Section 1 of this document set out what Members vote on. Section 5 set out the hybrid decisions where the Saints’ vote completes a sequence that began with the Eldership’s discernment. What this Section addresses is the antecedent question: how does a Saint walk into the body’s life, and at what point does Membership become the right step?
The framework’s posture on this matters and is worth stating plainly at the outset. Participation in the body’s life is open to every Saint at every stage. There is no prerequisite for joining a Bible study, a course, a ministry team, a mission activity, or any other aspect of the body’s ongoing work. Membership adds one specific thing — a voice and vote on the body’s legal-entity decisions. Membership is encouraged for Saints who are ready, because those decisions belong by law to those who carry that voice. But Membership is never a condition of belonging, never a condition of integration, and never a gate the body uses to filter who is welcome in.
7.1 — Many entry points into the life of the body
The body extends a standing invitation every week. The invitation goes out from the Sunday gathering, from the body’s website, from the body’s regular communications, and from one Saint to another in the daily rhythms of friendship and ministry. The message is the same in every form: at any stage of your walk with the Lord, you can join in. There is no prerequisite. There is no gate. The body wants you in.
In practice, the standing invitation opens onto many entry points. A Saint walking into the body’s life might begin at any of these, and over time walk through several of them.
- The Sunday worship gathering — the central rhythm of the body, where teaching, worship, communion, and corporate prayer happen together. The Sunday gathering is the regular public moment from which all other invitations are extended.
- A local Bible study or home group — smaller gatherings where Saints meet weekly or fortnightly in homes or in the church facilities for scripture study, prayer, and pastoral care of one another.
- Courses run by the body — typically including an introduction to the Christian faith for those exploring it, a gifts and calling course (Doc 3) for discovering how God has wired each Saint, marriage and parenting courses, discipleship classes, and ongoing leadership development.
- Local mission activities — op-shop, ESL classes, community garden, food relief, prison ministry, school chaplaincy, or whatever the body has discerned the Lord is calling it to in its local context.
- Ministry teams — worship, kids, youth, hospitality, prayer, communications, technical, set-up and pack-down, and the many other teams that serve the body’s life.
- Special events — camps, conferences, prayer gatherings, men’s and women’s events, intergenerational events, baptism services, dedication services.
- Pastoral conversations — a Saint can request a conversation with an Elder at any time, on any matter, and one will be arranged.
Each entry point is overseen by an Elder, or by a Saint walking under an Elder’s oversight. The Elder is not a gatekeeper but an enabler. The Elder welcomes the Saint at whichever entry point they have walked through, and over time helps them see other options for involvement as their journey unfolds. A Saint who began at a community garden working bee might be introduced to the Bible study running in their neighbourhood, then to the gifts and calling course, then to a ministry team. The Elder walks alongside, points to the next step where the Lord is leading, and never pressures.
The result is a body where deep participation is genuinely available without Membership. Saints can give regularly, serve on ministry teams, attend Bible studies, discover and use their gifts, walk under the Eldership’s pastoral care, attend the annual planning workshops, and grow into the fullness of life with the body — all without ever taking the formal step of Membership. The body welcomes them, ministers to them, and walks alongside them faithfully for as long as the Lord keeps them with us.
7.2 — Membership: the formal step that adds voting on the body’s legal decisions
At any point in the journey above, a Saint may choose to take the formal step of Membership. Membership is voluntary. It is never a condition of participation in any of the entry points. Saints can be deeply integrated into the body’s life without ever becoming Members.
What Membership adds is specific and narrow. Members have the right to vote at General Meetings on the legal-entity matters reserved to the Members under Section 1 of this document — Committee election, Constitutional amendments, receiving the audited financial statements, the body’s part in calling a Pastor (where the Constitution provides a Members’ vote), major property transactions, significant borrowing, denominational affiliation changes, and the winding-up of the church. These are the decisions that the law requires Members to decide because they bind the incorporated entity. Members carry that voice and vote; Saints who have not stepped into Membership do not carry it.
The annual plan itself, however, is not on this list. Approving the year’s plan is a spiritual act of corporate commitment open to every contributing Saint, Member or not (Section 1, “Decisions of all contributing Saints”). What Membership adds is the vote on the legal-entity matters, not on the plan.
Members are also tied into specific communications and participation rhythms that follow from carrying that voice — set out in 7.5 below. These rhythms are open to participation by all Saints in many respects: the annual planning workshops are not Members-only, and the affirmation of the annual plan they produce is itself open to every contributing Saint. What remains reserved to Members is the formal vote on the legal-entity matters (Committee, Constitution, statements, property, borrowing, affiliation, winding-up).
The framework strongly encourages Membership for Saints who have walked with the body for a season and are ready to commit. The body benefits when those who are walking with it have voice on the decisions that shape its life. Without Members exercising that voice, the body’s legal-entity decisions can become decisions made by a small group rather than by the broader body that the work belongs to. Membership is the way the body’s broader voice is carried in matters the law requires Members to decide.
But Membership is encouraged through invitation, not required through gatekeeping. A Saint who is welcomed into deep participation will, in the Lord’s timing, often choose Membership as the natural next step. A Saint who is not yet ready remains welcome at every entry point. The body’s posture is open door, not membership-funnel.
7.3 — When you might consider taking the step
Membership is the formal moment when a Saint commits to the body and the body commits to the Saint. As you walk with the body, the Lord may direct you to make that formal commitment. Some Saints take the step within months of beginning to attend; others take it after years of walking alongside. Both are normal. The step is suitable when you are ready, before the Lord, to:
- Affirm the Statement of Faith of the body as your own — walking with this body in shared doctrine and shared confession.
- Walk under the Eldership’s spiritual oversight in matters of doctrine, discipline, and direction — and, in the rare case that the body’s discipline becomes necessary, to walk through it with the body in restoration rather than departure.
- Carry a voice on the body’s legal-entity decisions, with the seriousness those decisions warrant — which means receiving the communications about those decisions, participating in the discernment that leads to them, and committing to give regularly in support of what the body has agreed to undertake.
These three are not gates that must be passed before Membership is granted. They are the postures that naturally accompany a Saint who is ready to commit formally. If you can say yes to these in clear conscience before the Lord, you are ready to apply. If you are not yet ready, the body welcomes you to continue walking alongside until the moment is right. Regular giving, gift discovery, ministry participation, annual planning workshop attendance, and standing with the body at public installations are encouraged for every Saint walking with the body — not as gates to Membership but as the normal rhythms of integration the body welcomes everyone into.
7.4 — The Membership process
The framework’s recommended process, drawn from Doc 6 and Doc 11 Approach B clause 2.1:
- The Saint applies in writing to the Eldership.
- The Saint has a conversation with at least two Elders, where the six commitments above are discussed, the Saint’s faith journey is heard, and any questions are addressed.
- The Eldership confirms the application at a regular meeting, subject to the Saint meeting the Membership criteria in the Constitution.
- The Saint is publicly admitted at a worship service, where the body welcomes them and prays for them.
- The Saint is added to the Members’ Register and is from that point a voting Member with full Member rights and responsibilities.
The framework recommends that the application-to-admission process take no longer than six to eight weeks, so that the Saint who is ready does not wait unnecessarily and the body is able to welcome them promptly.
7.5 — What Membership ties the Saint into
Becoming a Member ties the Saint into the body’s ongoing life in specific ways that follow from carrying the voice and vote on the body’s legal decisions. Some of what is described below is open to all Saints walking with the body (the participation rhythms, the pastoral care, much of the communications). Some of it is specifically tied to Membership (the voting eligibility, the supporting materials for that voting, the formal nomination eligibility). Items below marked All Saints are open to every Saint walking with the body, Member or not; the few left unmarked are the ones that Membership specifically carries.
Communications the Member receives
- All Saints: The Annual Prospectus — the document presented at the Annual General Meeting that sets out the year’s ministry works, the budget, the funding ask, and the discerned direction.
- All Saints: The annual audited financial statements and the body’s annual report.
- Notice of the AGM, of any Special General Meeting, and of any Constitutional amendment under consideration — with the supporting materials needed to vote responsibly.
- All Saints: The minutes of General Meetings, within a defined period after each meeting.
- All Saints: The Committee’s regular operational reports — typically quarterly — covering financial position, ministry activity, and significant decisions made under delegated authority.
- All Saints: Sub-annual transparency on funding status against named ministry-works targets (per Doc 5 §5.8 — typically a six-weekly update so the body always knows where the year stands against the Prospectus commitments).
- All Saints: Notices of identification processes for new Elders, Deacons, or Five-Fold ministers — including invitations to participate in the Body Input stage (Stage D of Doc 6 Part Four).
Participation the Member contributes
- All Saints: Attendance at the Doc 5 Stage 3 annual planning workshops, where the body discerns together what the Lord is doing.
- All Saints: Receipt and consideration of the Eldership’s data review (Stage 2) before workshops begin.
- All Saints: Voice in the body’s confirmation of new leadership at public installations.
- Eligibility for nomination to the Committee or, in time and where qualified, to the Eldership through the Doc 6 Part Four identification process.
- Voice and vote at the AGM and Special General Meetings on the matters reserved to the Members (Section 1 of this document).
Generosity the Member offers
- All Saints: Regular giving to the body — not as a tax-deductible donation but as worship and as participation in the body’s work.
- All Saints: Response to the Prospectus and the named ministry works the body has agreed to undertake.
- All Saints: Giving in trust that the Eldership is leading the body faithfully and the Committee is stewarding the resources well.
Care the Member receives from the body
- All Saints: Pastoral care from their assigned pastoral-care Elder (per the 1:25 ratio at scale described in Section 6).
- All Saints: Visitation and prayer at major life events — births, weddings, illnesses, bereavements.
- All Saints: Restoration rather than abandonment if they fall into sin (Matthew 18 process).
- All Saints: A hearing if they raise a grievance under the dispute resolution process.
7.6 — What to expect, in the first year of Membership
A Saint who steps into Membership should expect to:
- Be welcomed publicly at a worship service.
- Know their pastoral-care Elder by name within the first month of admission.
- Receive their first regular communications about the body’s life within the first month.
- Be invited to participate in the next annual planning cycle within the first year — the Doc 5 Stage 3 workshops in particular.
- Be encouraged to take steps toward gift discovery and ministry involvement within the first six to twelve months — typically through the Doc 3 process.
- Walk into deeper relationship with the body over time, finding the place the Lord has prepared for them in the work He is doing through this body.
7.7 — A note on Saints who are not Members
The framework is unambiguous on this. A Saint walking with the body without taking the step of Membership is not a second-class participant. They are welcomed into every entry point, ministered to in every season, prayed for in every crisis, restored in love if they fall. They give as the Lord leads them. They serve in ministry teams. They discover and use their gifts. They attend the annual planning workshops and contribute their voice. They are part of the body in every meaningful sense the New Testament uses the word.
What they do not carry is the formal vote on the body’s legal-entity decisions. The law requires that vote to be exercised by Members. So when the Committee is elected, the Constitution is amended, the budget is approved, or the body affirms the calling of a Pastor (where the Constitution provides a Members’ vote), the decision is made by those who have taken the formal step of Membership. This is not a distinction between belonging and not-belonging. It is a distinction between carrying the legal voice and not carrying it. The body welcomes every Saint into belonging; the body invites every Saint, when they are ready, into Membership and the carrying of that voice.
Where Saints walk with the body for long periods without taking the step, the Eldership and the body honour that journey. There may be many reasons — a Saint may be visiting from another body, may be considering Membership but not yet ready, may have come from a tradition that does not practise Membership in this form, may have specific reasons of conscience. All of these are honoured. The body’s ongoing care for them does not depend on the step being taken.
7.8 — A note for the body’s leadership
The Eldership and Committee carry a responsibility to make participation in the body genuinely open to every Saint at every stage, and to make the Membership journey clear, welcoming, and unhurried for those moving toward it.
In practice this means: the standing invitation goes out every week from the Sunday gathering and through the body’s website and communications; the entry points are visible and accessible; each entry point is overseen by an Elder who enables discussion of further involvement rather than gatekeeping it; visitors and regular attenders hear periodically and clearly what Membership means and how it is entered; Membership preparation conversations are substantive but not bureaucratic; and public admission is a moment of celebration in the body’s life, not a formality.
Above all, the body’s ongoing communications, planning, and ministry rhythms are visibly continuous with what new Members are stepping into — so that joining Membership feels like one more step in a journey the Saint has already been on, not like passing through a gate into a different category of belonging.
Where the Eldership notices that a Saint has been walking deeply with the body for a long period without stepping into Membership, the Elder pastorally overseeing that Saint may, in conversation, invite them to consider whether the moment has come. The invitation is gentle. The answer is the Saint’s. The body welcomes them either way.