Church Membership, part 3

Many people wonder about the issue of church membership, whether or not it is even biblical. Well, there is no command present in scripture, old or new testament, that says, "Thou shalt walk down the aisle to "join a church".

However, there is a clear pattern set forth in scripture that salvation is not just an individual reality, but also corporate or collective reality. God has, since the beginning, been calling and redeeming a "people" to and for himself. A "people" is composed of individual persons. There is a corporate identity to the people of God.

Also, the images used in the NT to describe church also bear out this "membership" of individual persons into a "corporate" reality-------the body of Christ (the exercising of spiritual gifts for the good of the congregation), family of God, living stones, etc. The pattern in the book of Acts is that whenever someone became a Christian, they automatically became part of a group of believers in their specific location. Their "joining" this group of believers was a natural outflow of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. A Christian's participation and involvment in a "congregation of believers" is a picture of that Christian's belonging to the "universal church". Jesus' teaching on church discipline in Matthew 18 (see also 1 Corinthians 5 & Paul's instruction to the church at Corinth) gives evidence of "belonging to" a congregation of believers in order for this kind of edification & sanctification to take place. There is an authority that Jesus gives to a congregation. Also, the fact that pastors/elders will give an account of the souls over which they are called to care for is further evidence for "membership"; the pastors/elders must know for whom God has given them responsbility to care (Hebrews 13:7, 17).

So, is "church membership" biblical? I believe the clear answer is yes. Being a part of, participating in, being invloved in a "community of believers" is necessary for one's growth to spiritual maturity and is clearly the pattern for all believers.

Therefore, the question is not anymore, "is church membership biblical?", but "how do we do church membership so that our process reflects the principles in the bible"? Does the bible tell us how to do this?

We will begin to tackle that next week.