Covenant Membership
SOE Covenant Membership is permanent membership status. To be eligible, your organization must continue to meet all requirements. Your Peer Review Team (PRT) will determine whether or not you have done so. In the initial Provisional Member status, your organization only had to philosophically agree to the Standards. But Covenant Members must factually demonstrate that they are regularly complying with the Standards, as determined by your Peer Review (PR).
Your Peer Review Team (PRT) will evaluate your organization based on your:
- Provisional Application
- Follow-Up Questionnaire
- Annual Renewal Forms
- Peer Review Materials and Evaluation Forms
A very important note: Your PRT is charged to be “grace-driven” — not legalistic in its evaluation. For example, if your PRT determines that you are weak in one of the Standards, your PRT will not yet have the authority to recommend your organization’s removal and dismissal from the SOE. Rather, your organization will be given another three years (that is, until your next Peer Review) to make improvement in that Standard. And as long as your organization has made reasonable progress in that Standard, your organization will readily continue as a full member in good standing. The whole concept behind the Peer Review is not to create an authority structure that can kick you out at its own whim, but rather a team of peers who — in Christ’s love and compassion — challenge your organization to continued excellence, and provide you with every possible opportunity to succeed!
Membership accountability takes place specifically within a
given SOE member’s Peer Review Team. Therefore, neither the SOE
Office nor the SOE Steering Committee nor any person
representing the SOE has any direct “policing authority” over
SOE members whatsoever.
The SOE Executive Steering Committee is the only body that has the authority to revoke SOE membership, and will do so only when one or more of the following exist:
- Substantiated, non-compliant action or inaction occurs and remains
- Substantiated and markedly unethical/unbiblical and
unrepentant action occurs and remains
- Substantiated and markedly civil illegality occurs
- Any other reason that, in the opinion of ordinarily
prudent Christian men and women in similar leadership
positions, warrants revocation
Maintaining Covenant Membership
Once your organization achieves Covenant Membership, you
will need to meet the following requirements to maintain
Covenant Member status:
- Have a Peer Review once every five years according to current SOE Peer Review guidelines
- Attend SOE-approved STM Training Conferences no less than once every three years. Note: if your organization experiences significant change in key STM personnel, the new personnel are expected to attend a Standards Introductory Workshop (SIW) within their first year
- Annually submit the Annual Renewal Form and annual
Membership Adoption Fee to the SOE
office
- Honor the use of the SOE's Covenant Member Seal
- Fund all other costs associated with Peer Review and attendance at STM Training Conferences