offering hospitality to all God's children

Becoming a member of Fairlawn West

Contact our pastor, Rev. David Loar, 330-864-2179 or dloar@fairlawnwest.org He will set up a time to meet with you in preparation for becoming a member. On this page are the key pieces of our DNA or our heart as a church. The evidence of these words, though, are seen in our life as a church and our individual lives.

Fairlawn West stated Mission - "offering hospitality to all God's children"

Core Values
• learning and growing as disciples of Jesus Christ
• transforming lives through God's grace and forgiveness
• gathering as a community known as "the body of Christ"
• worshiping God using creative expression
• welcoming the variety of people who are our neighbors
• leading spiritually centered lives

Bedrock Beliefs
• We believe God creatively gives us life.
• We believe we are called by God to be disciples of God's beloved Jesus Christ
• We believe that God's Spirit is the power that guides us to "go forth into the world."
• We believe that prayerful conversation (which means more listening on our part) is the center piece of the life of a disciple
• We believe that we will never die. God raises us from death through the life, death, and resurrection of God's Son, Jesus Christ.
• We believe it is through forgiveness and grace that God gives us hope that never ends.

Members expectations
When you covenant with God and the other members of Fairlawn West United Church of Christ to be a member, you are taking on the shared responsibility of the mission of the body of Christ. Covenants were offered by God from the rainbow covenant after the flood to Noah; to the covenant God made with the children of Israel via Moses on Mount Sinai; and ultimately with all of us who choose to accept the calling of the new covenant given in Jesus Christ.

As a member of Fairlawn West you pledge as you are able:
- to be an active participant in the worship services
- to be a steward with the finances, time and abilities God has given you to support and nurture others
- to share with other members in the mission to the world as we discern it from God.
- to join together in sharing our experience of Jesus Christ with the world around us.

You promise to God to honor this covenant. If you are unable to continue to honor it, you will let the the Pastor and the Council know that your participatin in the covenant needs to be discontinued.
(1 Corinthians 12; John 17:6-12, 20-23; Ephesians 1:19-23; Ephesians 2:19-22; Ephesians 4:8-16; Matthew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 3:4-7)

Fairlawn West Members Covenant
Thankful for God's abundant goodness, and for God's great gift of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, we covenant one with another to seek to know and to do God's will. We now share together in the common purpose of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world around us.

In faith we proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Sovereign and Savior. As a Christian covenantal community we will use the Bible as the primary form of God's revealing truth, but also lift up the gift of the Holy Spirit and the historic tradition of the Christian Church as means of receiving God's Word. As communicated and illustrated throughout the Bible, we seek to be a community of spiritual fellowship that is shaped and led not by our own visions, but by the vision of God given to us in Jesus Christ. This vision comes to us as the “word become flesh.”

Realizing that a local church is dependent on the faithfulness of it members to serve and share together, we covenant to uphold this church in our prayers, to regularly be part of the community gathered to worship God, and share in the Lord's Supper. We commit to be a faithful steward of our time and money to enable the ministry of this church to thrive and be vital to the world around us. We will be as one body being held accountable to one another as communicated through the Holy Scriptures. We will focus our common life on the vision and mission of God as expressed through Fairlawn West United Church of Christ.


Sending forth (we use this at the end of the worship services and other gatherings around the congregation)

Go forth into the world. Be of good courage. Hold fast to that which is good. Render to no person evil for evil. Strengthen the fainthearted. Support the weak. Help the afflicted. Honor all people. Love and serve God rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.


To learn more about our history and name, go to:
fairlawnwest.org/name.htm
fairlawnwest.org/fwhistory.htm

Constitution

To learn more about who is the United Church of Christ and the tradition of the Christian faith from which we descend, to:
ucc.org/about-us/short-course/
ucc.org/about-us/hidden-histories/
ucc.org/beliefs/
ucc.org/beliefs/theology/