This is our last week looking at the topic of ‘membership’ in our weekly newsletter. So far, we have seen that for those who belong to Jesus, the Scriptures urge us to keep meeting together, to be generous with the money, time and gifts God has given us to serve him and build other up.

Today I want to look at some of the consequences of membership. Mark Dever again is helpful. He writes: “What’s so dangerous about non-attending, responsibility-shirking members? Uninvolved members confuse both real members and non-Christians about what it means to be a Christian. And active members do the voluntarily inactive members no service when they allow them to remain members of the church”. Now that might sound a bit harsh – but let’s look at some of the consequences:

i) Assurance: By calling someone a member of church, we are saying that that individual has our church’s endorsement as a Christian. So if we at Church by the Bridge have not set eyes on someone for months (or even years!), how can we testify they are faithfully running the race? Unless they have joined another church, how do we know they are (or ever were) part of the family of God? To leave a name on a roll or list of members could actually be giving someone false assurance! I’m not saying that uninvolved or non-attending people are not Christians; but we simply cannot affirm that they are.
ii) Witness: The lifestyle of the person who claims to be a member of Church by the Bridge will communicate to the world what we as a church believe – and what it means to follow Jesus.
iii) Mutual responsibility: From a pastoral perspective, we are commanded by Scripture to pastor one another (encourage, admonish, teach, rebuke one another, carry one another’s burdens etc.). How can we do that effectively (or even know if it’s our responsibility) if we rarely see certain people.
iv) Relationships: It is very difficult to build transparent, accountable relationships at church when the actually body that gathers is so different from one week to the next.
v) Sending: Mark Dever writes “We don’t love old friends well by allowing them to hold onto their membership in our congregations for sentimental reasons. We love them by encouraging them to join another church where they can love and be loved on a weekly, even daily, basis.” It is indeed far wiser (and kingdom-focused) to encourage a non-attender to join a more local church where they can be discipled well (rather than the occasional sighting here at Church by the Bridge).

To move from ‘members in name’ to ‘members in fact’ will actually help us as a church in many ways. It will help us pastor, teach, train, encourage, evangelize far more effectively. It will make the witness of our church to non-Christians more clear. It will make it harder for weaker sheep to stray and still call themselves sheep. It will help church leaders know exactly for whom they are responsible. This may mean that we, from time to time, remove names from the church roll (though not our hearts, and not without every effort to encourage them to attend). This may mean we need to teach people what God intends for church and remind people of their commitment to the life of the church (we are planning on running some ‘membership courses’ throughout 2010). This may mean taking the ‘head count’ on Sunday as a better reflection of the healthiness of our church – rather than inflated figures in a database.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the head count at each congregation far exceeded the number of people in Connect Groups or who calls themselves members of church – because all our members are attending regularly and the visitors (of whom we have many each week) see a church family that love meeting together!

With love in Christ
Paul Dale, Senior Pastor