
Church Membership
These are days when gender roles are gone, traditional understanding of marriage is gone, and biological gender is disregarded. People do not like being restricted by convention and rules, with society's gods of the day being autonomy, individuality, and freedom from all levels of hierarchy. Naturally, commitment and authority under a church is unpopular. Because of this, we must ensure that the subject of church membership is discussed and clarified in South City.
Membership is biblical and is the very medicine that will combat worldly individualism. Christians suffer spiritually because of our lack of belief in church membership. The local church is one of the greatest gifts God has given to Christians, and a robust theology of membership is essential to ensure that believers are aware of and make use of this blessing.
Church Membership may be DEFINED as a formal agreement made between a Christian and a local church, together with its elders and members, to commit to one another, to be accountable to one another, and to love one another.
Just like we do not have one tidy verse about the Trinity, we do not have one tidy verse about church membership, but it is quite easy to deduce the principle of church membership from a study of the nature of church and Christian life.
THREE THINGS THE BIBLE TELLS US ABOUT MEMBERSHIP
Here are three reasons why Church Membership is a commandment and joy for believers.
RELATIONSHIP OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN WITH THE ELDERS
The New Testament clearly instructs us to submit to the elders, just as it also clearly instructs elders to watch over the souls of Christians. [Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Heb 13:17]
This is possible only if Christians have a clear idea of who their elders are and if the elders have a clear idea of whose souls they need to give account. At what point do church attendees come to regard a church as theirs and become souls for whom elders have to give account? At 10 weeks? At 5 weeks? When they start tithing? When they feel like they belong? What if someone goes to several churches. Are all the elders their elders, or will only the elders they like become accountable for their souls?
Church membership cannot be subjective.
[Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over THOSE IN YOUR CHARGE, but being examples to the flock. 1 Pet 5:2-3]
How do the elders know who is in their charge? The Christian, as it were, has to say to the elders, "In obedience to God I am submitting to heed your spiritual instruction, as long as it is biblical, and we want you to watch over our souls.
[Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with His own blood. Acts 20:28]
[We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you 1 Thess 5:12]
Before or very soon after moving to a new church, there has to be a conversation with both the old and new sets of elders, so that the transfer of responsibility takes place.
RELATIONSHIP OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN WITH THE CORPORATE BODY
Here is a scripture that demonstrates how being a formal member of a church is so important.
[If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Matt 18:15-17]
It is obvious that we would need to know who comprises the church. It cannot be everyone who comes on Sundays, including visitors, unbelievers, and children, or it would be like washing dirty linen in public. Such matters can only be discussed in a closed church meeting, so that the members can start praying, engaging with the erring brother/sister, and applying the necessary social pressure to make them know that they are heading down a dangerous path, so they may repent and be restored.
Is there opportunity for this process to be abused? It is far more difficult for abuse to happen when matters are told to the church, rather than when it is told only to the elders. When the membership agreement includes church members, a check is inbuilt, in that when the elders bring the matter before the church, they need to clearly explain and articulate the issue, to the satisfaction and understanding of the brethren.
This scripture as well as the following scripture instruct the church to remove the offending person from their number, to treat them as if they were not part of the church. This assumes that the church is defined in the first place.
[It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you . . . you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Cor 5:1-2, 5]
Once sin gets to this stage, the command is to tell it to the church, but before it gets to this stage, it is to be private. The first step is for the offended person to tell no one else and go to the offending person privately. If he repents, it stops there, but if not, then one or two others, maybe the elders, are told. Only if this also does not work, does the matter become a public church matter. Incidentally, this happens very rarely. And this step is taken to impose restrictions on the offending person for their own good, so that their spirit may be saved. Church membership and church discipline saves people's souls. This is a means the God uses to save wandering souls, when other methods have not worked. Polite well-meaning churches can destroy people.
Even if we are not talking about big sin issues, church membership can even help members struggling with irregular church attendance, for example. Sometimes, people have good reasons like sickness or being out of station. But what if a person just likes doing other things on Sundays? This is not adultery. Failure to attend church may be just a wrong pattern that is forming. But this can be just as deadly for our soul. We need a church that does not let us get away with that. We ought to seek out church membership as if the health of our soul depends on it, because sometimes it does.
RELATIONSHIP OF THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN WITH THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH
The major metaphor that Paul uses to describe the church is the human body.
[The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body . . . 1 Cor 12:21-23] The body metaphor describes mutual dependence, commitment to one another, and the fact that while we are different from each other, we still need each other.
Without formal membership, how is it possible to for us to identify who it is that we are meant to be committed to in this way? Membership defines who comprise the church. When Paul talks about the implications of the metaphor of the body, he has in mind the local church. We need to be able to identify the members of the body. We cannot decide that we will be committed with the desired level of commitment with only those who are of a similar age to us or with those who have a similar background. No, we must be committed to every believer in the body, whether they are easy to get on with or not. We ought to treat every member with special honour.
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HOW IS THE MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT MADE?
It is done formally. The members of the church vote, along with the elders, to bring someone into membership. This process is not described in the Bible, but neither is the marriage ceremony or marriage vows. The Bible speaks of marriage as a lifelong commitment, and we add the public ceremony and vows because we recognise the significance of it. So too in church membership, it is appropriate that the agreement is made publicly, for the sake of accountability and for love.