Church membership can be a confusing and difficult discussion. As years go by, more churches see people spend years attending without ever becoming members. Many don’t understand why they should become members, and even some churches may not fully understand the purpose of it beyond “it’s what we’ve always done.”
In this article, I’d like to discuss the value of church membership. I’ll lay a simple foundation of what it is, why it exists in its current form, and give three reasons why you should be a member of your church.
Church membership in a nutshell
Churches and denominations have a variety of ways that they handle church membership. However, there tends to be a good deal of overlap anywhere you go.
A church member is someone who is on an official list of members. To become a church member, you will confirm agreement with the church’s doctrinal statement and agree to abide by it. There will also be some language where members will agree to undergo church discipline if they are in unrepentant sin. Further, you agree that refusal to turn from a sinful lifestyle may result in removal from the church.
Again, it will look different wherever you go. However, the core will almost always be the same: agreement with beliefs, submission to the church’s leaders, and removal from the church if necessary.
Without explaining this through the Bible, it may sound very odd. Perhaps it even sounds mean, rigid, or open to abuse. However, we’ll see why church membership is biblically important. But before we do, I’d like to dispel a myth surrounding church membership.
Not biblical, but absolutely necessary
Before talking about why church membership is biblical, let’s talk about why it isn’t.
Although people can point to a few verses that either use the word “member” (Romans 12:4-5) or imply people are a part of a local group (Acts 2:41), the reality is that adding someone to an official document isn’t laid out in God’s word. I won’t spend much time on this point, but I find it important to note that church membership with signed, legal documents probably isn’t something the early church practiced.
However, just because something isn’t a biblical command doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Nor does it change the fact that something like church membership is absolutely necessary.
Church membership doesn’t make you a member of an elite group, nor does it make you more Christian than someone else. Instead, I’d like to lay out three ways that church membership does nothing more than protect everyone in the church so that they can remain obedient to God’s word.
Reason #1 It protects your future self
Today, perhaps you can’t imagine walking out on your spouse for someone else. You’re confident you’d never become addicted to alcohol or painkillers. Maybe some people are at risk of getting involved in false teaching, but not you.
That may be true right now, but things will happen between today and next year. You can become dissatisfied with your spouse. Physical pain or emotional stress can lead to seeking comfort in substances. And if you aren’t constantly practicing discernment and surrounding yourself with people who keep you accountable to the truth, it’s surprisingly easy to fall away from God and into false teaching, or perhaps even an abandonment of the faith.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)
Church membership is a commitment to abiding in truth. It’s an agreement to what a particular church believes, but it’s also a bigger agreement to God’s truth. There is one truth and a million ways for us to walk away from it. And on this side of Heaven, many of us will have moments where we’re tempted to give in to our own desires instead of walking in God’s will.
In our moments of greatest sin and willful rebellion, what protects us?
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 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 10:23-25)
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)
God has designed us to live the Christian life in a community. We are individually responsible for what we do, but it’s our local church that equips and encourages us for our walk with Christ. Not only do they build us up, but God wants them to grab us when we want to run toward sin.
When we’re on our own and our desires start leading us astray, then we are very likely to follow them wherever they lead. Even the strictest desire to obey God’s word will become corrupted when our heart leads us to compromise the Bible to fit our deeper desires.
But in community, we have another safeguard. Those outside of our circumstances can look in and see what we’re really doing when we’re led away by our desires. What may seem so real to us can be corrected and critiqued by those who love us as a brother or sister in Christ. They can speak truth into a situation where we want to surround ourselves with lies.
This is where church membership comes into play. When we’ve agreed to maintain a certain standard, then we have an objective measure for others to hold us against. There are plenty of churches out there that will let us live almost any lifestyle we want. But when we agree to membership in a local church, then we are accountable for maintaining that specific agreement alongside the bigger truth of God’s word.
In this, we see that church membership protects us from ourselves. When we make an agreement, we want to honor God by keeping it. Thus, when we choose to live against the beliefs of our local church, we are left with two options: either we repent and return to what we know is true, or we leave that church because our hearts refuse to be under the authority of truth.
Takeaway #1: Church membership adds another layer of protection from our desire to obey our sinful hearts instead of God’s word.
Reason #2 It enables your pastor to do his job
For many, a pastor’s only job seems to be speaking for 30-60 minutes on a Sunday. However, outside of studying diligently for a sermon, much of their job is focused on members of their church.
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)
Just as Jesus Christ is the shepherd for all of God’s people, a pastor is a shepherd for the people in his local church. That means nourishing them, but also correcting or even dragging them away from danger.
There are two important things to consider about our pastor’s call from God.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)
First, God calls us to obey our pastors. We are to cooperate with them so that they can do their job by “keeping watch over our souls.” This is a humbling reality for many, but it’s especially important for those in desperate need of spiritual correction. And, once again, church membership helps with this by declaring that we acknowledge a pastor (or group of pastors) as our spiritual leader. By agreeing to the basics of church membership, we agree to be held accountable to the human leadership of a particular church. We let them do this with “joy and not with groaning.”
Second, notice what else this passage says:
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)
Pastors will give an account to God for how they’ve led the people under their care. This demands that pastors ask themselves an incredibly important question: Who are they responsible for?
For example, when should a pastor begin church discipline with someone who is unrepentant of an ongoing sin? How do we “remove” someone who has abandoned the faith? How often does someone need to attend a particular church before the pastor becomes responsible for them?
Without church membership, pastors have a very subjective and ambiguous measuring tool. If pastors are responsible for the people God gives them, they need to know who that actually is.
Are they responsible for…
- Anyone who walks through the church’s door?
- Anyone who says they’re a Christian?
- Someone who only comes on Easter and Christmas?
- Christians who are regular attenders (however we might measure that)?
- Christians who are more “involved” in the church (however we might measure that)?
- Christians who seem willing to submit to pastoral leadership?
If we’re honest, this is an incredibly murky situation. It’s also a situation many churches find themselves in as more people attend regularly without committing to membership. And, once again, this is where church membership clears things up.
Church membership, when treated as something that all regular attenders should agree to, gives the pastor a clear line on who is passing through and who is truly a member of that local church body. It tells a pastor who understands the biblical need to submit to the leadership and authority of a church and its doctrines. Working alongside Reason #1, it allows a pastor to better protect the people in his church.
Conversely, when a Christian commits to a pastor’s authority through church membership, there’s no ambiguity on the pastor’s responsibility to that Christian. It lets the pastor take their responsibility seriously, and it allows them to do it “with joy and not with groaning.” When someone is a member of a church, God gives the pastor a greater responsibility to that person than someone visiting for the first time.
Takeaway #2: Church membership allows a pastor to obey God’s call to equip and, if necessary, rebuke a member of their flock who refuses to repent. It also creates clarity about who a pastor is responsible for.
Reason #3 It lets your church function within the law
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:32)
Although the world still opposes some awful things like sexual or domestic abuse, the reality is that there are many things God hates that the world approves of. And as the culture continues to shift, those who don’t approve of them aren’t just seen as having differing views, but as being intolerant, bigoted, hateful, or even abusive.
For churches, this can create a big problem. What authority do churches have to speak into the lives of their members and tell them that something they’re doing is wrong? While a church can obviously take steps to intervene in situations where a church member breaks the law, what can they do they do in situations where the law is silent, but God’s word isn’t? How can a church follow the biblical principle of church discipline in areas like:
- adultery, whether physically or through pornography
- homosexuality
- alcohol/drug abuse
- gluttony
- laziness
- false teaching
- gossiping or stirring up trouble
- anger
- discontinuing church
If someone hasn’t formally agreed to hold certain standards and beliefs, what right does a church have to tell them to stop or prevent them from returning if they refuse to take steps of repentance? Right now a church still retains the right to ban anyone from private property, but it’s still seen as intolerant and unloving in a world that continues to drift farther from caring about biblical truth. Church membership serves as a clear method of holding people to certain doctrines while avoiding being accused of discrimination.
In a practical sense, it also helps a church safely assign people to areas of service. If members are the only ones allowed to serve in things like the nursery, teaching, or finances, it’s impossible to cause offense when someone wants to serve without being a formal member.
Takeaway #3: Church membership lets a church obey God’s word, especially in areas of sin that the world calls “good.” It also gives a layer of protection for who is able to serve.
The weight and responsibility of accepting membership
As I write this, I know there are many out there who are uncomfortable with the idea of church membership. Some have been hurt by pastors who overstepped their authority, and others are rightly concerned about the potential for abuse. Perhaps some are sinfully rebellious against authority in their lives, despite what God’s word clearly teaches.
I’ve struggled with all of those feelings. Yet despite the sin of others, and my own desire to kick against authority, this article still exists. Why? Because it’s necessary for churches and the individual members within them.
However, understanding the need for membership adds great responsibility to everyone involved.
Individuals need to approach church membership with great care. They need to view their church as more than an enjoyable place to visit, but instead as a community they commit themselves to. They need to understand what they believe, what their church believes, and be willing to submit to the authority of that church’s leadership. Becoming a church member requires us to stop being consumers and take our faith seriously.
Churches and pastors also need to have a proper understanding of church membership and their responsibilities. It’s too easy to either grow up in church to be part of a church that is several generations old and not understand what membership is all about. Membership becomes a thing that people know is important, but may not necessarily know why. If people are going to submit to the doctrines of a particular church, then that church needs to clearly and regularly teach them.
In all cases, we turn to God’s word to see why church membership may not be biblically commanded, but it’s still biblically necessary. It’s a safeguard for sinful individuals, sinful pastors, and churches filled with sinful people. It allows everyone to function to the glory of God and gives clear boundaries for what a church stands for and the standards its members will hold to.
All I can do is encourage individuals to examine themselves. If you are no longer in the “just visiting” stage at your church, why aren’t you a member? Is it a misunderstanding of why it’s important, or perhaps a deeper sin issue that makes you afraid to officially submit to your pastor? Many people attend a church regularly, yet few will find a good reason not to be a member.
Please realize that church membership exists to protect you, enable your pastor to do what God calls him to, and allow the church to safely operate. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s still an important one in the culture we find ourselves in.
