Membership Pt. 1

Overview

Membership in a church has become commonplace in US churches, but how biblically accurate is not only the idea, but the requirement to "belong"?

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When I first began to research for this post, I lived in Grand Rapids, MI. It is arguably the Bible Belt of the Midwest. In college, they told us there were some 700 churches in the greater Grand Rapids area. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but there is a road in the suburbs that made it into the Guinness World Records for most churches along a certain few mile stretch. Not only that, but there are 5 seminaries, and 7 Christian colleges within the greater Grand Rapids area (and a multitude of Christian high schools as well). That’s rather saturated.

Needless to say, I had ample opportunity to find out how churches viewed membership, at least in the Grand Rapids area. First and foremost, I will admit that my sample size is not the largest. I scoured the websites and contacted nearly 15 churches (like I said, not the largest sample size, but most churches function under very similar principles) both in Grand Rapids and a few in the Plymouth/Canton, MI area where I grew up. Of those 15 churches, only 3 had detailed information on how to be a member of their church on the website. 3 more had some information, but it was more in the,  “we would like you to be members. please contact us about taking the next steps” vein.

That leaves 9 churches with no information on their website about joining the church. If church membership is as big a deal as these churches make it (and, trust me, they do) why don’t they offer more information about it on their websites?

Before we look at the results of the research, it should be noted that 5 of the churches would not give me any information on church membership since I was not attending the church and interested in membership. That leaves us with 10 churches. From there, 3 churches did not offer any form of membership. They simply invited everyone to attend and participate however they saw fit. 2 had more lenient forms of membership called either covenant or partnership. Both were unwritten agreements to support one another without any real stipulations. That leaves 5 churches, out of 15, with quantifiable information on their membership practices.

  • All require the interested party to attend a class on membership
  • All also have an application process
    • I haven’t seen all the applications, but some ask about your employment, previous church history, whether or not you’ve committed any crimes, etc.
    • 3 ask about your previous church- why you left, and if they can contact them about you
  • All require that you be baptized
  • 4 require that you undergo an interview/meeting with elders or the pastor
  • 4 have a vote on whether or not you’ll be allowed into membership
    • 2 place people’s names in the bulletin asking current members about the prospective members.
  • 3 allow for someone to be removed from membership for failing to meet any of the requirements
    • 1 allows you to resign from membership if you’re in good standing but not if you’re under discipline.
    • 1 allows you to transfer to another church
  • 3 churches are able to tell their members not to interact with previous members at the discretion of the leadership
  • 3 have a clause about proper behavior and discipline for failing to act in an appropriate way (though what this means is not clearly defined)
  • 4 also have explicit requirements about tithing with consequences for failing to tithe
    • 1 church requires members to tithe even if they are currently living out of town
  • 4 have explicit requirements about attendance and service with consequences if one fails to honor them

WHAT A LAUNDRY LIST! 

 

While it’s telling that 5 churches wouldn’t give me any information, it also makes me believe they would fit many of the above characteristics for church membership.

Let’s take a moment to look at this list and see and how it fits with what we know about Christ.

 
 
1. Membership class

I’ve been to a membership class, or three. Essentially, it’s a lengthy time for the church to go over what they believe as a congregation and expect everyone who attends to believe as well. More emphasis is made on the various stances the church takes on issues and less on what it means to be a Christian- to follow Christ- which is the first problem with this aspect of membership. Second, Christ never made anyone attend a class to follow him. Some he called, others chose themselves. No class involved.

There has been a trend within Christianity to offer classes for new believers (and some denominations even require it for children), but when the classes turn from focusing on the foundations of Christianity- Christ died to save a people who had run from God- to what makes the church the person wishes to be a member of unique and different they become something else entirely. They turn from informing people about Christianity to ensuring that everyone in the congregation believes the same thing about everything. That’s never been what Church is about. That’s never been what Christ is about.

 
2. Application
3. Previous Church 
Much like Christ didn’t require anyone attend a class, there was no application process. Following Jesus wasn’t something that needed to be applied for, you simply chose to do it. Everyone who follows him is automatically a part of The Church and applying for individual churches seems out of place. It’s treated as if joining the church is a privilege when in reality it’s a right of all Christ followers. I know why potential employers ask about employment history, but that’s something that’s completely out of place in the church community.
 
4. Baptism
This is a tricky one. Some believe that water baptism is a requirement for one’s salvation. That’s a discussion beyond the scope of this post so we’ll hold off on that, but, for today’s purposes, we will assume it is not. So why would churches require one to be baptized in order to be a member? Baptism, if not a requirement for salvation, is often described as an outward showing of an inward decision. When one is baptized they are proclaiming their decision to follow Christ and signifying it with the immersion into water (death) and resurgence (resurrection). I’ve never understood why churches require this as Christ never does. Christ commands us to baptize in the great commission, but we see other times where Christ is said to baptize people with spirit and fire rather than water. I would argue that this happens at the moment of one’s decision to follow Christ and is not some event that needs to happen.
 
5. Interview
This one perplexes me. Why on earth would you need to interview someone to be a part of a church community. Christ never did this. Everyone followed him out of free will, not permission, and he allowed all. He didn’t meet all of them, but he welcomed each and every one.
 
6. Vote
7. Names in Bulletin
Much like the above, Christ did not vote anyone into his followers. Nor did he ask his other followers if someone was “good enough” to partake in his ministry. (Short answer: everyone is). Putting someone’s name in the bulletin and asking current members if they know anything about the prospective member that the leadership should know before allowing them to be a member is gossip at it’s finest (worst?)
 
 

8. Removal of Membership
9. Banned Interaction
10. Proper Behavior
These three are grouped together because they fall under the same basic principle: church discipline. The idea is that the church elders know what’s best for the lives of their congregants and for the church body as a whole, and have the power to enact rules for others to follow.In most church bylaws the leadership is allowed to remove people from membership if they fail to honor the commitment they made in their membership (not too much sinning, tithing, attending the right amount of times, etc.) I’ve seen churches do this in various ways:

1. A church I attended once gave a young woman a list of things she must do (attend youth group, bring her Bible to youth group, participate in youth group, have better language on her social media accounts, etc.) if she were to be allowed to serve no the worship team.

2. Tell their congregation they cannot attend the wedding of two former members because they had refused to listen to the leadership’s direction for their life and were under church discipline.

3. The leadership sending out letters to members saying that their membership will soon be revoked if they do not attend more often.

4. Church leadership asking congregants where former members were now attending church so they could contact the church and tell them about those who were now attending there.
 
To me, that all seems like an abuse of self-given power. For others, it’s a fulfillment of Biblical passages about church discipline. The problem is, the passages cannot be followed in such a way, as it hinders the entire purpose of the passages.
 
In 1 Corinthians 5, we see Paul saying, “I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.” (v 11 NLT). Honestly, that’s impossible. And in order for one to properly follow church discipline, we would have to ask all to leave the church, which defeats the purpose of both the church and church discipline. Not only that but following it today fails to take into account the cultural implications of the day (where eating with someone was a big deal, which it’s not today). For a fuller take on this passage check out my post: on church discipline (pt. 1)
 

The second is Matthew 18 where Christ seems to describe the process of removing someone from the church. Unfortunately, it’s commonly misread today. Christ is telling the people to treat someone who is in sin as they would treat people who don’t know Christ. When most people read that, they assume it means to treat them on the Jews would treat those people. But, Christ is asking you to treat people how he treated people. And he treated everyone as an insider. To what is taboo in society. In ancient times that was eating with them and being social. Today that is letting them into the church. We need to do what we think we shouldn’t do in order to properly honor this direction from Christ. For a fuller take on this passage check out my post: on church discipline (pt. 2)

 
11. Tithes
I created an entire post on this one because the modern churches view on tithes is typically inaccurate and unbiblical. Because of this, any church that requires someone to tithe as part of membership is not practicing proper Biblical tithing practices, and, is instead, functioning more as a society or club that requires its members to pay dues.
 
Stay tuned for part 2 where we discuss the biggest part of church membership: attendance.

Nick Scarantino