Or, The Process of Church Membership
Scripture: Selected Scriptures
Date: March 2, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
After admonishing the Corinthians about a sexually immoral man who needed discipline, Paul instructed the church about Christians taking other Christians to court. In 1 Corinthians 6 he rebuked with a question: “When one of you has a grievance against another does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?” (verse 1) Then Paul reminded the believers that the saints will jude the world one day, so day to day cases ought to be easy by comparison (verse 2). Then he asked, “So if if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?” (verse 4)
What a great phrase: standing in the church (ESV). Other translations scratch the point differently but to the same end; “account in the church” (NAS), “esteemed in the church” (KJV), “account in the assembly” (World English Bible). The word “standing” (from ἐξουθενέω) refers to recognized value, an accounting of merit or worth or significance. There are some people who are accounted as belonging to the church. They can be recognized and distinguished from those outside the church. The final paragraph of chapter 5 referred to the same distinction.
Our expectations and our dependencies should differ depending on who we’re dealing with. We should not expect “outsiders” to behave like insiders. We do not discipline or judge those outside. We do expect insiders, “anyone who bears the name of brother” (verse 11) to act like it. And we don’t depend on outsiders to fix our squabbles. Not only does it not make sense to trust men in darkness to consistently apply justice, but our witness is defeated when we dare to depend on those who “who have no standing in the church.”
How does one come to have standing in the church, to be accounted in the assembly? Another way to ask it: What is the process to be recognized and affirmed as a church member?
As with many things, the question is not whether but which. The question is not whether or not to recognize members but which way will members be recognized? If we are to obey God’s Word when it comes to distinguishing insiders and outsiders, when it comes to doing good especially to those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10), when it comes to how we treat those who bear the name brother and those who don’t, then we must have some way to do it.
And also with many things, there are more ways than one to mess it up. There are ditches on both sides of the road and a variety of running speeds; we could slip or we could hurtle head first.
Some prefer a loose approach to recognize members. They don’t need to talk about membership because they already know who the members are. But how do they know? What process did they use to determine it? Not talking about it as a process doesn’t mean there isn’t one. In fact, not referring to it may make it harder to explain, harder to duplicate, and harder to love. A danger with a loose approach could be that it is easier for people to fall through the cracks. Positives include that it stresses relationship; some might consider it more organic. It is similar to common law marriage: you’ve been together long enough let’s call it good. For a church, how many Sundays or events attended qualify someone as committed? What level of fellowship with how many other people qualifies? Even the state sets some time standard for common law marriage, and most organic farmers still sow seeds in rows.
Some prefer a bureaucratic approach. There is paperwork and maybe weeks of classes to attend with a formal certification upon the completion of the (obstacle) course. The process is better-defined, easier to duplicate, though usually not easier to love. An established process usually helps larger organizations to expose the joiners to a variety of leaders and ministries that they may not otherwise check out for themselves. It also gives the leaders greater confidence that some level of information has been gathered. A danger with a tight approach is that it can tend to feel impersonal, perhaps legalistic, and often tedious. Positives are that it makes things more manageable. Of course, many things that are managed are not by that fact meaningful.
Meaningful but not the wrong sort of burdensome, relational but organized, explainable but without making it a factory, these are challenges. Membership requires wisdom no matter what approach we take.
Before we get to a proposed process, I want to remind us of a couple things.
First, the purpose of membership is to recognize and affirm heavenly citizenship. As we considered last week, every local church must identify and install elders, deacons, and members. The qualifications for leaders and for non-leaders are not the same, but there are qualifications to be considered “in” rather than “out.”
We don’t deserve to be in. We have been made “partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6) by grace. “In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5). It was His choice for His sake at His cost, but as His people we have privileges and responsibilities.
A church member is a person who has been officially and publicly recognized as a Christian before the nations, as well as someone who shares in the same authority of officially affirming and overseeing other Christians in his or her church. (Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership, 29)
Second, recognizing and affirming a believer’s status is body work. In other words, the church affirms her members. If you are a part, then you should desire and seek to be received by every other part. If you are a part, they you are responsible to receive other true members and to reject counterfeits.
The church is the pillar and support of truth (1 Timothy 3:15). The church hears and the church treats like a Gentile one who is disciplined (Matthew 18:17). The church has responsibility to deal with false teachers in her midst (as in Galatia). The church builds itself up in love even though the elders/pastors/overseers equip the saints for all their work (Ephesians 4:11-16).
Providing a process for membership is only one way to equip you to do your work. Each part needs to do its part in affirming the other parts. Do you know what to look for? Do you know what to expect? Can you explain it to someone who wants it? Could you explain and lead your family in fulfilling the responsibilities?
There are five stages to the proposed process for receiving and affirming members at TEC.
The first stage would involve a short, but vital list of questions.
Since salvation requires a confession of faith (Romans 10:9-13), we want to know the man or woman’s testimony of faith in Christ. Does he bear the name “brother” and what would make him say so? Since the first initiation rite of discipleship according to the Great Commission is baptism, we will ask about their previous obedience or their plan to make that public profession in water.
The third and fourth questions provide opportunity to clarify their confession of faith and to discern their ability to help support and defend the truth. There is a baseline of things to be believed, “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Do they fully affirm that faith as we’ve tried to represent in the “What We Believe in Brief” statement?
Next we’ll ask if they’ve read the larger statement. If not, that’s fine, though we would encourage them to do so in order for them to know some of our distinctive characteristics. The details in the longer document may keep someone from becoming frustrated later. If they have read it, do they have questions, disagreements, concerns?
The fifth question is why the person wants to be a member at TEC. Since we want people to love their membership, that starts with knowing something about it. Do they know what they’re getting themselves into?
The final two sets of questions related to their church family history and their immediate family background. We would not encourage someone to join our local body if they are running from a previous body, or we would at least urge them to attempt to make the relationships right even if there are remaining reasons for a change. Regarding the family, this is good to know for a variety of reasons.
We would encourage those who are interested to write out their answers to the questionnaire and then to seek an interview with one of the elders. Many of these interviews could be done after a service, perhaps some will be better over lunch or dinner. The purpose of this interview will be for the elder to compare the questionnaire with their comments and enable follow up questions in either direction.
The interviewing elder will recommend (or not recommend) the candidate to the other elders at a regularly scheduled board meeting (which currently occur 2-3 times a month). The paper work will enable each elder to know more without all the elders conducting the interview and also without depending entirely on the interviewing elder’s memory.
If the elders cannot affirm the candidate, then the interviewing elder would communicate why not to the candidate. If all the elders can affirm the candidate, then the board would recommend the candidate to the entire church at a Sunday morning service. This has at least two benefits.
First, the affirmation is a body-work, not only pastoral work. The pastors would take the lead but not take all the responsibility. By recommending before affirming, the entire flock has opportunity to get to know a potential new member. L2L leaders should be excited. Some families in the body will be more excited to (and/or more capable of) seeking out these new people. But everyone will have the opportunity.
Second, this process will provide a built-in opportunity to explain to others and be reminded ourselves about our individual and corporate responsibilities. If membership is going to matter, then we will be benefited by recurring reminders, similar to weekly confession and communion, and similar to attending a wedding that rekindles our own vows.
If the pastors and all the parts can affirm the candidate, then once a quarter we would take time during a Sunday morning service to formally receive new members. It won’t involve any mantras or any back and forth Q&A. But somehow we will acknowledge and celebrate and pray for them as part of the assembly’s worship.
The process would be the same for baptism candidates and those who are baptized here at TEC will be baptized into membership. We probably won’t have as many baptisms as new members, though that could change, but we will recommend baptismal candidates for others to get to know them if they don’t already.
Understanding that our start as a local body was three years ago and that some of you have been here from the start, as elders we believe that this is still a reasonable process for everyone who desires to formalize their commitment. We do not desire to make church membership harder than getting into heaven, though church membership is an affirmation that you are going to heaven, and that involves some specificity.
We, as elders, believe that this will help our due diligence with current members and that it will provide helpful reference for current and future elders. Since each of us has the same level of soul accountability, we think that this can supplement what we’re already doing. We also know that it cannot replace personal involvement.
Over the next couple weeks we hope to get feedback on this proposal, tweak and/or add anything we missed, and then make the questionnaire available. If, for example, we had questionnaires on March 16, we would work to recommend the first batch at the beginning of May (5/4) to affirm at the end of the month, the same time as the next elders/deacons affirmation. That would give eight weeks (ten from today) for people to think about it, ask questions, work through the questions, talk with an elder, etc. Then at the end of May (5/25) we thought it might be fun to have a BBQ for Family Fellowship.
What about someone who wants the privileges who does not want to go through the process? Well, what is in their heart? Do they have different convictions, or are they being stubborn, or something else? Regardless, we’ll have opportunity to work through some mess. That’ll be good.
What is the local church? It’s the institution that Jesus created and authorized to pronounce the gospel of the kingdom, to affirm gospel professors, to oversee their discipleship, and to expose impostors. (Leeman, 64)
Members are saying about Jesus, “I am with Him.” Members are saying about one another, “He/she is with Jesus.” A process provides greater ability to affirm, not an absolute ability to affirm. We desire to strengthen our corporate ability to affirm faith rather than assume it.
As with many things, we can do membership from fear or for opportunity. This is an opportunity to remind each part about his/her responsibilities individually and corporately. We must recognize and affirm fellow citizens somehow, with many deep ditches to avoid. A process by itself can’t fix nominal commitment or guarantee that we will avoid every oversight or misunderstanding or formalism in the future, but it could help.
The church is God’s eternal purpose to show off God’s grace and God’s wisdom.
Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. (Ephesians 3:7–12, ESV)
We have the privilege to be a part of that.