Recently, Rachel and I were enjoying dinner in a local restaurant when I noticed our waitress had a cross pinned to her clothing.  I asked her about it and that led to a warm conversation about her faith and ministry.  However, when I asked what church she attended, she became evasive and spoke “in code.”  She explained she was part of “the” church and how she did not want to be tied to just one expression of “the church.”  She was sure of her position and since I was more interested in quality time with Rachel than that theological argument we ended our talk there but I wonder how Celebration members would respond to her remarks.

The truth is, she sounded spiritual …and like she knew her Bible.  And, a growing number of people are sharing the same belief.  Therefore, I decided it would good to equip you as a church to speak intelligently (and theologically) when you need to.  Last Sunday’s sermon was a challenge to church membership as a spiritual commitment that will enable you to experience the Christian life as God intended.  My blog (this will be the first of three) will hopefully equip you.  Today, I will look at the New Testament to see how the idea of church membership is addressed, next I explore Biblical reasons for joining a church, and, finally, Biblical responses to these truths.

I will be depending heavily on insights from Donald Whitney’s book, “Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church."  If you want more information than I provide here, I encourage you to read Dr. Whitney’s book in its entirety.  He is an esteemed professor at Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky … where Judy Crosby’s son Sam  just graduated and daughter Carol attends with her fiance’! (Pretty good reference for a seminary, don’t you think?)

Soooo … why join a local church?

THE ‘CHURCH’ IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

When the word “church” is used in the New Testament, the majority of the time it is speaking of a specific local church … the church in Laodecia, Church in Corinth, the church who meets in ____’s home, etc.  Sometimes, the reference is to what we call the church “universal’ to mean the church which exists in all places throughout all Christian history. However, the word is typically used to describe a specific group of believers in a particular area.  The assumption that my waitress made, and is shared by others, is that the association of these believers is less formal and structured than most churches have become today.  So what insight do we get from in the New Testament?

1. WIDOW’S LIST: The New Testament (NT) describes some of the early churches as maintaining a list of widows for care.  In 1 Timothy 5:9, Paul describes which widows were to be placed on the list and who was ineligible.  The list identified those widows for whom the church accepted a responsibility to care. Without a clear understanding of church membership, such a list would not make any sense.

2. CHURCH DISCIPLINE: In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus described how the church was to address a wayward member living in sin; if the sinful person was unrepentant they should be “treated as a sinner and a tax collector.”  The latter means they were no longer to be treated as members of that family of faith. In 1 Corinthians 5, the Paul exercises church discipline against a sinful member by (among other things) excluding that person from the fellowship.  It is clear (1 Cor 14:24-25) that non-believers were allowed to attend worship so Paul was advocating something other than not letting this guy come back to church.  He says that the man be “put away;” the clear suggestion is that he is removed from membership.

3. USE OF WORD “JOIN”: In Acts 5, God intervenes when two members of the early church agree to “lie to the Holy Spirit” and they are struck dead as a result.  Acts 5:13 describes what the community felt after this happened: none of the rest dared to join them, but the people esteemed them highly.   The Greek word Paul chose for join literally means “to glue or cement together, to unite, to join firmly.”  This certainly suggests something more powerful than a casual association or occasional involvement in the church.

4. CHURCH IN CORINTH: In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is addressing what is appropriate in worship and what is not.  His letter is to the church that met in the town of Corinth.  In verse 23, Paul is describing something that should not occur because guests may be present and he says, if the whole church should assemble together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? Apparently both Paul and the church had a good sense of who made up the “whole church” … otherwise, they could not have distinguished between guests and members.

5. EXPECTATIONS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERS: The NT uses various terms to describe the office of pastor; it is referred to as shepherd, pastor, elder, bishop, and overseer. In 1 Tim 3:1 Paul says, If a man desires the position of bishop, he desires a good work.”  In that passage, Paul goes on to describe the qualifications of a person who will serve in this role.  One of those qualifications is described in verse 5: for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? In Acts 20:28, the elders of the church in Ephesus are told, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.  Hebrews 13:17 says, Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give an account. Consider the comparison of a pastor’s ability to manage his household and the church … both must be clearly defined groups.  If he is to offer oversight, to “guard” the flock and give an accounting for them then he must actually know who they are!

6. METAPHORS FOR CHURCH IN THE NT: There are many NT pictures for the church. While some of these metaphors are used to describe the church around the world, all could potentially describe the local church as well.  There are four predominant metaphors that specifically refer to the local church: Flock, Temple, Body, and Household.  They help us look at and understand the church in various ways.  Repeating themes within those metaphors are intended to clarify our understanding of the church.  One of those repeating ideas in each example is a defined membership … there are no wandering sheep who casually hook with different flocks as they sees fit, no wandering bricks attaching themselves to different Temples on different Sundays, no free-floating body parts and no family members who are related to every family (or no family).

While there is no way to establish how membership in the first century was identified or managed, it is clear that they knew who was in the church and who was not.  Our efforts to define membership today help us care for, protect, serve and love one another.  What we are doing now is clearly in line with what was done from the beginning of the church.

I hope this article (and the two that will follow) will help you strengthen your grasp on God’s plan for you, for our church and for those we reach for Christ.  I will unapologetically challenge people to join themselves to a local congregation.  If not ours, that is certainly okay … but join somewhere.  Every believer needs to find God’s plan for them and get connected somewhere.

Hope this helps you.