In a day when commitment is a rare commodity, it should come as no surprise that church membership is such a low priority to so many believers. Sadly, it is not uncommon for Christians to move from church to church, never submitting themselves to the care of elders and never committing themselves to a group of fellow believers.
To neglect—or to refuse—to join a church as a formal member, however, reflects a misunderstanding of the believer’s responsibility to the body of Christ. And it also cuts one off from the many blessings and opportunities that flow from this commitment. It is essential for every Christian to understand what church membership is and why it matters.
The Definition of Church Membership
When an individual is saved, he becomes a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Because he is united to Christ and the other members of the body in this way, he is therefore qualified to become member of a local expression of that body.
To become a member of a church is to formally commit oneself to an identifiable, local body of believers who have joined together for specific, divinely ordained purposes. These purposes include receiving instruction from God’s Word (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:2), serving and edifying one another through the proper use of spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; 1 Pet. 4:10-11), participating in the ordinances (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:38-42), and proclaiming the gospel to those who are lost (Matt. 28:18- 20). In addition, when one becomes a member of a church, he submits himself to the care and the authority of the biblically qualified elders that God has placed in that assembly.
The Basis for Church Membership
Although Scripture does not contain an explicit command to formally join a local church, the biblical foundation for church membership permeates the New Testament. This biblical basis can be seen most clearly in (1) the example of the early church, (2) the existence of church government, (3) the exercise of church discipline, and (4) the exhortation to mutual edification.
The Example of the Early Church
In the early church, coming to Christ was coming to the church. The idea of experiencing salvation without belonging to a local church is foreign to the New Testament. When individuals repented and believed in Christ, they were baptized and added to the church (Acts 2:41, 47; 5:14; 16:5). More than simply living out a private commitment to Christ, this meant joining together formally with other believers in a local assembly and devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42).
The epistles of the New Testament were written to churches. In the case of the few written to individuals—such as Philemon, Timothy and Titus—these individuals were leaders in churches. The New Testament epistles themselves demonstrate that the Lord assumed that believers would be committed to a local assembly.
There is also evidence in the New Testament that just as there was a list of widows eligible for financial support (1 Tim. 5:9), there may also have been a list of members that grew as people were saved (cf. Acts 2:41, 47; 5:14; 16:5). In fact, when a believer moved to another city, his church often wrote a letter of commendation to his new church (Acts 18:27; Rom. 16:1; Col. 4:10; cf. 2 Cor. 3:1-2).
In the book of Acts, much of the terminolgy fits only with the concept of formal church membership. Phrases such as “the whole congregation” (6:5), “the church in Jerusalem” (8:1), “the disciples” in Jerusalem (9:26), “in every church” (14:23), “the whole church” (15:17), and “the elders of the church” in Ephesus (20:17), all suggest recognizable church membership with well-defined boundaries (also see 1 Cor. 5:4; 14:23; and Heb. 10:25).
(To be concluded tomorrow)
2. Evangelizing the world. You should join a local church also for the sake of evangelizing the world. Together we can better spread the gospel at home and abroad. We can do this by our words, as we share the message of the good news with others, and as we help others to do that. A local church is, by nature, a missionary organization.
We back this up with our actions as we work to show God’s love by meeting the physical needs of orphans, the sick, children, or the disadvantaged. Through our own fellowship of churches we help spread the gospel around the world, and we provide millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers to help those who have some immediate physical needs like disaster relief, education, and countless other ministries. Even as imperfect as we are, if God’s spirit is genuinely at work in us, He will use our lives and words to help demonstrate to others the truth of His gospel. This is a special role now that we won’t have in Heaven. This is the special privilege of the church now—to be part of God’s plan, to take His gospel to the world.
3. Exposing false gospels. God intends us to be together in this way to expose false gospels. It is through our coming together as Christians that we show the world what Christianity really is. In our churches, we debunk messages and images which purport to be biblical Christianity but really are not. Must it not surely be the case that some of those who are not members of evangelical churches are not so because they do not really believe the same evangel? Part of the church’s mission is to recognize and defend the true gospel and to prevent perversions of it. We must realize that part of our task in evangelizing may very well be not only to present positively the gospel of Jesus Christ, but also to dismantle the bad, confusing, distorted witnesses that have raised themselves up as Christian churches, but which in reality confuse the gospel more than they confirm it.
4.Edification of the Church. A fourth reason for joining the church is the edification or building up of the church. Joining a church will help counter our wrong individualism and will help us to realize the corporate nature of Christianity. When you study the New Testament you find that our Christian lives are supposed to involve our care and concern for each other. {Note from cent: don't tear this out of the context here: Pastor Dever is talking about care inside a context that presupposes #3} That is part of what it means to be a Christian. And though we do it imperfectly, we should be committed to do this. We intend to encourage even baby steps in righteousness, love, selflessness and Christlikeness.
In our church’s membership class I often tell the story of a friend who worked for a campus Christian ministry while attending a church in which I was a member. He would always slip in right after the hymns, sit there for the sermon, and then leave. I asked him one day, why he didn’t come for the whole service. “Well,” he said, “I don’t get anything out of the rest of it.” “Have you ever thought about joining the church?” I responded. He thought that was just an absurd question. He said, “Why would I join the church? If I join them, I think they would just slow me down spiritually.” When he said this I wondered what he understood being a Christian to mean. I replied, “Have you ever considered that maybe God wants you to link arms with those other people? Sure, they might slow you down, but you might help to speed them up. Maybe that’s part of God’s plan for us as we live together as Christians!"
5. The Glory of God. Finally, a Christian should join a church for the glory of God. Peter wrote to some early Christians, 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, (I Peter 2:12). Amazing, isn’t it? But then again, you can tell that Peter had heard the teaching of His Master. You remember what Jesus had taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Again, the surprising assumption seems to be that God will receive the glory for our good works. If that is true of our lives individually, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to find that God’s Word says that this is also the case with our lives together as Christians. God intends that the way we love each other will identify us as followers of Christ. Recall Jesus’ famous words in John 13:34-35A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Our lives together are to mark us out as His, and are to bring Him praise and glory.
From http://www.mctsowensboro.org
Recently, a considerable amount of discussion and debate was generated by the proposal of John Piper and his fellow elders to allow those not baptized as believers into the membership of Bethlehem Baptist church. I sympathize in some respects with the motivations which I suppose led Piper to submit such a proposal. I myself desired to find a way to allow godly paedobaptists to obtain membership in the church I helped to pastor in Grand Rapids. This proposal has subsequently, I am glad to say, been withdrawn. My conviction is that such a proposal cannot be constructed without jeopardizing or denying biblical principles of church polity.
There is, however, a common practice that bothers me even more deeply than a proposal like Piper’s. It is the practice of not a few Baptists today of baptizing people without requiring that such baptism be into the membership of a local church. Such a practice it seems to me is even more subversive of biblical church order and an authentically biblical understanding of baptism than the proposal put forward by Piper. I believe as well that it is even further outside the mainstream of the Christian understanding of the significance of baptism. Over the next several weeks, then, I want to submit ten reasons why baptism must be into local church membership. I begin with the first three this morning.
1. Because this is what the meaning or symbolism of baptism requires.
Baptism symbolizes and makes visible the inward and spiritual realities of union with Christ Romans 6:1-4). Union with Christ, however, involves participation in the body of Christ—the church (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:24, 27, 29; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:16; 3:6;4:4, 11, 12, 16; 5:23, 30; Col. 1:18, 24; 2:19; 3:15). Union with Christ is, then, inseparable from or identical with union with the body of Christ, the church.
Baptism, however, is the visible sign of union with Christ. It cannot but be, then, the visible sign of union with His body—the church. The universal church becomes visible only in the local church. The local church is the visible, local expression of the body of Christ—the only appointed, visible, local expression of the body of Christ. To become a visible Christian through baptism is to become a visible member of the body of Christ. To become a member of the visible body of Christ is to become a member of the visible church. To become a member of the visible church is to become a member of the local church. Baptism=visible union with Christ=visible membership in the body of Christ=visible membership in the church=membership in the local church. Thus, to disconnect baptism and the local church is to deny that baptism symbolizes visible union with Christ. The glory of the local church is that it is the divinely appointed local, expression of the body of Christ. To disconnect baptism from membership in the local chuch is to deny the glory of the local church.
2. Because this is what the Great Commission requires (Matt. 28:18-20).
Baptists insist rightly that the order of the Great Commission requires that baptism be preceded by discipleship. Often, however, they neglect to see that the Great Commission just as clearly requires that baptism be succeeded by instruction in the ordinances of Christ. The school of Christ is the church. It is in the context of the local church that the third part of the Great Commission is fulfilled (Acts 14:21-23). It is to the local church first and foremost that pastor-teachers are given (Eph. 4:11-13). It is just as contrary to the Great Commission and just as wrong to baptize disciples and not instruct them afterwards as it is to baptize those who are not disciples before. Those baptized must be required to enroll in Christ’s school, that is, the local church.
3. Because this is what baptism’s identity as a church ordinance requires.
Baptists rightly insist that only the church and its authorized representatives have a right to baptize. Those originally charged to baptize were not all Christians promiscuously or individually, but the Apostles of Christ (Matt. 28:18-20) in their official capacity as those upon whose testimony the visible church was to be built (Matt. 16:16-18). This means, however, that baptism is an ordinance of the visible church, and, thus, an ordinance under the authority of the church. It is inconsistent and illogical to bestow a church ordinance on those who are not by this initiatory ordinance made members of the church.
