Tony is a loving father and a caring husband. He became a Christian at a young age.  He is a faithful employee and has always been faithful to his local church…until he started to notice a lot of problems within the congregation.  He grew tired of seeing the conflicts with other Christians. It appeared to him also that the church wasted a lot of resources. He knew a big building with a beautiful sanctuary took a lot of money to maintain, and he believed the church should be spending more of their resources on missions.  He became discontented with what he saw, so he pulled his family out of the church. He now prefers to do his own thing with his family at home on Sunday.

Susan was a devoted minister in a para-church organization. She regularly shared the gospel with lost teenage girls at nearby community center where she volunteered. She was not raised in the church, but came to know the Lord with a friend who lived on her hall during her freshman year in college. She loves reading the Bible with her friends, but has never seen the value of the local church.

George does not have a problem with the church, but does not get anything out of the sermon.  He believes that one can worship God anywhere and he finds his greatest enjoyment in playing golf with his friends on Sunday morning. They pray before the round begins and talk about family and God between shots.  They even occasionally invite one of their non-Christian neighbors to join their foursome in the hopes of talking to them about Jesus. 

The church has fallen on hard times.  I have a lot of conversations with people who are Christians, who believe the Bible, but do not see the value of the local church. They view church membership more as a distraction and inconvenience, rather than a biblical command. And knowing their experience in the church and knowing how many unhealthy churches exist, I can understand their perspective. They say things like, “I do not need the church or You can be a Christian without the church.”  They are correct. You can be a Christian without the church, but can you be a faithful Christian? Or another way to ask the question would be, “Is church membership biblical?”  (Granted, there are faithful Christians living in other parts of the world where there is no church within 100 miles because they may be one of the only believers in the area. This is the rare exception and not the rule, and certainly not the case here in South Carolina).

“Thou shall become a church member.” This verse is not in the Bible.  There is no explicit reference that an individual should be listed on a Church membership roll.  Although there are not explicit references to church membership that does not mean the idea of church membership is not in the Bible.  It is not only implied in the Bible, but the New Testament concept of “church” does not make sense outside of church membership. We are going to look at the biblical foundations of church membership. 

            The first reference to church in the New Testament is in Matthew 16.  Jesus just warns his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees. He then asked his disciples,

            The New Testament uses a variety of images to identify and explain the church.  One pastor explains it this way:

God has inspired multiple images, each of which offers different perspective and none of which should so dominate our conception of the church that the depth and texture of understanding is lost. Though all are inspired, they are not interchangeable, nor are they all as comprehensive in their presentation of the nature and mission of the church…None of these images negates the institutional aspects of the church, but their number and variety point to a degree of mystery in the nature of the church. [1]

None of the images of the church negate the institutional aspects of church.  We are never called to God

 The church is called the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, Paul writes about communion in the church, “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”  And again 1 Corinthians 12:12, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” Then after describing how this idea of membership creates unity, Paul writes 1 Corinthians 12:18, “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” Romans 12:4-5, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  The body image is extensive in the New Testament. 

            And all those references are specifically written to a specific visible local body of believers.  Most of the books we have in the New Testament are written to churches. Romans 1:7, “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” 1 Cor.1:2 & 2 Cor. 1b, “To the church of God that is in Corinth.” Galatians 1:2b, “To the churches of Galatia,” (multiple churches in one region).  Ephesians 1:1b, “to the saints who are in Ephesus.” Paul writes also to the church in Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica. And in addition 3 more letters to pastors of a specific, visible local body of believers.  The body imagery is so readily used in the New Testament because it pictures the reality of one specific, visible, local body of believers who have many members, but are one body; the body of Christ.

The same image of “many individual parts with one collective whole” can also be seen the other images in the New Testament. The church is a building with many stones built into a house (Ephesians 2:21 and 1 Peter 2).  The church is one temple with many bricks built into that temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). The church also is referenced multiple times as the people of God, as similarly identified in the Old Testament.  There are many other images the New Testament employs, but they all do not negate the corporate function of individuals.  The people, who disregard the local church, disregard the entire thrust of the New Testament’s teaching on the church. As one pastor said, “Christianity is personal, but never private.”[2] 

            There are also several places where it would appear that there are actually lists of people that would resemble a church roll.  Paul encouraged Timothy (in 1 Timothy 5) to keep a record of the widows that the church was responsible to minister to with financial resources.  In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul encourages the church to put out a sinning member from the church.  How can one be put out of the church unless there is a clear understanding of who wasin the church? Again, in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul refers to the “majority” of people who acted in discipline against a member within the church.  There cannot be a record of the majority of the church unless the church had a record of the entire church.  And even God himself apparently has a list.  Revelation 21:27, “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are writtenin the Lamb’s book of life” (emphasis added).

            When you commit yourself to a specific, visible, local church you have church leaders who are committed to protect and care for your soul. God charges elder/pastors to protect the flock in Acts 20. They are called to labor in teaching sound doctrine and guard the flock from wolves that teach heresy.  Elders are called to be examples to the flock, pointing the members of the church to Christ (1 Peter 5).  Committing to a local church allows the church leadership to know who they are responsible to care for and to whom individuals are called to submit.  Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.”  Two things you should see in that verse, first, church leaders need to know who they will be held accountable for.  As pastors, Bill and I have a unique responsibility to care for the people of this church; as a father will answer for his children, so pastors will answer for their flock. Secondly, it allows Christians to know who they are responsible to obey.  The Bible commands you to obey your leaders.  It is easy to disobey this command simply by not committing.  Our world does not like talk of authority, submission and obedience, but Christians cannot live like the rest of the world.  Christians trust God.  I could give a whole list of caveats here: pastors aren’t perfect; the church has problems; the pastors are too young etc. But without church membership, how do you fulfill this command to obey your leaders and how do you know which leaders to submit?  Church membership is a blessing to Christians as well as Christian leaders.

            The world needs to understand what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a non-Christian. The lines have been too muddled in the past.  Help clarify to the world what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Commit to a local church.  Church membership makes it more difficult for weaker sheep to go straying from the fold, while still considering themselves sheep.[3]Older Christians can help younger Christians clarify what it means to be a Christian disciple and protect them from walking astray. Church Membership helps guard people’s souls.

            Church membership is not only a biblical command, but it is also a blessing. The church is a family. We are family that God which have been charged to relate with one another in a very particular way.  We are called to love one another. And as a church member we have the great blessing of extending our love to one another and to receive love from one another.  We do not have time now to list all the blessings of church membership, but take a half hour this afternoon with your family and make a list of all the blessings you have and can experience by being committing yourself to a local church? Then pray that those blessings would continue to be the regular experience of the people in the church. Pray that this church would truly be a people, that lovesone another.

The arguments that Christians usually give about being part of a church family are rooted in their own past negative experiences in churches.  And likewise, most people love the church because of their positive experiences in being part of a church family.  How we relate to one another will either foster a love for God’s church or cripple it? 

            The church has to raise its standards of church membership. We have to have high expectations for the Lord’s church.  We are fine with people remaining as members of the church when they have not darkened the door in years.  We are fine with people remaining members of the church if they are living in open and outright rebellion against God.  Doesn’t God deserve better than that? Romans 2:24 says, “For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” We should fight for the reputation of our God.  We must commit to the church of the living God which was purchased through the blood of Christ.   Beloved, we have to raise the bar for church membership. Church membership is biblical and God-honoring. I challenge you to obey God’s word by making a commitment and helping others to commit to a specific, visible, local body of believers.  The church is God’s idea.  It is precious to Him, will it be precious to you?

---