One of the dilemmas some people have with church membership is the purpose of it. Some people have rightly been against a formal church membership on the basis that it has been explained as the way of inclusion into the church. Hopefully we would all agree that salvation through faith in Christ alone is that which brings inclusion into his church. Church membership is not about inclusion, but identification. We are identified as believers through our testimony of Christ and hopefully through the fruit of Christ that will be evident in our lives (none more so than love).
We should be careful to note that when we gather together as God’s people, we will often have those among us who are not believers. Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 14:23. How do we identify members of the church when we so often have unbelievers among us. As we get to know people, hopefully we get to ask about and hear their testimony and make assessment as to whether they know and have responded to the gospel. We make fallible assessments knowing that only God can truly see one’s heart. Have you personally done this with everyone in your church? Can you identify by actual spoken testimony and fruit who are members of the church? In most congregations, I would suggest the answer is no.
In the Scripture there are many responsibilities that church members have for the care of each other and the church as a whole. The church as a congregational body is ultimately responsible in acknowledging the discipline of one from their number. To do so, the whole church body must first be aware that the disciplined member was already counted among them. The church as a body comes together to verify eldership direction in important matters of church life, direction, appointment of leaders, and sending for mission. One of the most important responsibilities each church member has for another is simply found in the one another statements in the New Testament. As an example, in Hebrews 3:13 we read, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” In this particular example, we are to regularly keep watch on each other and keep each other aligned with the truth of Scripture so that we might not stray into error and sin. The question is, who can you identify as the “one another” you are actually responsible for?
The objection so often arises that we see no example of a formal counting of membership in the New Testament as if there was no careful system in place to account for the actual known body of Christ. If we think for a moment that there was no concern to formally identify members in the early church, I suggest we are being naïve and uncharitable to our ancestral brethren. I do not believe that the elders of the first formed New Testament churches were lax about who exactly they were given responsibility to shepherd. The responsibilities given to elders and churches necessitate that formal identification of church members has been in place from the very beginning. In fact, many times in the book of Acts we read that people were “counted” among the church upon their public identification in baptism.
The way membership lists help the church today is with this same seriousness of identifying the body. Through either baptism or public testimony of a believer who has already been baptized as such we publicly welcome believers among us as identified formal members. We ensure the other members are aware of it in a public setting and we formally note it. In this way we are declaring to the body that this person is your responsibility for one-anothering. We do not leave this to chance or guesses. The one another responsibilities of the church are too important for that. A caring church will be intentional about promoting membership and as such we will be intentional about taking the one another statements very seriously.
Have you been formally identified as a member yet?