Intro: Membership Goals
Now that we have had a brief introduction to church membership, it is also helpful to introduced to the goals of church membership. But first, some terms and definitions. To help along the rest of this study, it is necessary that we all have in mind the same thing when the term “church membership” is used. In a simple sense, church membership is a formal and reciprocal commitment to a local church. It is like joining God's family, and the Bible even compares it to that. More on that later.
So, local church membership can be compared to joining the family of God. In fact, the Bible describes it just as that -- joining the family of God. Just think about it. You get God as your Father (Luke 12:32; 2 Cor 6:18; Eph 4:4-6), you get new brothers and sisters in Christ (John 19:26), Jesus is referred to as our brother (Heb 2:11, Mark 3:34) and even our elder brother (Rom 8:29). The New Testament if filled with admonitions to join the family of God (John 1:12; Eph 2:19-22).
I am going to lay out some reasons in which the Bible demonstrates that one of the primary ways that you know you are in the family of God, and by reason are headed to heaven, is by joining a local church.1
So, local church membership can be compared to joining the family of God. In fact, the Bible describes it just as that -- joining the family of God. Just think about it. You get God as your Father (Luke 12:32; 2 Cor 6:18; Eph 4:4-6), you get new brothers and sisters in Christ (John 19:26), Jesus is referred to as our brother (Heb 2:11, Mark 3:34) and even our elder brother (Rom 8:29). The New Testament if filled with admonitions to join the family of God (John 1:12; Eph 2:19-22).
I am going to lay out some reasons in which the Bible demonstrates that one of the primary ways that you know you are in the family of God, and by reason are headed to heaven, is by joining a local church.1
The Goal of Membership in the Family of God
Some have argued that membership is nothing more than a way to make an exclusive club, or that membership is used to keep control of a church so that it looks or thinks a particular way. While some perceive church membership in this manner because of genuine failures of some congregations, the biblical perspective on church membership does not seek control, power, or unnecessary authority.
Rather, biblical church membership seeks two primary goals. First, it seeks to establish proper boundaries by identifying Christians with the family of God. Second, once those boundaries are established, biblical membership seeks to bring life, flourishing, and unity to those within the local church.
Rather, biblical church membership seeks two primary goals. First, it seeks to establish proper boundaries by identifying Christians with the family of God. Second, once those boundaries are established, biblical membership seeks to bring life, flourishing, and unity to those within the local church.
Goal 1: Establishing Boundaries by Identifying Your Family
In the New Testament, salvation is followed with connection to a local church (Acts 2:38, 41). The New Testament does not know of a Christian who does not belong to a church in the New Testament.2 Not only in the New Testament, but in the ensuing generations of Christians we find that the early church writers proliferated ideas for the need of the community of the local church. So important was joining the local church in early Christianity that it led the early church father Cyprian to write, “You cannot have God for your Father unless you have the church for your mother.”3 I would say it more like, “If we are actually in the family of God, we not only get a new Father, but we also get a new brothers and sisters. Rejection of one is an also a rejection of the other” (cf. Luke 10:16).
In the New Testament, a person was saved for the purpose of enjoying a personal relationship with God. But where we can tend to go wrong is think that a personal relationship with Jesus can simply be a private relationship with Jesus. Rather, according to the New Testament, a person is saved by Jesus Christ into a community. Salvation in the New Testament includes both being saved by Christ and joining his body – which is a local church. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that Christians are "one body" and “baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:12-13).
Of my favorite music artists is Stephen the Levite. He has a helpful song about church membership, and one of the most striking lines in the song is:
If membership is being part of the body,
Then how can you be a body part
When you're apart from the body?
He has an excellent point. So, the question is: what body of believing brothers and sisters, that follow your Father in heaven, have you formally committed to? Who is your spiritual family? This biblical question highlights the scriptural reality that salvation is a community creating event.4
In the New Testament, a person was saved for the purpose of enjoying a personal relationship with God. But where we can tend to go wrong is think that a personal relationship with Jesus can simply be a private relationship with Jesus. Rather, according to the New Testament, a person is saved by Jesus Christ into a community. Salvation in the New Testament includes both being saved by Christ and joining his body – which is a local church. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that Christians are "one body" and “baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:12-13).
Of my favorite music artists is Stephen the Levite. He has a helpful song about church membership, and one of the most striking lines in the song is:
If membership is being part of the body,
Then how can you be a body part
When you're apart from the body?
He has an excellent point. So, the question is: what body of believing brothers and sisters, that follow your Father in heaven, have you formally committed to? Who is your spiritual family? This biblical question highlights the scriptural reality that salvation is a community creating event.4
Goal 2: Facilitate Life, Flourishing, and Community
The second reason for church membership is help the church flourish. I’m sure you know what a generator is. The historical definition of generate means “life giving” or “to birth.” So, when your generator is off, it cannot give life to your tools, house, or whatever else needs electricity. When the generator is working, it gives the necessary electricity to bring your tools and machines to life. In the same way, the Bible describes believers as being regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Tit 3:5). This new life from the Holy Spirit then empowers us to love and obey the commands of the Bible. Doing so, in turn, brings life to Christians and the local church. This is what is meant by generative nature of church membership – membership brings life to the church by means of keeping the commands of God in the New Testament regarding membership.
There are many passages of scripture which specifically point out that faith in God leads to obeying the teachings of the Bible, which brings life.5 Consider the following scriptures:
Leviticus 18:5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.
Deuteronomy 4:1 And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you
Deuteronomy 5:33 You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
Proverbs 4:4 He taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.
Did you know that surveys, statistics, and examinations of multiple churches over more than half a century has shown that one of the primary reasons churches lack vitality and health is because they lack biblical church membership?6 Membership is the means by which the church corporately keeps each other accountable, on the path of life, and maintains its own vitality; it is how the family of God helps each other to get home. We are not lone rangers. God has given the church tools to keep Christians in the family until the day when we see our Father face to face. Also, we cannot reject these tools, because rejection of these tools means we reject the means by which the Father brings us all the way into his family when we see him face to face.
There are many passages of scripture which specifically point out that faith in God leads to obeying the teachings of the Bible, which brings life.5 Consider the following scriptures:
Leviticus 18:5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.
Deuteronomy 4:1 And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you
Deuteronomy 5:33 You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
Proverbs 4:4 He taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.
Did you know that surveys, statistics, and examinations of multiple churches over more than half a century has shown that one of the primary reasons churches lack vitality and health is because they lack biblical church membership?6 Membership is the means by which the church corporately keeps each other accountable, on the path of life, and maintains its own vitality; it is how the family of God helps each other to get home. We are not lone rangers. God has given the church tools to keep Christians in the family until the day when we see our Father face to face. Also, we cannot reject these tools, because rejection of these tools means we reject the means by which the Father brings us all the way into his family when we see him face to face.
What Does Local Church Membership Look Like?
The next question to ask is, “What would Christian churches look like if they studied and accepted the vision of membership in the New Testament?” Another way to ask the question is, “How should biblical membership affect the thinking and life of the New Testament church?” My hope is that you would join me to examine closely and carefully what the Bible has to say about the purpose and benefits of biblical membership to set apart the people of God and bring about the flourishing which God designs each church to experience and enjoy.
Citations and Footnotes
1 For other helpful resources that advance the same points, see Mark Dever, Why Should I Join a Church?, 9Marks: Church Questions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020) and
Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012).
Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012).
2 There are two exceptions in the New Testament: the thief on the cross and the Ethiopian eunuch. However, it should be noted the thief could not have been a part of any church because he died shortly after being forgiven of his sins, and the Eunuch’s story is not told to us after he was baptized. Of the remaining examples in Scripture, they are invariably connected with a local church.
3 Cyprian of Carthage, “On the Unity of the Church,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 423.
4 Hellerman, Joseph H. When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community. B&H Publishing Group, 2009.
5 The observation that faith leads to keeping the commands of God, and the commands of God bring life, are repeated no less than 22 times in the Bible. See: Lev18:5, Deut 4:1; 5:33; 8:1; 30:20; Prov 4:4; 6:23; 7:2; Psalm 119:3; Eze 20:11-25; 33:15; Neh 9:29; Matt 19:17; Jn 5:39, et al.
6 https://news.gallup.com/poll/248837/church-membership-down-sharply-past-two-decades.aspx
The take away from this poll and the data released in it show that in 1998 the percentage of American adults who were members of a local Evangelical church dove from 70% to 58% in 2018. That is an 18% decrease over 20 years. In the Roman Catholic Church, the poll showed that less than 10% of professing Catholics attend church in any given week (https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx).
The take away from this poll and the data released in it show that in 1998 the percentage of American adults who were members of a local Evangelical church dove from 70% to 58% in 2018. That is an 18% decrease over 20 years. In the Roman Catholic Church, the poll showed that less than 10% of professing Catholics attend church in any given week (https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx).
