Member Services & Resources

Last Updated on November 20, 2024 by Rocklyn Clarke

Contents

1 Baby Dedications
2 Baptism
3 Benevolence
4 Counseling
5 Funerals
6 Marriage
- 6.1 Pre-marital Counseling
- 6.2 Weddings

At Life Church we provide a number of services for the benefit of the people we pastor. Contact the church office or talk to one of the pastoral staff for more information.

Baby Dedications

At Life Church we only baptize adults, and children who we consider old enough to make an informed commitment to follow Jesus Christ (normally age 12 and above although some exceptions are possible). We do however provide opportunities for parents to publicly dedicate their children to the Lord during a Sunday service. Baby dedications are normally conducted just before the sermon. Parents who want to dedicate their children will normally take the following steps:

Contact the church office to request a baby dedication.
Complete either the Life Church Baby Dedication class (currently in development) or a baby dedication counseling session.
Show up for the scheduled dedication.

Baptism

Jesus commanded his disciples to make new disciples and to baptize them. We believe that everyone who makes a commitment to follow Jesus Christ should be baptized by completely immersed in water. Towards this end we conduct baptism services from time to time throughout the year. Candidates for baptism must meet the following criteria:

You must be committed to following Jesus Christ and be ready to publicly acknowledge him as your Lord and Savior.
You must be medically able to tolerate brief submersion in water.
You must renounce and reject any occult activity and any participation in non-Christian spiritual practices.
You must successfully complete our Life Church Baptism class.

Benevolence

At Life Church we set aside funds to provide support for members in need. If you want to receive assistance, you will find more information on our Benevolence Page:

Benevolence: Assistance For Members In Need

Counseling

At Life Church we provide pastoral counseling for those who want help in responding to challenging life situations in a biblical way. If you want to receive counseling services at Life Church you should meet the following criteria:

You should demonstrate a desire to put the Bible’s teaching into practice in your life.
Although some exceptions are possible, recipients of counseling services should be under the pastoral care of the Life Church pastoral staff. This will normally mean that they are faithfully attending both our Sunday services and one of our life groups.

Counseling Resources for Life Church Members

Funerals

At Life Church we are committed to supporting those who are under our pastoral care during times of personal loss. Contact the church office for more information.

Marriage

At Life Church we are committed to promoting healthy, successful, biblical marriages. In Matthew’s Gospel, some Pharisees come to Jesus to test his response to a controversy over the issue of divorce. Jesus addresses their question by referring back to God’s original plan for marriage:

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ ? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Matthew 19:4-6 (NIV – see Matthew 19:1-12 for the full context)

At Life Church our support is focused on marriages that meet the following criteria:

We support marriages between one man and one woman. By man, we mean a person born male and identifying as male. By woman, we mean a person born female and identifying as female. This is in keeping with God’s original intention for marriage reflected in the passage above.
We support marriage in which both partners are Christians. This means that both partners demonstrate a commitment to following Jesus in a publicly verifiable way. This is because our guidance and advice are intended for people who are committed to following Jesus and who want their marriages to be guided by his teaching. We have no reasonable expectation that people who aren’t committed to following Jesus will be willing to follow our advice.

Pre-marital Counseling

You can read about our pre-marital counseling on our Counseling Page.

In order to promote healthy, successful marriages Life Church provides extensive pre-marital counseling (currently a 12-week program). Successful completion of the pre-marital counseling program is mandatory for couples who wish to be married by Life Church pastoral staff members. Those who wish to participate must meet the following criteria:

- In keeping with our marriage support criteria above, they must be of opposite gender. The laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or any other state notwithstanding, we will only provide pre-marital counseling for couple consisting of a man and a woman.
- Both partners must demonstrate their commitment to following Jesus Christ in a publicly verifiable way.
- Although some exceptions are possible, both partners should be under the pastoral care of the Life Church pastoral staff. This will normally mean that they are current members or in the process of becoming members of Life Church. Ideally, they should have been with us for at least a year. This allows multiple members of the congregation to have a chance to get to know them and gives the pastoral leadership a better basis for understanding the couple by observing their interactions with others.
- If either of the parties seeking to marry has been divorced, we may or may not be able to provide pre-marital counseling. Our ability to provide pre-marital counseling will ultimately be determined on an individual basis through meeting with a member of the pastoral staff.

Weddings

The Bible teaches that marriage was established by God to join a man and a woman in a lifetime union that symbolizes the relationship between Jesus and his Church. At Life Church we want to do everything possible to support successful marriages. For this reason we require that couples who want to marry meet the following criteria:

- They must be of opposite gender. The laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or any other state notwithstanding, we will only perform a marriage between a man and a woman. When we use the terms “man” and “woman“, we are referring to cisgendered individuals – persons whose gender identify matches their sex assigned at birth.
- Both partners must demonstrate their commitment to following Jesus Christ in a publicly verifiable way.
- Although some exceptions are possible, both partners should be under the pastoral care of the Life Church pastoral staff. This will normally mean that they are current members or in the process of becoming members of Life Church.
- Both partners must complete the Life Church pre-marital counseling program.
- If either of the parties seeking to marry has been divorced, we may or may not be able to perform a wedding ceremony. Our ability to perform the wedding will ultimately be determined on an individual basis through meeting with a member of the pastoral staff.