Church Membership Matters

“Once you choose Christ, you must choose His people, too. 

It’s a package deal.  Choose the Father 

and the Son and you have to choose the whole family –

 which you do through a local church.” Jonathan Leeman

 A belief that permeates the pages of the Bible and is essential to a healthy Christian life is commitment. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus told His followers “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Yet, ours is a culture that’s afraid of commitment. Many couples rationalize, “Why not just live together to see if it works out?” In a similar way, many Christians think, “Why not just attend a church? What’s the point of joining?” Unfortunately, many believers attend a church for years yet never join.

  This Thursday, March 16^th, is the beginning of our New Members class. Attending this class doesn’t commit you to join Grace or make you a member. It does give us an opportunity to share our understanding of Scripture and how it applies to our church. During the eight lessons of this class, we share who we are, what we believe, our passion, and our mission.

  We believe that to be an obedient Christian, you must go beyond church attendance to being a committed, serving member of a church. We’re looking to have others officially join our church who have our DNA, our passion for Jesus, and our desire to reach our community with the gospel.

  So what does the New Testament have to say about church membership? The metaphors that the New Testament uses to describe the local church imply close relationships and committed connection; building, family, army, flock, etc. Add to that, nearly every letter in the New Testament was written to a local church or to the pastor of a local church.

  If church membership is so important why don’t we find church membership mentioned specifically in the New Testament? In the New Testament, you’ll discover membership is implied throughout it. Churches didn’t need to be formalized in the way we need it today because there was only one church per city. If you were a Christian, you didn’t have options on where to attend. If you lived in Ephesus, you were a member of the church there. Today there are dozens of evangelical churches in an area.

  Many New Testament texts infer that local churches knew exactly who their members were. For example, in giving instructions about the Lord’s Supper, Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 11:18), “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.” That implies that there was a defined group who came together as a church, though there were sinful divisions among them. In Acts 11:26, Paul and Barnabas “met with the church and taught considerable numbers.” In Acts 14:23, Paul and Barnabas “appointed elders for them in every church” which they’d founded on their missionary journey. Elders were responsible to lead these churches., so obviously, they knew who the members were. A pastor in a church is commanded to shepherd the church (Acts 20:28). You can’t faithfully shepherd if you don’t know who is part of the “flock.”

  To fulfill the responsibilities then of both pastors and members requires a well-defined group of committed believers identified as members of each church. They meet regularly for teaching, worship, fellowship, and prayer.

  Why join? John Stott wrote: If the church is central to God’s purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives. How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the center?” That centrality of the local church to God’s purpose should be reason enough for you to be committed to one. Let me share then just three reasons…

  You should join a church because Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her; if you love Christ, you must love His church and commit yourself to her well-being. In Ephesians 5:25, Paul commands, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” He talks about how Christ’s aim is to sanctify the church so that He might present her to Himself in all her glory, as beautiful as she possibly can be. Then Paul tells husbands to tenderly nourish and cherish their wives, just as Christ does His church. Throughout this passage, you’d think that Paul was talking about marriage, but then he adds this surprising statement (Eph. 5:32): “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” In other words, marriage is designed to be an earthly picture of the relationship between the divine Bridegroom and His bride, the church.

  You should join a local church because the church is where you learn practically to love God and love others (the two greatest commandments). You can’t be a “Christian at large” any more than you can be “married at large.” I love all my sisters in Christ in the church worldwide, but there’s only one to whom I’m committed to as my wife. I’m not suggesting we’re to “marry” a church with the same lifelong commitment we vow in marriage, but we do need a strong commitment to help us work through issues and personal conflicts that arise in the church so we grow in grace and love for one another. Commitment is the glue that holds relationships together, enabling us to grow spiritually when there are inevitable conflicts.

  You should join a local church because it is the means Jesus ordained to fulfill His Great Commission. A local church is God’s ordained way of fulfilling His Great Commission. A church must be committed to reaching the lost and making disciples. Paul told the Philippian church (Phil. 1:27), “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” That’s the church’s job!

  God is using our church for His glory! If our mission is your mission, we’d love to have you officially join us! Check out our New Members’ class when it starts this week!

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.