review. This consists of going through the NEHBC membership roll to make
sure we didn't lose track of anyone in 2010-2011. If we find a member unit
who has disappeared, we make an exploratory phone call to see if they are ok
and then respond accordingly. Sometimes they have moved to another city,
sometimes they are upset at me or NEHBC for some reason, sometimes they
don't want to belong to a church anymore, sometimes they became discouraged
in their faith somewhere during the year, and sometimes there is a medical
situation going-ie: they are homebound and can't physically participate in
our church and simply didn't tell us. Depending on the situation, we respond
according-begin ministering to them, encourage them to start coming again,
re-educate them regarding our membership expectations and commitments, help
them find a church in another city, restore a broken relationship, or
whatever might need to be done. Sometimes the process results in people
being removed from our membership.
(Interestingly, when we only catch someone who has fallen through the cracks
during our annual membership review and not at the time when it happened, it
is almost always the case that the person was not in a small group-serving
on one of our ministry teams or participating in a Sunday morning bible
study class. I cannot overstate the importance of the encouragement and
exhortation a Christ-follower gets for their relationship with the Lord
through the small group ministry. It is vital. If you aren't in a small
group, I want to urge you to find one. You need it.)
The Scriptures talk about church members being the bricks that together
become a building. When a brick is missing, the building is unhealthy. Our
annual membership review is, metaphorically speaking, a walk around our
building to see if any bricks are missing that we don't know about so we can
figure out what steps should be taken to right the matter. Making sure we
are being faithful with our membership is a responsibility of the church.
Our membership process-both the application process on the front side and
the annual membership review thereafter-is the reason why at any given time,
more than 95% of our membership is knowing and being known at NEHBC.
In addition to our annual membership review, we've also noticed we have more
than 80 pending member units who have requested membership at NEHBC, but not
completed the process. We are about to start a push to clear this back log.
These units are going to get a staff member assigned to them who will coach
and exhort them through the process. We want to help these units cross the
finish line.
Between following up with members we aren't sure about and the push to get
our pending members across the finish line, you might hear some chatter
about church membership phone calls. I just want you to know what is going
on.
As part of this effort, in midweek worship on Aug 3, 10, and 17, I am
teaching a three part series on membership in the local church. It will be
very similar in nature to the midweek teaching series I did on corporate
worship in April-May. If you are uncertain as to why church membership
matters, if you are wondering if it is even biblical, if you think it is a
human tradition that is a thing of the past, if you think of your grandma
when you hear the phrase "church membership", if you think you just need to
be a member of the universal church and not a local church, if you are a
commitment-phobe, or if you just want to grow in your understanding of the
local church, you need to come to this teaching series. It will not be
boring. Join me on these three Wednesdays at 7pm as we consider church
membership in light of the New Testament.
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