Membership: Who Are The Sheep?
Introduction
Starting next month, Bayview Bible Church will be holding quarterly Members Meetings. Believe it or not, this is not because the elders (who already meet weekly) have grown to love meetings and we just can’t get enough of them. The reason is a bit more meaningful than that. In short, our church polity (governance) is in line with what could be called “historic Baptist” polity, meaning that there should be a healthy level of involvement and input from the church members regarding the regular life of the church. We have come to realize that holding only one business meeting per year hardly fulfills what we’d like to embrace – a healthy involvement of the covenanted members of the church.
That’s a summary of why we’re beginning these quarterly meetings. As I began to think and plan toward that last Sunday in March, I felt a bit compelled to make a brief case for biblical church membership, since it’s only members who will be asked to attend and contribute. In this short blog, I’ll be presenting a couple points about membership from a perspective you perhaps have not yet considered. If you’re already a covenanted member of the church, thank you. If you have not joined the church formally, I ask you to consider what’s written in this post, and I extend a sincere and joyful invitation to talk about these items. I’ll even buy the coffee.
That’s a summary of why we’re beginning these quarterly meetings. As I began to think and plan toward that last Sunday in March, I felt a bit compelled to make a brief case for biblical church membership, since it’s only members who will be asked to attend and contribute. In this short blog, I’ll be presenting a couple points about membership from a perspective you perhaps have not yet considered. If you’re already a covenanted member of the church, thank you. If you have not joined the church formally, I ask you to consider what’s written in this post, and I extend a sincere and joyful invitation to talk about these items. I’ll even buy the coffee.
The Pastoral Problem
There really are a number of right and biblical ways to approach the topic of membership, but I’m going to present just one. I’m choosing this one because I think it’s likely that this is the least considered aspect of membership, yet it is, in my opinion, perhaps the strongest case.
Consider the local church through the eyes of the elders. As men called to shepherd the local flock, we have certain duties that have been assigned to us.
Acts 20:28
[28] 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.
1 Peter 5 says that elders are to exercise oversight of a local flock with eagerness, setting good examples, because Christ (the Chief Shepherd) cares for all his sheep and has delegated this authority to us. The stakes are high, right? Actually, they go a bit higher. Hebrews 13 tells us that elders will have to give an account to God regarding how they shepherded the people of the church. The point is that serving as an elder is serious.
Now, let me start to whittle this down to the issue at hand. If God calls men to serve as elders of a local flock, and if those elders will have to answer to God for how they shepherded that local flock, a tremendous question must be answered: exactly who is the flock I’m shepherding? As elders, how do we know who is part of the flock and who is not?
Think about it this way: will the elders at Bayview Bible Church be held accountable for the shepherding of a man who sporadically attends every six weeks? Are we responsible for the individual or couple who attend with some regularity, but who are not accountable to the leaders or body in any formal way? What about the guest who drops in during a vacation? Are the elders answerable to God for how that man was shepherded?
Who is in the flock and who is not? As elders commanded by God to shepherd the flock, we need to know!
Consider the local church through the eyes of the elders. As men called to shepherd the local flock, we have certain duties that have been assigned to us.
Acts 20:28
[28] 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.
1 Peter 5 says that elders are to exercise oversight of a local flock with eagerness, setting good examples, because Christ (the Chief Shepherd) cares for all his sheep and has delegated this authority to us. The stakes are high, right? Actually, they go a bit higher. Hebrews 13 tells us that elders will have to give an account to God regarding how they shepherded the people of the church. The point is that serving as an elder is serious.
Now, let me start to whittle this down to the issue at hand. If God calls men to serve as elders of a local flock, and if those elders will have to answer to God for how they shepherded that local flock, a tremendous question must be answered: exactly who is the flock I’m shepherding? As elders, how do we know who is part of the flock and who is not?
Think about it this way: will the elders at Bayview Bible Church be held accountable for the shepherding of a man who sporadically attends every six weeks? Are we responsible for the individual or couple who attend with some regularity, but who are not accountable to the leaders or body in any formal way? What about the guest who drops in during a vacation? Are the elders answerable to God for how that man was shepherded?
Who is in the flock and who is not? As elders commanded by God to shepherd the flock, we need to know!
A Key Passage
The author of Hebrews takes a number of good things seriously, including the health of local churches. Not only does he urge Christians to not forsake meeting together regularly (Heb. 10:24-25), but as he closes out the letter, he gives this command:
Hebrews 13:17
[17] 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. (ESV)
I want to point out something obvious from this command to obey your leaders and submit to them. I’m even going to underline it so that you don’t miss it. In order for this command to be obeyed, we have to identify two groups of people: those who are leading and those who are submitting. Who are the leaders in the church? We need to know. Who are those submitting to the church leaders? We need to know. For this command to be obeyed, we need two quantifiable, identifiable groups of people.
On the leadership end, we know who those guys are. Those are the elders, and their status as elders is formal. It goes down into the church minutes and the State of Idaho knows about it. We have no problem with the church leaders being formally recognized, but what about those who are submitting? Is there any formal mechanism to identify them? Yes, there is. We call it membership.
It’s interesting to me that most Christians who resist a formal church membership for themselves have no problem with the elders having to go through formal processes to be leaders in the church. The key takeaway here is that Scripture requires both the leaders and the ones following the leaders to be formally recognized.
For the reason stated above, I contend that a formal process of membership is necessary to shepherd souls the way the Bible says we ought. Step one in tending to the flock is knowing who the flock is, and membership helps us to know.
Hebrews 13:17
[17] 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. (ESV)
I want to point out something obvious from this command to obey your leaders and submit to them. I’m even going to underline it so that you don’t miss it. In order for this command to be obeyed, we have to identify two groups of people: those who are leading and those who are submitting. Who are the leaders in the church? We need to know. Who are those submitting to the church leaders? We need to know. For this command to be obeyed, we need two quantifiable, identifiable groups of people.
On the leadership end, we know who those guys are. Those are the elders, and their status as elders is formal. It goes down into the church minutes and the State of Idaho knows about it. We have no problem with the church leaders being formally recognized, but what about those who are submitting? Is there any formal mechanism to identify them? Yes, there is. We call it membership.
It’s interesting to me that most Christians who resist a formal church membership for themselves have no problem with the elders having to go through formal processes to be leaders in the church. The key takeaway here is that Scripture requires both the leaders and the ones following the leaders to be formally recognized.
For the reason stated above, I contend that a formal process of membership is necessary to shepherd souls the way the Bible says we ought. Step one in tending to the flock is knowing who the flock is, and membership helps us to know.
Conclusion
Let me end by going on record on behalf of the elder board and asserting that membership matters. As I’ve said a bit humorously from the pulpit: we don’t get a quarter for everyone who joins the church. We aren’t graded by some higher ecclesiastical body according to how many members belong to the church. That’s not what this is about.
We truly are convinced and convicted that formal membership in a local church is right for every Christian. Also, I want to give as many as possible the benefit of the doubt. I believe some haven’t joined the church because they’ve simply never given serious thought to membership and may not understand what it is. I get that! Others may have had a poor representation of membership in their lives previously and are hesitant because of a prior bad experience. I understand that, too, and would love to talk about it. If you fall into one of these categories I just mentioned, you are the primary audience for this appeal.
Still, there are some who do understand membership and still reject it. Perhaps they value their autonomy too highly or are fearful of being known and vulnerable to others. While I hope their attitude toward the Christ's church changes, this is not primarily written with them in view.
There is more to say on this topic, and so I’m going to do just that. Between now and our first quarterly meeting, I’m going to publish two more brief pieces on membership. Part Two will lay out the details of membership (what it is and how it looks). Part Three will answer common objections to formal church membership. In the meantime, my offer to meet and discuss these things is sincere.
My prayer is that more and more Christians would “move toward the center” and commit themselves fully to what God is doing in our little corner of the world.
We truly are convinced and convicted that formal membership in a local church is right for every Christian. Also, I want to give as many as possible the benefit of the doubt. I believe some haven’t joined the church because they’ve simply never given serious thought to membership and may not understand what it is. I get that! Others may have had a poor representation of membership in their lives previously and are hesitant because of a prior bad experience. I understand that, too, and would love to talk about it. If you fall into one of these categories I just mentioned, you are the primary audience for this appeal.
Still, there are some who do understand membership and still reject it. Perhaps they value their autonomy too highly or are fearful of being known and vulnerable to others. While I hope their attitude toward the Christ's church changes, this is not primarily written with them in view.
There is more to say on this topic, and so I’m going to do just that. Between now and our first quarterly meeting, I’m going to publish two more brief pieces on membership. Part Two will lay out the details of membership (what it is and how it looks). Part Three will answer common objections to formal church membership. In the meantime, my offer to meet and discuss these things is sincere.
My prayer is that more and more Christians would “move toward the center” and commit themselves fully to what God is doing in our little corner of the world.
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