Vow Church

"Go where you are sent, stay where you're put, and do what you're asked." Major Ian Thomas

I stood facing my wife 21 years ago with her hands in my hands promising “to love and to cherish her till death do us part.” I was taking a vow to love my wife as Christ loved the church (Eph.5:25), and that vow before God and man was to be expressed in a daily life of the activity of love to Noelle. Now I have the privilege of standing before God and man to lead them through the taking of vows into meaningful loving relationships in the covenant of marriage. But I also have the same privilege in leading those professing faith in Christ through vows into the covenant of church membership.

As those who have professed faith in Christ come before the congregation of saints in the particular church at Redeemer Presbyterian they are charged to assent to the following vows acknowledging that they are making declarations and promises in a solemn covenant before God and his church:

1. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?

2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?

3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?

4. Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?

5. Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

God by his providence has placed each person and family in this particular congregation of saints, and through these vows is calling them to live in the daily activity of love. It is as though God is saying, “Do you promise to love and cherish my church in the daily activity of your life as I have placed you here by my sovereign will and pleasure?” In the taking of these vows the church member is not merely promising to show up each week to be entertained or soothed by familiar relationships, but to live in the activity of love toward God’s church.

Living as a vow keeping church is our privilege. God has gifted each of his children with money, natural and spiritual gifts, relationships, time, possessions and prayer. It is through all of these that we can actively plan to love his church in the keeping of vows. Jesus teaches us to give. He says, “When you give” (Mt.6:2) not “If you give.” He has ascended into heaven and given gifts to men that the church through the loving use of those gifts we may become mature in Christ (Eph.4:10-16). He has given us one another that we may live in a “one anothering” manner in love. This love may be expressed in encouragement, exhortation, example, correction, rebuke, restoration and confrontation. We are to love in wisdom making the best use of the time (Eph.5:16). We can love with what he has given us through hospitality even when our homes are a mess or our children are young. And we are to love through praying for one another and the church and her ministries. The church is not a mall where there is something for everyone. It is not a theater with 10 different movies showing where we seek our own particular choice of entertainment. The church is the visible body of Christ and his treasured possession expressing love in the keeping of vows. Therefore the church is a visible picture of the cross of Christ. It is at the cross that God demonstrates his love to us while we were sinners justly deserving his wrath and displeasure. It is at the cross that we see God’s covenant keeping love secured and exercised toward all those for whom Christ died. Therefore the church takes her vows before God in the shadow of the cross where they promise to lay down their lives for their brothers and sisters in love in the avenues of worship and work for the glory of God in his church.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, “When you vow a vow to God, do not delay in paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.” (Eccl.5:4) The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, and the fool says in his heart there is no God (Pr.1:7; Ps.14:1). Therefore those who take vows must do so before God, with the right knowledge of God and the vow they take lest they be fools in whom God takes no pleasure. A vow keeping church goes where she is sent in his providence, stays where she is put to keep those vows and does what she is asked in a life of love to God and his church.