Covenant of Belonging
A guide for belonging at Forum — what we believe, and what it looks like to live it together.
If you’re holding onto this, it’s because you’ve started wondering whether this might be your church. This page is yours to keep and return to — a record of what Session One and Session Two walked through together, whenever you want to revisit it.
Membership here isn’t a service you consume or a club you join. It’s a covenant — a binding, mutual commitment between two parties about how they will treat one another. Covenant, not consumer. Not a transaction. A vow.
Who We Are
In 1954, eleven people began meeting in a sheep barn on the old Boone County Fairgrounds — the property we now call the ARC. Without a dedicated building or programming, they wanted to unite around the truth of God’s Word and follow Jesus together. That is still the whole vision. The only real difference between them and us is that there are a few more of us now (and we don’t have a sheep barn).
The Restoration Movement
Forum stands in the Restoration Movement, born in America in the early 1800s, from a simple desire: to clear away centuries of accumulated human tradition and return to the Christianity of the New Testament. Jesus at the center, and the authority of the Scriptures, guiding all that we do.
In essentials, unity. In opinions, liberty. In all things, love.
On the things that are truly central, we stand together. On the variety of secondary questions, we give each other room. And in everything — love.
Our Five Instincts
Five things baked into our DNA — what a church aligned with the Restoration Movement looks like practically.
- What’s your story with Forum — what brought you here, and what’s kept you coming back?
- What do you think it means to be a member of a local church? Have you been a member elsewhere? “Covenant, not consumer” — does that reframe how you’ve thought about belonging to a church?
- What is your faith background, and how does it align with or deviate from our background? Are you familiar with the Restoration Movement? What questions does it raise?
Our Statement of Faith
Seven statements, in three movements — held by followers of Jesus for almost 2,000 years.
Seven — On Purpose
We could have written seventy. We didn’t. We drew a circle around what is genuinely essential and left room for liberty on the hundreds of secondary questions Christians have always disagreed about.
These doctrines aren’t a wall to keep people out — they’re the shared foundation that lets very different people belong to one another. You cannot covenant with people you share nothing with.
Eleven in a barn, or 2,500 across a city — one body, instead of a crowd attending the same building.
- Which of the seven is easiest to affirm wholeheartedly? Which is hardest, or raises a question?
- Where have you seen doctrine used to divide? Why might a lean confession matter?
- Baptism by immersion is part of how we receive members — where are you in your own baptism story?
Hesed
God’s loyal, faithful, covenant-keeping love — poured out on his people even in the middle of their failure. Not based on how they perform. Based on who God is.
The way God has loved us is the pattern for how we now love each other. None of it earns God’s love — all of it lives in response to it.
We Belong to Each Other
“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.”
Romans 12:4–5
We don’t become members of an institution. We become members of each other.
“Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.”
Colossians 1:18
If Christ is the head, the church is not mine to consume, and not mine to control. It’s His.
A Mutual Covenant — It Runs Both Ways
Membership isn’t a one-way list of demands. Our leadership — elders and ministry staff, two communities of servant-leaders — commits to shepherd this church, and commits to serve this church, just as members commit in turn.
We believe the purpose of the local church is to praise and glorify God (Eph. 1:3–14), display his grace and greatness (Eph. 3:10), and equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12). Those who enter a covenant of belonging with Forum are entering a shared commitment to the church’s purpose.
Covenant, Not Contract
Conditional. Self-protective. It exists because I don’t fully trust you.
That is Hesed — committed not out of leverage, but out of love already received.
A covenant of belonging is not a terms-of-service agreement.
- Which of the seven member commitments comes most naturally? Which one stretches you the most?
- “Covenant, not contract.” In your own words — what’s the difference, and why might it matter here?
- Your leaders make commitments to you, too. Does being under spiritual leadership give you more pause, or more relief? Why?
Gifted to Serve
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”
Romans 12:1
Serving the body is the shape a surrendered life naturally takes.
“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.”
1 Corinthians 12:4–7
Every gift is given for the body — not for your status or résumé. The Spirit placed a gift in you on purpose, and the purpose is for those around you.
Nobody’s grateful for their elbow — until it stops working, and suddenly you can’t eat, dress, or lift your kid. The body needs it desperately. So stop waiting to be the hand or the face. Be the elbow God made you to be.
Statistically, about 50% of those who gather on a Sunday served last year in some capacity — encouraging, but not God’s design. God didn’t build the body to run at fifty percent.
The Gifts — One List
Every gift the New Testament names, gathered from four passages: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. Not exhaustive — a picture of how wide the Spirit’s generosity runs. No one person gets them all, or is guaranteed just one for a lifetime.
- Which one or two gifts feel most like you? Where have others affirmed your gifts before?
- Where do you sense God might be inviting you to serve in this body?
- What’s one honest barrier — time, fear, a past bad experience — that has kept you on the “spectating” side?
Devoted & Accountable
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
Acts 2:42
Devotion isn’t a feeling. It’s a commitment that shows up on a calendar.
Love. Serve. Forgive. Encourage. Bear with. Honor. … one another.
You can’t do one in the abstract — each requires actual, specific people. Membership is what makes the one-anothers possible.
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.”
Hebrews 13:17
“…not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”
1 Peter 5
Shepherds, not bosses. Submitting to that kind of leadership isn’t a threat — it’s a protection.
Accountability in Matthew 18
Aimed at restoration.
Privately, just the two of you → bring one or two others → only then, the church.
The goal, in Jesus’ own words, is to gain your brother back. It’s designed to restore a relationship, not destroy one.
“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. I also tell you this: if two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
Matthew 18:15–20
For some, the words “church discipline” don’t sound like protection — they sound like a wound. People have watched this done in cruel, controlling, unbiblical ways. That’s real, and grievous, and we won’t rush past it.
But the abuse of a thing does not erase the right use of it. Done the way Jesus describes — gentle, patient, grieved, aimed at restoration — that is not abuse. That is love.
Accountability makes belonging safe. To be a member is to be known — really known — watched over, and loved enough to be told the truth. That isn’t a threat to your belonging. That is the belonging.
The Pathway to Membership
Connect Event
A season of experiencing this community — at least six months.
The Covenant Course
Participation in this class — the one you’re in right now.
An Elder Conversation
A one-on-one conversation with an elder.
Affirmation & Baptism
Public affirmation of our core doctrines, and baptism by immersion if that step is still ahead.
Welcome
Finding a place to use your gift for the sake of others. You’re family.
Not a test. Not an interrogation. If something landed hard — a question, a doubt, a wound, an honest “I’m not sure I’m ready” — that is exactly where it belongs. A pastor who wants to hear your story and pray with you. Don’t carry it out the door by yourself.
Wherever you are on the path — first time in the building, or fifty years in — there is a next step of faith in front of you. If something is stirring, don’t let it cool off. Take the step.
We end where God’s people always end: at the table of Jesus. He is the truest picture of Hesed there has ever been — loyal love that gave its own blood so we could belong to God, and to each other. Welcome to the family.