This past weekend at Grace Community Church of Glen Rose, TX, where I pastor, we began our Fall Sunday School program (we use the Desiring God children’s curriculum, so we don’t have year-round Sunday School). We also began our 12-week membership class, Foundations. At a recent dinner, I was asked why the course is so long. Indeed, it is a healthy commitment; 12 weeks (plus a membership profile and a signed church discipline addendum) that may seem a bit excessive at first, but let me explain.

We’ve already seen the disconnect between numbers and reality in the Southern Baptist Convention. For many years now, it has been the norm to make church membership easier, and therefore, less meaningful in the pursuite of numbers. We’ve robbed the concept of church membership of any substance to the extent that many otherwise well-intentioned believers no longer see it as necessary, buying into the pervasive individualism of our surrounding culture. But even the Lone Ranger didn’t travel alone, did he?

Meaningless membership is an affront to the very Gospel that we preach. We preach that hearts of stone may be replaced with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19), that men may be born again (John 3:1-21), and that the spiritually dead may be raised (Ephesians 2:1-10). All of this assumes that after salvation, there ought to be a stark difference. All Lazarus had to do was walk into a room and people immediately thought of the Christ who had raised him (John 12:9-11). Is the same true of us? Sadly, it seems that such concepts are not even on the radar screen of many believers, much less the churches they attend.

Drawing together the relationship between salvation and church membership, Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC writes in his book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church that “Membership is the church’s corporate endorsement of a person’s salvation.” The church, by accepting a member is affirming, that, the best we can tell, this person is in line with the characteristics of a true believer. There are many people with strong but false assurance of their salvation because their name is on a membership role somewhere. The church has assured them of something that is likely not true.

These concepts tend to carry more weight in the Credo- or believer-baptist perspective than in the Paedo- or infant-baptist one. However, even paedobaptist churches struggle with correlation between church membership and holy living, or the lack thereof. It is likely true that the problem only increases as we move to examine the more mainline churches. In fact, I would argue that a return to the connection between baptism and salvation is a unique and vital weapon in the war for meaningful church membership.

In churches across the spectrum, the drive to equate numbers with success has resulted in the chase of numbers instead of God’s glory. Many churches have made the front doors wider while all but closing the back doors, stockpiling the growing numbers. Membership is made easy while commitment is slim to none. The result is a church with 600 members who is lucky to have 100 in actual attendance and we’re again faced with the disconnect of numbers. As long as we have them counted, and our numbers padded we musn’t be troubled with whether or not they’re actually there during corporate worship! Don’t be so antiquated!

But what if we stressed numbers in exactly the opposite fashion? What if churches struggled to have fewer numbers on their membership role than actually in attendance? The implied message would be that both church and members understood that membership was not akin to a leisure pass for the lodge, but a powerful theological statement. We at Grace Community Church strive for just such a scenario.

In hopes of restoring church membership again to something meaningful, we do require a substantial commitment up-front. We are convinced that the Christian life is designed by God to be lived out in community and unity (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Amos 3:3, Mark 3:25, Acts 4:32, 1 Corinthians 12:18, 27, Philippians 2:2, etc.). Yet, blind unity is not enough, ultimately, in the setting of the Church, any unity must be formed upon the foundation of doctrine. The majority of our 12-week course teaches the doctrines we hold as fundamental. We want to be entirely open and honest about who we are as a church with the goal that there will be no “hidden surprises.” We would much rather promote the unity of clearly stated, God-centered doctrine than fixate on a few numbers. Fidelity to the Word ought to be a much more accurate measure of ministry success than empty numbers.

Admittedly, this approach does lose some who are either not willing to make the commitment or who disagree with us doctrinally. Yet rather than weep over lost numbers, we may rejoice at a potentially diverted conflict. Again, we realize that our local congregation is not for everyone. Therefore we strive to educate regarding our core beliefs. The very process itself is a minor test of commitment.

All of this poses the question of “church shopping.” By adopting such an approach, aren’t we just encouraging people to find the “right church,” one that feels right? Well, yes and no. As already stated, we unapologetically call for commitment, so it is unlikely (though not impossible) that someone will pop in and pop out in search of having their felt-needs met. We are also unapologetic in our stance that the most important factor to consider while searching for a church is their doctrine; what do they teach? We therefore strive to lay bare our doctrinal positions prior to ever asking a person to considering membership.

We do not claim for a moment to have a perfect model. However, I do recognize that we are part of a growing number of churches moving again towards intentional membership and the reinstatement of church discipline (another topic altogether, though one that is closely related). These are not easy moves, but they are necessary if we hope to reform God’s church. Please pray for us as we labor for His glory. I urge you to consider seriously how your church views membership.

Visit the Grace Community Church website.
Read Why Should I Join a Church? by Jim Elliff.
Read Baptists and a Regenerate Church Membership by Josef Nordenhaug.
Read Moving Toward Meaningful Membership by David King.
Read Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever.
Read Stop Dating the Church by Joshua Harris.
Watch an episode of the Lone Ranger television series.

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