Welcome to the very first edition of “Frankly Speaking”! My name is Frank Palmer, and I have been a member of Faith MBC since September, 2025 and I have over 44 years of pastoral experience. The purpose of this page is to answer a number of questions that church members often wonder about but either don’t know who to ask or we’re just afraid to ask them. Some of the questions we’ll be looking at include: “how do I figure out how much to tithe?”, “What if another church member hurts my feelings?”, “How can I support my pastor and encourage other church members?” The page will be updated regularly, so be sure and check back from time to time to see the current question and answer. The page is focused solely on “church member practicalities” and not so much on bible interpretation or doctrinal issues (there are other pages on the website for that). If you have a question please let me know and I will answer it honestly and frankly. Thanks for stopping and taking a look.

QUESTION:

The Bible gives us a number of things that are the responsibilities of every church member. For instance, we are commanded to love one another - John 13:34 - 35 - “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”. We are also to pray for one another - Eph. 6:18 - “Praying always with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”. We are to participate, faithfully and regularly. We participate by attending services, we participate by giving our tithes and offerings, we participate by helping out to insure our church facilities are maintained and cleaned, and we participate by the giving and sharing of our individual talents/abilities (playing a musical instrument, teaching a Sunday School class, volunteering to pick someone up who needs a ride to church, etc). Are you skilled in carpentry, computer skills, organizing, writing notes/cards of encouragement, let our pastor or deacons know and they can direct you to where your skills/talents can best be utilized.

Moving along in the question of our responsibilities as a church member. We must consider the main purpose of a church, which is to make disciples by preaching the gospel throughout the world, baptizing all who by faith receive Christ as their Savior, and then teaching them to observe all things that Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). Individually we can help in this is by inviting our family/friends to come to church with us. The church can also do many other things in their community; such as, having a school, receiving and distributing things like clothes, food, and other needed things but a church must never lose sight of the primary mission to make disciples.

Let’s continue in this first question regarding our responsibilities. How is “church” best experienced? As previously stated the best way to experience “church” is to be an active participant. Attending church and being an active participate in its various endeavors. Think about your favorite activity: golf, hiking, swimming, photography, etc. - is it enough to just watch someone doing those things on T.V. or would you rather be actively engaged in them? The same thing is true of church - you get so much more out of it when you actively participate in person! One of the words we use to describe this active participation is “fellowship” and we’ll take a closer look at that in the next paragraph.

The word, “fellowship” has to do with a partnership, or sharing life together. In today’s jargon, we might say something like, “we enjoy hanging out together”. But the word fellowship goes much deeper than that, fellowship also means “working together”. We work together by being involved in the work of our church, and also supporting mission outreaches all over the world. As followers of Christ not only are we to love one another, we are also to work with one another! The easiest way to determine a church’s fellowship quotient is to see how much the church loves the Lord and loves one another. I Cor. 12:26 teaches us, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with is”. Fellowship is also a dependable indicator of the spiritual health of a church and also can reveal a church’s future usefulness in the work of the Lord. Fellowship is the heartbeat of a congregation. To put in simple terms, fellowship is the life of the church family. Does the church love the Lord and His work and do they enjoy being together? Fellowship may not be the reasons that draws people to our church, but it is the reason they choose to stay! Consider 1 Cor. 14:26 - “How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying”. Each member of part of the church family and each member has something to offer. People who are looking for a church home will have a number of things they are looking for: various ministries, location, style of preaching, music, but more than anything, what they are searching for, yes, even craving, is fellowship! We’ll wrap this section by understanding three things about fellowship: 1 - Underlying everything is an unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord; 2 - Committed believers to Christ find themselves automatically loving their fellow disciples. Jesus said this would be the very things that identifies us as followers of Christ (John 13:24 - 45); 3 - these committed believers gladly welcome newcomers into their midst (3 John 5).

Matthew 28:18 - 20 - “And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”. Amen

The last thing we’ll consider in this section is what criteria should one look for in selecting a church to belong to? Two things are paramount: 1 - Is the Lord Jesus Christ the Head of the church you are considering? 2 - Is the Word of God the absolute rule of faith and practice of the church you are considering? In other words, it’s not about what you want, it is all about what the Lord Jesus wants! The purpose of any church is to bring honor and glory to the Lord.