Intro

A membership interview might sound intimidating or overly formal, but the opposite is true—membership interviews are a low-pressure, informal way for us to welcome new members into our church in a way that best communicates who a Vintage Church member is and what they do. That’s one of the reasons, whenever possible, we have prospective members do their interview with their community group leader, someone who already knows them and with whom they are already comfortable.

Below you’ll find the interview steps:

Steps for becoming a Vintage Church Member

1. Attend New Members Class (they should’ve done this by the time they get to you)
2. Share their testimony
3. Be baptized (if applicable)
4. Ask any remaining questions
5. Complete the Membership Covenant
6. Notify your location’s membership coordinator

With that laid out, here’s the path to follow in the Membership Interview.

Membership Interview Steps

Before starting the interview, it’s helpful to clear the air with the prospective member about what the interview is and is not. It most certainly isn’t a review to see how good or not good of a member the person will be. The membership interview should be a laid back affair where the person can ask remaining questions, talk about their faith in Jesus, and be encouraged to participate in the life of Jesus’s church. Really there are just two simple goals to the interview: 1. To hear the story of how the person became a follower of Jesus and 2. To ensure they are prepared to complete the steps of becoming a member.

1. New Member Class

Confirm that they have attended New Member Class.

2. Testimony

a. Ask about their testimony—how did they become a follower of Jesus?

b. In your conversation, the goal is for you to feel relatively sure that the person has a credible profession of faith (i.e. they have believed in Jesus for salvation and their life demonstrates the results and fruit of that salvation). If you feel uncertain, you can look for some of these signs of spiritual life.

Living faith drives us…

…to God. Ex. A hunger for God in his word, prayer, worship, etc.
…to God’s people. Ex. A hunger to be with other believers, attend service, be in community, etc.
…away from sin. Ex. Conviction over sin and repentance that led to some, even slight, life change
…away from shame and self-justification. Ex. Growth in humility, willingness to confess sin, no longer explaining away sin, “I feel freer now.”

3. Baptism

a. Ask when they were baptized.

b. If they have yet to be baptized, ask them if they would be willing to reach out about being baptized? Baptism as an expectation of followers of Jesus is discussed in our New Members Class so this won’t be a surprise to them. However, if they have reservations or further questions, you can ask if they would be alright with you connecting them with a Vintage pastor to talk about it further.

c. This is more of a niche scenario, but if they were baptized as an infant and consider this to be their baptism, as in they look at it as their entry point into the people of God (this would be something more like a covenantal understanding of baptism, such as is practiced by Presbyterians, Anglicans, and other faith traditions) then Vintage would not require them to be baptized as a professing adult. However, this is a pretty specific scenario since most people who were baptized as an infant but are now a part of Vintage have come to believe in believers baptism.

4. Any remaining questions?

Ask if they have any remaining questions that might prevent them from completing the membership process. This could be questions about Vintage’s theology, DNA, the 5 Marks of Membership, or truly anything else. The goal here is not that you would be able to answer any question they have but to help identify what questions or concerns, if any, might prevent them from becoming a member. You are welcome to discuss those questions where you feel able to address them, but also feel the freedom to refer them back to whomever led their New Member Class.

5. Membership Covenant

a. Have them sign the membership covenant, linked below.

6. Notify your membership coordinator and that’s it!

When you’ve completed the interview, be sure to let your Vintage location’s membership director know that you’ve done so. This is the same person you can reach out to if you have any questions. Not sure who that is? Ask your location pastor and they’ll have an answer for you.