Why Membership?
This brief document explains what the Bible teaches about membership in general and how we view it in particular at Redeemer. You can download the PDF here.
Introduction
Becoming a member of a church is one of the most counter-cultural things a person can do.
Our society doesn’t prize surrendering to others, especially if there is a hint of institutionalism involved. To voluntarily allow yourself to be bound to others doesn’t make sense in a culture of toxic individualism. But what we see in church membership is a beautiful picture of the gospel. Just as Jesus joyfully left behind His comfort and bound Himself to us, we get to do the same with Him and with each other.
Church membership can seem like a foreign concept or complicated topic. Some might wonder why it’s necessary. The Bible contains many reasons and evidences for membership in the local church. It’s because we see these commands in God’s Word that we organise our church around it.
It all goes back to our identity as a church. From its beginning, Redeemer calls itself a gospel formed family on mission. So what does it mean to be part of a family?
We’ll briefly cover why church membership is good for you, good for other believers, and good for the mission of the church. We’ll look at how the Bible defines this particular kind of togetherness, how the early church put it into practice, and what we do when members don’t act like members.
What is Membership?
Let’s start with definitions. What even is membership? At Redeemer, we place membership under the umbrella of discipleship, as the primary way we grow in our faith.
Membership at Redeemer is not a set of boxes to tick, but a process to surrender to. Christians don’t just join churches as if it’s a club, but they give themselves to it.
Church membership is a process to surrender to. From what we do to what we believe, from living on mission to living in repentance, church membership is an invitation for a believer to grow in their faith.
To be a part of Redeemer’s gospel formed family on mission is to surrender to the process of growing in these areas.
Biblical Foundation
Is church membership some kind of invention of man or was there membership in the early church? Because membership runs counter to our culture today, many are suspicious of it. And some have likely have had bad experiences as well. In all of this it’s important to bring ourselves to God’s Word, suspicious and hurts and all.
While the New Testament never uses the phrase "church membership," it both assumes and requires it throughout its teaching about the church. As theologian Robert Culver observes: “While the New Testament never declares that local church membership is mandatory for every believer in Christ, it assumes so.”(1) This is similar to other central Christian doctrines—like the Trinity—which aren't explicitly named but are clearly taught throughout Scripture.
Where the Bible Directly Teaches Membership
1. The church counted its members. Acts records specific numbers of people being added to the church: "Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day" (Acts 2:41). See also Acts 1:15; 2:47; 4:4; 6:1-4. You cannot be "added" to something without some form of membership. The early church even kept rolls of certain members, such as the widows in 1 Timothy 5:9. These are not abstract numbers, but individual people becoming part of a specific community of believers. The process of conversion (accepting the message), baptism, and being added (membership) is the early church norm.
2. Leaders are charged to care for specific people. "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). How can leaders fulfil this command if they don't know who is in their their flock? The same question applies to Hebrews 13:17 and 1 Peter 5:1-4.
3. Church discipline requires defined membership. In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus instructs us to bring unresolved sin "before the church." This cannot refer to the universal church—that would be impossible. It must mean a definable local body. Paul's instruction to remove someone from the church in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 assumes there was some kind of process for adding them in the first place.
Where the Bible Implies Membership
4. Biblical metaphors require it. The church is described as a body (Romans 12:4-5), where each member belongs to all the others. It's called a family (Ephesians 2:19), a building (1 Peter 2:5), and the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:31-32). Each metaphor assumes clear belonging. In fact, without a real membership of some sort, these metaphors are merely shallow platitudes. The nature of a body requires parts belonging to it. If a hand is 1000 miles away from the body, what use is that hand? A building stone not dedicated to the structure serves no purpose. As much as a hand being separate from a body or for building material to waste away, there is something unnatural for a Christian to not be attached to a body, to not function well in that body.
5. Submission to leaders requires it. "Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account" (Hebrews 13:17). To which leaders do you submit? Can it be any leader of any church? Membership helpfully defines who has committed to be led by whom.
Church membership isn't a human invention or institutional burden, though of course as it can be abused, as with anything good. Membership in a church is the biblical pattern for how God's people surrender to live together, grow together, and represent Christ to the world. The rest of this document briefly expands this overview.
Here’s the thing: every church has some kind of functioning membership: people in the parish, people who come on Sundays often, people who give money etc. If membership is going to exist in one form or another anyway, we want to follow how the Bible talks about it. Biblical clarity in church membership is a kindness.
Why Membership Is Important
Your own spiritual life
As emphasised above, church membership at Redeemer isn't a series of boxes to tick, but a process to surrender to. This is important for your own walk with Jesus.
In fact, one cannot talk about a local church without talking about its members. Try talking about a team without teammates, a family without members, a nation without citizens. It’s what each of these things is. The same with the church. Before we have events, before we have buildings, or any other thing, the church, at its fundamental level is the people. And it’s good for one to make a commitment to the people of God.
We really enjoy our own freedom, and we can wrongly treat a church like a voluntary club where we dip in and out when it suits us. The early church didn’t call themselves ambassadors in chains for a voluntary organisation. To be part of the early church was to put your life at risk. And of course this is a reality for many in the world today. Let’s not let the blessing of our freedom of religion undo our personal devotion to those very beliefs.
In the Bible, every biblical metaphor for the church becomes embodied. If one is a member of the universal Church (is a Christian), one must be part of a local church in order to live out what it means to be such. These are not just good ideas, these are real things we get to live out, as we live it in the midst of our body, the local church. “You need a body of Christ to be the body of Christ. You need a family of God to be the family of God.” (2) In order to follow Jesus’ commands, you need the church.
If the church is a family, that means it is relationally close and there’s a shared identity. If the church is a body that means its members depend on one another and have different roles. If the church is a temple of the Spirit, that means God is present and dwells with His people. These are more than metaphors, they are spiritual realities.
The church is the context God has chosen for you to grow from spiritual infants into spiritual adults. A process of membership is the process God uses to do just that.
It’s like a trellis and a vine. The trellis is constructed for the organic growth of the vine. To only have a trellis is to lapse into institutionalism, only looking to the structure without the time and energy given to what that structure is for. To only have a vine and disregard the trellis is to have wild growth that isn’t healthy, and shoots become easily broken.
The right kind of trellis doesn’t take over, but empowers. It isn’t an end in itself, but a platform for the growth and maturity of the vine. This is our aim in membership.
Church membership is implied in the biblical requirement of all Christians to surrender to a group of church leaders, what we call elders or pastors. This is a New Testament command for all who follow Jesus (Heb. 13:17; Acts 20:28; Matt. 16:19; 1 Pet. 2:16; 5:2; 1 Th. 5:12-13; 1 Tim. 5:17). We like to serve, but on our own terms. When you think about it, that’s not really serving, at least not in the biblical sense. The way the Bible talks about serving is as a surrender. To best serve the church, one must surrender to the church.
To use one of the above verses:
"Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you." –Hebrews 13:17
This verse implies that individual people need to have agreed to surrender to a group of leaders. Membership defines who has made that choice, who has committed to this process of being led.
It is also important to know who has been chosen to lead in this process. To which leaders do we surrender? Can it be any leader of any church? What about when elders of different churches have contradictory teachings or demands? If we don’t have some kind of membership, it becomes difficult to know how we can obey this command in real life.
Committing to the church, which would include committing to its process of discipleship in membership, is one of the ways we live out our new identity in Christ together. We are to love one another, and be a part of each others’ spiritual maturation process. We are not looking for numbers for numbers’ sake, but for a growing, healthy body of Christ. “Beware of an ambition for mere numbers: a small body of well-instructed, earnest disciples is worth far more to the cause of Christ than a heterogeneous multitude undistinguished in spirit and life from the world.” (3)
We have commands to love one another, bear with one another, build one another up, sing with each other, carry each others’ burdens, work for each other’s good, and many more as we help and are helped to not stray from God but keep on His path. There is also the command to be present with each other as we worship together. This is what surrender looks like: a commitment to a full, wholehearted life, for us and others.
“I know there are some who say, ‘Well, I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to the church.’ Now why not? ‘Because I can be a Christian without it.’ Are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord’s commands as by being obedient? What is a brick made for? To help build a house. It is of no use for that brick to tell you that it is just as good a brick while it is kicking about on the ground as it would be in the house. It is a good-for-nothing brick. So you rolling-stone Christians, I do not believe that you are answering your purpose. You are living contrary to the life which Christ would have you live, and you are much to blame for the injury you do.” –Charles Spurgeon
Spiritual lives of other believers
Membership is not just about your own walk with Jesus, but about the spiritual lives of other believers as well.
Leaders
What if our church didn’t have recognised leaders in the way the Bible makes clear? We would probably think that lack of clarity would be less helpful: who is leading, who do we surrender to, what’s the direction of the church, etc. We don’t really view a lack of clarity in leadership as a good thing. And chances are, if you aren’t a leader you haven’t thought about membership the other way around. To make it as easy as possible for leaders to lead well, it is an act of love to make it clear in your commitments to them.
It’s not a good thing for children to be unclear as to who their parents are. It is equally bad for children to be unclear about their status as children.
We’re told in the Bible that church leaders are to care for the people that God has given them (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).
"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood." –Acts 20:28
Who are the elders responsible for? Which people will they give an account? It would be impossible for the leaders to fulfil their calling if this refers to a broad, universal church. How can leaders be expected to encourage, care for, teach, discipline and be an example to people they have never met? Apart from local church membership, the responsibilities God gives to church leaders are impossible.
These verses do not say leaders cannot invest in people who aren’t believers or believers who aren’t church members yet, but it does make clear that their first responsibility is to a particular flock. How do leaders know who their flock is if not through membership?
Fellow members
To be part of a team, one joins. The team members know who has committed to the same goals and can be counted on and expected to do so. To not be part of a family, then part, one is adopted. There is a clear process that, by the end, the parents and child are both very clear to whom they belong.
The church is where we receive and give. The “one anothers” that crop up 100 different times in Scripture: caring, forgiving, bearing with, teaching, comforting, accepting, etc. (4) Being a member at Redeemer is a commitment to living this way with this people.
It’s not that you can’t do these things if you aren’t a church member, of course. What surrendering to the process of membership means is you putting your hand up, saying: I commit to these things with these people. You can be counted on to live this way, and are inviting others to help walk you back to God’s path when you wander.
This is an expectation from the church to the member, as well as an expectation from the member to the church. A two way street of mutual commitment so that “the body of Christ may be built up”:
"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." –Ephesians 4:11-13
The mission of the church
Church membership is also important for your life on Jesus’ mission, and the mission of the church together.
The church is the result of Jesus’ mission, given to the Apostles:
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” –Matthew 28:18-20
This is what led to planting the first church and the ongoing work of church planting. As we continue this mission given to the Apostles, we make disciples of Jesus, establishing and equipping them in the church.
The church is called to build itself up in love, specific leaders given to a specific people to live in a specific way:
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” –Ephesians 4:11-13
This metaphor of a “body of Christ” is, must be, rooted in a spiritual reality of being part of a body. Paul isn’t writing to churches in general, he’s writing to this particular church to work this out in their own setting. And churches that want to follow the Bible are led by the model the Bible gives. This is not just good for us, it’s good for others who don’t yet believe.
Our holiness (including our commitments) is part of the mission. This includes how we surrender to each other, in love. When Christians pursue unity in their churches by submitting to one another, then their churches will glow like streetlights in a darkened alley, like “like stars in the sky” (Phil 2:15). That is a life “worthy of the gospel” (Phil 1:27) and a church worthy of the gospel.
The church needs mission and mission needs the church. In Luke 24:44-49, Jesus teaches the disciples the Scriptures, tells them the message of the gospel, and commands them to be witnesses. This is not a singular command, but communal. Preaching, being witnesses, these are things we get to do together. This is good news for us because it alleviates us having to be everything (which we can’t do anyway!). This is good news for others because the world gets not only a gospel message, but an embodiment of the gospel lived out, as witnesses together.
In the same way, on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus calls His people (the plural you) “the light of the world”:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” –Matthew 5:13-16
The same in 1 Peter 2:12:
"Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." –1 Peter 2:12
Together we are called to live good lives. We need others to live this out and the world needs to see this lived out.
Committing to the process of membership is a step out of our mere individualism and into a commitment to be this light together. Not to be a star in the sky, but “stars in the sky” of Philippians 2:15, a constellation illustrating the full picture of God’s glory, shining in the darkness. The world needs a people dedicated to this way of life, people being marked as clear representatives of the church.
In the world, not of the world
Herman Bavinck, the Dutch theologian, spoke of a “double conversion”: the Christian community converted “from the world” of demonic influence and death and simultaneously converted “back to the world” of real flesh and blood relationships in order to make disciples. (5)
Without the former, the latter cannot happen. We are saved from death, to life. Mission requires a prior, radical, and clear separation.
When Jesus prayed for us in John 17, He says that we are “not of the world, even as I am not of it” (John 17:16), having been made holy by the Word of Jesus.
In the Old Testament, God preserved a witness to the nations for Himself through a holy community, called to be set apart and distinct. This continues into the New Testament:
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” –1 Peter 1:14-16
Without well defined boundaries there is not a well defined mission. What are we not conforming to? What are saved to?
We get to be a well defined people with many and varied diffuse relationships in the world. Outsiders, sceptics, those who don’t believe, and those who are spiritually seeking are welcomed to come and see. But to belong to God’s particular people requires a commitment.
How Is This "Togetherness" Defined?
So what makes the church the church? How is the church distinguished from other organisations or societies? How is it distinguished from the world? Does it have boundaries?
As the church is, by definition, the people, the “togetherness” of this people will always have some kind of definition. Membership is how Redeemer is intentional with this definition.
When coming to a definition churches take one of these approaches:
A Bounded Set
Belonging to the church community in a bounded set is defined by where one is in relation to a clear boundary. Typically the boundary is composed of highly defined beliefs and behaviours. Those who adopt the beliefs and behaviours are considered “inside” and those who do not are considered “outside.” This is normally a one time procedure.
A Centred Set
In the centred set approach, participation in the church community is defined differently. In our church the centre is understood to be Jesus. Those who are “in” are not defined in relation to a boundary, but by facing and moving toward the centre.
In a centred set approach, a person might be quite a distance from the centre, but so long as they are facing the centre and moving toward it, they belong. By the same token, a person might be close to the centre, but if they are not facing the centre and moving toward it, they don’t belong.
Both of these methods are useful in their own ways and each have their own advantages. We believe that the centred set approach is more helpful for how we view membership, as it takes into account the ongoing process of our discipleship. It might be that someone has a very well thought out theology, but the trajectory of their spiritual life is away from Jesus. On the other hand, one may not yet have a deep theological grounding but they are facing and walking towards Jesus.
The centred set approach is in keeping with the biblical metaphor of pilgrimage, where the followers of Jesus are travellers coming from many different points of origin to a common destination, as Jesus draws all people to Himself.
Definition of the church and some metaphors
Gerry Breshears has a good condensed definition of the church:
“The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organise under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and Communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfil the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy.”
The church must have some kind of boundary markers. Its constituents must be believers, there has to be some kind of structure, and there must be a unified purpose. Membership makes it clear who is joining together in these three areas.
Body
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” –Romans 12:4-5
The church is made up of many different members that comprise the one body of Christ: Rom 12.4-5; 1 Cor 10:17, 12:12, 12:27; Eph 4:12; 5:23; 5:30; Col 1:24.
How strange would it be for an elbow to not clearly be part of a body? When this happens in our physical lives, it’s dismemberment, it’s horror. It is good for an eye to be part of the body and it is good for the body to make a place for an eye and give it what it needs to function well. As much as a hand being separate from a body, there is something unnatural for a Christian to not be attached to a body, to not function well in that body.
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.” –1 Corinthians 12:21-26
The nature of a body requires parts belonging to it. In a local church, who are the feet? Who are the hands? If a hand is 1000 miles away from the body, what use is that hand?
Marriage
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” –Ephesians 5:31-32
The church is the bride of Christ: Rev 21:9, 19:7-8; 2 Cor 11:12; Eph 5:31-32.
It is good for the bride to be clear before her groom. The bride is happy to make it clear in front of others. Living without commitment only goes so deep. And an immature relationship is one where there aren’t clear boundaries.
Building
“…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” –1 Peter 2:5
The church is God’s house, the temple of God, built with living stones, with Christ as the foundation and cornerstone, and the Holy Spirit indwelling it: Heb 3:6; 1 Pet 4:7; 1 Cor 3:11; Eph 2.19-22; 1 Pet 2:5-7; 1 Cor 3:16-17; 1 Cor 6:19.
If the church has Jesus as the foundation, it will be organised around His Word, not our ideas:
"Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." –1 Timothy 3:14-15
God’s house requires the individual building blocks to be dedicated to it. This is good for the parts as well as the whole. The purpose for a stone is to be part of a specific building, without it, the stone fails to realise its purpose and usefulness.
Family
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” –Ephesians 2:19
The church is the family of God: 2 Cor 6:18; Matt 12:49-50; Eph 2:19; Gal 6:10; 1 Tim 5:1.
It is good for the family members to know they are part of the family, and it is tragic when those relationships and expectations are unclear.
Membership tells us this body, this marriage, this building, this family looks like this. It is built this way. It is made up of these people who do these things. Without a commitment to one another in membership, these metaphors are just shallow platitudes. Membership helps us not stay in that shallows, but live in deep, meaningful commitment to each other.
Clarity in Membership
Identifying membership in a church is unavoidable. Membership will always exist one way or another. Is it after someone comes along on Sundays for a month? A year? When they come along to a Missional Community?
Since membership will exist in one form or another, we will be intentional with it. And as we mentioned at the beginning, our intention is to rightly situate membership in the context of our ongoing discipleship with Jesus.
Our membership process walks through who we are, what we do, what we believe, and how we grow as followers of Christ. This isn’t a list of boxes to tick, it’s an ongoing roadmap of maturity. There’s not an endpoint of completing, it’s an invitation to a walk with Jesus, where we are always growing.
Membership goes through our Missional Communities, because we believe that’s the best context for people to be discipled and to disciple others. Missional Community leaders use the Habits of a Member document to form a conversation with a potential member. This is mostly for them to know how best to encourage the individual in their life with Christ. It keeps us on His path and unearths areas of next steps.
This is also meant to be an ongoing process, not a single event. Periodically we will have opportunities to look again at what it means to be a member. Is this still what I believe? Is this still where I need to grow? What does walking with Jesus look like for me now?
For our church this is the primary way we get to the individualised aspects of our own faith so that we can be a healthy, growing, gospel formed family on mission together. One cannot be committed to a family and also reject the process for that commitment. To be committed to Redeemer means to commit to this process.
That said, we are also patient. It might be that becoming a member isn’t something for you right now. The best thing to do won’t be to commit less, but to keep on coming along, cultivating a Spirit filled curiosity as to what God is calling you to next.
When Members Don't Act Like It
Church membership is implied by the way the church is supposed to discipline its members. The church appears to be the final court of appeal in matters of church authority as it relates to membership.
The Bible is clear that churches must enact right discipline:
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” –Matthew 18:15-20
Who does Jesus have in mind when he tells us to bring a matter before the church? It would be impossible to bring the matter before the entire universal church. This command only makes sense in the context of local church membership.
If there is no such thing as church membership, how do we define the group of people who will take up this extraordinarily delicate and vital matter of urging those who are unrepentant towards repentance? And what specific group of people come to a righteous judgment about their standing in Christian community when that comes up? This requires one to be part of a church to begin with in order to be treated as if they aren’t.
It’s hard to believe that just anyone who shows up claiming to be a Christian should be a part of this process. In fact, that would be quite damaging. “The church” must be a definable group to handle this command well. It is a weighty matter, after all, and we ought not be flippant with it.
The authority Jesus gave the church to discipline its members was the authority to disciple and shepherd, and that includes correcting us when we need to be corrected.
One of the reasons the church exists is for all of its members to be discipled, to be under its discipline. We see this in action in 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2. (And in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 Paul writes of a person who ought to be removed from the church. If there is a formalised removing, that would assume a formalised adding.) We need the church in order to live lives worthy of the gospel. Leeman writes, and as we’ve seen in the above sections: “Submitting to a local church is how we submit to Jesus’ lordship.”
It would be wrong for a church to place this expectation of discipleship upon one who hasn’t signed up for it. Membership helps make it clear who has signed up to be part of this community: in this place, in this time, and in this way.
The context for the Matthew 18 passage teaches that a healthy church with a functioning membership has the goal of restoring those in sin. This also keeps the church’s witness in the world as it should be: bright among the darkness. Sometimes people will not respond well to a process of discipline, and to that Dever helpfully writes:
So it is for our personal holiness and the witness of the church that Jesus gives us this authority. The only way to exercise this authority in a helpful and healthy manner is to have church membership. We need this and the world needs this. Because this is biblical, it is necessary.
Conclusion
So church membership is either implied, or taught directly, under these categories:
Counting members of a church
Church discipline, including removing someone from the church
The call for members to surrender to the leaders of a specific church
The charge for leaders to care for a specific group of people
The metaphors Scripture uses to describe the church
If there is going to be some kind of functional membership in a church anyway (whether that word is used or not), why not follow how God has called us to organise ourselves?
Church membership helps the individual Christian to grow in their own spiritual life, allows others to grow in theirs, and is a necessary part of God’s mission in the world. This is from God, for our good, and for the good of others. It is how we can be that which we are through Christ: a gospel formed family on mission.
Sources and Further Reading
Books
Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, 2012.
Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible, 2007.
Robert Culver, Systematic Theology: Biblical and Historical, 2005.
Herman Bavinck, The Philosophy of Revelation, 1909.
H. Harvey, The Pastor: His Duties and Qualifications, 1879.
Blog posts and short articles
Biblical Support for Church Membership - Joel Webbon: can be accessed at https://web.archive.org/web/20250710044629/https://www.acts29.com/biblical-support-for-church-membership/
New Testament Metaphors for the Church - Justin Taylor: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/new-testament-metaphors-for-the-church/
Is Church Membership Biblical? - Matt Chandler: https://www.9marks.org/article/journalchurch-membership-biblical/
Church Membership in the New Testament - John MacArthur: https://www.gty.org/blogs/B130114/church-membership-in-the-new-testament
5 Biblical Arguments for Church Membership - Brian Boyles, Lifeway Research: https://research.lifeway.com/2022/11/07/5-biblical-arguments-for-church-membership/
How Important is Church Membership? - John Piper, Desiring God: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/how-important-is-church-membership
Resources created by churches
Riverside Community Church’s membership course, prepared by James Walden
Material from Steve Neal at Oldham Bethel on membership
Redeemer Membership Process document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GH0MQTU75YgJVgHu3mN7yT_dIYo3ABLQ/view?usp=sharing
Redeemer’s One Another Course: https://redeemermcr.com/one-another
Footnotes (back to top)
Robert Culver, Systematic Theology: Biblical and Historical, 2005, p. 918.
Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership, 2012.
H. Harvey, The Pastor: His Duties and Qualifications, 1879.
For more see our resource: https://redeemermcr.com/one-another
Herman Bavinck, The Philosophy of Revelation, 1909.
This area quotes from Justin Taylor’s brief overview of these metaphors, found here: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/new-testament-metaphors-for-the-church/
Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, 2012.
Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible, 2007, p. 68.