Every institution needs to process who should be its members and the church is no exception. So the question of who should be members of the church and what role should they play is yet another question that those who are leaders of the church need to be clear about.
The Problem of Numbers-Driven Membership
Sadly one of the most famous approach to church membership is that of simply growing the numbers. Partly it’s because church leaders tend to compare with one another how many members they have. And as a result of that, you find that the churches are simply accepting anybody who shows any interest whatsoever in joining the church. No doubt it increases their financial income and therefore that’s a motivation for it. But on the other hand, it just increases the amount of work that so many church leaders end up doing. And it’s because they bring in people who are not converted. They have not experienced the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. And so they are still dead in sin. And they become a dead weight in the context of the church. As a result, what is happening is that the churches are losing their testimonies in the world because people are seeing the way in which these members of the churches are living out there in the world and they are saying, ‘If this is what it means to be a Christian, I want nothing to do with that.’ Sadly, that is become so common that we need to get back to the subject who should be members of the church.
The Biblical Answer: True Church Members
Well, one answer and only one answer is correct and it is those who have repented from their sin and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. A very clear teaching there is found in Acts 2. Acts 2:41, “So those who received his word were baptized and they were added….” Notice the phrase, “they were added that day about 3,000 souls.” We also read in Acts 2:47, “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The Bible is very clear at the beginning of the New Testament church that those who were being welcomed into membership in the church were those who were responding to the gospel message. And they were responding to it by repentance and faith. Only individuals whom the Spirit of God has worked in their hearts are able, are enabled to repent and to believe.
And therefore you have individuals who are now alive, spiritually alive. These are the ones who were being baptized and they were the ones who are now being added to the body of Christ. We must never forget that because it is crucial to the life of the church. If you are adding individuals who’ve never experienced this life transforming power of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, what you are doing is simply adding dead people, spiritually dead people to the church. And as a result, the church will never get anywhere.
The Roles of Church Members
But then we ask the question, what role are these people to play in the context of the church? Well, one of them is something that is seen in the passage that is in Acts 2. We read Acts 2:41, but now let’s come to Acts 2:42. The Bible says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and their prayers.” There’s no doubt that that becomes the normal activity of God’s people when they are now related to the Christian church, listening to the teaching of God’s word, being committed to the life and the people of God in the fellowship. I’ll talk about that in a moment. Then the breaking of bread. And then lastly, being part of the church’s prayer partners and prayer teams and prayer warriors, whatever phrase you might want to use, but really being in that place where God’s people are praying and crying out to God for his grace upon them, upon their nations, and even upon this needy world. That’s what church members ought to be doing.
Committed to Fellowship
I mentioned the fact that they are to be committed to the fellowship of God’s people. And what do I mean by that? Well, all you need to do is to read the epistles of Paul and you will find that over and over again there are what are called one another passages where the Bible there says things like love one another, be committed to one another, be patient with one another. There’s kiss one another with a holy kiss meaning greet one another affectionately and so on and so forth. Even the meeting with one another. There are a lot of these one another passages in the Bible. They all speak about the way in which Christians in the church are to minister into one another’s lives. speak with one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and so on.
So Christians one of their important roles in the life of the church is that of ministering into one another’s lives. And so it is important that as individuals are coming into the life of the church through repentance and faith that church leaders take time to instruct them about their responsibilities so that they don’t think that being a member of the church is about receiving, and receiving, and receiving. There is them participating actively in using their own gifts to minister into the lives of others.
Instructed in Doctrine and Church Life
But even as church leaders give them the tasks that they are to participate in in the context of the church, there’s also the need to instruct them about the church’s doctrinal position. Because remember they are to be part of the church in speaking to the world the message that God has given in his word. So leaders are to take the time to instruct church members in that way. Leaders should also take the time to instruct members about the way in which the church is organized. If it’s a Baptist church or a congregational church or a Presbyterian church or an Episcopalian church and so on so that they can know that even in the administration and organization of the church they have a role that they can play.
All these are important so that church members are not simply warming chairs and pews on Sunday and then they disappear but that rather they know we are a body that ought to be ministering internally and also externally.
Implications for the Church
There are a few implications of all that; 1) Is the fact that we need to jealously guard the door of the church and I don’t I mean the church building, I mean those who are coming into the life of the church as members. And how do we do that? It is by ensuring that only those who understand the gospel, the basics of the gospel and who show the fruit of genuine repentance are welcomed into the life of the church. I know especially in Africa that is difficult because we don’t want to offend people.
We don’t want to turn away somebody who is saying I want to join your church. And yet it’s our responsibility not because we want to simply offend people but we ought to do it lovingly. We ought to do it with an understanding heart so that we are saying to those people look let’s help you to come to a better understanding of this good news of Jesus Christ because only through it can you be added by God to this body of believers. So that’s something that we genuinely need to learn to do. Especially the area that we tend to fail is when speaking to the wealthy and the powerful. We tend to think that nobody should do this because they will go away with their money or the political system will now be poised against us. But remember the church is not ours. It belongs to Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us be careful who we bring in.
But also it means that we need to encourage believers who are on the inside to make sure that they don’t just come to church and then go away, but that they are deliberately meant to use their gifts, their money, their time to enhance the work of the church to follow that great commission that Jesus gave. And it is the members of the church who are to do this. It’s their role. We who are leaders should simply lead them in that direction.
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