Why Formal Church Membership?

By Jeff Jones & Paul Toews

INTRODUCTION

The idea of having a formal church membership process and a list of members to delineate those "inside" the church from those "outside" has, admittedly, fallen on hard times. Many consider it an outdated relic of the past in today's more fluid, consumeristic, mobile, and choice-driven culture. Others see it as unbiblical, finding no explicit direction to keep such a list or process in the Bible. However, formal church membership is still a vital element of church health, an important element of Christian discipleship, and a key part of church organization and administration.

This article will lay a biblical foundation for formal church membership from a variety of scriptural texts, discuss practical benefits to the church for such membership, answer some common objections to the practice, and conclude with an appeal to consider the beauty of commitment.

I. THE CASE FOR FORMAL COMMITMENT IN HEBREWS

1. Hebrews 13:17a

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.

Several elements in this verse point to the need for formal church membership, and so we will look at it in some detail:

a) "your leaders"

The word "your" is most significant. First, it makes "leaders" a definite and distinct group. Without it, this would be merely a vague command to be submissive to authority figures in general. With it, the recipients of Hebrews are being commanded to submit to a particular and specific group of leaders, as opposed to and distinguished from others. For example, Corinthian Christians are to submit to the leaders in Corinth, not the leaders in Ephesus or Antioch.

Second, this definite group of leaders has a particular and personal connection with the recipients of Hebrews. These are "their" leaders they are to submit to. They are not being asked to submit to someone else's leaders, but rather their own leaders. They are to "own" their submission and obedience.

In order for believers to obey this command, then, they need to have a particular and specific group of leaders they can submit to. Moreover, this particular and specific group of leaders needs to have a personal connection with them (there is no room here for a claim that "the TV preacher is my pastor"). This is made clear by the words that follow.

b) "Obey... and submit"

The author of Hebrews here places his readers under the authority of these leaders. The recipients are accountable to this particular and specific group of leaders. This accountability is not just advisory authority, or a mere influence over them. Rather, it is a duty on the part of the recipients to be attentive to their teaching, obey their instructions, and show respect and honor to these leaders. So when the author of Hebrews commands obedience and submission from his readers to their leaders, he is stating that the relationship between them is formal, not casual or optional.

c) "They are keeping watch over your souls"

Why must Christians submit to and obey a particular and specific group of leaders? The author of Hebrews gives two closely related and mutually dependent reasons. First, this group of leaders is "keeping watch over" their "souls." This is an image that recalls shepherds watching over their flocks, or a soldier standing sentry at a gate. That is, they are guarding them from harm, monitoring their health to ensure they thrive, and keeping them where they need to be.

If these leaders were simply keeping watch for false doctrine, one might be able to argue that a personal relationship and formal connection is unnecessary. One could denounce a false teacher from afar, or warn of the spread of heresy by letter. However, the author of Hebrews stresses that what is being watched over is "souls"—and specifically, "your" souls, not just anyone's souls or everyone's souls in a general sense. This is a personal care. Only one who knows you personally can keep watch over your soul, watching for signs of temptation, admonishing for sin, encouraging spiritual growth, providing counselling, weeping with you and rejoicing with you, and so on.

Moreover, this personal care is ongoing. The watch never "stands down," but is always present. It implies what Hebrews makes clear elsewhere, that believers are not to fall into the "habit" of "neglecting to meet together" (10:25). More will be said on that text below.

d) "...as those who will have to give an account"

The second reason why Christians must submit to and obey a particular and specific group of leaders is because those leaders will one day answer to God for the very souls they watched over. In other words, not only do Christians need to submit to a particular and specific group of leaders, but those leaders are accountable for a particular and specific group of souls.

The warning that an "account" will be required requires that these leaders know enough about the person to provide such an account. That is, they need to know who he is, whether or not he is a Christian, and be able to detail the pastoral care they have provided for him. In any other field of work, servants and employees have to submit reports to masters and bosses, and pastors are no different. This requirement, again, underlines the formal, personal, and ongoing nature of the relationship between Christian leaders and believers.             

2. Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Church attendance does not make one a Christian. However, neither is church attendance optional for a Christian. The author of Hebrews exhorts his readers here to commit to regular attendance at church meetings. The fact that a regular and committed attendance is being described is plain from the author's contrast with those who "neglect" to meet together as a "habit." The author's concern here is not missing a Sunday once in a while, but rather, it is the "habit" of missing meetings. His concern, therefore, is that believers be committed and regular in their attendance, making it a priority.

Moreover, it is regular attendance at the same meeting with the same group of people that is being urged here. A Christian who is in some church every Sunday, but a different one each week, is not fulfilling this text. Why not? Significantly, the author of Hebrews compares and contrasts the "neglect" of meeting together with the "encouragement" of one another. One of the benefits of regular attendance is that it encourages other believers. The author of Hebrews encourages this regular church attendance as a way to "stir up one another to good works," an aim that requires that this attendance be meaningful fellowship and not mere silent presence. How can a believer stir up others without interacting with them, having conversations with them, and sharing time with them? Moreover, how will a believer be so stirred up by a person they do not know? Even more important, this presence at meetings is something open and public. The commitment being called for is there for all to see. 

3. Summary

Hebrews 13:17 is perhaps the most explicit text in Scripture about the need for formal church membership, although other texts point to this need as well. Believers are to submit to a particular and specific group of leaders, who are in turn accountable to God for a particular and specific group of souls. The nature of this submission and accountability requires a formal, ongoing, and personal relationship between leaders and led. Taken together, you have a clearly defined local church congregation committed to one another with a clear sense of who belongs and who does not.

Hebrews 10:24-25 calls Christians to regular, committed, active, and meaningful attendance at local church meetings with a particular and specific group of fellow believers. If the author had simply said, out of the blue, "Don't neglect meeting together," one might be able to argue that as long as he is attending somewhere he is fulfilling the text. But because the author commends this regular and committed attendance as a way to "stir up one another to good works," "encouraging one another," in contrast with those who habitually neglect meetings, it's clear that the author means attending the same meeting on a regular basis with the same group of people. In other words, the author of Hebrews here tells believers to commit to a particular and specific group of Christians. Short of actually using the explicit (and modern) words "formal church membership," it could not be more plain that an explicit and public commitment to that particular group of believers is what is called for.

II. CHURCH DISCIPLINE & THE NEED FOR FORMAL MEMBERSHIP

1. "Expelling" as Evidence for a Defined and Formal Membership

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Cor. 5:1-5)

Here in 1 Corinthians 5 the example is given of a disciplinary case in the Corinthian congregation. A man is living in flagrant sexual sin, and Paul commands the congregation to "deliver him over to Satan" (v. 5) by purging the evil one from "among you" (v. 12, 13). As Mark Dever and Paul Alexander point out in their book The Deliberate Church, "Expelling makes sense only in the case of visible belonging."  

Indeed, the Bible's command that churches be prepared to exercise this ultimate negative sanction of corrective church discipline, excommunication—the expulsion of a person from the local church fellowship—is a practice that logically implies formal church membership. As seen above, the church is to purge or expel the evil one from its midst (1 Cor. 5:13). The task to deal with sin in the church and protect its witness before the world is so important that many theologians have identified church discipline as a sign of a pure church, and even as a "means of grace" alongside worship, fellowship, and the ordinances. In order for this expulsion to have any effect, however, a person so excluded needs to be aware of the difference between being in the church and out of it, lest this command lose all meaning.

2. "Insider" and "Outsider" Language as Evidence for a Defined and Formal Membership

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you." (1 Cor. 5:9-12)

If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. (2 Thes. 3:14-15)

The fact that Paul can describe "those inside" and "those outside" the fellowship demonstrates that there is a real difference between belonging to a church and not belonging. Moreover, the fact that Christians are to treat "those outside" differently than "those inside" makes this difference very practical and obvious.

It is not only important that the person being expelled from the fellowship understand the difference between being "in" and "out." A comparison of these two passages shows that it is just as important for those left behind, inside the fellowship, to know if the person being disciplined is still a member or not, because the way that they relate to him will be affected by what status he holds.

Specifically, they are "not to associate" with such a person, having "nothing to do with him." This is not Jehovah's Witnesses-style "shunning," for as Paul says, "Do not regard him as an enemy." Rather, given the context of life and fellowship in the church, this is a refusal to "eat with such a one"—that is, the withholding of the privileges of church membership, such as the fellowship of the Lord's Supper, with the aim of warning him, "as a brother" that the church longs him to be, that his behaviour indicates he is actually an "outsider" and pleading with him to be reconciled and to repent.

3. "Majority" Language as Evidence for a Defined and Formal Membership

Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. (2 Cor. 2:5-8)

One of the most poignant passages in the New Testament is found in Second Corinthians, where again Paul addresses the troubled Corinthian church about a matter of church discipline. What's striking, however, is that now Paul is urging the church to restore to forgive, love, and embrace a man who had formerly hurt them (2 Cor. 2:5). Could this be the very same man expelled in First Corinthians 5? While it's impossible to know, it is certainly possible, and in any case this passage shows the true aim of excommunication is (hopefully) the rehabilitation and restoration of the offender to fellowship.

For a discussion of formal church membership, this passage is interesting for another reason. Paul justifies his direction to restore the offender because "this punishment by the majority is enough" (v. 6). Of key interest in this passage is the word "majority," and the Greek word means precisely the same thing as its English equivalent—that is, the larger part of the whole. A reference to a "majority" would make no sense outside of the context of a recognized and limited whole, however. If the Corinthian church had no practice of formal membership, if it did not have some form of clear distinction between who was "inside" and who was "outside," if the Corinthian church was not a particular and specific and defined number of Christians, a "majority" would not be possible to define.

4. Summary

Church disciplinary accounts and instructions found in Paul's letters demonstrate that the apostolic church distinguished between themselves and the world in faith and in practice. A person was recognizably "inside" the congregation or "outside." There was no fuzzy or blurry zone where the church met the world.

III. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: NUMBERS AND LISTS IN REDEMPTIVE HISTORY

1. Counting God's People in the Old Testament

People will often object that they do not see evidence for the trappings of formal membership, such as church membership lists, in the Bible. However, the idea of counting the people of God is hardly new. In fact, it is not foreign to Scripture at all.

God himself ordered Moses to take at least two separate censuses of the Israelite nation (Num. 1:2, 26:1-4). Here the purpose was administrative: it was limited to men able to serve in the army (1:3, 26:2), and detailed the different tribal clans, with the aim of organizing Israel for national defence in the wilderness. God elsewhere gave further regulations for the conduct of a census, specifying "atonement money" be paid for those counted (Ex. 30:12) – perhaps an ancient form of taxation, but demonstrating that God approved of counting and listing His people if done properly.

In these two censuses Levi was excluded, but God directed Moses to conduct an individual census of each Levite clan (Num. 4:2, 22, 29, 34, 49). The purpose here is again administrative: it helped Moses and Aaron follow God’s direction to organize the Levites for service to the tabernacle during the wilderness wanderings. This precedent for numbering the Old Testament priesthood is especially interesting given the New Testament description of the Church in this age as a "holy priesthood" (1 Peter 2:5-9).

2. God's "Membership List" in Heaven

Moving to the New Testament, it is surely significant that God keeps a "book of life" in which the names of all his own, the righteous, are listed (Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:15, 21:27, 22:19). This divine "membership list" is actually also noted in the Old Testament, in Psalm 69:28. In fact, God not only keeps a list of his own people in the Book of Life, but he keeps other books in which others and their deeds are recorded (Rev. 20:12). It should be noted that these books are used in judgment, and thus have the purpose of separating God's people from the rest of the world.

3. The Practice of "Listing" Believers for Other Purposes in the New Testament Church

Honor widows who are truly widows.... Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. (1 Timothy 5:3, 9-12)

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul gives his protégé a list of qualifications to be met before a widow was "enrolled," and instructions to "refuse to enrol" those to fail to meet them. Such "enrolment" would, by the plain meaning of the words, mean being placed on a list.

What is the purpose of the list? It is to "honor" particular widows who are "truly widows." Here, and later on in reference to elders, "honor" means the same thing as in the Commandment to "honor" one's father and mother: to care for their practical and financial needs. The list under discussion is obviously a register of those widows under the financial support of the church. The qualifications suggest a person highly involved in the activities of the congregation, and so outsiders are certainly not in view here; this list is made up of church members—not all, certainly, but only church members.

4. Summary

God commanded the numbering, by census, of his people in the Old Testament. Furthermore, God himself not only numbers but keeps a list of names of his elect people in heaven. Finally, we see Paul commanding Timothy and the Ephesian church to keep lists of church members for administrative purposes. Given the overwhelming evidence for a particular, specific, and defined membership in the church and for a clear sense by all of who is "inside" and who is "outside," the use of numbers and lists elsewhere in Scripture are suggestive.

Is it too much of a leap to postulate that some kind of register might have been kept of other active members of the church – or that such a list would be fitting and appropriate? We do not think so. Hence, we maintain a formal membership list and encourage other churches to do the same.

IV. PRACTICAL REASONS FOR FORMAL CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

Flowing directly out of the biblical foundation for church membership are many practical reasons to clearly demarcate a boundary between the church and the world. As the examples of the censuses in Numbers and of the list of widows in First Timothy show, one practical reason to have a "list" of members is to facilitate administration, organization, and service. Military organizations and civilian companies keep detailed records of all their members so as to employ them most effectively. Airlines keep passenger manifests so as to know who to contact in case of emergency or to quickly identify a missing passenger. So, too, should the church of God maintain a clear distinction between its members and everyone else, so that each believer may be mobilized for service to one another and the world.

A second practical purpose arises from the frequent calls to New Testament believers to love one another and build one another up in the faith (1 Thes. 5:11). Believers are to be accountable to one another, and accountability logically implies recognition of responsibility. How is this to be done if believers cannot clearly distinguish between a brother who needs edification and an unbeliever who needs evangelism? Even more to the point, Christian pastors are accountable to God for those under their care (Heb. 13:17). If a pastor does not have a practical method to know the shape and composition of his flock, let alone its members, how can this responsibility be fulfilled?

Church discipline has already been mentioned above. Yet church discipline itself serves a deeper practical purpose. As Dever and Alexander put it, church discipline "is a good and necessary implication of God's desire to keep a clear distinction between His own chosen people and the worldly system of rebellion that surrounds them." After all, Christ came and died "to purify for himself a people for his own possession" (Titus 2:14, emphasis added). The church is to be visibly different from the world, because it reflects a perfect and holy God. Formal church membership is one practical tool that is used to guard the purity of the church. 

V. ANSWERING SOME COMMON OBJECTIONS

Some object to the idea of formal church membership, saying there are no explicit commands or examples given in Scripture. A quick response is that there are many doctrines of the faith, such as the Trinity, particular redemption, the separation of church and state, and the sinfulness of abortion, that are taught by implication from Biblical passages. This is a legitimate hermeneutical approach. As Dever and Alexander note, the evidence may "not be abundant. But it is clear, and it is consistent."

It may also be objected that formal church membership places an undue burden on the new believer. Is not salvation by grace alone, through faith alone? The answer of Christ is appropriate here: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). Christ demands much of the believer; he may even demand his physical life. Submitting to a process of examination leading to formal church membership with its responsibilities and expectations is no undue burden. Rather, it is a small part of the cost of Christian discipleship, and compared to other costs should it be neglected (heresy in the church, loss or forgetting of believers in need, etc.) it is light.

Others might object that formal church membership demands an administrative burden. Would it not be better to place these resources elsewhere? A good response is to point to Acts 6, where the distribution of support to the widows posed a threat to the apostles' ministry. This ministry was the very definition of an administrative burden. Rather than abandoning it, the apostles sought men equipped of God to step up and administer the program, an action which probably led to the institution of the widows' lists mentioned above. There will always be administrative burdens in the church, but the biblical response is organization, not abandonment. God provides people to manage the business of the church.

VI. BEYOND PRACTICAL MATTERS

To be sure, there are many practical aspects to church membership.  However, lest the reader think that it's more of a merely practical matter for the leadership, and that becoming a member is primarily about helping out the elders, consider this:  There is something beautiful about church membership that is encouraging to the body, which a mere adherent foregoes.

Church membership stands in stark contrast to the world of uncommitted relationships we live in.  As one example, in our society, people are increasingly wondering about the need to get married.  Yet it is a beautiful thing when a man and wife commit themselves to each other, exclusively, unreservedly, and unconditionally. How much more beautiful when people who aren't in love but who come from various walks of life and are unified around the Gospel commit themselves to each other's care?  Every time people commit themselves to church membership they are declaring in a public way that the Lord has supernaturally made them a part of something wonderfully beautiful and special that they otherwise wouldn't have been a part of. 

If one thinks that they can be committed without signing up for membership, they may be right, but the formal declaration is important. In baptism a person makes a formal declaration of their salvation.  Being baptized does not make one a Christian, and a person can declare that they are a Christian believer without having been baptized, but baptism declares in a public way that the Lord has changed your heart. It is a beautiful thing and it is encouraging to those who witness it.  We look around and see that the Lord is saving people, and more than that, saving them not to be lone ranger Christians but rather to be individuals made into family.  We are saved into community.  In witnessing this others are encouraged and reminded of their own salvation.  This effect continues every time we have membership meetings.

Perhaps the obligations or the conditions of membership, the things promised in agreeing to the membership statement weigh heavy and are an unnecessary burden. Who wants to make promises that they cannot keep? Well, consider that when two people get married they promise to love and cherish each other in sickness and health, for better for worse. They fall short of that commitment often, but that does not make the desire to reach for it any less real. When you commit to membership and living as a member you are declaring your desire to pursue that standard of relational living. That, as the commitment in marriage, is a beautiful thing and is meaningful. Even though we expect that the bride and groom, sinful as they are, will not fully live up to this commitment, there is meaning in the sincere expression that it will be the intentional pursuit of each.

In considering church membership it is important to consider the beauty in the public declaration of commitment it affords.  Church membership is not just a matter of practicality. It is a picture painted for us and for the rulers and authorities of the heavenly places who are watching with eager anticipation to see what God is doing in his Church (Eph. 3:10).