Membership is Relationship

A good way to explore the biblical teachings on Church membership is to compare that with some common traditional notions.  To do that, we start with a brief definition and discussion of Church :

Q. What is the Church?

A. The Bible explains a Christian Church as: The Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, Family of God, the Household of Faith, people of God, a Colony of Heaven, Kingdom of Priests, a Holy Nation, Elect from every nation, Gathered in Christ, People of the Way, Israel of God, the Redeemed, ...

 

The people of God are organically related.  They are connected to Christ in heaven and by the Spirit constitute a Heavenly body on Earth. N. T. Wright offers this helpful observation:

      ...[T]he point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up...

 

              It’s a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life.  It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat.  It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts ...  It’s where you’ll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out.  It’s where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God. that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

 

... the “inheritance” to come, of which the Spirit is given as a down payment, is our old friend the exodus story, in which Israel escapes from Egypt and goes off to the Promised Land...You are now the people of the true exodus.  You are now on your way to your inheritance...those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God’s new Temple.  They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.

 

Membership means body-life and belonging.  A Christian church is the real body, made up by people who live together and belong together in conformity to what Paul says in Ephesians 4:

 

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called

to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

 

From this, it is right to ask:

 

Q. What is Faith?                

A.  A shared vision of the Kingdom of God: A right view of the kingdom of God (see the “Little Faith” passages in Matthew)

 

Q. What is Hope?                

A. A shared hope: Resurrection unto presence with God

 

Q. What is Baptism?                      

A. A shared allegiance: see Acts 2 and Romans 6

 

With these ideas in place, we are ready to question the tradition of reducing membership to the “membership roll” — the practice of putting names on a list (where a person qualifies to get on that list) and calling that membership.

 

Q. Is list-based membership the Biblical pattern for membership?

A. Not exactly.  A name on a list is not the essence of the “one hope, one lord, one faith, one baptism” definition given above.  However, there are lists of people in scripture — Paul speaks of a widow list in 1 Timothy 5 (see also Acts 6) — even as the early church had ways of knowing who went out from their midst (see 1 John 2:19).  The use of lists is not to be confused with body-life membership even as an official church roll is a matter of freedom for a congregation.  For example, the concept of a 501(c)3 non-profit is not in the Bible, but we are free to so organize according to our cultural situation.   Constitutions and Creeds are matters of cultural circumstances that are lawful for a church to adopt, though neither creeds, constitutions or 501(c)3s are essential elements.  The circumstances of body life are those things that change with society and human culture (the current norms and mores), whereas elements of body life are non-negotiable (such as baptism and the Lord’s Supper).  Body-life is an essential reality even as the way this church is formally organized is a secondary issue.  So we have a list of members who vote on circumstantial matters.  The danger to guard against is the tendency to exalt the cultural circumstances of membership (such as lists and of our ideas of voting) over the Biblical model of membership as body life.  

 

Q. What Verses show that membership is body-life?

A. Body life and membership in the Bible follows an organic description:

Romans 12:4-5 "For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another."

1 Corinthians 10:17 "Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread."

1 Corinthians 12:12 -13 "For even as the body is one and [yet] has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit."

See also:  1 Corinthians 12:20, Ephesians 4:4, Colossians 3:15, Ephesians 5:28-30

 

Q. Why be a member of a local church?

A. The marks of a healthy church include prayer, worship, the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, accountability in relationships, confession of sins, a right view of the Gospel and fellowship.  With this kind of fellowship comes the vulnerability of authentic relationships, which leaves us open to a sincere participation in body life, admonition, exhortation and maybe even correction (1 Cor 5:13; 2 Cor 6:14-17; Matthew 18). Uniting in membership is one way to affirm that you are committed to this kind of relationship.  Joining does not mean that you are placing yourself under the whims of men.  You are ruled by Christ, and only as those Christians on earth sound forth the words of Christ must you take heed.  The words of Christ declared to one another include words that call us to persevere as one body (as in the Hebrews’ warning passages).  We have no claim on God as our Father if we choose not to listen to the Bible in these passages.  This means God’s words are double edged, even in membership, and the church must be cognizant of both sides.  See 1 Cor 5:9-13.

 

Q. What does it take to become a part of the body?

A. First and foremost: Union with Christ.  From that, 1) Join in the fellowship, worship and prayer of the church; 2) Become friends with the church family;  3) Take the new members class; 4) Express a desire for formal membership from those who serve in the Acts 20 capacity; 5) Your name will be announced to the congregation; 6) The entire church will affirm your membership. 6) Testimony to the church (includes Baptism for the un-baptized); Important question to ponder: What do we do with the New Testament where there was immediate baptism without all of these above steps?

 

Q. What we should expect from one another?

A. We are a new creation, offering what the world cannot: Love (1 John 3:11), Fellowship, Worship, a Theology of the Cross, The building up of faith, Preaching, Prayer, Praise, Proclamation, Purpose, Comfort, Help, Accountability (see 1 Cor 5 and Matthew 18), Relationships, Opportunities – seek these things in any church you join.

 

The church’s commitments to you

We are there for you, praying for you, caring about you, listening to you, losing our lives for you.

 

A Feast of Word and Fellowship.  A place for building the faith and living the resurrection.

John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.”

Louisburg, Kansas

Sunday School, 9:30am

Sunday Worship, 10:30am

Eastside Church of the Cross