MEMBERSHIP
Like our Sister Churches in the Church of the Saviour, we at Eighth Day have a strong commitment to what we call "integrity of membership." We are convinced that our Christian faith becomes deeper and more real when it is lived out through a set of disciplines that strengthen both our faith and our commitment to the community. This means that while everyone is welcome and encouraged to become part of, and take part in, our worshiping community, membership implies a desire to join with others in accountability for certain traditional Christian disciplines to deepen our relationships with God and with one another.
Covenant and Intern Membership
Until recently only those who had committed themselves to all of the disciplines (covenant members) of the community or were preparing for that (intern members), were "members" of the Eighth Day Faith Community. More recently as we have become more and more aware of the need for greater inclusion, we have defined membership as being either a covenant/intern member or a community member, while worshipers who are not formally members are a vital part of our community.
Community Membership
Eighth Day “community membership” has been developed for those members of the community for whom the traditional disciplines of the Church of the Saviour are inappropriate. The disciplines of a covenant member can at certain times in one’s life be simply too demanding on one’s resources (of time, money or energy) or otherwise impossible to follow.
The Process for Becoming a Member
There are three kinds of membership with Eighth Day, community membership, intern membership, and covenant membership.
Community Membership
The process for becoming a community member is as follows:
You contact Kent Beduhn or Marcia Harrington who are co-moderators of the community (of, if you already have a relationship with a covenant member contact that person). Together with one of them, you choose a covenant member to guide you through the process of becoming a community member.
The Disciplines of Eighth Day Membership
The disciplines that members take on can appear to the outside observer to be requirements for membership, a way of keeping out the riff-raff. (Sometimes they feel that way to members, too.) But “integrity of membership” is important to us within the church, that is we believe that a commitment to a spiritual journey must be accompanied by a commitment to a set of disciplines. Without accountability for our disciplines and under pressure from the demands of our daily lives, we tend to gravitate toward the lowest common denominator and lose consciousness of our spiritual journey.
