First off … and let me say this as politely as possible … you don’t.
It’s just not like that. There are no membership roles, there’s no vote on who gets in or not, there’s no attendance records. It just doesn’t work that way.
If you acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came in the flesh, born of a virgin, crucified and risen after three days, Messiah and Savior, King and Commander of your life – AND you love Him and want to do whatever He tells you, even if it makes you seem weird to the rest of the world – then you’re already a part of the Body of Christ. We don’t have to vote on you!
Oh, and you can’t fake it, so don’t even try. The Holy Spirit in us knows whether the Holy Spirit is in you. If you aren’t willing to crucify little pieces of yourself daily so that Christ in you can live, it will be pretty obvious right away.
But you don’t have to be perfect (none of us are), you don’t have to know the Bible inside and out (the Spirit will help teach you as you seek Him). You just have to want Jesus more than you want anything else in the world. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But if you’re part of the Body, you understand exactly what I’m saying and you’ve been waiting a LONG time for this.
Now, if what you mean is:
I.m Already On Board, How Do I Help?
Well, that’s different. First thing is to pray and ask God what you should do. Probably, He will tell you get in touch with us and let us know you’re here. Then we can get a better idea of what resources and gifts are here and how to tap into them when the Lord leads. The immediate thing is reaching out to those most on Father’s heart – the poor, the children, the prisoners, the hungry, the lost. There are some things we feel He’s wanting some of us to do right away, but He may have something different for you. That’s OK, we just want to coordinate as He leads. And mostly we just want to fellowship and support you.
And we’re going to start letting people know that Jesus is here in Excelsior Springs and He wants to do something. So as people decide they’d like to seek Him more, we’re going to have to send them somewhere to get their questions answered, get into relationship with Him and get discipled and trained. So, if you’re willing to do that, we need to know where to send folks. And you need to be walking in Him and ready because the responsibility is great.
And maybe you’re just starving and you need somewhere to get the “meat” of the Gospel and be unashamedly in love with Jesus with some folks that understand you. We’re good for that, too.
Or I guess it’s a possibility that you mean:
I think you guys are weird, but I want to help the poor.
Great! We’re trying to build the most efficient delivery system of services to the poor and hurting and hungry – to care for the Brethren AND to care for our neighbors. You’re going to have to step out in faith just a little bit because we’re probably going to do some things that make no sense according to normal “practices”. We’re NOT going to have intake questions and income verification forms and audit trails. We’re not going to track where all the stuff went (although we can promise it won’t go into our pockets). Mostly we’re just going to coordinate getting goods directly to those in need.
There are all kinds of ways you can help and that’s going to continue to grow and get more detail, but mainly we want to empower YOU to do something and not rely on us or church or charity to do good works for you. Just find somebody in need and help them. That’s a great way to get Jesus to smile.
If you have personal items in good condition or food (or whatever) that we could get to those in need, call us or email. We’ll get it to someone that needs it or liquidate it and get the cash to whoever in town is doing the best job of converting earthly treasure (dollars) into heavenly treasure (meeting needs, obedience).
The last thing we want is to turn into a typical “ministry”! We want to empower people and we want to meet needs, but we don’t want to do anything other than as the Holy Spirit leads. It’s going to be an interesting ride. If you can’t take it, that’s OK. No hard feelings. God can do plenty with the 1% that are really ready. Read Judges chapter 6.
Exciting things are coming! We believe God wants to restore the Bride in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. We have NO IDEA how to get there from here – but we know He likes it when brethren dwell together in unity (Psalm 133:1-3) and what’s on the final exam is stuff like, “I was hungry and fed me, I was naked and you clothed me.” (Matthew 25)
So we should start there – with the stuff we should all be able to agree on.