Is Church Membership Necessary?
Perspectives: By Matthew Broadway
YES:
For loving one another
Many of the commands in the New Testament require relationships with other Christians. We call these the “one anothers,” such as “be at peace with one another” (Mark 9:50) and “love one another with brotherly affection” (Romans 12:10). This unique, Christian love is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7. It is patient, kind, generous, humble, submissive and forgiving. Church membership provides the commitment necessary for such love to endure. Without it, our best intentions evaporate under life’s demands and the first sign of conflict.
For taking responsibility for one another
God tells us to “take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:12–13). It is not enough to be generally helpful to Christians as we happen upon them. Joining a church is committing to exhort specific Christians.
For doing the work of ministry
The Spirit empowers each Christian for his or her part in “the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12; see also 1 Corinthians 12). The Spirit gives the tools – church membership identifies the worksite. Without a worksite, Christians remain spiritually unemployed.
For accountability
Jesus tells us to bring unrepentant Christians before a group of believers called “the church” and to cast them out if they remain unrepentant (Matthew 18:15–20; 1 Corinthians 5:3–5). This is called “church discipline,” and for it to work, there must be a defined relationship between Christians in a church as well as a boundary identifying who is in the church and who is not. Church membership establishes this boundary.
For pastoral ministry
Christians need to know who their pastors are, and pastors who are in their flocks (1 Peter 5:2). Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” If Christians float among several churches with no commitment, they will be vulnerable to all manner of spiritual dangers and the pastors associated with them will be vulnerable to malpractice.
NO:
Because God doesn't command it
We should not require what God doesn’t (Deuteronomy 4:2; Mark 7:9).
Because fellowship is rooted in Jesus
Hebrews 3:12–13 does not base our responsibility for one another on church membership, but on Jesus. “For we have come to share in Christ” (Hebrews 3:14). It is possible for Christians to join the same church, yet never experience fellowship with one another because they are “not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God” (Colossians 2:19). It is fellowship with Christ that sustains fellowship with one another, not church membership.
Because fellowship is natural
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). This is not a command but a description of what’s already true. Christians will function together as naturally as the members of our physical bodies.
Because God is at work
God puts the church together, holds it together and enables it to work together. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). As the church began, “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians, “In [Christ Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). Because God is engaged in building and maintaining the church, our list-keeping is superfluous.
Because we are fallible
Just as we shouldn’t underestimate God’s ability to hold his church together, we shouldn’t overestimate ours. Even the apostle John was not able to know for sure who was in and who was out until they left. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us” (1 John 2:19). The only list mentioned explicitly in the epistles is “the book of life” — and the only one qualified to keep it is God himself (Philippians 4:3).
Matthew Broadway, “Is Church Membership Necessary?” The Witness, Winter 2020