Covenant of Belonging
A guide for belonging at Forum — what we believe, and what it looks like to live it together.
If you’re holding onto this, it’s because you’ve started wondering whether this might be your church. This page is yours to keep and return to — a record of what Session One and Session Two walked through together, whenever you want to revisit it.
Membership here isn’t a service you consume or a club you join. It’s a covenant — a binding, mutual commitment between two parties about how they will treat one another. Covenant, not consumer. Not a transaction. A vow.
Who We Are
In 1954, eleven people began meeting in a sheep barn on the old Boone County Fairgrounds — the property we now call the ARC. Without a dedicated building or programming, they wanted to unite around the truth of God’s Word and follow Jesus together. That is still the whole vision. The only real difference between them and us is that there are a few more of us now (and we don’t have a sheep barn).
The Restoration Movement
Forum stands in the Restoration Movement, born in America in the early 1800s, from a simple desire: to clear away centuries of accumulated human tradition and return to the Christianity of the New Testament. Jesus at the center, and the authority of the Scriptures, guiding all that we do.
In essentials, unity. In opinions, liberty. In all things, love.
On the things that are truly central, we stand together. On the variety of secondary questions, we give each other room. And in everything — love.
Our Roots
Five things baked into our DNA — what a church aligned with the Restoration Movement looks like practically.
- What’s your story with Forum — what brought you here, and what’s kept you coming back?
- What do you think it means to be a member of a local church? Have you been a member elsewhere? “Covenant, not consumer” — does that reframe how you’ve thought about belonging to a church?
- What is your faith background, and how does it align with or deviate from our background? Are you familiar with the Restoration Movement? What questions does it raise?
Our Statement of Faith
Seven statements, in three movements — held by followers of Jesus for almost 2,000 years.
Seven — On Purpose
We could have written seventy. We didn’t. We drew a circle around what is genuinely essential and left room for liberty on the hundreds of secondary questions Christians have always disagreed about.
These doctrines aren’t a wall to keep people out — they’re the shared foundation that lets very different people belong to one another. You cannot covenant with people you share nothing with.
Eleven in a barn, or 2,500 across a city — one body, instead of a crowd attending the same building.
- Which of the seven is easiest to affirm wholeheartedly? Which is hardest, or raises a question?
- Where have you seen doctrine used to divide? Why might a lean confession matter?
- Baptism by immersion is part of how we receive members — where are you in your own baptism story?
The Hinge of Everything
The way God has loved us is the pattern for how we now love each other.
Every commitment, every act of service flows downstream from love we have already been given. None of it earns God’s love — all of it lives in response to it.
We Belong to Each Other
The New Testament’s dominant picture of the local church: a body.
“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.”
Romans 12:4–5
We don’t become members of an institution. We become members of each other.
“Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.”
Colossians 1:18
If Christ is the head, the church is not mine to consume, and not mine to control. It’s His.
A Mutual Covenant — It Runs Both Ways
Membership isn’t a one-way list of demands the church loads onto you. When you enter this covenant, your leadership is making commitments to you, too.
Our leadership, comprised of elders and ministry staff, two communities of servant-leaders, commits to shepherd this church (prayer and the ministry of the Word, spiritual care, a life worth imitating) and commits to serve this church (equipping every member for ministry, stewarding resources to meet practical needs, mutual accountability, and engagement in God’s mission).
Covenant, Not Contract
Conditional. Self-protective. It exists because I don’t fully trust you.
Committed not out of leverage, but out of love already received.
A covenant of belonging is not a terms-of-service agreement.
The Commitment to Purpose
We believe the purpose of the local church is to praise and glorify God (Eph. 1:3–14), display His grace and greatness (Eph. 3:10), and equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12).
Those who enter a covenant of belonging with Forum Christian Church enter a shared commitment to one another and to the church’s purpose.
If you are interested in more, we did an 8-part teaching series entitled “The Covenant of Belonging.”
- Which of the seven member commitments comes most naturally? Which one stretches you the most?
- “Covenant, not contract.” In your own words — what’s the difference, and why might it matter here?
- Your leaders make commitments to you, too. Does being under spiritual leadership give you more pause, or more relief? Why?
Gifted to Serve
So what’s your part? It starts with worship.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”
Romans 12:1
Serving the body is the shape a surrendered life naturally takes.
Not one is given for your status or résumé. The Spirit placed a gift in you on purpose, and the purpose is for those around you.
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.”
1 Corinthians 12:4–7
“The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”
1 Corinthians 12:22
Nobody’s grateful for their elbow — until it stops working, and suddenly you can’t eat, dress, or lift your kid. The body needs it desperately. So stop waiting to be the hand or the face. Be the elbow God made you to be.
This language was used in part 6 of our Covenant of Belonging series, in a message entitled “Gifts of the Holy Spirit” by Tyler Hensley.
The Gifts — One List
Every gift the New Testament names, gathered from four passages: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. Not an exhaustive list of the Spirit’s power, but a picture of how wide the Spirit’s generosity runs.
No one list is meant to be exhaustive, and no one person gets them all or is guaranteed just one gift for their entire lifetime. That’s the point — the body needs what you were given.
Being a Member Is Not Spectating
Being a member is not about finding a good seat and watching others use their gifts. You have a gift the Spirit gave you on purpose, and this body genuinely needs your part.
“It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
1 Corinthians 12:11
“But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.”
1 Corinthians 12:18
Statistically, about 50% of those who gather on a Sunday served in some capacity last year. Encouraging for sure, but not God’s design. God didn’t build the body to run at fifty percent.
Devoted & Accountable
“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”
Acts 2:42
Devotion isn’t a feeling. It’s a commitment that shows up on a calendar.
Love. Serve. Forgive. Encourage. Bear with. Honor. … one another.
You can’t do one in the abstract — each requires actual, specific people. Membership is what makes the one-anothers possible.
Accountability makes belonging safe
To be a member is to be known — really known — cared for and watched over, and loved enough to be told the truth. That isn’t a threat to your belonging. That is the belonging.
Devotion comes first
Healthy accountability works between people devoted to each other, and devotion works only when we let someone in.
We often won’t take correction from someone we don’t love, and we can’t be loved by someone we keep at a distance.
Accountability in Matthew 18
Aimed at restoration.
Privately, just the two of you → bring one or two others → only then, the church.
The goal, in Jesus’ own words, is to gain your brother back. It’s designed to restore a relationship, not destroy one.
“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. I also tell you this: if two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
Matthew 18:15–20
For some, the words “church discipline” don’t sound like protection — they sound like a wound. People have watched this done in cruel, controlling, unbiblical ways. That’s real, and grievous, and we won’t rush past it.
But the abuse of a thing does not erase the right use of it. Done the way Jesus describes — gentle, patient, grieved, aimed at restoration — that is not abuse. That is love.
Devotion gives someone a key to your life. Accountability is letting them use it.
It is not a program. It is what happens when love has permission to tell the truth. And it doesn’t stop between us.
Shepherds, Not Bosses
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.”
Hebrews 13:17
“…not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”
1 Peter 5
Submitting to that kind of leadership isn’t a threat — it’s a protection.
Scripture gives the same word to our shepherds: they keep watch over your souls “as those who will give an account” (Heb. 13:17). You are accountable to them because they are accountable for you.
Your Next Step
The pathway to living as a member at Forum.
Connect Event
A season of experiencing our church community — at least six months.
The Covenant Course
Participation in this class.
An Elder Conversation
A one-on-one conversation with an elder.
Affirmation & Baptism
Public affirmation of our core doctrines, and baptism by immersion if that step is still ahead.
A Place to Serve
Finding a place to use your gifting for the sake of others.
If something landed hard — a question, a doubt, a wound, an honest “I’m not sure I’m ready” — having a conversation is a great next step to take. Let the elder who led your table know.
- Which one or two gifts feel most like you? Where have others affirmed your gifts before?
- Where do you sense God might be inviting you to serve in this body?
- What’s one honest barrier — time, fear, a past bad experience — that has kept you on the “spectating” side?
Don’t Let It Cool Off
Wherever you are, from your first time in the building to fifty years in, we believe there’s a next step of faith in front of you. If something is stirring, don’t let it pass. Take the step.
Your table leader has Covenant Cards to sign if you are ready to join our church community. If you’re not ready yet, that’s okay — we’d love to hear why.
Welcome to the family.