Institutional Church Membership

[blackheart]

What is the strongest biblical argument for church membership?

[steve]

I can't think of any reason to "join" an institutional church in any official or formal sense. However, regular participation with a body of believers (even if they are an institutional church) can involve a number of benefits (along with a number of liabilities):

1. It may prove to be desirable for the purpose of becoming known to others, who can then call upon you when they need assistance, and upon whom you can call in like circumstances.

2. It may provide a Christian social circle when others are hard to find.

3. It can provide a larger society of Christian families which broaden your children's social options.

[mattrose]

Our denomination (the Wesleyan Church) recently sent its 3 General Superintendents on a "Listening Tour" to hear what the pastors were thinking. In our Western New York meeting, many of the pastors expressed a desire to get rid of 'membership' all-together.

My point being, even those people who might be seen to benefit the most from membership (pastors) don't always like it!

In our denomination, the only possible 'benefits' of membership are
1. Right to vote on church leadership positions
2. Possible accountability (since you are making a commitment to certain behaviors)

[AaronBDisney]

While there may be some benefits of becoming an official member of a denomination, I'm coming to see that the benefits do not outweigh the problems.

I became an official member of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN HQ) about 7 years ago. In doing so, I recall pledging, in some manner or other, to uphold the delcaration of faith that our denomination has adopted. While I'm largely in agreement with the list of tenets we were required to adhere to, I am in disagreement with a couple of them and unsure about one or two others. I've seen many people go to the front of the church and agree to these same principles without knowing whether or not the Bible affirms them.

I've not got the kind of heart to rebel against the flow of the body of believers I am part of, but if I had it to do over, and had thought a little clearer about what I was doing, I'd have held off agreeing to those things until I could research them out a little. I don't like denominationalism and I don't like being divided from fellowship with other believers based on a few disagreements in biblical interpretation. I suppose it's human nature to tend to gather together with those that are in one accord with your theological distinctions. That's one aspect of the human nature I'd like to see give way to the divine nature we are partakers of. I am hungry for a time (and I hope that time comes) when those walls fall.

[blackheart]

I guess I did not state my question properly

What Bible texts can be used to support the concept of local church membership?

[AaronBDisney]

I guess I did not state my question properly

What Bible texts can be used to support the concept of local church membership?

Sorry Just got carried away....

Steve covered some great benefits for regular Church fellowship, and Matt gave a couple of membership benefits, but since membership is not something practiced in the early church, I doubt you see anything recommending it in the New Testament. It's not really conducive to the desired degree of unity in the universal body of believers, if you ask me.

[Danny]

Hi Blackheart (are you a Joan Jett fan?),

For the first time in the nearly 30 years that I've been a Christian, I'm in the process of "officially" becoming a member of a church. I cannot give you Bible verses for or against it, but can explain why I'm doing it. None of the churches I've belonged to in the past even had membership. The concept of church membership seemed utterly irrelevant to me. However, over that last two years my wife and I have become knitted into a body of believers which is part of an "institutional" denomination that does membership. Although I sometimes lead worship and teach there, I have never felt pressured to become a member. The elders have made it clear to us that whether we're members or not has no bearing on our ability to minister or function in our gifts within the fellowship or provide input into church matters. This would seem to make membership even more irrelevant. Yet my wife and I have felt compelled by the Spirit to apply for membership. Here's why: Our culture is one in which people tend to be very transitory. Folks come and go from jobs, communities, relationships, churches, etc. It's not like Biblical times where there was a very strong sense of belonging to family and community. My wife and I want to make a public statement of our commitment to this group of believers whom we've come to love and feel God has made us a part of. It's somewhat analogous to when my wife and I got married: we could have gone down to the Justice 'o the Peace and done the deal quickly and quietly, but instead we chose to have a ceremony in front of friends and family where we publicly pledged our commitment to each other.

Strangely, what we're doing--publically affirming our commitment to this group of believers--feels very counter-cultural!

In our application for membership my wife and I made it clear that there are certain points in the denomination's statement of beliefs that we disagree with. We stated that we were willing to coexist with these beliefs while at the same time not hiding our own beliefs where they they diverged. The elders did not have a problem with this (it turns out that many of them feel the same way).

Of course, our first allegiance is to Christ and should we be called at some point by the Holy Spirit to leave this group, we will obey. I get the sense, however, that if we sensed such a call, this church would earnestly pray with us about it and send us out with their blessing.

[SamIam]

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24,25

It seems that the writer of Hebrews assumes that Christians will meet together regularly. It also seems reasonable that groups of Christians would form where more or less the same people would be at each meeting. We call this a congregation.

Voting rights and subscription to creeds is not at all necessary to form a congregation. To the best of my knowledge, the congregation I assemble with has never held a vote or required a pledge to a creed in its nearly 50 year existence.

[mattrose]

The Biblical argument is basically an argument from the authoritative content of the Bible. In other words, if the church is made up of baptized individuals, the someone or something (an institution) has to keep record of that. The church has to meet somewhere and that has to get organized. So there IS an institutional element.

[SamIam]

Why does an institution need to record baptisms? God keeps the only records that matter.

I would be very surprised if the church I attend has a list of the people baptized there. I'm guessing each individual minister kept a list of the people he baptized, but not for any "official" purpose.