There is much excitement as a new child is birthed into the world. First cries are recorded, parents lovingly gaze down into bassinets, and grandparents are seen flushed with anticipation. Few things can temper the enthusiasm of precious moments like this, but one of them is when the nurse comes in with a stack of papers to be filled out by mom and dad. Meticulously filling out page after page of hospital and government documents is necessary and does not change the reality of the baby’s birth. Yes, the paperwork is essential to receive a social security number, but the paperwork does not assign the baby to his parents; God already did that. The baby is weighed and measured but taking the baby’s measurements does not make him become a human; he already was. This reality is the same with church membership. Although there are advantages of formalized church membership, being a Christian is to be a member of the local and universal church. Formalized documentation and church records are helpful and even can be practically necessary. Still, such documentation does not change the spiritual reality of any Christian and his belonging to the church.
It is essential to define the term church membership. There is a wide range of diverse practices used by churches that fall under church membership. It is crucial to understand the spiritual reality of a Christian’s church membership before considering the practical implications of that spiritual reality. After all, churches should be striving to align how they do business best with the spiritual reality of their congregants in all areas, and no less so concerning church membership. God teaches in Ephesians 2:19-22 what results from a man reconciling with him, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (ESV) Once a Christian is no longer a stranger to God, he immediately becomes a member of the household of God. There is no middle ground in a person's spiritual state between the point of his salvation and the point of his membership in the church. Considering other passages such as 1 Cor 6:14-15 and 12:12 reinforces this reality.
Moreover, in Acts 2:42-47, the church is described as receiving teaching, participating in fellowship, sharing meals, helping with needs, meeting physically together, praising God together, and evangelizing. None of these tasks can be done righteously without regeneration, and none of these tasks, in themselves, necessitate a formal church membership process. When Paul is brought to Antioch, Luke does not record that he was admitted to church membership with a majority vote. Instead, Paul is described as teaching in the church, one of the acts described in Acts 2:42-47. Therefore, church membership is not something that a Christian chooses but a choice made for him from on high at the moment of his conversion. Therefore, as seen in Ephesians 2:19-22, church membership is authoritative, permanent, and has eternal consequences.
What then is formal church membership? In addition to believer’s baptism as a requirement, Mark Dever argues for the importance of members signing a church covenant, as he writes, “[M]any Baptist and other evangelical churches express a commitment to God and to each other in writing by signing a “church covenant.” This is an agreement members make with each other and with God to live out the Christian life together in the local church.”1 Donald Whitney adds additional clarity to this definition, writing, “[Church membership] doesn’t refer to an informal, merely assumed sort of relationship, but one where you choose to “glue” or “join” yourself firmly to the others.”2 Accordingly, formal church membership is the act of attaching a Christian to a local church in a binding manner and requiring of them such things as church attendance, subjection to church discipline, giving, and many more biblical requirements.
A serious problem arises when such a definition of church membership is used. Suppose it is insisted that formal church membership is the biblical requirement and formal membership is described in passages like Acts 2, Ephesians 2, and 1 Corinthians 6. In that case, a baffling middle ground is created between the first day of a Christian’s conversion and the first date of his formal church membership. For example, suppose a newly converted Christian has a legitimate testimony and is searching for a new church. In that case, he may find it compelling to spend many weeks at a church without pursuing formal church membership because he is aware of the accountability and possibility of church discipline that comes with membership. This middle ground will have no consequence if a church has no interest in biblical accountability and church discipline. However, it would be fitting to question such a church’s legitimacy. Assuming the church does pursue biblical accountability and discipline, something must be done about this new Christian that refuses to join the church. Perhaps he is asked to join and insists on trying out the church a little longer; what is to be done? Simply sending him away is not an option. He should not be allowed to continue to avoid formal church membership if the Bible demands formal membership of Christians. However, if passages such as Matthew 18:15-17 and Romans 16:17-18 are only applicable to formal church members, a pastor is stuck.
Ultimately, a faithful church would begin the process of church discipline against such a person. Such a Christian must be biblically evaluated to determine if he is repentant or a Gentile. However, in doing so, his church will have to admit he was a member after all. Acts 20:28 reads, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” Carrying out discipline against such an unformalized member would indeed be watching out for the flock the pastor has been charged with because, if this hypothetical man indeed was a Christian, his spiritual state is a member of the body according to Ephesians 2:19-22.
Churches need to be careful to model themselves and even the seemingly mundane functions after what is seen in the Bible. If the church is observed doing something in the Bible, the modern church should carry out the same work. If there is something that is not described of the church in the Bible and a church wants to implement, then the church needs to take special precautions. So, since church membership is not explicitly detailed in the Bible, should it be avoided or pursued? Thankfully on this issue, whether a church believes either the Bible teaches of church membership at conversion or formal church membership, there is a rightful place for formalized church membership and even a need for it in some cases. In 1 Timothy 5:9, the church Timothy is pastoring does have an administrative function to enroll widows in its program for its widows, allowing the church to know who needs care. In Acts 2:41, it is discovered that 3,000 souls were added to the congregation in one day. Even today that is many people to identify and track functionally, and formalized church membership can be a way to solve that administrative issue that no other method could solve. There is also an increasing need to ratify the relationship between the church and a church member for legal purposes. In an age of aggressive litigation and increasing hostility toward the church, there can be legal reasons to implement church membership with stipulated church discipline (Matt 10:16).
Whether a church believes in formalized church membership or not, issues that can be solved by church membership should not overtake the spiritual relationship between a congregants and their church. It is easy to introduce formalized church membership and then have it become the equivalent of a country club membership, rather than reflecting the spiritual reality of the relationship between the congregant and the local church. As the marriage certificate filed with the county is an excellent reminder of what took place on a couple’s wedding day and its existence brings a recognized status in our society, it would be wrong to embed extra meaning into such a document. It would be absurd for a married couple to pull out their marriage certificate every time they met someone new to prove they were indeed married to each other. If someone loses their wedding ring, it does not mean their marriage is over. Such things are merely an external reflection of the internal and spiritual reality. Indeed, there are advantages to formalizing church membership, but being a Christian is to be a member of the local and universal church.
Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013.
Whitney, Donald S. Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church: Participating Fully in the Body of Christ.
Chicago: Moody Press, 1996.
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