Membership Covenant

Having received the free gift of being declared righteous through faith in Christ Jesus, having demonstrated our identification with Jesus through baptism, and having experienced the grace of the Lord that progressively transforms us into the image of Jesus, we covenant with one another as functioning, unifying, serving, sacrificing, cherishing, and praying members of The Hills Church.  The commitment God makes with us in the new covenant in Christ creates and controls the commitment we make to each other in this church covenant.  Believing we have experienced grace for the ultimate purpose of glorifying God, we affirm our mission statement to corporately glorify God through transformed lives.  We purpose that the manifested life and ministry of The Hills Church will be expressed in our beliefs, values, attitudes, and actions of knowing God, loving others, and living the Gospel.

Believing eternal life is knowing God and that spiritual fruit bearing is the natural result of abiding in Jesus, we cherish and value our relationship with Him.  Therefore, we purpose, both individually and corporately, to give priority to being in the presence of the Lord, to the reading and the studying of His Word, to participating in worship, to joining Him in good works, and to communing with Him in prayer.  We are committed to view our circumstances and situations as sovereign opportunities to know and experience the Lord more and to make Him known.  We acknowledge that we cannot be light to the world, unless the light of the glory of Christ shines in our hearts.  Therefore, we will exhort, encourage, and pray for each other that, by God’s grace, we will personally and experientially increase in the knowledge of our Lord.

The greatest evidence to the world that we are Christ’s disciples is our demonstration of His love to others, beginning in the church, extending to family and social relationships, and ultimately to strangers and foreigners.  We commit that love will express itself selflessly by not demanding our own preferences, desires, or agenda; by exercising forgiveness and reconciliation; and by genuinely being concerned for the welfare of others.  Knowing that God’s steadfast love compelled Him to give His own Son and desiring to be love-compelled ourselves, we commit to be outwardly rather than inwardly focused, so that loving others sacrificially manifests itself through our participation in missions, evangelism, and discipleship.  We purpose to increasingly abound in grace giving that is sacrificial, cheerful, and voluntary.  In faith, we will pray to the Lord and in a spirit of humility we will exhort each other toward the goal that God will make us increase and abound in love for each other and for all humanity.

The Gospel extends beyond the doctrine we believe to the lifestyle we live.  Fulfilling the requirements of the new covenant is both a gift of divine grace and a command to walk in them.  Therefore, submitting to the authority of Scripture, believing in what God has accomplished for us through Jesus Christ, and depending on the Holy Spirit’s empowering, we purpose to make the grace and truths of the Gospel our own experience.  The standard of spiritual growth is not measured in external morality, but in the life of Jesus exhibited in us, so that our spiritual growth becomes His life, which transforms and manifests itself in and through us.  By the grace of the Lord, we commit to each other that our lifestyle choices, values, attitudes, and activities will be consistent with one who is increasingly experiencing the transforming power of living the Gospel.

We will aggressively pursue a life together that treasures, cherishes, and glorifies God above all else.  May the glory of the Lord rise up among us, so that His glory may be seen and nations drawn to Him.  Wherever in our sphere of influence there is darkness, we desire to be a church set on a hill whose worship, fellowship, and ministries reflect the light of the glory of God.  We exist not for ourselves but for His glory.