A Church Covenant is an agreement between a church member and a church. The agreement can be pretty wide and diverse,
but by and large it seeks to set forth in writing the expectations that a member should have about the church and the
expectations that a church has from a member. Like most agreements its aim to maximize the mutual benefit between a
church and its members.
A Church Covenant often has several parts. On the part of the church, the church covenant often states that the member
can expect the church to try to remain faithful to what it believes the Bible mandates for the church to do and be.
Some things that might be included in this are that they church will elect pastors who faithfully preach and teach the
Bible, God's Word, to the people. It might also include the responsibility on the part of the church to help any member
that finds themselves in need, either financially, emotionally, etc. It might also include the church's responsibility
to try to grow for the purpose of bringing more people into God's family (more souls into God's kingdom as is might have
been put in the past). A church covenant does a great job of clearly presenting to each member what they can expect
from the Church.
A Church Covenant also clearly delineates what a church expects out of its members. The church expects the member to
be a born-again believer in Jesus, as the Bible defines Christianity. The Church also expects the member to be living
as righteously as possible, with no areas of unconfessed gross sins in their life. Furthermore, quite often a church
covenant expresses the expectation that a church has that each of its members support the church with their time and
their money. That means that each member needs to make an effort to volunteer to serve the church through any of its
different ministries. These ministries include visitation, nursery work, Sunday school outreach, etc. The way that
the church expects each member to support the church with their money is by expecting each member to give ten percent
of their income back to the church. The Bible teaches that everything we have is a gift of God. They money we earn
comes from the talents, skills, education and opportunities that God has given to us. We are stewards of our times and
money and we are responsible to God to invest them in such a way as to be pleasing to him. Part of how we are to manage
our money is that we are to give back to 10 percent of it that funds the church's ongoing ministry in this world.
A Church covenant makes their expectations that the church has from its members very clear.