*We are in the middle of a series of articles on our church covenant. If you haven't yet read the other articles in the series, you can check them out in the links posted below this article.

Our covenant continues  with the following:

Section 3: “We will walk together in brotherly love, as becomes the members of a church; exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully confront and correct one another as occasion may require.”

Walking together in love (Romans 12:10)  is core to functioning as a local church because it is the primary way those outside the Christian community will recognize us as believers (John 13:35). But how do we love each other? Certainly this means affection, and not just action. When 'love' is only action it is meaningless (see 1 Corinthians 13). But, the love we share is affectionate care: practical love (Galatians 6:10) that makes meals, visits the sick, and prays for each other (James 1:27, 2:16-18).  It’s also a watchful love: the kind of love busy looking out to protect each other from sin and mistakes (James 5:19-20).  This means that we love each other by admonishing and entreating each other when we sin. Now, in our day, some would say that for you to speak truth into my life or to call me out when I’m in sin is close-minded, judgmental and unloving.  I’m telling you that’s not true. The most loving thing you can do for me if I’m struggling in sin is to come and speak with me about it.  A church is a place where we can at the same time speak hard truths and be filled with grace. Our covenant says that we must have affection and watchfulness. If all we had was affection, we would never help each other's holiness, and we would fail to reflect the concern for holiness our God has. On the other hand, if we watched out for each other spiritually without lending a hand, we would miss God's heart for helping our family in need.

Section 4: “We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for ourselves and others.”

As we know well from Hebrews 10:23-25, we’re commanded in Scripture to meet together regularly. This is why when we become members here we commit to assembling to learn God’s Word, to sing God’s praises and to pray to God together. The primary meeting we expect all members to attend is the Sunday morning gathering. We also expect our members to show up for evening services if they are able. By assembling together each week we take the first step toward growing in unity with each other.  So as a member, we expect you to come together regularly on Sundays to worship. Do people have vacations? Do things come up? Yes. To "not stop meeting together" does not mean we are in sin if we miss a service. But it does mean we are being unfaithful to the Lord and one another if we quit coming. In my experience, when someone stops assembling with other believers on a regular basis it usually reflects one of two things: either they’re in sin or they’re about to be. Sin keeps us from meeting together, but meeting together helps us to fight against sin.  So when you’re struggling with sin, you should stay away from here until you’ve cleaned up your act, right?  No!  That’s a lie of Satan.  The last thing you should do when you’re struggling is to stay away from the means of grace God has given you to fight for fellowship with him.  Don’t forsake assembling with the church.

You will notice at the end of the fourth section we are committing to pray for one another, in the spirit of Ephesians 6:18 and James 5:16. I hope you do this! If you want to know specifically how to pray for others in the church, here are some ideas: (1) join a connection group and be radically faithful to it, (2) attend on Sunday evenings to be in the corporate prayer meeting, and (3) keep your church directory close by.

But did you see that we also should not neglect to pray for ourselves? You might not think of that as a churchly duty, but instead more of an individual discipline. Of course you know the Christian is supposed to pray for himself (Luke 11:1-4) but you may wonder why this would be in our covenant. But think about it - one of the best things I can do for my church is pray for myself (and the same is true with you). The people of FBC would not be better off one year from now if I stopped praying for myself today - if I stopped confessing my sin, stopped asking God for wisdom, stopped praising the Lord in my prayer, stopped searching my heart in prayers of examination - they would be worse off in all kinds of ways. If you knew my heart, you would ask me to pray for myself! And this is true with all of us - it is most loving toward the rest of our church family to regularly talk to God about ourselves, and not just others.

Next week, we will take a closer look at the next couple of sections in our covenant.

(1) Their Saturday Bible study attendance has grown from 9 to regularly 16-20. (2) Benjamin and Bernice are discipling five families and two singles right now - pray for their growth into maturity. (3) They need to move to a bigger location. (4) They are starting a youth ministry soon. (5) They are also trying to purchase an FM radio station for gospel ministry.