Church Membership

So…why church membership? This is the topic we shall fly over today in hopes of building a better vision of the topography of this precious landscape. You are likely familiar with the three divinely established institutions of family, government, and church. Consider this: you are naturally born into two of these. Every person on the planet belongs to a particular nationality or people group who are governed by some sort of body or rules. Every person also has a family. Functional or dysfunctional as yours may be, known to you or not, you are related to people. As the expression goes, “You don’t get to pick your family, but you can pick your friends.” My mom often warms my heart when she says, “Even if you weren’t my daughter, I’d still pick you to be my friend.” When it comes to the church membership, you actually do get to pick.

Let’s dig out our boarding passes from our backpacks or bring them up on our phones because the wait is over! It’s time to board (become a member of a church), you are pre-approved (a child of God in right relationship with Him), and the nice, well-dressed airline employee (deacon) has called your boarding group. Are you ready?

While you do automatically become part of the universal body of Christ (all those redeemed by the blood of Christ, past, present, and future) the purpose of this article is to make a case for the local church. The local church is God’s plan and should consequently also be your choice. Local church membership is not automatic. You must choose. Matthew wraps up his account of the life and ministry of Jesus in chapter 28 verses 16-20. Jesus returned to heaven and his followers did not. We, like Christ’s first century believers, have been charged with the task of making disciples, i.e., training followers of Christ. My church puts it this way: “Bethany Baptist Church exists to glorify God by equipping her members to worship God, to edify believers, and evangelize the lost.” If you have read through the book of Acts, you have seen God’s plan unfold. The church is established, and it’s real, dramatic, grace-filled, Spirit-empowered, Word-directed, and comprised of messy people—sinners saved by grace.

Why should you get on this plane (or become a member, as it were)? 1 Corinthians 12 says it well. If God’s Spirit dwells in you, then you are a recipient of spiritual gifting (v. 1-11). In the context of the passage, you can see that your gifting is linked with your position in Christ. Verses 12-31 go on to express the beautiful picture of the body of Christ. As with your own body, each member (feet, hands, eyes, ears, etc.) is designed to accomplish a specific purpose. I don’t know about you, but it is all too easy for me to look at others and play the comparison game. “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” You are uniquely created and specifically redeemed. Live like it. Show up. Take part in your role in the local church. “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1 Cor. 12:27).

What should you do on the plane (as a member)? I’m so glad you asked because now I get to tell you about what comes after 1 Corinthians 12. You guessed it—1 Corinthians 13! The last verse of chapter 12 says, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” That Greek word “way” means a travelled way, a road, or metaphorically, a course of conduct, a way or manner of thinking, feeling, or deciding. More excellent than what? What is this other way more excellent than? Chuck Smith puts it this way, “We desire the power of the Spirit in our lives, but love demonstrates a deeper walk with God than the exercise of spiritual gifts.” While your spiritual gifting may differentiate you from others, every believer’s call is the same. All we do is to be done in love. Without love, our “way” is worthless.

Let us use the deductive method of reasoning as you find your seat on board. Jesus’ own words teach us in Matthew 22:35-40 that the great and first commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What better place to exercise our love for God and others than in His very body? The church is not a building, it is a people. Being a member of a local church means you are committing yourself to love the people God loves. You are an eternal member of the redeemed and everlasting family of God. Act like it. Truthfully you can worship God anywhere. You can study His Word anywhere. Worshipping God and hearing His Word taught corporately contains a unique layer of blessing because it can only occur when you are gathered. A dear friend of mine puts it this way, “I love walking into church and worshipping with my fellow believers. It is a little foretaste of heaven on earth.”

So you finally made it onto the plane. That means you get to put on your headphones and disappear into whatever venue of entertainment you desire. Right? Hmm…how much do you know about the many “one another” commands of the Bible? One of the most meaningful to me is Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We have already seen that the law of Christ is the law of love, which we can see demonstrated by our High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness! Because of Christ I have confidence to draw near to the throne of grace, that I may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of my need! (Heb. 4:15-16) It is my remarkable privilege to be a channel of that same help to others. What a high and noble call it is to walk in the footsteps of the God Man!

Read and reread Romans 12, especially verses 9-21. In my Bible this section is titled “Marks of the True Christian,” or we could say, “Marks of the True ‘Little Christ.’” Being a member isn’t about finding and hanging out with other people who want to watch the same inflight move as you. It’s not about hoping no one sits next to you so you can have “personal space” that will make your flight more comfortable. Neither is it about having a call button to push that notifies someone to come and serve you. In all reality, its more like sitting between two people who are both using YOUR arm rests, or next to the person with the crying toddler, or in front of the teenager who seems to shift and bang your seat every time you’re about to drift off to sleep, or behind the person who leans his chair back just as you’re about to pour your pop. (I hope you are sensing the humor in this analogy.) Unfortunately, many believers have this same self-focused mentality of pursuing membership based on what they can get rather than on what they can give. Heed the words of our Lord Jesus Christ “how He himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35)

Too often we walk into church like a passenger boarding a plane. Everything has been prepared for us, and we will be taken care of for the duration of our time aboard. But the reality is you and I are not passengers, but crew members. We are reporting for duty. We’re here to serve. Consider the following training points as you survey the cabin:

• Pray that God would direct you to sit next to the right person. Ask someone what the high and low of his/her past week has been.

• Focus on the words you sing—and sing them honestly and joyfully. This is a way to praise God and encourage others by singing truth to them.

• Be attentive for at least one thing from the sermon that blessed or convicted you and tell it to someone before you leave the building.

• Thank a pastor, musician, security team member, nursery worker, A/V volunteer, usher, etc. for the work and time they put into serving you this morning.

• Tell a fellow member you are happy to see him and glad he came! Don’t treat the Sunday morning service as the first thing you need to check off your “to-do” list this week. It is a spiritual family reunion.

• Focus on others. When the service ends, plan to talk to someone around you. People are not obstacles that keep us from our lunch plans. The people are a big part of the reason you’re there.

Just as we cannot love and trust God if we do not know Him, you will never love and server others if you do not know them. Take the time. Jesus showed us that people are worth our time.

As we wrap up, let’s take a closer look at your flight plan today. Flying isn’t just about getting from point A to point B. Someone has to know the right way to get there. God has the perfect plan to sanctify each one of His children (get us safely to our final destination) and the church is part of His plan to do it. My last point on the topic of membership touches on accountability. Created in the image of God as we are (Gen. 1:26), we are designed for fellowship. From the first man till you, the Bible is a track record of God’s desire to bring man into right fellowship with Him. Jesus Christ made the way for us to have access to a holy, righteous, and good God. We are, however, weak. God knows this and provided His Word, His Spirit, and His people to help. As uncomfortable as it is for the flight attendant to wake you from sleep to tell you that the fasten seatbelt sign is on, it is necessary. Passages such as Isaiah 53:6, a fair number of Proverbs, Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 10:12, Galatians 6:1, James 1:14, and many more passages teach that we need to be accountable one to another. Accountability is a two way street. Each party is a needy person striving, by the Lord’s enabling grace, to help the other look to our sufficient Savior. Healthy church members promote an organic atmosphere of doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness that you who are God’s might be complete, equipped for every good work. (II Tim. 3:16)

“Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking. We are about 15 minutes from our destination and will be landing shortly. Please stow your tray tables and take a moment to gather all your belongings. Be sure to check the seat pocket in front of you. We’re in for a smooth landing. The local time is 6:43 pm. The weather is partly cloudy and a breezy 76 degrees. Thank you for choosing to fly with us today, and on behalf of our crew, we hope you have a wonderful day and safe travels to your final destination, wherever that may be.” As with travel, the church building (the plane) is not the final destination. We aren’t meant to remain on the plane. It was designed to serve a purpose. It is the vehicle by which we are transported from one destination to another. You are meant to get off. Believers are meant to go. We have seen the terrain from above. We leave the plane behind in order to continue our journey with the people. Now we walk the mountains, valleys, highways, byways, and fields that are ripe for harvest.

Worship God.

Edify believers.

Evangelize the lost.

Let all these thing be done in love.