Membership
Becoming a Member of Park Slope Presbyterian Church
All of our neighbors, believer and skeptic alike, are warmly invited to visit our church, and to investigate for as long a time as is helpful to investigate the claims of Christ and the work of his Spirit in the members of this congregation. There are countless ways for our neighbors to become involved in many aspects of our shared life together in the borough. However, that which has been true of most churches throughout history is also true of us: committed church membership is a privilege and responsibility that we encourage regular attenders to strongly consider. Membership in Park Slope Church means that you have committed yourself to this family of believers, that you have agreed to participate fully in the life, ministry, and mission of our church. The process of becoming a member of Park Slope Church looks like this:
1. The membership Seminar- The regularly offered "Introduction to Park Slope Church" seminar is ordinarily the first step, although it in no way obligates you to membership.
2. The Membership Interview- After the seminar, you need to take the initiative and speak with a member of the pastoral staff regarding setting up a membership interview. Generally, these meetings last about 45 minutes and are designed to allow us to get to know you better, to hear how you came to be a Christian and what God is doing in your life, and to allow you to ask any questions you might have about the church. The staff member will ask you to give assent to the five membership vows.
3. Reception- Following the interview, the Temporary Session will meet to receive new members into the church. Then, at a Sunday worship service, you will be asked to come forward and affirm publicly the membership vows. Those who have not been baptized previously will receive Holy Baptism at that time. And welcome to Park Slope Church!
If you are trying to decide what to do about membership, then please keep two thoughts in mind:
On the one hand, you shouldn’t join Park Slope Church unless you are ready to be committed. People sometimes join a church for all the wrong reasons—either due to pressure from friends or family (“when are you finally going to join?” “that’s where all my friends are,” etc.) or out of mere social custom (“we’d like to get married here,” “we want to have our child baptized,” “I like the music,” etc.) Since membership vows are a covenant, you should not join unless you can honestly and self-consciously affirm all the implications of the membership covenant.
On the other hand, baptism and church membership are normative for the Christian life—a life lived within the community of the church. If you are a committed follower of Jesus Christ, then Christ calls you to active membership in his church (though not necessarily at Park Slope Church, of course), including, if you’ve not already done so, receiving Holy Baptism. Remember those words of St. Cyprian: “No one has God as his Father who does not have the church as his mother.”
Whether or not you officially join Park Slope Church, we pray that God would use this church to change your life and to equip you to change the lives of your friends and family. We are delighted to have you as a part of this worshipping community that we believe God will indeed use to transform Brooklyn through the gospel of Jesus Christ.