Our Newest Members
On April 7, we are delighted to be admitting new children to the Lord’s Table as full communing members of River Oaks. This is an exciting milestone in the lives of these young people and their families, as it marks the time when they publicly declare their faith in Christ!
Throughout the month of March, these children have been meeting with pastors/elders to clarify what they understand about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through this process, they have decided they want to make a good conscience affirmation that they have repented of their sin and turned to Christ for salvation. It’s a very encouraging thing in the life of our church!
As many people are new to the church and perhaps haven’t seen this happen at ROC in recent months, we wanted to answer a few common questions about the process. Click on the questions to expand.
What will happen on April 7?
Each young person who has decided (in conjunction with the pastors and their parents) to take this step will be asked to take normal membership vows (for the PCA) in front of the congregation. The questions are:
- Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God justly deserving His displeasure and without hope save in His Sovereign mercy?
- 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 as He is offered to you in the Gospel?
- 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 Jesus Christ?
- Do you promise to support the church in its worship and ministry to the best of your ability?
- Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the church and promise to promote its purity and peace?
After their public profession of faith, they will be received as full communing members of ROC.
Later in the worship service, we will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper (given that it is the first Sunday of the month). These young people will be able to participate with the adults for the first time!
Will some of them be baptized, too?
Yes. ROC is a Presbyterian church that practices infant baptism (due to our beliefs that God’s covenant with his people has always extended to the children of believing parents). However, in line with the PCA and Presbyterian tradition overall, we do not require members of our church to be Presbyterian. And some of the parents of these children did not have them baptized in the past due to their convictions that only professing believers should be baptized.
Thus, since some of these young people are making their public profession of faith on April 7, they will also receive baptism as the sign of their inclusion in the covenant family of God. (Two sacraments in one day!)
Other children in this communicants class were already baptized previously.
What is the significance of Communion in all this?
This is a great question, since it is called “Communicants Class”!
We believe the Lord’s Supper (a.k.a. Communion, or the Eucharist) is the ongoing sacrament that Jesus himself instituted (at the Last Supper) that nourishes the faith of believers. It is an essential part of the life of the church, whereby we are spiritually united to Christ and to each other afresh as we reflect on the significance of his crucified flesh (=bread) and sacrificial blood (=wine).
The Apostle Paul warns, however, that only true believers should participate.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29
What he means is that someone who engages in the Lord’s Supper needs to be spiritually in a place where he/she can “examine themselves” as to their faith in Christ and be able to understand that the bread and wine are not merely food items, but they represent a deeper spiritual reality, namely, the body and blood of Christ himself.
Most children are not able to do that, for they may think it is still just a snack! But when they are able to articulate this as part of their profession of faith in Christ for salvation, then they may be ready to participate fully in this sacrament.
We hope you are able to join us for worship on April 7 to mark this significant occasion for our newest church members!
