The implications of church membership

One of the hot topics being discussed by many churches at the moment is the subject of ‘membership’. What does it means to be a member of a church? Should people be expected to accept ‘terms and conditions’? Does membership increase commitment? Does membership help with issues such as ‘church discipline’, ‘giving’, ‘serving’ etc. Unlike other denominations, the Anglican Church does not an official policy on membership. So ‘any person who has been a regular communicant attendee over a period of 3 months’ is considered to be a church member – hence a number of individual churches seeking to introduce helpful guidelines on ‘expectations on being a part of our church’. Over the next few weeks, I’d like to focus on different aspects of ‘membership’ at Church by the Bridge.

Perhaps most important in understanding this topic is the ‘doctrine of church’. The word for church is ‘ekklesia’ or ‘gathering’, a gathering of people to hear God speak. So the ‘church’ first gathered at Mt Sinai to hear the 10 commandments (Deut 4:10-13). The New Testament picks up the concept of gathering, and talks about God building his church on the confession that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:18). So put most simply, church is the gathering of people who confess Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, meeting together to hear God speak.

Of course, God’s church is much bigger than any local gathering. The local church is an expression of the heavenly reality that Paul talks about in Ephesians 2:4-6, where believers in Jesus are already raised & seated with Jesus (see also Hebrews 12:18-21) So every time we meet, there’s a glimpse of the heavenly reality. And the local church is one part of God’s universal or global church – so we’re connected to our brothers and sisters who gather in different places and countries, because we are all children of the same heavenly Father.

This has a number of implications for church membership – but I’ll list just a few:

1) Church is not about structures or denominations – church is about PEOPLE!
2) The Bible doesn’t talk about being a member of a church, it talks about being in Christ. So you cannot ‘belong’ to a church if you do not ‘belong to Jesus’. Of course we welcome people to attend church to hear the gospel, but we need to be ‘in Christ’ before we can belong to a church. This also means the ‘visible’ church will not accurately reflect the ‘invisible’ church – so some who are ‘visible every week’ are not actually in Christ.
3) Church is built on Christ – knowing him and being known by him. So we need to keep Christ foundational in all we say and do.
4) Church is not about the ‘individual’ but the ‘corporate’ – we gather to encourage one another, rebuke one another, teach one another, carry one another’s burdens etc… Put simply, church is not all about you!
5) We must keep on meeting together (Hebrews 10:24-25) to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. As we live in this world, our gathering together will help keep us pressing on and trusting in Jesus. So it matters that you attend church regularly – your absence can discourage others and will not help you press on in Christ.

In short, being a member of church means loving Jesus, understanding the importance of gathering regularly to hear God speak through his word and using every opportunity to encourage one another until the day we see Jesus face to face.

With love in Christ
Paul Dale, Senior Pastor