This question about church membership came to me in August of 2024. Unfortunately I lost the card it was originally written on. So I have done my best to boil down the basic thrust of the question.
A lot of today’s Christians realize that we are united to Christ’s body through faith in Him. When a person is saved, he or she is spiritually united to the body of Christ.
In this sense, there really is only one church, one body of Christ. And membership in it is not a matter of a name on a list in the files of a church office. It’s a matter of the heart. It’s a matter of trusting with your heart that Jesus is who He said He is and that He died for your sins and rose the third day. Only those who have done this are truly members of the church of Jesus Christ.
However, today’s question touches on a different aspect of what is meant by membership. It refers to membership in a visible, local body of believers. Biblically, this is what a church is. It’s not a building, though property might be owned and operated. It is a group of people who have organized themselves around a common belief in the Lord.
Many of these local bodies, including Windhaven, do have a membership role. People from all sorts of backgrounds are regularly welcomed at our church. We don’t actually turn anyone away. Yet, a person is not a member of Windhaven simply because they attend our services.
A member, then, is someone who has committed themselves first to the Lord, then to the life of a local, visible body of Christian believers.
What is a good church member? Different churches and denominations might answer this in various ways. Let me focus on three areas: Membership Acts, Membership Allowances, and Membership Accountability.
Membership Acts are the practices of a faithful church member. The practices of a good church member are demonstrated by the early church.
Immediately after the church was formed on the Day of Pentecost, the believers were gathered. Acts 2:42 sums up what they were doing. “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Four emphases of devotion characterized these earliest church members.
They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teachings. The teaching of the apostles was later written down and formed the New Testament. And much of their teaching was based on the Old Testament with some new interpretation. This is why the Bible needs to be at the core of a church’s ministry. And a good member is someone who believes the Bible and strives to rightly understand it.
They were also devoted to fellowship. The Greek term is koinonia. It’s a close association. It relates to mutual involvement. You might say they did life together. In fact, the early church pooled their resources to make sure everyone’s needs were met (Acts 2:45; 4:32, 34-35).
They were also devoted to the breaking of bread. This means they ate together. It may also suggest that they celebrated an early version of the Lord’s table together. Communion was part of their devotion to the Lord. As early as the book of First Corinthians we see that a specific church observance was dedicated to the bread and cup (1 Cor 11:23-30).
They were also devoted to prayer. They prayed together as a church. In sum, their church membership was based around the word, fellowship, communion, and prayer. It’s important to note that this was a corporate exercise. This was not the extreme individualism that permeates American culture. It seemed natural for this early group of believers to engage with God together as a family.
It’s not uncommon to hear people quip that they can pursue God on their own. I don’t deny this. But you can only pursue Him so far. When members are unwilling to seek Him together as a family, the whole body is diminished. And the Lone-Ranger-Christian is also diminished. You can only grow so far that way.
There are some other membership acts to consider if you seek to be a healthy church member. Attendance is important. I just underscored that the early church was there, together, engaging in their devotion.
Giving is important. I am not one to beat people to death about giving. Yet, it is interesting to note the extreme generosity in the early church. “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them” (Acts 4:32). This giving was voluntary, not required. These early believers deemed what God had done for them to be more valuable than their own possessions. The passage goes on to say, “there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:34-35). What generosity! What a demonstration!
Inviting is another great practice. “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest’” (Matt 9:36-38). Jesus told His disciples to pray for workers to go out into the harvest. Another name for these workers might be inviters. A good member invites people to come and be part of God’s community.
Serving is another area of importance. We have all been gifted by the Spirit to serve out a purpose in the church. Paul writes, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:4-7). There are many Christians who serve in ministries outside their church. This is a good thing. But, oh how powerful the ministry could be if they would put their gifts to practice in the context of their church!
Personal Devotion is also important in the life of a member. Psalm 1:1-3 says, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.” Any church will be strengthened by members who are in the Word. An ideal member, then, is someone who is like the tree firmly planted next to a river of life. Nothing can move this man or woman.
Being baptized is also important. Jesus commanded baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as part of His commission of making disciples (Matt 28:19). When Peter’s listeners asked him what they should do, just after he preached on the Day of Pentecost, he did not hesitate. “Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins’” (Acts 2:38). They were to repent, placing their faith in Jesus. Then they were baptized as a symbol of the forgiveness they were receiving.
So these are just a few membership acts that are important. They might be summed up as worship. There are also some membership allowances to consider.
Membership Allowances are privileges connected to church membership. They might be called voice, vote, and help.
You have a right to make your voice heard. At our church a member is welcome to bring any questions and concerns to the Overseers. We have occasionally had people in the Overseers meetings that had a concern or an idea they wanted to run by us.
You also have a vote. At our church we don’t use the typical voting process. We don’t use secret ballots, for example. Instead we have an affirmation that is done in a public and visible way. Here’s why. If there is a major division in the church on an issue, it’s best to let it be known to all. It’s healthy for us to be honest and clear with one another. A no-vote on an issue can be done by simply not affirming an order of business.
Here are some areas where your vote might come into play:
- Firing the pastor
- Calling a new pastor
- Changing the church’s constitution or by-laws
- Affirming new elders
- Affirming deacons or deaconesses
- Adopting a new budget for the upcoming year
A third membership allowance could simply be called help. The Church will help out a member in need. Faithful members have shown a commitment, not just to the Lord, but to a specific visible body of believers. The church will do what it can to take care of its own. Galatians 6:10 says, “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” The church recognizes a commitment to help the needy. A needy member is of the highest priority in this endeavor.
So we’ve got membership acts and allowances. Finally, a good member accepts membership accountability.
Membership Accountability has to do with caring for the spiritual health of the member. This is something ignored in many churches today. Yet the New Testament envisions this accountability.
Jesus taught it. “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt 18:15-17). In Jesus’ view the church has a responsibility to correct a sinning member.
Paul taught it. There is a particularly grievous situation that he had to deal with in Corinth. A man in the congregation was sleeping with his father’s wife, in other words his own step-mother. It was a widely known situation. The church appears to have kept silent and simply tolerated it. Paul’s main message to them was that it had to be dealt with, not ignored. In his own words, “For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor 5:3-5).
Let me offer some hypothetical scenarios where accountability might come into play:
- A member is leading a Bible study that is blatantly heretical
- A Sunday school teacher is teaching a pro-gay curriculum to children in the church
- A member is discovered to be cheating on his or her spouse
Member accountability is not a popular concept these days. It often doesn’t work very well. Why? Because a member can easily bail on the church and go find another church down the road that will gladly accept them. In a perfect world the new church communicates with the old church to see if there are any issues with the person. But this is not a perfect world. To make matters worse, many churches simply don’t have the nerve to call out sin for what it is anymore.
Accountability done right (and if it were received in the right way) is restorative not legalistic. The goal is to confront an errant brother or sister and invite repentance and restoration. The goal is never to permanently put someone out of the church.
This accountability has often been referred to as church discipline. I took a course on Brethren polity a couple years ago. The pastor who taught the class had a more appropriate name than church discipline. He called it biblical reconciliation. I do like this name for it. The aim and goal of confronting sin in a member should always be to bring reconciliation. You want to restore peace between God and the person. You want to restore peace between the person and the church.
Being on our membership list is not required for you to be saved. That is a matter of your heart and whether you have really trusted in Jesus. Yet, membership in a local body, like Windhaven, is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for you to participate with others in membership acts, like worship and service. It’s an opportunity for you to experience the allowances of membership, like voice and vote in the specific concerns of this community. It’s an opportunity to grow in your faith by making yourself accountable to a caring body of Christians.
Finally, thanks to all the faithful members of Windhaven Church! You have proven to be a stabilizing core for our community! I love and appreciate you all!
Pastor George