"Everyone needs a next step. membership is just another step

- Pastor Ty

"Heartland feels like home"

- Doug

"Welcome home!"

- Us, every Sunday

5 S's of joining the family

To be a member of Heartland you need to be saved, soaked, seminars, small group, and serving. That may seem like a lot. Bottom line, members are people who do Jesus things. The first is you need to be saved. That means you have asked God to save you by believing Jesus died for you and in your place, and that God rose Him from the dead on the third day. If you have not done that, talk with someone at Heartland and we would love to share with you more. It starts with Jesus, because it's about His mission!

Soaked

Baptists started with following the pattern we see in the Bible. Those who were saved were then baptized. Baptism is a picture of the Gospel. We dunk you under water, representing Jesus' death, and we pull you out of the water, representing Jesus' resurrection. Baptism tells people that you chose to follow Jesus. If you asked Jesus to save you, we then follow in obedience to be baptized after that. If you were baptized in another church after you were saved, awesome!

Seminars

We have 6-ish seminars to help you live out our family's vision of Pursuing God, Finding Victory, and Living Intentionally. The seminars focus on what we think is most important, and to help you understand some of the lingo we use. Each seminar is an hour:
Pursue God: The Gospel, Connecting with God.
Find Victory: Growing spiritually, Building emotional health.
Live Intentionally: Sharing the Gospel, Serving the church. (Sometimes this may be 1 seminar.)

Note, seminars do not need to be attended in order.

Small Group

You need a team of people to cheer you on, hold you accountable, and to be there when life is hard. God did not design the Christian life to be lived alone. We also wouldn't be much of a family if we didn't invest time with one another. Our Sunday gatherings are great, but it is hard to be open with everyone. Our small groups focus on what we are learning from the Bible. They are small. And they don't meet all the time. We believe in work, we also believe in rest.

Serving

We are saved in order to be a blessing to others. Serving is about blessing people. Each one of us has a unique gifting and story that God can use to help people be more like Jesus. The win for the Heartland family is to help you serve where God wants you, in the way God designed you. There are many opportunities to serve the family. While we also emphasize serving, we also focus on rest. The Christian life is a marathon. The heroes in our church are those who act as the hands and feet of Jesus.

FAQ's

Questions about membership

Q: Do I HAVE to become a member?
A: Nope! But you'll want to. We work hard at being a church family where just filling a seat on Sunday isn't enough and you want to be a part of what God is doing. A healthy church will have people seeking God, healing, attending, being members, being leaders... and being missionaries... Membership is just another step.

Q:When should I pursue membership?
A: Pursue being a member when God tells you too. When you get to the place where Heartland his home, start the process. The membership process is designed to help you live the Christian life. Commitment is scary, especially if you've been burned by a church. If you are in a season of healing or you are figuring life out, that's ok. If you are in a place where you want to know what to do next, membership is a good start.

Q: Can I transfer my membership?
A: No. The reason is the seminars help with understanding how we operate as a church and what we mean when we say certain things. Other than salvation and baptism (those only need to be done once), the rest of the process needs to be followed through.
Q: Is more required of me if I am a member?
A: Yes, we expect members to Jesus things by: helping others hear about Jesus, and building up the church family. This is why being in a small group and serving are requirements. Membership is about living out Pursuing God, Finding Victory, and Living Intentionally. A big part of that is being  about sharing the Gospel.

Q: What are the benefits to being a member?
A: As Baptists we believe in congregational input into the life of our church. Members vote on certain things like budget, or choosing a lead pastor. Membership is also required to be a leader in the church. Leadership, like membership, is another step in our journey to being like Jesus. The biggest benefit to being a member is the joy of serving Jesus and seeing what He will do!

Q: Am I grandfathered in?
A: This process is new to Heartland. Given he importance of the seminars, we are requiring current members to go through them because they're that important. We recognize it takes time, so current membership is good to about June of 2024. We may extend that a little more. For those over 70, we are not requiring it.

Let's work together.

If you want to be a member, you can start the process here.

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