How to Become a Member at Mars Hill Church

“Christians are to work within their particular church for the cause of the gospel. Therefore, church members are, in a sense, leaders and servants of the church who serve according to their abilities in accordance with Jesus’ command to love God and their neighbor. They must be trained and released to use their spiritual gifts in various ways so that they too are leading the church, behind the elders and deacons, as the priesthood of believers that Scripture speaks of throughout the New Testament” (Vintage Church, 78).

Here’s how to become a member of Mars Hill Bellevue:

1. Connect

• Attend Sunday service
• Participate in a community group
• Volunteer with a ministry team
• Sign up for The City

2. Class

Take the Doctrine Class, which explains who we are, what we believe, and how we operate as a church, and provides an opportunity to get to know Mars Hill pastors and leaders. The material is based on Pastor Mark’s Doctrine book and sermon series. The next class at Mars Hill Bellevue will begin on February 12th, hosted on Sunday evenings from 6:30-8:00pm for eight weeks at the church. Register here.

Join the Bellevue Member Process Group on The City. Once you finish the Doctrine Class you’ll complete all the paperwork in the Member Process Group, signing the Member Covenant. To get more information, email bellevue@marshill.com.

3. Christian

Members must confess faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior (and get baptized if they have not previously done so as a professing Christian).

4. Covenant

Affirm Mars Hill Church beliefs by signing the Membership Covenant (electronically on The City) and living out the expectations of members:

• Community. Live life with other members of the family by remaining an active part of a community group.
• Serve. Use your gifts, talents, skills, and time to serve the church and participate in Jesus’ mission.
• Give. Members are asked to submit an annual giving pledge, which allows the church to plan and budget more effectively.

5. Conversation

Meet with your community group leader for the final membership interview.

Member privileges include…

• More serving and leadership opportunities.
• Access to occasional “Member Only” messages on The City.
• Open book policy extended to members interested in reviewing church financial information.
• Participation as an active part of the family of God.

We’re looking forward to having you at the Doctrine Class, beginning February 12th. For more information, email bellevue@marshill.com.

Who is this study for?

Any woman who desires to nurture a deeper relationship with our Savior, Jesus.

What is it about?

• providing biblical teaching and discipleship for women
• building relationships with other women at MH Bellevue and our neighbors
• opportunity for giving and receiving encouragement, and to be missional in your own neighborhoods by inviting women and their children from your neighborhood
• provides an opportunity to truly love your neighbors, and possibly reach their whole families by reaching the mom first
• younger women having the opportunity to learn from, and gain wisdom from, the lives and words of older married women and mothers
• the ability to speak to particular issues significant to women – such as parenting, women’s health and sexuality, relationships and marriages

When is the study going to start?

The Mid-week Study series begins Wednesday, February 1st and continues every other Wednesday morning for 6 sessions, ending on April 11th. Meeting times are 9:45am – 11:45am.

Childcare will be available, however it will be dependent on our participant’s willingness to serve in Children’s ministry at least once during this series.

What are the dates?

February 1, 15 &, 29

March 14 & 28

April 11

What will we study?

The first series will be based on the Real Marriage sermon series, utilizing Pastor Mark and Grace’s Real Marriage book and Participant Study Guide.  We will have some live practical teaching and personal application followed by small group table discussions, reviewing two chapters at each study.

How much will it cost?

The cost will be $40 for the entire series which includes the cost of parking for events.

Please note: This price does not include the book and participant guides.  They are available for purchase at any Mars Hill Bookstore, or at amazon.com.

What if I don’t have the means to pay?

Scholarships are evaluated on a case by case basis.  There is an option to be considered for scholarships on the registration form.

If you would like to participate in this new Mid-week Study, click here to register and to register your children if you require childcare.

Today we introduce to you Nancy Schmidt, who has joined the staff team at Mars Hill Bellevue and will be leading our Women’s Discipleship Midweek Study, which begins this February. Pastor Thomas spent some time with Nancy, getting a grasp on her story and how Jesus has equipped her to lead the women of Mars Hill Bellevue.

Pastor Thomas: Tell us a little bit about your testimony, your marriage, and your family.

Nancy Schmidt: My husband and I started at the Ballard building in June 2005 – at the time it was the only Mars Hill location. I became a Christian in 1987, just a few months after my husband was saved. We had been married 5 years at the time, and had 3 sons. We were delivered from a lifestyle of drug and alcohol abuse and by His grace, we have walked with Jesus every day since then. My husband Tom and I have now been married for thirty years. We raised our family in Maple Valley, WA but currently reside in Renton. Our sons are grown men now, two are married and we have three delightful grandchildren.

Pastor Thomas: How did you end up attending Mars Hill Church?

Nancy Schmidt: We came to Mars Hill one summer evening with a friend, curious to know more about it from the little we had heard. We had not realized how starved we were for the true Word of God until that night, as Jesus had been absent for some time in the teaching at the church we were attending. We were stunned at the way that Jesus was center and foremost at Mars Hill. After a couple of months of “double dipping” with another church, we began to feel the conviction to be committed to one church or the other. God slowly pulled us out of our responsibilities at our other church, and we felt free to make the move to Mars Hill the next summer, in 2006.

Pastor Thomas: How have you been serving at Mars Hill Church, and what prepares you to lead the Women’s Discipleship Midweek Study?

Nancy Schmidt: My first volunteer position was as an administrator for the Biblical Living department at Ballard. Shortly thereafter, I came on staff as the Redemption Groups Administrator, working with Pastor Mike Wilkerson until mid-2009 when I felt God calling me to be more available to serve my family. My husband and I have lead Redemption Groups in Ballard and West Seattle, and I have been part of a leader team that has traveled to lead at Redemption Immersion Training conferences in several US cities. I have also served as a volunteer Biblical counselor. I am excited to serve at Mars Hill Bellevue as the Women’s Ministry Coordinator, and I am looking forward to getting to know the women here and seeing what our gracious savior Jesus has in store for all of us through this new ministry.

Stay tuned for more information about Women’s Discipleship at Mars Hill Bellevue. We’ll be launching midweek study opportunities beginning in February. For more information email bellevuewomen@marshill.com.

This is a great opportunity to share the gospel with family members, neighbors, and friends by inviting them to one or more of the services. Come out and worship Jesus with us!

God’s Work, Our Witness
4 new churches, 3 states, for 2 reasons, on 1 day. By God’s grace, we have the opportunity to do the biggest, craziest, most epic, and ridiculous thing we’ve ever attempted as a church. Join us.

One of Pastor Mark’s good friends, Pastor James MacDonald, is the host of the Elephant Room, an event for which Pastor James gathers some of the top pastors around the nation and let them hash out the hot topics batting around the modern church, “the conversations you’d never thought you’d hear.” Elephant Room Round 2 will take place this January, and will be simulcast at our very own Mars Hill Downtown Bellevue.

For Round 2, Pastor Mark will be participating in two discussions, the first with Bishop T.D. Jakes about the major doctrines of Christianity.

What are the “majors” of Christian doctrine that cannot be diluted or denied for a person to be a Christian? How can we help one another move beyond the bare minimum of accepted belief, to a pursuit of robust, soul-satisfying, biblical substance? How should we relate to those who do not yet embrace the benefit and priority of sound biblical doctrine? Is there a difference between a person in error and a wolf in sheep’s clothing? What benefits derive from keeping the majors on a separate list and not letting the “minors” divide us? Is it possible to love the truth without compromise and still work passionately for unity?

Pastor Mark will also talk with Pastor Jack Graham about the future of denominations:

Is there a future for denominations? Will networks simply replace them, or will they reinvent themselves? What can denominations offer that networks of churches cannot? Describe the health of world missions and missionaries as you see them serving around the globe. Is the model of sending missionaries through a mission agency still effective? Or is church planting through healthy churches the way to go? Is there a lack of accountability plaguing most missionaries? How can that be changed? How does para-church help or hinder the local church in world missions?

Pastor Mark will also moderate a discussion between Graham and Jakes on the issue of race and segregation within some of the country’s largest churches. For a full list of seven panels and participants, visit the Elephant Room site.

For a taste of what these discussions are like, check below for videos from Round 1, which took place last March, where Pastor Mark and Pastor Perry Noble of NewSpring Church in South Carolina addressed culture in the church vs. church in the culture (How far should Christians go into culture? What can we receive, reject, redeem?). In that round, Pastor Mark also debated with Evangelist Greg Laurie about loving the gospel vs. sharing the gospel, a video which is also embedded below.

This year, we’ve got a few tickets that we want to give away. To be eligible to win, you must tweet out anything with this link http://jesus.to/tbOcWY and the hashtag #ER2Bel. From there we’ll randomly select 4 winners who’ll receive free tickets to the event on January 25. An example of a tweet can simply be, “All I want for Christmas is to win the Elephant Room Giveaway! http://jesus.to/tbOcWY #ER2Bel” As long as it has the link and hastag, you’re good to go.

Register by this Friday, December 2, and snag the Early Bird registration price of just $79, twenty bucks off the regular price of $99. Are you a broke undergrad or starving grad student? No worries: Students get their ticket for just $29.

“In our Christian walk, we honestly hadn’t been tested that much so it was pretty easy to not have some of the big questions, and so [the ordeal with our son] really affirmed how real God is. He’s not far away, he’s right there in the mix going through everything with us. There were so many times when we had peace when we shouldn’t have.” –Shannon Phipps

God’s Work, Our Witness
By God’s grace, we’re in a season where we have the opportunity to expand our work as a church even more by doing the biggest, craziest, most epic, and ridiculous thing we’ve ever attempted.

We at Mars Hill Students believe that Christians should throw the best parties. We have been saved from death to life. Our Jesus is alive. We have a lot to celebrate.

Throwing a giant party once in a while should be a matter of theological principle.

So, we are excited to announce the first annual Mars Hill Students All-Nighter will be held the first night of Christmas Break, December 16th, from 9pm until 6am. All middle and high school students are invited to attend, and bring along everyone they know.

It would be a travesty to miss this. Here’s a simple run-down of the madness that will ensue.

Stop #1: Blowout Party and Concert at the Church

Check-in will start at 9pm, and students will be free to frolic on inflatables, graze on a bounty of junk food, and take in a high-energy concert in the auditorium.

Stop #2: Lincoln Square Cinemas

The night would not be complete without catching a midnight movie, so we’ll head over to Lincoln Square, and enjoy our private, rented out theater.

Stop #3: Lucky Strike

The real fun will start around 2:30am, as we take over the bowling lanes and arcade at Lucky Strike for 3 hours. We’ll have the whole place to ourselves, and party until the sun starts to come up.

Stop #4: Breakfast at the Church

Around 6am we’ll make it back to the church for some donuts, and we’ll use those huge screens in the auditorium for what they were really made for: Saturday morning cartoons.

We firmly believe that events like this one accomplish 3 important things:
1. They bring new students into our church.
2. They obliterate the notion that being a Christian is not fun.
3. They make memories that students talk about for years.

We fully expect this event to fill up quickly. Register online today at bellevue.marshill.com/students.

As the graph I showed Sunday reflects, 75% of our church is giving between $0-499 per year. Clearly, we have a heart issue long before we have a giving issue, and this is something we need to continue to address. Before we do, I want to first address two lies I believe Satan would like us all to believe.

The first lie Satan will tell is to those who aren’t giving or those who are giving next to nothing. Why should I give? What business is it of the church what I give? I knew churches were all about the money…I would ask you why you would ever trust God with the eternal salvation of your soul, but not your savings? I’ll confess I’m after something you’ve got, but it’s not your wallet — it’s your heart.

The truth is that I don’t believe you don’t want to give; I believe you don’t know how to give, how much to give, how you could ever give with the budget you have or the budget or the debt you’re in. I believe you do love God; I believe your heart desires to align with God’s, and I believe at the end of the day, you’re afraid that God won’t show up if you step out in faith. Satan wants you to believe all the lies the world tells about Jesus, God, the church, your pastors, and those who are your church family so that he can keep you enslaved and distant from God. I believe these things because my heart was afraid once too.

The second lie Satan will tell is to those who’ve been faithfully giving — joyfully, regularly, and sacrificially. He’ll try to convince you to be frustrated or bitter to those within the church family who aren’t sacrificing while you have been all along. He’ll try to convince you that you’ve done enough and there is no need for you to do any more; that is just the opposite of what God is calling you to do. Right now we need you to pray for your church, your family, and those in your community groups, because people are struggling to walk in a deeper faith and relationship with Jesus. Pray that people would be free of their fear and distrust. Our church needs you to love them, talk with them, and not stand in judgment of them. They need you to offer to teach and help them to understand why we give, why we sacrifice, and why it’s freeing and God honoring to give and sacrifice in time, treasures, and talents. We need you to share ideas, budget plans, best practices, and stories of your own budget woes and failures. And we need you to continue to be faithful, joyful, sacrificial givers. We don’t give because someone else does or doesn’t — we give because it brings God glory. We give back to him what he has given to us, showing that we’re both thankful for his provision and that we trust that he’ll continue to provide.

In the coming weeks and for the near future, I want to create an environment where we can be open and honest about finances. I can’t see a better way to prepare as we head into a season of shopping and spending here on the Eastside. I want to help provide teaching and budgeting help.  Angela and I received such great wisdom and help when we came to Mars Hill on how to budget better, save more, and give back to God what he already gave to us.

What I’m asking you to do is to make a step of faith to get help, ask questions, lay down your pride or shame, and welcome the discussion. No one is going to take you for a ride, steal your money, or trick you into being foolish. But we will point to Scripture that shows you what God says and let the Holy Spirit shape your heart and conviction. And most of all, we’ll do it in love as a family so that we can all take ownership of the mission to make disciples, plant churches, and share Jesus with others.

If you have any reservations, concerns, or questions, please talk with your Community Group Leader.

It is an honor and privilege to serve you, and you are in my prayers.

Pastor Thomas

God’s Work, Our Witness

By God’s grace, we’re in a season where we have the opportunity to expand our work as a church even more by doing the biggest, craziest, most epic, and ridiculous thing we’ve ever attempted. Join us. for the latest posts, updates, stories, sermon notes, and more.

It’s from this standpoint that I want you think about giving and generosity. As I said yesterday, my goal is for more people to give something starting immediately as a part of “God’s Work Our Witness,” and if we can raise the $1.14m, then Amen!

Jesus has risen, the tomb is empty, and that’s a big deal! In fact, it is the single most important event in history because it means that Jesus defeated death, fulfilling the promise God foretold thousands of years ago in the Old Testament by giving us the free gift salvation through Him. As Christians, this should compel you, me and all of us to respond.

What does a response look like? We respond to grace with grace. The church in Acts 4 responded to the testimony of the resurrection by taking care of the needy. They sold their things and graciously gave it to the Apostles to bless others in need. They were gracious, not just because they were caring, but because they had been given the ultimate gift of grace — salvation. Christ’s love and defeat of death compel us to respond with grace.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

(Acts 4:32-37 ESV)

At Mars Hill Downtown Bellevue, we are responding right now in a many ways. A couple weeks ago, we helped the local Salvation Army food bank recover the 2,000 pounds of food that was stolen by collecting over 21,000 pounds of food across all the Mars Hill churches and providing it to them so they could continue to bless the city. We are also partnering in a coat drive with Jubilee REACH, to provide warmth to those in need in our area as we enter into the colder months. And as I shared Sunday, we are going to rally to help launch four churches in three states for two reasons — we love Jesus and we love people, on one day — January 15th. We are calling our people to give, serve, and pray…respond.

While we are not first-hand witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, we are first-hand witnesses to Christ work in our own lives and the lives of those in our church. Yesterday we heard people share their stories of a risen God reconciling spiritually dead lives — stories of marriages redeemed, addictions broken, wrongs righted; while we didn’t witness the stone being rolled away, we are witnesses to God’s Word alive.

Sunday we saw 34 families dedicate their children to the Lord and dedicate themselves to raising their children according to God’s Word. Only a few weeks ago we saw over 50 people get baptized and we witnessed a struggling church vote to merge into Mars Hill. In one day God doubled the number of Mars Hill Churches serving the Eastside. As if that is not enough, in the last few weeks I’ve spoken to single moms needing love and protection, men confessing their sin of apathy and passivity in the their marriages, and women broken by a past life of indiscretion. All of these people praised the name of Jesus for his forgiveness and deeply thankful for a church that preaches the Bible boldly and calls for people to live authentic lives with Christ and in community.

I know you’ve heard these stories, because they’re your stories, our stories, and God’s story. God is at work and we are his witnesses. And if God uses 10 churches he will surely use 14. If you’re not a part of what is happening at Mars Hill Church I’m inviting you now! Come give of your time, treasure and talents because Christ has risen.

God’s Work Our Witness

Give

Serve

Join a Community Group

Pastor Thomas Hurst

For 15 years, God has been at work at Mars Hill Church—and we’re excited about what he has in store in the future. In 1996, Pastor Mark and Grace planted Mars Hill in their living room. Today, Mars Hill Church sees over 11,000 people each Sunday in ten churches in two states—Washington and New Mexico.

But more than just numbers, each person has a unique story of God’s grace at work in their life. In “God’s Work, Our Witness,” we’ll celebrate what God has done, is doing, and will do at Mars Hill Church…

Click here to read the full article from marshill.com!