Church Membership
At Waypoint Church, we practice church membership. Maybe this is new to you. Maybe you’re asking, “what is membership, and is it biblical?”
Many of us may have had painful past church experiences, and, from those experiences, concluded that church authority is bad - that it's best for you to just focus on the relationship between you and Jesus, and that's all that matters. So, maybe membership seems unnecessary at best, and at worst domineering.
First, let me affirm your desire to prioritize a relationship with Christ. Church membership should never get in the way of that, and in fact, it should be something that helps you stay on track and deepen that relationship. It’s true that authority in all institutions has been abused, but I’d argue not all authority is bad. Bad authority is bad, and misused authority is bad, but not all authority is bad. God’s given us authority to care for us, and to hold us accountable.
Becoming a church member isn’t just about coming “under authority”; it's much deeper than that. It means giving up some individualism, and voluntarily allowing yourself to be bound to a community of people who follow Jesus together. It’s a picture of what Christ did for us. He gave himself for our sake, and gave himself, for the sake of his body, the church.
For many organizations, “members” are the ones who come to consume the content that the organization they joined provides. The church is different. Becoming a member means you commit to giving and serving one another, as well as joining to serve the world around us as a way that demonstrates the love and care we’ve received from God. It’s about moving from a consumer to being part of this new community God has created to display his glory and goodness to the world.
While there’s no verse that says, “thou shall join in membership with a church,” a fair look at the scriptures will reveal that membership is leaping off the pages.
The Role of Elders and Membership
First, when you read Hebrews 13:17, “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,” two questions immediately come up: ‘which leaders should an individual Christian obey and submit to?’ and ‘who are the people that elders are going to give an account for?’
Paul came to Crete, and people began to come to faith as he shared the gospel with them. After he leaves, he writes a letter to Titus explaining to him, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.” He’s instructing Titus to form these new believers into communities under the authority of elders. Submitting to these qualified, examined, and installed elders, and those elders were held accountable for their care and shepherding of those people (1 Peter 5:1-5). In order to fulfill this command of scripture, to submit to elders, and for elders to care for the flock, we need church membership. We need to know who is in the “flock” and who the shepherds are of that flock.
Church Discipline and Membership
We also see another duty assigned to the elders. They are to handle matters of church discipline. At the root of this work is the word “disciple”, and discipline is more about teaching people to be followers, or disciples, of Christ. But, sometimes if a situation gets really bad, discipline can mean confronting people.
Paul in 1 Cor 5:1-12 tells the church in Corinth to get rid of the man engaging in blatant, unrepentant sexually immoral sin. In Titus 3:10-11, he instructs Titus that if someone who is causing division, who has been warned multiple times, persists in his divisiveness, to “have nothing to do with him.” Matthew 18 instructs the church of what to do when a member falls into sin. They are to try lovingly and progressively to help them turn from their sin, and if they continue to ignore attempts to “bring it to the church,” to appeal to the church elders so they can do what Paul instructed elders to do and ask them to leave the church. How is it that elders are in charge of deciding who is “out” unless there is a clear understanding that some are “in” the church in an official way? When the person removed from fellowship repents, Gal 6:1 tells the elders to restore that person back “into” fellowship.
Elders get to celebrate the baptisms of new believers and bring them “into” the community (Matt 28:18-20), and they get to explain and distribute the Lord’s Supper to those who have faith in Christ - each time, reminding the congregation, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Cor 10:17)
The elders of the church are called to shepherd a flock, whom they know, and they are instructed to take some off the list (for unrepentant sin) and let them back into the flock (when repentant). This is the essence of church membership.
Serving one another as “members” of Christ’s body
The word “member” comes from this picture we see in both 1 Cor 12 and Rom 12. Paul describes us as different members serving in one body. “For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And, if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.”
God has gifted us all in different ways. We are called to use our gifts to serve God and one another (Gal 5:13). As we fulfill our “part” of the body, the body functions better, and through it we build one another up in love (Eph 4:11-16). We would not be able to fulfill this calling in scripture if it was simply about “me and Jesus.” We are called to live in dependence of one another. It requires humility to admit, “I need others,” but God has answered our need with a community, the body of Christ, to help one another, to care for one another, to encourage each other, and to hold one another accountable at times.
Membership models the covenant between God and his people. God has chosen a group of people to be his people. They are to be set apart from the rest of the world. We no longer look like Israel, a set-apart nation. Instead, we look like local churches among the nations. God promises to be our God, and that we would be his people. In membership, we promise to serve God and his people in a way that says, “I’m in, I believe, I want to follow Christ, I want to do it with this community, I want to be here for you, and I need you to be here for me.”
Membership Vows
For all these reasons, the church has, for thousands of years, practiced church membership, and it’s why, here at Waypoint Church, we practice church membership. There are 5 vows that come along with membership. These vows are not direct verses from the scriptures, but the carry all the biblical themes of membership.
We want to ensure that everyone who is a communing member of the church believes the gospel. That's why vows 1 & 2 are about understanding our sin, and Jesus as the answer to that sin. We also want to affirm that everyone in the church actually wants to follow Christ (vow 3), and that they don’t want to just follow Christ by themselves, but want to be part of this local church community - here to serve and be served by this community (vow 4). And, ensure they take seriously the relationship between elders shepherding and believers in the flock obeying, not stirring up division in the body (vow 5).
I acknowledge myself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy.
I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and I receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel.
I now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that I will endeavor to live as becomes a follower of Christ.
I promise to support the church in its worship and work to the best of my ability.
I submit myself to the government and discipline of the church and promise to further its purity and peace.
