Don’t Swear in Church (unless you really mean it!)

Imagine yourself standing in front of the church.
Imagine the people gathered in the pews behind you.
Imagine the minister asking you to make vows.
Imagine everyone waiting for your response.
Imagine that you finally muster up the strength to say, “I do.”

Now imagine that we’re not talking about your wedding day.

“I do”— These two little words make up the shortest sentence most of us will ever speak, but they are also of the weightiest words in our vocabulary. We are all familiar with these words when they are spoken by a bride and groom standing together at the altar, but these are the same words spoken in the church by another bride, the Bride of Christ! These same words are used to express our consent to church membership vows when we become members of the church. This book is designed to take those two little words and unpack their implications for each of us as church members.

This short book is written for two groups of people: those considering joining the church and those who already have. Whether you have taken these vows or you are about to take these vows, this book is for you. This should be used as a tool for consideration and contemplation as we ask ourselves questions about how soberly we approach our vows.

The church was purchased with the blood of Christ. That great cost compels us to be very clear about what we are saying when we, the Bride of Christ, tell Him, “I do.”

Rules, rules and more rules— what for?
Let’s ask an obvious question: Why do we have membership vows? Why do we have membership criteria at all? Why don’t we just all come together in one building and whoever shows up, shows up and there are no members, no membership? Why can’t it be like that? It sounds much less exclusive than having to “join” something or take vows, right?

The reason we have church membership is actually quite simple. Christians are referred to as believers. The basis of Christianity is a belief system. Church membership is an acknowledgement by a particular church that the people who are joining the church have a belief system that is consistent with their own belief system. When someone joins the church he doesn’t become a believer; he is acknowledged as a believer. Joining a Christian church requires someone to profess Christian beliefs. If someone’s beliefs are found to be consistent with the beliefs of a particular church, then such a person is welcomed as a member of that church.

Imagine a hypothetical scenario. Let’s say you are the only Christian in a particular city and you have lived as the only Christian in that location for some time. Imagine that one day while shopping at the local grocery store you strike up a conversation with someone. As you make small talk, imagine they say to you something like this: “Well, I’m buying all this stuff because I’m new to town and just getting settled. I have most everything I need except a Bible. Mine is still packed.”

Imagine bells and whistles go off in your head. A Bible? Still packed? Maybe this person owns a Bible for a reason! Remember, in our ridiculously hypothetical scenario you are the only Christian you know. You then ask them, “Why do you own a Bible?” and they respond, “Well, this may sound strange to you since I don’t think there are many religious people around here, but I am what they call a ‘Christian’.” [Again, this is very hypothetical, but stay with me!]

More bells and whistles go off. You whisper to them, “Me too!” and they get a really excited look on their face! As the two of you keep talking, you both pull your carts over to the side and go a bit deeper in the conversation.

“You said you were a Christian, right?”
And they say, “Right!”
“That is unbelievable,” you add, “Me too!”

You probe a little further. Let me ask you another question: “Do you believe that the Bible is God’s Word?”
“Yes, I do!” they exclaim.
And you reply, “Me too!”

And they might ask you in return, “Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead?”
And you reply, “Yes, I have believed that since I became a Christian!”
And they say, “Me too!”

And then you ask another question, “Do you think that when we Christians die we go to heaven?”
And they say, “Yes, I definitely believe that!”
And you say, “Me too!”

That conversation might go on for a while and after swapping several more “me too!” comments, the two of you determine that you have the same fundamental beliefs. At that point the two of you might decide that you should meet together to worship the same God you both believe in! You decide that Sunday mornings are a good time to do it, and you make plans for worship together.

This is a little example is very caricatured, but if you take the essence of this scenario and repeat it over and over again with the two people then talking together to a third person and the three of them talking together to a fourth person and then all of them determining to write down on paper what it is that they all believe in common, then you have a very crude example of how belief systems are established and how churches begin. Doctrine is not a hurdle erected by man to keep people out of the church; it is a summary of what a group of people collectively believe who happen to be part of the same church!