Church Membership
Sunday, at our Members’ Meeting, we welcomed some new members into our family at Creekside. I wanted to take a moment and reflect on what Church membership means and how that should influence our Christian life.
John Owen has written a great little book on the church entitled The Duties of Christian Fellowship. I highly commend it to you.
Three things church membership is and three things church membership does.
1) Church Membership is belonging to a body.
Sometimes people will say “Where is church membership in the Bible?” And to respond to this, we must state that there is no 11th commandment, “Thou shalt join the church.” However, consider how Paul describes the church in 1 Corinthians 12
1 Corinthians 12:12–20 (ESV)
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. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
Some have argued that this is not in reference to a local church but to the global church. But I don’t think that’s the right way to understand this passage (though certainly, it is not an untrue statement, generally speaking). Paul is writing to a specific congregation (at Corinth) about a specific problem (disunity) and gives specific directions to this specific congregation (regulates worship, church discipline, the Lord’s Supper, and so on).
The goal is not that we wander the globe wondering who might be an eye or who might be a hand. Rather, we should look around our local congregation and see what hands and what eyes God has placed in our midst! God is building his church, and he gives a variety of gifts.
Church membership is the biblical way to identify and use these gifts for the building up of the Church! if you are a church member, God has given you gifts to the praise of His glory. The Church is the right place to seek to use these gifts God has given. Church membership is belonging to a body of Christians.
2) Church Membership is submission to Jesus Christ.
Consider what Paul says in Ephesians 1:
Ephesians 1:22–23 (ESV)
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Jesus is the head of the church, and the church is the body of Christ. Therefore, if you want to submit to the head, you must belong to the body!
If I can just speak practically for a moment, I have no idea how people who do not have the church to support them remain Christians for a long period of time. The church, made up of imperfect saints, united to a perfect Head who is Jesus Christ, has been of so much practical benefit in my life, I cannot imagine what my life would look like if it were not for the Church.
That’s because Jesus is the head of the Church. Church membership makes clear your desire to submit to Jesus Christ as your head and belong to His body. Church membership is a high calling!
3) Church Membership is a relationship to other Christians.
Hulk Hogan might call everyone, “Brother” for one reason or another, but as a Christian in a church, the language of Brother and Sister is not just a replacement for when we forget someone’s name in church! Rather, it is a reminder of our familial relationship to one another.
Other Christians who are members of your church are not people who are like brothers and sisters to you. They are your brothers and sisters!
Notice, in one of the principle texts about church discipline, Paul makes the following remarks:
1 Corinthians 5:11 (ESV)
11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
Paul says that the language of brother and sister is a high calling. This is certainly related to the third commandment, about not bearing God’s name in vain. Though we see a negative example in this text, we see how seriously Paul takes the relationships between Christians. He warns that if someone is a “brother” but lives like an outsider, he is not to be associated with! In other words, church discipline assumes church membership. Church membership puts us in a special relationship to the people who make up our local church, and that is a big deal!
Those are three things that church membership is. Let me now speak to three things church membership does.
1) Church Membership shows us who we are to serve.
Consider Ephesians 2:19
Ephesians 2:19 (ESV)
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
God takes Christians, who are strangers and aliens, and makes them into brothers and sisters, calling them saints. Therefore, while there might be people in the church whose names we do not know (or readily recall), there are no strangers in the church of God, only brothers and sisters.
And this is speaking of the membership of the local church, not simply all those who might show up to any singular gathering of the local church. That distinction appears to be clear in the New Testament.
Galatians 5:13 (ESV)
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Church membership might not always show us how we are to serve, but it does help us to know who we are to serve. Principally, we are to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Galatians 6:2 (ESV)
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
This is related to a point below, but it becomes very difficult to obey these “one another” commands if we do not know who the “one another” is! Church membership shows us who we are to serve and the New Testament gives us examples of how we are to serve them.
2) Church Membership shows us who we are to pray for.
James 5:16 (ESV)
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
In a real sense, Christians are to pray for everyone (1 Timothy 2). And yet, when James tells us to pray for one another, it seems like he means specifically for church members.
Church membership changes your prayer life. There are new family members with new and unique needs and God gives you the opportunity to bring those needs before the throne of grace. What a privilege it is to pray for Christ’s Church!
Notice finally:
3) Church Membership allows us to put names where the Scripture says “one another.”
Colossians 3:13 (ESV)
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Colossians 3:16 (ESV)
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Consider instead of a general argument to bear with others, insert “Bearing with Drew, and if one has a complaint against Drew, forgive Drew, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive (Drew).”
The rubber meets the road when we understand Church membership. We must forgive those who Christ has forgiven!
Or consider, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing Drew in all wisdom…”
God calls people by name. He chooses His bride. Who are we to decide otherwise?
Church membership visualizes this reality.
Let us rejoice that our names are written in heaven, and let us rejoice that while we journey towards that land, we have fellow pilgrims to walk alongside us, for our good and God’s glory.