STONEY CREEK, ON—A local Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) church has learned that being purpose driven can drive members away.

Stoney Creek Alliance Church senior pastor Rick Wells was hired almost two years ago, and says he recognized even before came on staff that “an entire restructuring of the church needed to take place.”

“We established that we needed to be a purpose driven church rather than a program driven church,” he says.

Drawing on teachings from Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church, six purposes were selected as core for the church: worship, ministry, evangelism and mission, fellowship, discipleship, and stewardship.

A membership covenant, (lifted directly from The Purpose Driven Church,), which Wells describes as “a cultural agreement,” was drawn up with the intent of ensuring that church members would be only those who “are actively participating and engaged in all of the purposes that the church embraces,” so the church might become “a vital part of the fabric of the community.”

As the church restructured, the leadership structure also changed, and a new elders board implemented a new membership process.

The one-page “Stoney Creek Membership Covenant,” asks those who sign to agree to the church’s “statements, strategy and structure,” as outlined in a 50-page membership booklet, and to commit themselves “to God and to the other members [of the church],” in doing a number of things.

“I will protect the unity of my church: by acting in love toward other members, by refusing to gossip, by following the leaders,” is the first point outlined in the covenant. Signatories similarly declare their intent to share the responsibility of the church, serve the ministry of the church and support the testimony of the church.

“The board thought that it was important that all [church ministry] leaders be on the same page,” says Wells. “So for a person to be in a ministry leadership position, the person had to be one who had signed the church governance and was in agreement with the board and all the other ministry leaders.”

But two ministry leaders refused to sign, and thus “forfeited their ministry leadership,” says Wells.

One of them is Doris Skirrow, 70, who was an active member of the church for 33 years. She says she and her husband didn’t want to sign the covenant for a number of reasons: they don’t believe it’s biblical, the membership guidebook says voting “creates division,” and outlines that the church is targeting its outreach to a specific demographic, 25-55 year olds. Skirrow and her husband used to lead a seniors’ ministry at the church that drew non-believers and says they were left to wonder, “Where do we fit into this?”

“When you read all the fine print—you’re committing yourself to a man-made document. [But] isn’t everything between you and God?” she asks.

Skirrow and her husband now worship at another Alliance church. They also continue to act in leadership roles with the same group of approximately 50-60 seniors, but the group now meets off church property.

Wells says in total, the church has lost 33 members and gained 35, essentially leaving its membership rolls “about the same.” He adds that of the 33 members lost, only “a handful” left due to disagreements with the written covenant.

Renewal process
While only ministry leaders and new members of the church have been asked to sign the agreement thus far, a “membership renewal” process is planned to take place in two years time, during which all members will be asked to renew their membership by signing the covenant. That some people aren’t comfortable with such commitments is no deterrent to church leadership.

Darryl Knechtel, chairman of the church’s board of elders, says they simply want people to be accountable. “This is one of the ways that people can be accountable to living and protecting the church the way we think the church should be.

“Rick Warren says sometimes you don’t get enough out of people because you don’t ask them, and this covenant is a way of getting the best out of people because you’re asking them to make a commitment.”

The church’s membership guidebook says, “We never ask our members to do more than the Bible clearly teaches. We only expect our members to do what the Bible expects every Christian to do.” But Skirrow says there’s no biblical precedent for insisting leaders and members sign a written covenant.

“I reread over the whole book of Acts—and it didn’t say anything there about having to sign a covenant,” she says. “It just said [people] believed and were baptized and added to the church.

“If that was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.”

Asked how his denomination views such covenants, C&MA president Franklin Pyles says they are “fair,” assuming that, “they’re reasonable and useful and within the general norms” of evangelical expectations.