Church Membership

Our congregation had a recent discussion about church membership during a quarterly business meeting. Discussion may be understating the case, it was fairly heated at points.

The presenting issue was presenting people to the church and then having the congregation vote on them for membership. A former pastor in the congregation pointed out that he has seen this happen several times in our midst and always wondered what basis this has in Scripture. He couldn’t find any and I have to agree with him.

So when it was brought up, I mentioned my agreement with his viewpoint so the whole congregation could know where I stood on the issue. My concern is setting our membership process up so that it looks like we have higher standards for joining the church than the broader church of Jesus Christ.

The issue for me is not having members recorded in a local church, but how they are brought in. If we could vote “No” to someone who is baptized and can give testimony to their faith in Jesus Christ and desire to be a member in this congregation, even with a letter of transfer from an overseas church, are we not setting ourselves up to be like the Pharisees in Matthew 23 who run to put burdens on the backs of converts?

This church is congregational in government and has four elders who spoke up as well to defend the practice. This had come up in a meeting with the elders a few days earlier and they were not happy. The defense of the practice of voting up or down on new members centers on statues, bylaws and governmental regulations for organizations. It was also pointed out that the missionaries who planted the church 35 years brought this with them when they came to the island and planted this church.

This will be an unhappy period in this congregation as it faces down what it means to be the church locally and a part of the wider Church, the body of Christ. There will be a lot of issues in play, including, are others in different churches and with different theologies from ours, actually people whom we will meet in heaven or not; as well as how to set standards for membership without losing the grace we have all received from Jesus Christ. It will also indirectly affect how leaders are developed within the congregation. This will be bigger than any of us imagines.

Pray for us.