Is Becoming a member of a Church as a Member Really Obligatory?

What Is Church Membership?

What precisely is church membership? Church membership is how we formally acknowledge and commit to 1 one other as believers. It’s the factor we create by affirming each other by the ordinances. To supply a definition, church membership is a church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s career of religion and discipleship, mixed with the Christian’s submission to the church and its oversight.

The phrase submits is frightening, maybe particularly when utilized to the church. But it surely should be stated. While you turn into a church member, you’re not simply submitting to the leaders or the “establishment” in some imprecise bureaucratic sense. You’re submitting to a household and all its members. It’s your manner of claiming, “That is the actual group of Christians I’m inviting into my life and asking to maintain me accountable for following Jesus. I’m asking them to take duty for my Christian stroll. If I’m discouraged, it’s now their duty to encourage me. If I stray from the slender path, it’s their duty to appropriate me. If I’m in dire monetary straits, it’s their duty to take care of me.”

But this dedication goes each methods. In asking the opposite members of the church to look out for you, you are also promising to look out for them. You at the moment are part of the “church,” which is affirming and overseeing others. We’ll come again so far in a second.

What must also be evident—if you happen to’ve been paying shut consideration—is that baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership belong collectively. Exceptions exist, but ordinarily church buildings baptize individuals into membership, and the Lord’s Supper is a privilege of church members, whether or not at one’s personal church or when visiting one other. In spite of everything, all three issues work collectively to do the identical factor: affirm and mark off the individuals of God. Collectively they declare to the nations of the earth, “Listed below are the residents of the dominion of heaven.”

Isn’t It Sufficient to Belong to the Common Church?

Generally individuals prefer to say, “I don’t want to affix a church. I already belong to Christ’s common church.” (The common church is what theologians name your entire physique of Christ all through the world and all through all historical past.) Is that proper? Can we overlook in regards to the native church since all of us turn into members of the common church upon conversion?

The quick reply isn’t any. It’s true you don’t want to affix a church to be saved. Our membership within the common church is a present (Eph. 2:11–22), simply as our righteousness in Christ is a present and religion is a present. But you do want to affix a church to be obedient to Scripture. Simply as our religion ought to “placed on” good works (Col. 3:10, 12; James 2:14–16), so we should always “placed on” our common membership regionally. Our membership within the common church can’t stay an summary concept. If it’s actual, it can present up on earth—in actual time and house with actual individuals with names like Betty, Jamar, Saeed, and Ling. Pandemic lockdowns don’t change any of that.

If the Spirit is in you, you wish to decide to Christ’s physique. You nearly can’t assist it. Real membership within the common church creates native church membership, which in flip demonstrates our common membership.

Maybe, like us, you’ve had associates who tried to dwell out their Christianity other than a church, and little by little their religion shriveled, generally disappeared fully. I had a pal whom I inspired to affix my church after he had been attending for a number of months. He declined as a result of he didn’t need the accountability. In the meantime, he was dabbling in important sin. Unsurprisingly, his attendance grew an increasing number of sporadic, till he stopped attending altogether. Lastly, he informed me someday over espresso, “Jonathan, I’m not a Christian, or a minimum of not your type of Christian.”

Church membership gives the security of the sheep pen, the place Christ is shepherd. It gives the nourishment of being connected to a physique, like an arm to a torso, the place Christ is the top. It gives the love of a household, the place Christ is the firstborn of many heirs. It gives the obligations and duties of citizenship in a holy nation, the place Christ is the King.

Real membership within the common church creates native church membership, which in flip demonstrates our common membership.

Is Church Membership Actually Biblical?

One other query individuals ask is whether or not church membership is even within the Bible. Perhaps you’ve requested it your self.

If we had solely the size of an elevator experience with you to reply, we’d level to passages comparable to Matthew 18:17 and 1 Corinthians 5:2, the place Jesus and Paul discuss eradicating somebody from the church’s membership, or what Paul says about being “inside” the church (1 Cor. 5:12). Or we’d level to Acts 2 and what Luke says about three thousand individuals being “added” to the church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:41), or Acts 6 and what he says about calling the church collectively (Acts 6:2). No, the time period “church membership” isn’t used within the Bible like we use it right this moment. However the apply is implied practically each time the phrase church is used within the New Testomony, as when Luke says, “Earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church” (Acts 12:5), or Paul writes to “the church buildings of Galatia” (Gal. 1:2). Although they didn’t use all of the instruments we would use right this moment, comparable to membership courses, membership packets, and names listed on a pc spreadsheet, they knew who they had been—identify by identify.

But there’s the larger story that’s vital so that you can see with a view to perceive God’s bigger functions for church buildings like yours or ours. All through the Bible, God all the time attracts a vibrant line round his individuals. The backyard of Eden had an inside and an out of doors. The ark had an inside and outdoors. The individuals of Israel in Egypt, quarantined off in Goshen, had an inside and outdoors. Simply take into consideration the plagues themselves. Some focused simply the Egyptians, not God’s individuals. God stated,

However on that day I’ll set aside the land of Goshen, the place my individuals dwell, in order that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you could be know that I’m the Lord within the midst of the earth.Thus I’ll put a division between my individuals and your individuals. (Ex. 8:22–23)

Flies! God used flies to attract the road between his individuals and never his individuals! Then Israel traveled into the wilderness, and he gave them cleanliness legal guidelines with a view to draw a line between the within and outdoors of the camp. Unclean individuals needed to go exterior of the camp. Lastly, he positioned them within the promised land, which had an inside and an out of doors.

God has all the time marked off his individuals in order that he may put them on show for his personal glory. He desires these embassies to face out. It’s no surprise Paul picks up this Outdated Testomony language when he says,

Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has mild with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What settlement has the temple of God with idols? For we’re the temple of the residing God; as God stated,

“I’ll make my dwelling amongst them and stroll amongst them,
     and I will likely be their God,
     they usually shall be my individuals.
Due to this fact exit from their midst,
     and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and contact no unclean factor;
     then I’ll welcome you,
and I will likely be a father to you,
     and also you shall be little children to me,
says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6:14–18)

When individuals ask whether or not church membership is within the Bible, they’re typically in search of one thing programmatic, like membership to a fitness center or membership. And, true sufficient, that’s not within the Bible. Let’s take away such concepts from our heads. As a substitute, let’s get into our minds “the temple of the residing God,” which is the picture Paul makes use of to explain who we’re. This temple can’t be “yoked with” or have “partnership,” “fellowship,” or “accord” with unbelievers. Why? As a result of God dwells on this temple. He identifies himself with it. Sure, we should always nonetheless invite nonbelievers into our worship gatherings (1 Cor. 14:24–25). However the level is, a church should be clear about who belongs to it and who doesn’t exactly for the sake of the church’s witness. He desires us to face out and be distinct in order that we are able to supply a gorgeous and compelling witness to the world.

As such, church membership is an assumed actuality on practically each web page of the New Testomony Epistles, however the language is totally different. Membership within the church is membership in a household. It comes with household obligations. It’s membership in a physique. It comes with all of the dynamics of being linked to each different half. Each biblical metaphor for the church helps us to grasp what membership is, and all of them are obligatory, as a result of there’s nothing else on the earth just like the church.

This text is tailored from Rediscover Church: Why the Physique of Christ Is Important by Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman.

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