So you have a “church”, or rather a group of people that begin to meet in a certain building every week or so and gather to worship God together. For whatever reason, you decide that it would be prudent to make sure you have a count of who’s really a part of your “church” and who’s not, so you require people to fill out a form and submit it for “membership” in your “church.”
I can’t seem to find that in the Bible.
This is a common practice, and as I’ve spoken with many leaders and pastors over the years, I have found various reasons behind why they have this as a part of their fellowship. Some do it because they think that is what should be done and don’t question it in the least. Some are open and have what they feel are practical reasons for it. Others feel very threatened and quote random Bible verses that we’ll discuss in a moment. Ultimately, however, it comes down to, “this is the way we choose to do it. You can either be a part of us or not.” Which, on a certain level, is true. If God has chosen or allowed them to be the authority over that fellowship, they will stand before God one day for their decisions and I should be careful how I challenge them.
But it is also true that I will stand before God for what He’s shown me, as well, and so for that reason I have never been a registered member of a fellowship.
To get a little real here for a moment, I’m going to ask a question. Can you really see Jesus signing His name to a piece of paper to prove He’s a member of a certain fellowship? Maybe He was “registered” somehow at a local synagogue, but I highly doubt it.
Some fellowships defend the practice biblically by pointing to a passage where Paul describes a listing of widows and making sure that they are truly widows that are in need (1 Timothy 5). They stretch this verse to defend a practice that, in many organizations, is absolutely necessary to do any ministry or even partake in communion or vote on congregational issues.
There are many country clubs that operate the same way.
Here’s another question. Before Christ bent down to wash the disciple’s feet, did they ask for a paper qualifying Him for the ministry? It sounds ludicrous, and it is.
Going back to the scripture about the widows, it is very important to remember that both John the Baptist, James, and even the prophets taught the importance of taking care of widows and orphans, taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves. It was a common practice. It was even one of the first issues of the Church in Acts as the twelve couldn’t serve the widows and do the teaching and praying that they felt was their responsibility. So they appointed men full of the Spirit, of which Stephen the martyr was one.
But it seems like, in context, that some widows were not in need since they had family members that could care for them. Others were becoming busybodies in the Kingdom because they were still young and able to find husbands or contribute in some way and used their new free time unwisely. So by helping certain widows, the local Church was actually enabling division and laziness and all kinds of things, according to Paul.
In other words, this was an administrative thing to determine who the local Body should be accountable to help. Is this why organizations have registered membership? I have never found this to be the case. They have registered members in order to control who can get involved, to protect their organization and to streamline resources to those who are in line with them doctrinally, because God forbid they actually help someone who disagrees with them about the rapture.
This becomes another way to forego true relationship with others in the Body. It becomes another checklist that we make sure that we have done. It makes pastors feel safe since the people working in certain ministries have signed a piece of paper that they agree with either core or detailed doctrines but many times they’ve only spoken to them for a couple minutes to an hour or so. Out of so many in the congregation, why would they spend more time to get to know someone? It’s a beaurecratic system with no life in it whatsoever.
It’s corporate America at its best. We have programs which require positions, so there needs to be some sort of application process where people like “pastors” or committees make certain decisions based on political power, very rarely on relationship.
I have regularly attended a fellowship that required membership for certain things, and since I had a good relationship with the pastors there, they asked me to cover some Sunday School teaching. Then they realized that I wasn’t a “member”, even though they admitted to my face their respect for me and my wife because we were more committed to their fellowship (based on attendance and financial giving) than most people who had signed on the dotted line. They allowed me to teach but told me to keep it quiet that I wasn’t a member. Well, it got out (not from me) and I wasn’t asked again, even though everyone was blessed by the experience and asked me when I would be teaching again. Their reason for not wanting it to get out? If someone higher up in the denomination got wind of it, they’d get in trouble. For a non-member to teach would lead to absolute chaos!
I respected their wishes while standing for my convictions. I did not badmouth them to people who quesioned why I didn’t teach anymore. I honored them as much as I was able, but God eventually opened doors for ministry and teaching elsewhere.
I know many people who have moved somewhere and began attending another fellowship, yet they were “members” at an old fellowship where there is a new pastor and they haven’t attended there for years … but they have to be “members” somewhere, right? Only when it comes time to be involved in a new program position are they motivated to switch their “letter of membership,” even though they’ve been attending and even tithing in their new fellowship for a year or so.
Is this the type of Kingdom we want to be a part of?
Why are you so adamant about this? some might ask. It’s just a piece of paper, right?
To put it rather bluntly, my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and that is good enough for me. Christ lives within me in a mystical way I barely comprehend and will never fully understand until I stand before Him face to face. I am brother and sister to every believer because we have the same Father, not because we are listed on the same manifest.
Ever wondered why its not in the Bible? I have a feeling that relationship was so central to the type of community they had, they could see the change in people from a life of legalism or paganism to Christ and freedom from sin and didn’t need a written testimony to be on file. There was a genuine testimony they could remember.
We should trust pastors and teachers and one another because of relationship and a visible life of integrity that we can respect and honor in one another. No one should have to go through a worldly chain of command to be a minister in the Body of Christ. Putting such weight on traditions of men takes glory away from what Christ has accomplished in the life of a believer and the gifts that He has given without regard to person or label and foregoes the type of relationship and discipleship we so desperately need in order to enact spiritual change and growth.
If you are a believer, we are members of one another. If we fellowship together, let it be based on true commitment that draws us closer to one another.
Peace.
this was great to think about again. i thought about this once upon a time, but since HC i haven’t really even thought twice about it. i probably have made fun of it…but it was good to really take a lot at again.
just to throw something out there: i do think people begin to take more ownership of things when they commit (which in our culture/country means to sign the dotted line). However…I think this is an easy and very lazy way for people to “feel” commited…and more times than not, they really aren’t acting committed and therefore, they aren’t. just a thought.
good point pam. I think that this has also helped some to feel as though they belong, especially whent the fellowship is a bit larger. it’s hard to feel like you belong to 3,000 people. but when you join, you know that you do belong. at house church, there’s no question about whether I belong or not. I know I do because of the intimate relationship I am able to share with each person that comes, whether they are new or not, young or old, believer or not. besides, for the non-believers, isn’t that where they belong anyway – in the arms of Christ where He reveals himself to them.