Partnership Commitments

At Elm City Church we want to help you grow in your discipleship to Jesus. These commitments are the essentials for how we want to help you grow in your spiritual journey and be a church that is united together on mission. This is not designed to be a checklist, rather these are six areas of mutual commitment:

Active Participation in the life of the Church: Because we don’t want you to go at it alone, and because we are all prone to stumble, we believe that active participation in the life of the church is crucial. This includes consistent Sunday worship and participation in a smaller, intentional discipleship relationship (Life Group or any other identifiable group that is committed to personal spiritual growth, growth as a community, and growth in mission) is an essential partnership commitment (Heb. 10:24; Rom 12).

Serving the local church with your gifts: Because God has gifted you and wants you to be a participant in his mission, we want to help you use your spiritual gifts and talents for mutual edification and community outreach (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12, 1 Peter 4:10-11, Eph. 4:11-16). Every partner should be able to identify where they are serving.

Generosity: A generous life is the best type of life and reflects the grace of God. A lifestyle of generosity that includes systematic giving to the financial needs of the church as an act of worship is an important part of following Jesus and partnering with a local church (1 Cor. 9:1-18; 2 Cor. 9:6-12).

Personal Spiritual Growth: It is important that our doing FOR God does not outpace our being WITH God. Knowing Jesus is the very best thing there is and we want to help you grow in that (Psalm 1).

Missional Focus: It is important that partners view themselves as missionaries and their spheres of influence as a mission field.

Promoting Unity: Our love for each other and our unity is one of the most powerful witnesses to the outside world. Because of this we will commit to promoting unity in the body by communicating in truth and love, and settling all differences with one another in humility and in accordance with the Scriptures. (Rom. 12:5; John 17:21; Gal. 6:1-2).

Congregational Responsibilities of partners

Elm City Church is part of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). The EFCA is congregational in its church governance, meaning, the highest authority (under Christ) is the collective voice of the congregation. All partners, and only partners, have input and rights of approval in five key areas. The specific process for how this works can be found in the church bylaws.

Calling and removal of the Senior Pastor.
Selecting the Board of Directors.
Approval of the annual budget.
Approval of major facility purchases and/or decisions.
Affirmation of Membership.