Church Covenants

[Joseph Patrick]

From Joseph Patrick...aka Gerry Milligan

Seeing all of the blogs on "Wartburg Watch" and Wade Burleson's blog concerning how one church (or is it a pattern among Acts 29 churches) interprets the church covenant they wrote, what has been your experience with a church covenant?

I think that there are many people who have signed a church covenant without a clue as to what it stipulates. Had it not been the bru-ha-ha over BF&M for us on the field, I too might have signed a church covenant.

[Dave Roberts]

Many of the church covenants that are used, particularly in the South are those from the New Hampshire Confession of 1823. I remember when churches used to post large framed copies on the premises. Other churches, particularly after 1960, began to write their own covenants. I have seen a number of them, and they are as varied as possible. I don't know the status of most of them, but in doing interim work and in visiting churches, I have not heard the covenants mentioned in the last several years.

[William Thornton]

Covenants that are used as legally binding documents are a new, seems to me. It's part of the calvinistic push where a lament about unregenerate church membership is followed by implementation of church discipline which often involves binding covenants and authoritative leaders ("elders"). The whole thing is a recipe for spiritual abuse - the selective punishment of disfavored or troublesome church members and cult-like control of members by elders.

The blog queens at WW are on target here.

Reading some elders justification for the system is like a reread of Orwell's 1984.

[Sandy]

The only church covenant I remember seeing at any of the Southern Baptist churches I belonged to, or served on staff, was the one that was in the responsive reading section of the old Baptist Hymnal. I distinctly remember the line about abstaining from the sale or use of alcoholic beverages. I also remember that there was an occasional lesson in the quarterly that referenced it, and discussing in a Sunday School class why the covenant didn't allow drinking, but said nothing about smoking.

When we joined the Christian and Missionary Alliance church where we currently attend, there were five areas that were addressed in our "commitment" to membership that included involvement in ministry, financial support, prayer support, mission support and giving, and fellowship and regular attendance, but it wasn't a covenant or pledge, and we didn't have to sign anything. There was something in the pre-membership class about the role of elders in the church, and a little bit about church discipline and order, but nothing along the lines of elders becoming involved in church discipline if necessary. Of course, the Alliance is not Calvinist, and the authority of the elders stems from the congregation.

"Legally binding" seems like quite a stretch, particularly of something that relies on trust.

[Haruo]

When I got to Fremont (1991) I think a church covenant was pasted on the inside back cover of some of the hymnals. Nobody ever asked me to assent to it, and it was not used in worship. As I recall it involved abstinence from alcohol, among other hyperbiblical notions. At Japanese Baptist on the other hand, in the Japanese-language services, I've been there a couple of times when they recited their covenant in unison. I don't recall the content (and probably didn't understand all of it at the time). I'm fairly sure, though, that it's not used as any kind of requirement for membership or litmus test for fellowship.

[Tim Bonney]

I remember the same thing Sandy does about the covenant and that the most common thing it was used for was to talk about alcohol. Methodist churches have membership vows so we don't have a church covenant. But our membership vows don't get down to specific behaviors like smoking or drinking.

It has always seemed odd to me that some Baptist oppose drinking but smoking is OK when the health problems with smoking may greatly surpass those of alcohol for a majority of people. But then I remember tabacco farmers and I know why.

The calvinist movement William is talking about came along after I was out of the SBC. I've not seen anything coming out of that that looks positive for the SBC. The mild Calvinism of Presbyterians is largely inoccuous. And while Presbyterians have boards of elders, they function basically as a Church Council and don't look to be an abusive group. So I wonder how that has morphed in some Baptist churches into a highly Calvinist board of "ruling" elders. Strange indeed.

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

[Dave Roberts]

I learned amusing reasoning while in seminary in KY. The old church covenant hung on the wall in the foyer of a couple of churches where I preached for a few Sundays. What was interesting was that the only employment near these churches were distilleries. The members were quite precise to tell me that they kept the covenant fully. They "abstained from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage." The covenant said nothing about making it.

[Dave Roberts]

This may be the story that is precipitating this discussion. It seems difficult for me to swallow.



The idea that you covenant to be counseled by a specific congregation's ministry seems way over the top to me. I have often had members who went to other sources of counseling other than our church, and went with my blessing. Sometimes I was too close to the situation to have an objective approach. To remove her from membership seems to get us back to the kind of discipline I have seen reflected in church minutes where someone would be excluded for "dancing." (By the way, the lady who was excluded said she would not repent because she had too much fun. That was in the minutes too.)

Counseling, especially in dealing with the intimate issues of marriage, requires that the counselee have extreme trust in the counselor. That means the person must choose to whom he or she will go to seek to resolve these issues. Prescribing to whom one must go cuts deeply into the trust-building process necessary for that counseling to succeed. Of course, this sounds like the so-called "biblical counseling" being taught at SBC seminaries that debunks all psychology. They would say that I wasted my time studying marriage and family counseling with Swan Haworth, spending a year in studies at the Cumberland County Hospital System in Fayetteville, NC, and spending another year in personal growth counseling at NC Baptist Hospital School of Pastoral Care, but those were some of my best experiences as a Christian to learn and grow.

[Haruo]

[William Thornton]

Bob Allen does a good job in summarizing the Root/Village Church debacle. One of the issues, Dave, is not that the innocent wife of the child porn viewer was excluded from membership but that the church refused to accept her resignation from membership and informed her that she would be "under discipline" according to the covenant she signed because she sought and received a marriage annulment without the approval/consultation/counsel of church elders. This gave BNG the striking headline "Man confesses to child porn, church disciplines his wife".

This is cultish shurch stuff.

The church has sinced backed off and offered an apology of sorts.

[Tim Bonney]

[ET]

William, I was about to post that I would question that these "membership covenants" could be legally binding, but in surfing around I've found a couple of other similar claims. Never thought such things would rise to that level. I wonder if these fall into the same realm as an oral contract or just some contract between two private parties? Wondering what the actual legal ramifications of such a "covenant" are?

Wade Burleson's .

[Dave Roberts]

I have to agree with ET that Burleson's take on this is pretty accurate. It would seem that this is being treated as contract law. The authority structure in this is frightening, especially that this is being sold as the way to bring God's kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven. This kind of legalism is scary because it takes away the right and necessity to think for oneself in relation to God. All that is required is to follow the elders. So much for "soul freedom," as Hershel Hobbs used to describe it.

[Sandy]

[ET]

What is the history of such covenants in Baptist church life. Some guy named Deweese had written a book on covenants and confessions in Baptist history. The church where my son works is considering "covenant membership".

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Hauro, in my 60 years as an adult Baptist member of several different churches I have never been asked, let alone required to sign a church covenant. And most of those churches both SBC and ABC-USA have had the same one, yet I can come close to quoting only two lines; A. "I will not participate in the use or sale of alcohol as a beverage." & B. "When I shall remove myself from this place to another, I will as soon as practiable join with a church of like faith and order." The latter one (B) I hold to quite firmly.

[Haruo]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Haruo]