10/27 Member Meeting Notes
1. ELDER CANDIDATE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Brian announced that the elders have invited Matt Low and Eric Davis into the elder candidacy process. After participating in Relational Elders Training this year, they have both indicated a sense of calling to the office and Brian and I believe that this is the Lord's leading.
At this point we are working with them both as Gospel Community leaders, participants in elders meeting discussions, and on a list of "to-do" reading and writing assignments to continue to assess their character, calling, capability, capacity, and chemistry for service as an elder.
Each new candidate (along with Jake Nelson who has been a candidate for about a year) are on their own journey through this somewhat custom tailored process, but at some point, should they continue, we will bring them before the membership for a vote.
It's important for all of us to be aware of this as we "carefully observe the outcome of their lives" (Heb. 13:7) in anticipation of the day when we are asked if we believe that they are qualified for this office and that we are willing, as members of the church, to submit to their leadership.
2. 2025 GIVING FUNDS AND TEAMS
Jake shared that we will be developing several giving teams to help steward our financial resources in the areas of Education, Mission, and Benevolence beginning in 2025. These teams will be led by Finance Deacon Laura Lambas and will each have 2 other positions per team that need to be filled by members of the congregation. The teams are as follows: Christian Education – Provision for students entering college, seminary, or other educational endeavors. Mission – Resources for bringing the gospel to those outside the church – locally, regionally, and globally. Benevolence – Funding to meet tangible needs in the congregation and throughout the community. The teams will be tasked with developing policy on how to allocate and distribute resources for their respective area of responsibility, and most needs will be handled directly by those teams moving forward.
As Jake discussed in the meeting, this new system was developed in response to a request by my daughter, Charis, about the church funding a matching scholarship from her college. Since this was a conflict of interest for me, we began to get counsel on ways to manage financial requests of similar kinds as the church grows.
These three giving teams will be our next step in deepening the transparency and hopefully the effectiveness of our stewardship of ministry funds.
If you have a passion for any of these three areas of ministry and want to join a team, please reach out to Laura for more information.
3. PROPOSED BYLAW AMENDMENT
I brought forward a proposed amendment to our bylaws for your consideration to be voted on at the January 2025 member meeting. Article 7, Section 2 currently reads:
Members of Revelation Church shall be those who:
- have been saved through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;
- have been baptized by immersion;
- agree with the Doctrinal Statement;
- have completed a membership orientation course;
- have reached the age of eighteen (18) years old.
The elders are proposing that it be amended to read:
Members of Revelation Church shall be those who:
- have been saved through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;
- have been baptized by water subsequent to their personal confession of faith;
- agree with the Doctrinal Statement;
- have completed a membership orientation course;
- have reached the age of eighteen (18) years old.
The reason for this has to do with item (2), which requires all members to have been baptized by immersion (completely going under water). There have been several instances in the history of our church where men and women who have been baptized as believers, but by a different mode (pouring or sprinkling), were required to be re-baptized in order to become members of our church. The elders are concerned that this requirement is harmful because it essentially declares their prior baptism to be invalid.
The proposed language change would allow us to accept members into the congregation whose baptism was conducted after their personal profession of faith but through a mode other than immersion.
This is a contentious topic amongst Baptist churches and I told you I would link to some resources that you could study to prepare for the vote. The following links will take you to articles and videos sharing several perspectives. Please note that most of these articles/videos are primarily concerned with admitting into membership those that had been baptized as infants. We are not interested in this part of the argument - the "who" of baptism. The only question we are thinking about is the "how" and whether the basic positions represented here can inform a change on our restricting the mode of baptism of professing Christians.
PRO "OPEN MEMBERSHIP"
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-i-changed-my-mind-about-baptism/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w181E7OPYR4&ab_channel=TruthUnites
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/a-happy-baptist-happy-to-welcome-others/
ANTI "OPEN MEMBERSHIP"
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/baptism-and-church-membership/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq_ZQRPepRA&ab_channel=DallasTheologicalSeminary
It is our hope that the whole church together would find the mind of Christ for us in this, so please feel free to discuss these issues with Bibles open with the elders, with one another, in your Gospel communities. We are inviting you to take time to listen and discern the way forward on this point and we are looking forward to how God leads us.
4. BELL RINGING WITH THE SALVATION ARMY
We are partnering with The Salvation Army this Christmas season to serve our community through their annual Christmas Kettle Campaign.
Here’s how you can get involved:
- Go to registertoring.com
- Select “I’m Ringing With A Group”
- Select “Find A Group”
- Search for “Revelation Church”
- Find a location & 2 hour timeslot between 11/22 and 12/24 and sign up!
How are Red Kettle Donations Used?
- Youth and family mental health services, bringing accessible help to meet a critical growing need in our community.
- Community partnerships, including St. Vincent DePaul, Love Inc, Post Falls Food Bank, local school districts, and area churches
- Outfitting children with warm winter clothes for families in need through our Clothe a Child: Partnering with Parents program.
- Membership Scholarships, allowing The Center to be accessible to everyone.
- Stocking shelves of local food banks through the Families Feeding Families program.
- Teaching local third graders important water and swim safety through the 3rd Grade Swim program.
- Providing free, healthy snacks to area schools to ensure students always have access to nutritious food throughout the school year.
- Providing structured recess support at Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, and Lakeland elementary schools through the Mobile Kroc program.