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Communion is one of two sacrament celebrated at Grapevine Fellowship. Communion is what Jesus encouraged His disciples to when He broke bread and drank wine with them, the two items signifying His broken body on the cross, and the blood He shed for our sin, respectively. Jesus told them (and us) to "Remember Me", and the price He paid for us. (Luke 22:17-20, Mark 14:22-25) Communion is a time of personal reflection, a time to pray and seek God concerning any sin or attitude that we might need to repent of and deliver to the cross. However, communion is a corporate undertaking, i.e., we examine ourselves individually so that we may come together and partake of the bread and wine (we use grape juice) with one another. (1 Cor. 11:23-31) We serve open communion, at Grapevine Fellowship, which means that it isn’t necessary to be a member. If you are in the body of Christ, we welcome you to join us. We serve Communion at all services on the first Sunday of the month.

The other sacrament we celebrate is Water Baptism. Jesus himself was baptized and encouraged us to follow suit. (Luke 3:21-22, Matt. 28:18-20) Baptism is a very exciting time, signifying the washing away and death of our sins in a "watery grave", and being raised again to the new life in Christ. (Rom 6:3-4, Col. 2:12, Gal. 3:27) Scripture encourages us to be baptized as soon as possible after receiving Christ in to our lives. (Acts 22:16, Acts 2:38) If you would like to be baptized, simply bring a change of clothes to the 11:00am service on the second Sunday of the month. If this is not convenient for you, please contact the church office at 431-8463, and we'll be happy to make other arrangements.

Grapevine Fellowship is part the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, which places a very strong emphasis on missions; that is, getting the GOOD NEWS of JESUS CHRIST to the whole world! With your prayers and financial support, ICFG has missionaries in every part of the world. Grapevine collects a special missionary offering on the third Sunday of every month that goes directly to support missionaries. For exciting new testimonies every day from the mission field click here. This site also tells other ways you can get involved, including information on short-term missions!

The term "Foursquare" stands for the four-fold ministry of Jesus Christ as the Savior (Romans 10:9), Baptizer with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16), Healer (1 Peter 2:234), and Coming King (Acts 1:11). The Foursquare Church - officially the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel - was founded in Los Angeles, California, by Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923.

Answer: The universal Church—the Body of Christ (Romans 12:5)—is composed of all true believers in Christ. Non-believers are not part of the Body of Christ; therefore, it would seem that God keeps a “membership list” of who is in the Church. We see just such a list in Revelation 20:12, the Lamb’s book of life. If the universal Church has a “membership roll” in heaven, it would be appropriate for local churches to maintain a list of members on earth.

“And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved” (Acts 2:47). This verse indicates that salvation is a prerequisite for being “added” to the church. Churches today who require salvation before membership are simply following the biblical model. See also 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

Membership in the local church is strongly implied in Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians to “put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Corinthians 5:13). The preceding verse speaks of those “without” and “within” the local church. Such language is meaningless without a clearly defined group of members.

Why is church membership important? Church membership is a way of officially identifying yourself with a local body of believers. Church membership is a statement that you are in agreement with that local church and are a representative of it. Church membership is also a good way of determining who is allowed to vote on important church decisions and/or who is involved in official church positions / functions. Church membership is not required of Christians. It is simply a way of saying, "I am a Christian and I believe '...' church is a good church."*

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