Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Church Membership, part 1

In this second detour from the book of Nehemiah, we are looking at the NT to find patterns, principles, commands, and instruction about what a healthy church looks like. Last week we defined church and then defined a “local congregation”. We defined local congregation as the following: A local congregation is a group of believers (Christians) in a particular geographical location who are committed to Jesus as Lord & to one another by covenant for mutual love & accountability for the purpose of displaying the glory of God and fulfilling the Great Commission.

In the forerunner articles over the next several weeks, we will examine three different aspects of church life that flow out of this definition. We will examine: church membership, church leadership, and decision making in a local congregation.

The New Testament speaks to each of these aspects. We will be using these articles to examine the scripture, find out what it says, and then seek to bring our church in line with what the scripture teaches by putting systems and structures in place that will flow from the biblical definition of church and support the primary purpose and mission of the church.

First up is church membership. Let’s begin with the following quote that I found helpful in re-orienting our thinking about what “membership” means in a congregation. This quote is from the book The Trellis and The Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.

"One church we have been involved in tried to express this by not having 'membership' of the congregation, but 'partnership'. In our society, when you join as a 'member' of something, it can have connotations of passivity and consumerism. I join a club, and expect certain benefits. The 'partnership' language, on the other hand, communicates immediately that we are signing up for active involvement--for being partners together in a great enterprise: the gospel mission of Christ."

What is church membership all about? Does the New Testament even speak to the issue of church membership? If so, what does it means for us today?

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