Membership
How to Know if You Are Ready to Join
You are ready to join Christ Church when you have claimed or are ready to claim the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. To become a member you should also be able to accept our mission of making disciples for Christ as your own. This means that you are committed to attend worship services on a regular basis, pray for the church staff and its ministries as well as your fellow church members, support the church with proportional giving, and serve in the church's ministries and in the community on behalf of Christ Church. These things are the embodiment of a question in the United Methodist ritual for the reception of new members that asks new members if they will "support the church by their prayers, presence, gifts, and service." Once you are prepared to do these things you are ready to take the next step and join the church.
Methods of Joining
If you are or have been a member of another Protestant Church then you will be received into Christ Church on a transfer of membership letter. In a transfer of letter your previous church is contacted and a request is made for them to send a formal letter or certificate of membership transfer to Christ Church. Our church office will handle the necessary paperwork for the transfer of letter once you have set a date to join our church.
If you have never been a member of a church or are coming from a Roman Catholic Church you will be received on profession of faith. If you are professing the Christian faith for the first time, you will be asked to answer several questions on the Sunday you join. These vows have four parts: (1) to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; (2) to believe in the Christian faith as contained in the Old and New Testaments; (3) to promise to live a Christian life; and (4) to uphold The United Methodist Church with your prayers, presence, gifts and service. If you are joining Christ Church from the Roman Catholic Church, you will only be asked to support the The United Methodist Church and its ministries with your prayers, presence, gifts, and service.
When a pastor meets with you about joining she or he will explain the differences between these two categories in more detail and help you determine which of the two methods of joining applies to you.
What to Do If You Are Ready to Join
There are several ways to indicate to the church and pastors that you are ready to join:
When: As announced in bulletins and newsletters. Time: 2:30--4:00 p.m. What: "Coffee with the Pastor" is a time when prospective members can speak with Rev. Jan Brittain and Rev. John Bletsch about church membership. This is a great time to have any questions you might have about the church answered and make arrangements to join the church.
You can make a checkmark in the "Desire to Join" box below your name when you sign the friendship pad during a worship service. One of the pastoral staff will contact you to talk with you about your interest in joining the church.
The quickest way to indicate that you are ready to join Christ Church is to contact any of the pastors and notify them of your inter-est. While any of the pastors can assist you, Rev. Jan Brittain is the pastor directly responsible for helping people join the church, so you may want to contact her to further expedite the joining process.
What Will Happen Next?
When you notify the pastors that you are ready to join using one of the methods mentioned in this brochure, Rev. Brittain will ar-range a time to meet with you and discuss any questions you might have about the church and membership. She will then work with you to set a date to formally join the church during one of the worships services. (We recommend you join at the service you normally attend.) On that Sunday you will officially become a member of Christ Church--ready to embrace our mission to make disciples for Christ. The commitment of church membership is an important part of claiming our place in the people of God. Membership with us is not the end but rather another waypoint in the faith journey we share.
How to Contact the Pastors
The pastors can be contacted by phone or email. Please visit their staff pages for extensions and email address: Rev. Jan Brittain, Rev. Susan Norman Vickers, Rev. John Bletsch.