Join Our Church Body
We believe that membership in the local church is clearly taught throughout the Scriptures and that making this commitment to regularly worship with and support the family God is commanded by Him for the benefit of those who love Him. The church body, in return, promises to nourish, support and care for its own through faithful preaching and teaching of the Gospel, as well as, spiritual and material support.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…
The following steps outline the process involved in joining our community:
In order to become a member of Christ the King PCA, one must complete an Inquires’ Class. These classes help folks who may not be familiar with the PCA understand what we believe, how we govern ourselves and what are the privileges and responsibilities of members. These classes meet as necessary during the Sunday School hour.
Once one has completed the Inquirers’ Class, and desires to join the church, a meeting will be arranged with the Elders of the church. At this meeting the prospective member will need to be able to articulate a credible profession of faith in Christ, demonstrate a willingness to live as becomes a follower of Christ, and promise to submit to the government and discipline of the church.
Baptism
At Christ the King PCA we believe baptism is commanded by Christ. Therefore every prospective member of the church must have been baptized, or be willing to be baptized, before becoming a member of the church. Being Covenantal in our theology, we also believe that it is right to baptize the children of believing parents.
Click the link for more detailed information on what we believe about Baptism.
Covenantal
Our denomination stands in the rich, biblical, historic Reformed and Covenantal tradition. Being covenantal simply means we believe that God always relates to men and women on the basis of covenants. A covenant is a formal arrangement between two parties, where the greater of the two lays down the terms. These term spell out both the responsibilities and privileges of the lesser party, with punishment for violation stated.We believe there are two main covenants by which God has chosen to deal with His creatures: The Covenant of Creation (aka the Covenant of Works) and the Covenant of Redemption (aka the Covenant of Grace). In the Covenant of Creation, God laid out all of the terms and conditions by which Adam and Eve would live lives of worship and service to their Creator. Of course we know that our primordial parents became covenant breakers, and incurred all of the fallout of spiritual death and a cursed world reeling under the weight of sin. As a result of the fall of man, which we believe God ordained for His own purposes, God immediately instituted the second major covenant – the Covenant of Redemption. Like the first, this covenant was made with a human whom God chose to be the representative of a progeny. Where Adam failed, Jesus Christ successfully met all the terms of His Father. In doing so, He earned a perfect record of obedience, a human righteousness which is imputed to all for whom He lived and died. He also satisfied divine justice as the sins of His people were imputed to Him as He hung of the cross.
A Covenant that Transcends Old and New
We believe that those who were saved in the Old Testament era were so saved on the basis of faith in the promised Redeemer. “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.” The sacraments for the Old Covenant Church were two: Circumcision and Passover. We also see that the establishment of the New Covenant church was built upon the same conditions as the old – faith in the Redeemer who has come, and that the Old Covenant Sacraments, which were bloody, have been replace by the bloodless New Covenant Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is upon the blood of the better sacrifice of Christ that these sacraments, in simpler form and profoundly greater efficacy, fold the two administrations of the church, old and new, into one body.
Since children of believers were included in the Old Covenant Sacrament of circumcision, and since we see such a great deal of continuity between the Church of the Old Testament and the Church of the New, we believe that children of believers should still receive the Sacrament of Salvation, which now happens to be Baptism.
The Lord’s Supper
On the night in which He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus Christ established the New Testament sacrament of the Lord’s Supper squarely upon the foundation of Passover. In so doing, Jesus declared Himself to be the fulfillment of what the Passover represented. He is the Lamb of God, slain for sinners. A far greater exodus was afoot – deliverance not just from captivity to a foreign nation, but an eternal deliverance from bondage to sin for all who become united to Him by faith. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper every first Sunday of the month.
You can find out more about our theology and views on the sacraments by referring to our Inquires’ Class Manual, which can be viewed online or is available upon request.