Membership Class in a Box

Imagine if your church could host an evening that is jam-packed with delicious food, fun activities and exciting presentations as a membership class. Imagine if someone did all the work creating a customizable template to help you assist potential members in learning more about your church ministries, vision and beliefs. We have good news. Help is on the way!

To help our Network of affiliated churches advance to General Council status, Superintendent Roncone has created a membership class called “Discover Our Church” that can be customized to meet your needs. The class is designed for a lunch or dinner meeting jam-packed with delicious food, fun activities, interactive table discussions, and a short vision and doctrinal presentation. The entire event is about two hours and can be used in churches of all sizes around one round table or as many as you need to accommodate your own group. While pastoring in Aurora, Colorado, Superintendent Roncone used this format to usher hundreds of people into church membership.

Everything is done for you with a complete script that can be customized, helpful downloads and different options you can choose from. All you need is enough round tables that seat six to use this model. That means you can do a membership class as small as six or as large as you need. It can be done at your church, a recreational center, or even as a banquet at an event center. We even provide a script that you can download and customize.

Here is the order of service for this two-hour, fast-moving, and action-packed event. We have also provided a resource link below to download examples and a customizable script.

1. 1. Prelude Music. Play fifteen minutes before the discover lunch/dinner starts.
   2. Opening Remarks. Opening and prayer by the pastor (3 minutes).
   3. Dinner and Fellowship. Lunch or dinner around round tables with food being buffet style (25 minutes).
   4. Introduce History. Read a brief history of your church (8 minutes).
   5. Evening Introduction. The pastor introduces the night (3 minutes).
   6. Why Membership. Reason one presentation (3 minutes).
   7. Table Activity and Explanation. Each table tries to build a snap together skeleton. However, they do not know that one piece is missing. This illustrates what happens when the local church (body of Christ) has members that are not engaged (6 minutes).
   8. Summary of Church Vision. The pastor gives a short summary of the church’s unique vision (5 min).
   9. Table Rotation and Bathroom Break. Everyone rotates seats or tables to meet more people or use the bathroom (7 minutes).
   10. Why Membership. Reason two presentation (4 minutes).
   11. Governance Video. Play short governance video that explains how doctrine, vision, and governance are important considerations when choosing a church (3 minutes).
   12. Tour of Church Website. Quick explanation of church website or other helpful resources (6 minutes).
   13. Doctrinal Summary. Pick from video options the Network has provided to briefly explain the AG’s 16 Fundamental Truths. Five options of different lengths and depths of explanations are provided that you can choose from (5 minutes).
       • Reading a short description of each doctrinal statement.
       • Using a 12-minute video summary of all fundamental truths.
       • Using sixteen three-minute videos explaining and applying each of the fundamental truths.
       • Using an 18-minute interview between General Superintendent Doug Clay and AG theologian Alan Tennison about what the truths are and how they came about.
       • Using a series of short videos from an African international teacher. A short script is provided that can be read in this meeting with the videos being used in a membership 2.0 class with discussion later.
   14. Why Membership. Reason three presentation (3 minutes).
   15. Table Activity and Explanation. Each table tries to build a small puzzle without seeing the picture of what it is supposed to look like. This communicates why it is important to know a church’s vision and where it is going (7 minutes).
   16. Summary of Membership. The pastor summarizes the requirements of membership, provides a copy of the membership application to everyone, and explains how to turn them in (6 minutes).
   17. Fill Out Question Cards. People are encouraged to either turn in a question card or ask questions out loud depending on the size of the crowd.
   18. Break. There is a short bathroom break to collect the questions cards and give them to the pastor. The pastor can then think about how they will be answered later.
   19. Why Membership. Reason four presentation (9 minutes).
   20. Q&A. The pastor answers as many of the questions on the question cards as time allows (15 minutes).
   21. Explanation of Membership Application. The membership application is explained, and the pastor encourages people to turn them in that night if possible (5 minutes).
   22. Closing and Thanks. People are thanked for coming and the evening is closed in prayer (2 minutes).

To access the shared folder with customizable scripts, videos, examples, and other resources related to the membership class, click here.