The What, Why, When, and How

of Local Church Membership

Selected Scriptures
Sunday Morning
May 16, 2010
Church in the Boro
Rob Wilkerson

WHAT is Local Church Membership?

Local Church Membership is a way to show your partnership with and commitment
to a local body of believers for the purpose of practicing koinonia, implementing
God’s Word, and executing the Great Commission.

Church membership would have been foreign to believers in the New Testament. In
that day and time, the church was just being born and formed and established. The
Holy Spirit had come and indwelt all believers, and the Great Commission had just
been launched by the power and coming of the Spirit.

In those days, people were simply regenerated, baptized with the Spirit, and
congregated together with other believers in order to devote themselves to the
apostles teaching, prayer, koinonia, and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42). In addition,
they gathered to encourage one another (Heb. 10:24-25), and give money to one
another to meet needs (Acts 2:44-47). They did all of these things both on the first
day of the week, when they gathered together to worship (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2),
as well as throughout every other day of the week, in each others’ homes (2:46).

As the Spirit of God came to other cultures and regenerated people, the way in
which believers gathered changed throughout the centuries in some respects.
Sunday, the first day of the week, has continued to be the biblical and traditional
day in which Christians gather to worship God corporately. But more recently in the
19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, the way in which people relate to one another has
continued to change and shift drastically. Up until the late 1800’s most people lived
in small towns where everyone knew each other and took care of each other.

But with the dawning and passing of the industrial revolution, work and vocation
began to take such a center stage that people began seeing each other less, but
profiting more. This resulted in the birth and growth of the “American Dream” and
with that the segregation of large groups of people, usually the wealthy moving
away from the poor.

Today, we are all segregated from each other by neighborhoods, each of which has
its own subculture. There was a day and time several decades ago when neighbors
knew each other and took care of each other for the most part. But that has
continued to change to the point where it is not altogether strange for a family to
have never met their neighbors before. That’s because the shift in our western
culture has moved away from groups to individuals…from neighborhoods where
everyone knows each other to neighborhoods where everyone “holes up” in their
own houses away from each other.

The segregation of people away from those unlike themselves to other people just
like themselves has continued to grow in the logical direction it must go…
individuals segregating themselves from other individuals just like themselves.
Likewise, churches have followed suit by segregating themselves away from other
local churches by denominations and other similar boundaries. In addition, the
individualistic ideal has created a whole host of sub-denominations, because the
Christians in the larger ones were somehow unhappy (whether justified or not)
enough to split off and form a related denominational branch or else a separate
denomination altogether. And so our neighborhoods and churches all reflect the
poison of individualism and the cancer it has created in our culture and subcultures.

All of this cultural shift over the last two hundred years or so has had an expected
ripple effect on the church. Because individuals are now centered more on
themselves than their neighborhoods or friends, this spirit or heart has affected (or
infected) the church such that churches are filled with individual Christians rather
than a community of Christians. Church has therefore become a commodity much
like an individual’s house or appliance or television or car. It’s another thing they
use to meet a need they have.

The sum effect of all this has therefore come to require some means by which
believers can make a public and intentional commitment about who they are and
what they are about. In the days when there was just one church in town, that was
easy. You were committed to that church…obviously. In addition, you were happy
to publicly, verbally, and intentionally commit yourself to both hold other believers
accountable to the Word of God, as well as be held accountable yourself by them.
As a result, the concept we know of today as “church discipline” was a “no-brainer.”
Believers loved each other in such a way that they pushed each other live lives of
biblical significance. And they loved each other in such a way that if there was
unrepentant sin in your life preventing you from living a godly life, then they would
push you to repent, or they would put you out of the church if you did not.

This concept of local church accountability began to wane for some denominations
around the turn of the 20th century. The decline continued on through the last half
of that century, again primarily due to the spirit of individualism that had come to
infect and grow within the American culture. Industry, something that is a blessing
from God, simply exposed the innate selfishness and individualism of mankind. It
proclaimed efficiency and professionalization, which also exposed the human
condition in ways we had not yet seen before. Churches were slowly but surely
transformed into corporations, Sunday mornings into performances, Pastors and
church leaders into CEO’s, and church members into stockholders, clients, and/or
customers. As one church historian has so accurately observed,

“By the 1950s and 1960s, joining a Baptist church was like joining the
Rotary Club, except the membership requirements were often more
 stringent for the latter…Becoming a church member, especially in the
South and Midwest, was just something that good, red-blooded, middle
class Americans did. It was during this time that you began to see
increasing disparity between membership records and actual church
participation. For most of our history (and this is still true with many
Baptists in other parts of the world), local churches had more regular
attendees than members because membership was a commitment. By
1960, we were long past those days…” (“The Church Membership
Question: an Interview with Dr. Nathan Finn” by Michael Spencer on
Internet Monk).

All of this was and continues to be reflected in segregation (both racially and
culturally), the rapid of rise of denominations and sub-denominations, as well as the
growth of believers apart from one another, even in their smaller public spaces such
as their neighborhoods and local churches. In short, we pretty much would rather
all keep to ourselves, hang out with friends every now and then, go to church each
week, but not get too crazy about it all. Whatever seeking the kingdom of God is all
about, we can’t get too fanatical about it. Everything needs a balance. Or so we
think.

So I have come to believe that local church membership may very well be the best
means of returning to a biblical understanding of local church life. While it’s true
that eastern cultures still very much resemble that of the biblical days, it’s also true
that we don’t live in an eastern culture. We live in a western culture. And this
seems to make it harder…much harder, in fact…to live like we see believers living
in the Bible days. In those days “membership” in a local church would have been
strange, as I already said. You simply gathered together with other Christians.
Period.

But the presence of so many denominations and religious lifestyles seems to make
it necessary for us in western cultures to have a way we can identify with what we
believe in, stand for, and are committed to. Some would think that simply attending
regularly as the early believers did, should be enough for us today. But that’s not
true, if for no other reason than believers gathered together every day in the early
church, according to Acts 2:46-47. They didn’t just attend church on Sunday
mornings together. In addition, they practiced a much tougher form of love with
each other than we do today. We’re all afraid to get in each other’s business and
personal lives today. But in the early church days, they did not seem so afraid to do
this. So there seem to be enough differences between our culture today and the
early church culture that require a different form of commitment than they had
back then, no matter how bad we wish it were different otherwise.

What I’m saying is that the western culture we live in almost demands a cultural
means or tool by which we can look at the Bible, read it, and put it in to practice.
It’s not enough to simply come on Sunday mornings. Why? Because that’s not
what church is. Church is not a building where people come. It’s not a time on
Sunday mornings on which people come to worship. The church is not a place. The
church is a people. The church is a people living biblically. The church is a people
focused on doing the Bible and doing the Great Commission. And for this reason
alone we need some sort of way to help Christians identify with this truth and the
lifestyle it demands. Church membership is that way, I believe.

Local Church Membership at Church in the Boro, therefore, is simply a public,

visible, intentional way of a Christian agreeing with what we stand for, and choosing
to identify with it in every way. It is a means of holding other Christians
accountable to it, and also a means of being held accountable by it. It is a place
where we are encouraged to obey the Bible and live out the Great Commission.
And it is a place where we in turn encourage other people to do the same. It seems
that if there’s no formal way for us to do that, then we’re simply attending a
gathering on Sundays and hanging out with one another…when it all works
conveniently with our schedule. Then there’s no real, genuine, authentic, biblical
accountability to obey God’s Word or pursue the Great Commission. And that in
turn means none of it gets done. Which then begs the question as to why we’re
gathering together on Sundays and hanging out with each other at all to begin
with?!

With my personal commentary out of the way, I’d like to share some very simple
reasons as to why local church membership is necessary for all believers in our
culture, and therefore especially for those who are checking out Church in the Boro,
or are considering becoming a part of us in a deeper way. These come from my
friend Wayne Mack, who is currently serving as a church leader in Pretoria, South
Africa. He has written a book entitled, Life in the Father’s House: A Member’s Guide
to the Local Church, and so far his chapter on church membership contains the best
reasons in print as to why you ought to join a local church. I’ll also be pulling from
other resources as well to help paint a full picture.

WHY Should You Join a Local Church?

1. Membership enables the visible church to better reflect the invisible
church. In Scripture, Jesus explains that there’s a difference between the visible
and invisible church. The visible church is outward, and only reflects people who
say they are Christians. The invisible church is inward, and more accurately reflects
people who actually are Christians. There are lots of people who profess they are
Christians but do not live sincere lives in Christ. Local church membership helps
discern who’s who.

2. Membership enables the local church to better reflect the universal

church. The universal church, by implication, suggests order. The universe is not
some vast, random spray of stars and galaxies floating around in space. There’s an
order to every galaxy and solar system. Our solar system is made up of eight
planets circling our sun. And there would be no solar “system” without recognizing
the various elements that make up the system. Likewise, there would be no galaxy
without recognizing the various solar systems that make up our galaxy. And there
would be no universe without recognizing the various galaxies that make up the
universe.

By comparison, the “universal” church is a system of smaller elements called local

churches. This is very evident and obvious in the New Testament, all the local
churches in various cities around the world of that day, united together in Jesus
Christ under the title or banner, “church.” Our culture today, however, has come to
redefine universal church to refer to any vast, random spray of Christians just
floating around out there in various places throughout the world. Rather, “church”
by very definition and by its DNA necessarily means the congregating of Christians
together. The point of “church” is Jesus calling sinners out of darkness and into His
marvelous light to gather together in order to praise Him. This is what heaven will
look like. Christians will all be gathered together and not scattered everywhere.
And heaven comes to earth when local churches are formed by Christians gathering
together locally.

3. Membership clarifies the difference between believers and

unbelievers. In other words, it helps us know who we should treat like believers,
and who we should treat like unbelievers. As Wayne Mack has written,

“Membership will never tell us who is and is not a true Christian, because
unfortunately there will probably always be nonmembers who are saved and
members who are unsaved (cf. Matt. 7:21=23; 13:36-43). But it is important to
have some criteria by which to decide whether or not someone should be
considered a professing Christian (or a “brother” or “sister” as the New
Testament puts it). That way we can know whether we should evangelize that
person or encourage him or her toward service” (p. 23).

4. Membership is essential to an orderly administration of the church.

It is interesting to note in the New Testament that as the church grew older, it grew
more organized. As more people were saved and brought into the church family,
there were more needs and more resources. This called for organization, which
necessitated administration. But unless a group of believers gather together
intentionally to commit themselves to the work of a church, there can be no orderly
way to administrate the needs, the equipping, the vision, the burdens, and the
resources. Wayne Mack quotes another author named Eric Lane who wrote,

“The church is likened in the Bible sometimes to a body, sometimes to

a family, or household, sometimes to a kingdom, sometimes to an
army. For any of these organisms to function properly order of some
kind is required. The same applies to the church. The church is not
just a loose collection of individuals, it is a closely-knit structure like a
human body (Eph. 4:16) and has therefore to be rightly organized. For
such ordering it needs to know exactly who belongs to it. A family
which sat down to its meal-table or locked its doors at night, not
knowing who was supposed to be there and who not, would be an
extremely strange phenomenon. An army battalion which did not
know whom to expect on parade would soon be in chaos. If the church
is to be a true family and an effective fighting force it needs to know
who exactly belongs to it” (p. 26).

This is especially true when it comes to spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12 describes

the church as a body. A body has organization and structure and order. If it didn’t,
all the parts of the body would be doing their own thing and the body itself would
never get anything accomplished, even as simple as eating and drinking. There has
to be ordered cooperation among the parts of a body in order for the body as a
whole to accomplish something. Therefore, the mission God has called believers to
can only be accomplished as a whole when there is order among the various
believers using their spiritual gifts. And this can only happen if there is agreement
among believers about who is doing what? And this can only happen when there is
church membership.

To use another example, the church is a team, and believers are team members,
playing together on the same team to accomplish a common goal. In any sport
there is a team which includes coaches and players. The coaches coordinate, and
the players play. But if there was no commitment among the players or the
coaches to one another or to the common goal, then they could not consistently
play together and complete the common goal. Team members are all committed
on a sports team. They are committed to practice, to learn, and to play. This is a
simple and common concept. Somehow, though, we want it to be different when it
comes to the local church.

Our common goals are listed in our mission statement: to reconcile sinners to God
(evangelism), people to each other, and the world to King Jesus. If there is no local
church membership then there is no way to tell who wants to be on the team. If
there’s no way to tell who wants to be on the team, then there’s no way to have a
real team. If there’s no way to have a real team, then there’s no real way to
accomplish the mission we’re on.

5. Church Membership is the best way to teach the Bible and hold
people to it. Week after week, solid men of God preach solid sermons from the
Word of God. But if there’s no agreement from Christians that what is being
preached is truth and that they are therefore required to submit to it, then what’s
the point of preaching?

Instead, local church membership allows and requires Christians to make a decision
that they says they believe what they hear and read concerning a local church, and
that they therefore are submitting themselves to it. But here again, if they are
submitting to the truth, but are not submitting to one another, how can there be
any accountability regarding obedience to God? We’re all simply listening to
sermons, agreeing it’s truth, submitting to it as best we can individually, but doing
nothing toward each other to help it along. So what’s the point of submission then?

So local church membership is the best way to not only teach the Bible to people,
and not only acknowledge it as being truth for us, and not only acknowledging our
submission to it, but also the best way to hold ourselves and one another to that
truth.

Nathan Finn, a seminary professor I quoted earlier, has summarized church

membership well for us in a couple of helpful paragraphs in an interview he
conducted one day. Here’s what he wrote.
“…[C]hurch membership is about more than affinity. It is about
authentic community, which I still believe primarily occurs in a face-to-
face context. How can you covenant with, hold accountable, and share
 in the everyday lives of people you never see in person? There is a
geographic component to church membership.
“Church membership is also about more than a particular preacher or
teacher. I listen to my share of sermons online, but only my pastors
regularly preach to me. Only they understand the particularly needs of
our congregation because they are part of our congregation. There is a
contextual component to church membership that comes out
especially in preaching and teaching” (“The Church Membership
Question”)
With a decent foundation built for the what and why of church membership, and
assuming you agree with them, let’s move to the next logical question which is…
WHEN Should I Join a Local Church?
You should join a church when two things are true of you. First, when you believe
you have legitimately and biblically become a genuine Christian, you should find a
local church to join. Again, when you were saved by the Holy Spirit, you were saved
into a group of people called the church. It is now in your new-creation DNA to
gather together with other believers to accomplish the purposes Christ has given to
you in the Bible.
Second, when you believe you have found a local church that has its “eye on the
ball,” and is committed to the things Jesus Christ said we should be committed to,
then you should join that local church. What does having its “eye on the ball” look
like for a local church? Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in
Washington, D.C. has written a popular book called 9 Marks of a Healthy Church. In
that book, he lists and explains further these “9 Marks” as follows.

1. Expository Preaching. Is the leadership of a local church committed to the

verse by verse explanation of the Word of God as the primary means of sharing
the Word of God? This can be reflected in a variety of ways, such as preaching
or studying through a whole book of the Bible at a time one verse at a time, or in
preaching through a topic based upon key texts that are taught verse by verse.
But the heartbeat of expository preaching is the unfolding of God’s Word as it
was inspired, in the context of its original setting, and with the intent of the
author who was writing it.

2. Biblical Theology. A theology that does not have Jesus Christ has the
centerpiece is not a biblical theology. By definition, biblical theology is a
theology based on the theology of each individual writer of a Bible book with a
view to how his writing leads up to or explains the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Quoting one of my favorite theologians, Graeme Goldworthy, “How can I
maintain my integrity as a preacher of Christian Scripture if I preach any part of
the Bible as if Christ has not come?”

3. The Gospel. The gospel has most often come to mean today the message you
give to a person that leads them to say a prayer to Jesus to save them from their
sin in order to go to heaven when they die. But the gospel of the Bible is much
bigger, because it encompasses everything about the life of a believer, both now
and in the life to come. In summary, the biblical gospel is the proclamation or
good news that a just God who is angry with humanity over their sinfulness
 against Him has come to earth in Jesus Christ to receive the death we do
deserve so that He can give us the life we don’t deserve, in order to make us His
friends once again. If that gospel and all that it means is not being preached
and taught, then that church is not the right one for you.

4. A Biblical Understanding of Conversion. There is only one way to be saved,

and that is through the work of Jesus Christ. No one can get right with God by
doing their own thing. No one. A person is only made right with God and
becomes a new creation by putting their trust in what God has done for them in
Christ, instead of in what they have tried to do themselves.

5. A Biblical Understanding of Evangelism. If the gospel is what I just

explained, and if people are converted the way I just explained, then telling
people about Jesus must be done with this message and in ways that flow out of
that message. The Great Commission is the bulls eye and touchdown every
Christian is to live their lives for. When they truly believe what they have heard,
they will truly not be able to live their lives in any other way than in ways that
get that message out to others.

6. A Biblical Understanding of Church Membership. When you find a church

that believes what we’ve explained thus far about belonging to and partnering
with a local church, that is the right church for you to join.

7. Biblical Church Discipline. A church that holds people accountable in biblical

ways to the biblical truth is the right church for you. You want to belong to a
church who believes that the church is the body of Jesus Christ on earth, and
that it is Jesus’ will that He have a pure bride. While the church is founded on
grace and grows in grace, any person who determines that they no longer wish
to live by grace or who choose to abuse God’s grace by living in sin they don’t
want to repent of can legitimately no longer belong to a local church. The
church must separate itself from that person with the sole goal of reconciling
them back to the church once again through the message of the gospel.

8. A Concern for Discipleship and Growth. Again, the Great Commission is

about making disciples of all nations. This was a mandate given by Jesus to His
disciples, and is to be passed down from believer to believer, in church after
church until Jesus returns. Therefore, being concerned about making disciples
and growing spiritual is perhaps the heartbeat of every believer and every local
church.

9. Biblical Church Leadership. The Bible is very specific about what kind of
leaders the church is to have. Churches that take the Bible seriously when it
comes to its leadership is the right kind of church for you.

When you have found a church that measures up to these nine biblical marks, it’s
time to partner with it and commit yourself to it. Which leads to the next and final,
logical question.

HOW Do You Join THIS Local Church?

This is a simple concept, and one that too many churches make too difficult, I’m
convinced. So let me explain how we do it here at Church in the Boro, since I’m
assuming that if you’re asking this question, you’re asking with regard to this local
church.

First, you tell somebody you want to officially partner with us and commit to us.
We’ll never know unless you tell us. While some in our local church have the gift of
prophecy, that doesn’t help them know who wants to join our church and who
doesn’t. So you’ll have to speak up and talk to someone in leadership. Either that,
or else talk to someone who is a member here and they’ll introduce you to someone
in leadership who can take you to the next step.

Second, come hang out with someone in leadership and tell them about your
decision to follow Jesus Christ and your journey thus far. We want to hear about
what God has done in your life. And we want to discern whether or not you truly
understand the gospel, what it means to be saved, what it means to follow Jesus,
and what it means to belong to and partner with a local church.

Third, attend our Partnership Life Mission Group. This is a 12-13 week small group
filled with people just like you who want to find out more about Church in the Boro
and whether or not they want to partner with us. During this time you will have
about three months in which to grow with others, have your questions answered,
and hang out with some leaders to see what we’re about. This is your three month
opportunity to stick your toe in the water and get used to it to see if you’ll like it.

Fourth, sign a covenant commitment yourself to partner with us. Our covenant is
found on our website, and it’s quite simple, merely outlining how God’s Word says
you are to commit yourself to one another in the local church. We don’t expect you
to know everything before you partner with us. That’s ridiculous. So we don’t give
theology tests or bible exams to see how much you know. You’re supposed to learn
all that along with us, and not before you partner with us.

Fifth, make an audible, visible, public profession of faith in Jesus Christ and
commitment to partner with Church in the Boro. This will take place on a Sunday
morning when you’ll have an opportunity to tell people who you are, where you’ve
come from, what God is doing with you, what you believe God wants to do with you,
and how you believe Church in the Boro plays a part in all that. If you haven’t been
baptized, we’ll probably do that too either on that same day or at some point prior.

Sixth, get plugged in as deeply as humanly possible into our Life Mission Groups.
These are the primary means by which we equip you to live a godly life and do the
work of the ministry. We are beginning Life Mission Groups the first week of June,
including our Partnership class. When you join in a Life Mission Group, you are
committing to learn and grow with a dozen other people for three months along a
particular topic or subject that is necessary for you to live a godly life and/or do the
work of ministry. It will be an awesome three months for you. And if you attend our
Church Planters Core of Life Mission Groups, you will be preparing yourself to join a
church planting team which we will be sending out soon to plant another local
church and duplicate what we’re doing here. So that’s doubly-awesome for you!
Not too difficult, eh? Sounds like a pretty reasonable process, right? Not unlike
something you’d do to go to college here at GSU, or to belong to some other
organization. You talk to someone, you learn more about it, you make it official.
It’s all pretty simple and common sense. Then we can put you to work, learn about
your spiritual gift, and teach you how to live as a part of the mission we’re on to
reconcile more sinners to God, more people to each other, and more of the world to
King Jesus.

Transition to Communion
The one thing that makes it possible for you be a part of the bigger church of Jesus
is what He did for you on the cross. The local church of Jesus is just a smaller
reflection of the bigger church. And the local church is supposed to spend time
when it gathers, reflecting and remembering and applying the death and
resurrection of Jesus to our lives.

Jesus told us to do that through communion, or the Lord’s Supper. It is the way
Jesus gave us to remember what He did. It is the way you preach the gospel to
yourself with a little something to eat and drink. It reflects your desire to trust in
what Jesus did for you, and to stop trusting in yourself. If that’s you, then come and
eat and drink.

This communion also reflects unity, because we’re all coming to one table to eat
and drink. If you’re a believer and you’re not a part of this local church, that
doesn’t mean you’re not a part of the body of Jesus. You come and eat and drink,
too, because you’re our brother or sister in Jesus Christ. We welcome you to this
table and reflect to everybody here that we’re one with you and you’re one with us
because of what Jesus has done for all of us.

This simple meal is the essence of what church is all about. So let’s come and be
the church by enjoying God’s grace for us in Christ Jesus.