of church government that is “built upon the conviction that under the lordship of Christ and under the authority of divinely given elders who lead, the last and final court of appeal in all matters related to the local church is the congregation itself.”[1] Under Christ, final authority in the local church does not rest with a monarchical bishop or a presbytery, but in the church’s assembled members. The local church is formally comprised of a regenerate, believing people, not a mixed group of believers and unbelievers. These believers are identified through the signs of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and they promise before the Lord and one another to be a local church together. Church elders oversee, teach, and lead the church through recommendations, but final authority, especially in the weighty matters of church offices, membership, discipline, and doctrine, resides with the congregation as a whole, not with any one individual.

To be a member of Crestview is a boundless joy and humbling privilege. One way we express this privilege is by taking part in members meetings – listening, voting, and, when needed, speaking. So, please, be praying about the agenda items your elders have asked you to be prepared to consider (reaffirming elders, receiving new members, and reviewing financial reports), clear your calendar early Sunday afternoon, bring a food dish to share, and participate as a member of God’s new covenant people – his local church, which we call Crestview.

For His Glory,

Pastor Thomas

[1] Stephen Wellum and Kirk Wellum, “The Biblical and Theological Case for Congregationalism” in Baptist Foundations edited by Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman, 49.