First, why does church membership matter? Why can't I just attend my local church and never formally affiliate with her?
There are a variety of biblical ways in which we know that membership in a local church matters to God:
A. The vast majority of the New Testament books are written to local churches expressing God's passion, love, and plans for the local church. These epistles refer to the church as the bride of Christ. If the church is Christ's bride and I don't love and deeply value the church, how can I love Christ? If you are cold and indifferent to Nicole, ignoring her at every turn and then try to convince me you love me and support me, I will have little goodwill toward you. You may say, but Nathan, I do love the church, the UNIVERSAL church, I'm only indifferent to the local church. Can I suggest to you that such a position is a little shortsighted. A church, by definition, is the physical assembling of a body of people. Where and when does the universal church currently assemble? I believe the universal church currently only exists in conceptual form--it is a future reality. The only current biblical church that exists is the local church. One day when Jesus returns, the universal church will transition from conceptual form into reality and at the same time the local church will cease to exist. Right now, the future members of the universal church are organized by God into smaller hubs--the local church.
B. The New Testament (NT) epistles assume that Christ followers are living their lives in the context of a local community of believers. The concept of walking with Christ in a vacuum, void of other believers is foreign to NT teaching. In the 1st Century, when believers lived in proximity to other believers, those believers came together in a covenanted relationship--formally affiliated together to do the work of the Lord. Christ followers banded together in churches because it's inside the incubator of a local church that life change through bible teaching takes place.
C. Hebrews 10:24-25: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. The NT teaches us that our ability to be what we are called by God to be--loving, and our ability to do what God has called us to do--His work, necessitates that we physically assemble together regularly.
D. 1 Cor. 12:7: To each one is given the manifestation [a spiritual gift] of the Spirit for the common good. When God calls you to join a local church, it is not just for your benefit, it is also for the benefit of the local church. You AND your spiritual gift are joining that local church--a gift the Lord has given you for the "common good"--the people that make up that local church. Part of the Lord's provision for the local church is to systematically provide the balance of gifts each church needs to fulfill their God given vision. Membership informs the local church that you are bringing your gift to the table and that your gift can be counted on for the church's ministry of making disciples. How can your church know if you are called by God to them and that in turn they can count on your giftedness unless you join the church?
E. The bible calls the local church pastor a shepherd; in fact, the term "pastor" is the word "shepherd" in Greek. The bible calls God's people sheep. The connection is obvious--how can a pastor know you are one of his sheep, and counting on him and that flock, unless you join? He can't. Membership informs the flock and the pastor that there is a new addition in the flock.
F. 1 Cor. 5 is a case study of church discipline and is in particular an extreme case--a young man was having an affair with his step mom...whoa!!! The church's responsibility in the matter is laid out in the chapter--the church was supposed to hold that young man accountable for his indifference toward God's values--and despite that church's effort to win him away from his sin, he bragged ("gloried") about it. In turn, the church was instructed to remove him from the membership. Question: how can one be removed from something to which they never originally belonged? Part of church membership means receiving loving accountability from the local church. By belonging to a local church, I'm trusting them that if it becomes massively obvious that there is a pattern in my life indicating I'm straying from Christ, that somebody will say something to me and do something to meet me where I'm at and walk me back to Christ. Don't let me get far from Him or I will suffer greatly!
If you are called by God to belong to the local community of believers called Northeast Houston Baptist Church and you have not yet begun our membership process, I want to urge you to do so in order to follow God's will for your life. If you have begun our membership process, but have not yet completed it, let me urge you to get it done.
A question comes to mind: for membership to mean all of these things above, doesn't that necessitate the local church keeps track of and in touch with her members? How can a shepherd and a flock know who is counting on them for ministry if the sheep roster (membership roll) is so outdated that there are people on there that haven't been heard of in years? How can there be loving accountability if nobody knows where half of a church's members are? I know of church's with deceased people on their membership role! For these reasons and others, most churches' membership rolls are meaningless and not biblical membership at all. At NEHBC, we want membership to be meaningfully New Testament. I'll address this issue in the next blog post.
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