MEMBERSHIP
At Cornerstone, our members are those who have proclaimed faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, have professed this faith through baptism, and have entered into covenant relationship with those who make up Emmaus for the purpose of declaring and displaying the gospel to each other and to the world.
When Cornerstone enters into covenant membership with you, we are testifying that to the best of our knowledge, you are a follower of Jesus. This should be a very encouraging affirmation! When you are doubting, when you find yourself in sin and shame, when you fear that God's salvation is not for you, covenant membership serves as a reminder that there is an entire faith family that testifies (to the best of their knowledge) to your salvation.
Likewise, when you are in sin, and your sinful heart refuses to repent of the sin and seek forgiveness and healing, the covenant members of the church walk with you, in grace and truth, to help you see your sin, confess your sin, and turn from your sin before it destroys you. This is an act of gracious love and why we find much value in covenant membership.
Discover Cornerstone Weekend - learn more!
HOW LONG DO YOU RECOMMEND WE ATTEND CORNERSTONE BEFORE JOINING?
WHAT IS COVERED IS DISCOVER CORNERSTONE MEMBERSHIP CLASS?
Our beliefs, values and commitments, practices and affiliations.
WHAT IS THE PROCESS TO JOIN CORNERSTONE?
If you are interested in considering membership at Cornerstone of Lakewood Ranch, the process is as follows:
1. Sign up & attend Discover Cornerstone
2. Apply for Membership. Please fill out the membership form for each adult in the household prior to signing up for an elder interview.
MEMBERSHIP INTERVIEW & COVENANT
3. Once the forms have been submitted, schedule an interview with an Elder
4. Session approves individual membership. Membership is official at this stage of the process.
5. Sunday morning membership induction.
WHEN ARE THE DISCOVER CLASSES OFFERED?
We offer the Discover Cornerstone classes two times per year in March and SEPTEMBER. Please click here to learn more
IF MY MS OR HS STUDENT WOULD LIKE TO TAKE COMMUNION, WHAT IS THE PROCESS?
At this time, youth age who would like to go to the Lord's Table should request an interview with one of our elders:
JUNIOR DISCOVER CORNERSTONE
Junior Discover is for our 6th thru 12th grade students who are ready to give a profession of faith, become members of Cornerstone and take the Lord's Supper. This will be an 1-1/2 hour class spanning over 5 weeks. The class is an intense course where the parent agrees to support the student at home, reviewing all material and the student is expected to take the course and content seriously, completing work at home and coming to the class prepared to interact. Once they have completed the course, they will interview with our elders, and take their vows in front of the congregation, and participate in First Communion.
We hold Junior Discover Cornerstone once per year in the early Spring.
SACRAMENTS CLASS (BAPTISM & LORD'S SUPPER)
In this two day class we will explore the Reformed doctrine of the sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In our time together we will seek to better understand why God has given his church these means of grace. Adults who haven’t been baptized and parents who would like to have their children baptized will be required to attend the sacraments class.
Our Sacraments class will be offered twice per year. Our next class will occur in the Fall of 2023.
Adults that have not been baptized will be required to go through the sacraments class and will be baptized on the Membership Induction day. The Sacraments class will come a few weeks after the Discover Cornerstone class (Membership).
Our next class will happen in the fall of 2023.
WHAT IS BAPTISM?
OUR PRACTICE OF BAPTISM
IS THERE ANY BIBLICAL SUPPORT FOR BAPTIZING INFANTS?
In the New Testament, baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant.
Colossians 2:11-12 teaches that baptism is the full expression of circumcision. The covenant of circumcision required that the infant male be circumcised as a newborn infant (Genesis 17:12), and this covenant was to be an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:13). Physical circumcision is clearly no longer in effect (Galatians 6:11-18), but the covenant it represents is still in effect (Romans 2:29). The new outward sign of this “everlasting” covenant with believers and their children is baptism (Colossians 2:1112). Therefore, we believe it follows, then, that baptism is to be administered to the children of believing parents.
Acts 2:38-39 describes baptism with virtually the same language and terms with which Genesis 17:9-14 describes circumcision. The promise connected with baptism in Acts 2:38-39 explicitly includes the children of believers, as did the promise connected with circumcision in Genesis 17:9-14. No mention of a required age or profession of faith is made with respect to such children.
As circumcision was a requirement for the Old Testament household (Genesis 17:10, 12-13), so, we believe, was baptism for the New Testament household (Acts 16:15, 31-33; 1 Corinthians 1:16). Never once are children said to be excluded from a household baptism, except in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, who obviously had no children.
There is no biblical command given for believers to cease the application of the covenant sign with their children.
In the New Testament, believers’ children were regarded as members of the covenant community.
In Luke 18:15-17, Jesus said that God’s Kingdom belongs to little children (from the Greek brephe, which literally means “baby” or “infant”).
In Ephesians 6:1-4 and Colossians 3:20-21 Paul addresses children (from the Greek tekna, meaning “child”) as believers in Christ. He speaks to them as he would any saint, regardless of age.
In 1 Corinthians 7:14 Paul refers to the children (tekna) of believers as “holy” (meaning set apart for God). The word translated “holy” (hagia) is the exact same word used elsewhere by the apostles in reference to believers (translated “saints” – see Ephesians 1:1, for example). The New Testament assumption, then, is that children of believers should be regarded and treated as believers unless or until they prove themselves to be covenant breakers.
In 2 Timothy 3:15, Timothy is said to have known the Scriptures from infancy (brephe).
In Luke 1:15, John the Baptist is said to have been filled with the Spirit, “even from his mother’s womb”. The New Testament suggests nowhere that the sign of the covenant (previously circumcision, now baptism) is to be withheld from the children of believers until they make an informed profession of faith in Christ.
IS THERE ANY HISTORICAL SUPPORT FOR BAPTIZING INFANTS?
It is a well-attested fact that household/infant baptism was the universal practice of the early church. No reputable biblical historian or scholar, whether Presbyterian or Baptist or otherwise, will dispute this fact. Irenaeus (a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the apostle John) speaks of infant baptism as a universal practice in the early church. Tertullian (end of 2nd century) acknowledged the universal practice of infant baptism. Origen (2nd and 3rd centuries) spoke of infant baptism as the common practice of the early church. These things being the case, were household (and consequently infant) baptism not the New Testament church practice, then the conclusion must be made that a full reversal of the early church’s practice occurred immediately following the death of the last apostle. Because there is neither biblical nor extra-biblical evidence indicating so much as a debate about this issue in the first or second centuries, such a reversal is extremely unlikely. We conclude this in large part because there is a wealth of documentation about virtually every other theological debate and/or alleged ‘heresy’ in the early church.
ARE WE SAYING THAT WATER BAPTISM SAVES CHILDREN?
No. Nor does baptism guarantee the salvation of older children or adults. In order to be saved, a child must possess his/her own personal faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. When a child professes faith at some point after baptism, that is the time in which the baptism and all that it signifies takes full effect. Until that time, the child’s baptism is regarded as the sign of the child’s inclusion in the church community (and all its benefits, except the Lord’s Supper) by virtue.
WHAT IF I STILL DON'T AGREE WITH CORNERSTONE'S BELIEFS ON BAPTISM?
We encourage household baptism at Cornerstone for those who agree with our beliefs as a church, but we certainly do not require it of those who don’t. Parents who are not convinced of our position are fully embraced as members of our church community. This is an issue about which we are happy to disagree without it being any hindrance at all to full Christian fellowship. We work hard to make sure this ‘non-essential’ issue doesn't become an essential one.
WHAT IS THE BAPTISM PROCESS?
Attend the 2 -day Sacraments class that will explore the Reformed doctrine of the sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This class is for infants, children, youth and adults. We will hold this class 2x per year, Spring and Fall.
To find out when the next class will be held, please email: Taylor White