5 Reasons Church Covenants Work

Commitments are the secret sauce of spiritual growth. Think back to the key times of growth in your own spiritual journey, and you’ll likely be pointing to times of commitment. For example:

• The moment you gave your life to Christ.
• The day you decided to get baptized.
• The season when you began reading your Bible regularly.

If you want to see your congregation grow closer to Jesus, you need to help them make commitments to the purposes of God. At Saddleback, we’ve done that through a series of covenants where people commit to church membership, maturity, ministry, and missions. 

Spiritual Growth Begins with Commitment

Spiritual growth isn’t automatic. You can grow old without growing up. Growth is a product of commitment. Without commitments, we live in perpetual immaturity. Think about the growth that comes after you accept your first job, or when you get married. You grow up, too, when you have children. No one is ever “ready” for marriage or children. You get ready after you’ve made those commitments. 

The same is true in our relationship with God. That’s why, during my years pastoring Saddleback, we didn’t work toward spiritual commitments. We worked from spiritual commitments. That means we started with whatever commitments people had already made. 

Here’s what that can look like:

When a person makes a commitment to Christ, we lead them toward baptism. Then it’s time for the membership class. 

In CLASS 101, new members sign a covenant where they commit to:

• Protect the unity of the church.
• Share the responsibility of the church.
• Serve the ministry of the church.
• Support the testimony of the church. 

Then those commitments lead to the commitments in the discipleship, ministry, and missions covenants. 

Why Covenants Work

The most important part of a wedding ceremony isn’t the moment the bride walks down the aisle. It’s not when the pastor says the groom may kiss the bride. 

The most important part is when the man and woman exchange vows and make commitments to one another before witnesses. The same is true for church covenants. At Saddleback, our membership, maturity, ministry, and missions covenants are the most important parts of our CLASS system.

Here’s why those covenants are so important. 

1. We become what we’re committed to.

Our lives are a sum of the commitments we make. Sit down with someone and ask them what they’re committed to today, and you’ll know the contours of the rest of their lives (assuming those commitments don’t change). Commitments establish a person’s character. 

That means the key to leading people to grow spiritually is helping them commit to the disciplines that help Christians grow—such as commitments to worship, build meaningful relationships, read the Bible, pray, serve, and share the Good News. 

2. Commitments define churches. 

Your church isn’t defined by its programs or the building it meets in or the pastor’s preaching. What really defines a church is the commitments the people in it make together.

A motto Saddleback has lived out for decades has been, “A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission grows a great church.” During my years as pastor there, that commitment shaped every decision we made.

3. People want to be committed to something that brings significance. 

I always told people in our membership class at Saddleback that they couldn’t do anything more important with their lives than join the church, grow in maturity, get involved in ministry, and begin fulfilling their mission in the world. Those investments would outlast anything else they might do in life. 

People want to give their lives to something important. They long for their lives to count. Intuitively, they know nothing else fits the bill—not their careers, not their hobbies, and not even their families. As a pastor, you have an opportunity to show people a commitment worth giving their lives to. 

4. If you don’t ask, others will.

Everyone seems to ask for commitments these days. Travel sports leagues want families to commit. Employers are pushing for more commitment. If you’re not asking the people in your church to make commitments, their schedules will get packed with everything else. 

As a pastor, part of your job is to guide people toward making the right commitments—ones that help them live out God’s purposes for their lives.

5. Covenants clarify vision and values.

When your church’s members sign on to your church covenant, they know your vision and values. The covenant reinforces the mission and values that drive your church—and ensures that new members understand them and will work toward them in the future.To learn more about how your church can use covenants to drive spiritual growth, check out the CLASS materials.