Church Membership Defined

The word church has several meanings, depending upon context. One is what most non-believers and some believers think of – a building. Another could be a worship service – “We’re about to have church up in here (this may be a U.S. urban specific use)”. A third is a profession or group of those in the profession of clergy – “He considered the church as a possible career” or “The church declared Joan of Arc a heretic”. None of those, of course, are being considered in this series!

The two definitions relevant to church membership describe a group of people. One is the entire body of Christian believers. It is in this sense that the Scriptures speak of the Church as the Bride of Christ for who Christ gave his life (Ephesians 5), or of whom Christ is the head (Colossians 1), or what would be built upon the rock of faith (Matthew 16). This church, the Church with a capital C or the church catholic (universal), is a church that has a membership – but it is a divine membership added to by God (Acts 2:47). That is not the church membership for our discussion.

There are groups of people throughout the world who gather together for worship, exhortation, instruction, and fellowship. They may be under a tree in east Africa, in underground catacombs in South Asia, in illegal house churches in China, under a bridge in North Korea, or in a Cathedral in Europe. They are in small country churches of fifty and megachurches of 20,000 in the U.S. They may or may not have formal memberships, membership requirements, or paid staff members. They may or may not have doctrinal statements to which one must affirm, classes they should attend, or established procedures of discipline for members who do not meet the standards of behavior they set forth.

The church we are talking about is “a” church, not “the” church. I do not seek to make distinctions between denominations or even what might or might not be a “real” church. The only distinction I seek to make is simply what the word means – an assembly of believers. I, for one, would certainly make distinction in what exactly they believe in, but for the purposes of our discussion we will assume that any church considering itself “Christian” qualifies for our discussion of church membership.

Why should we consider a collective group of believers a church? Why not different people sitting at home watching T.D. Jakes on TV? Why not the people who stop by Alistair Begg’s website and listen to his sermons?

Words mean something. Anyone who has spent any time at this site has read that! The Greek word translated “church” is ἐκκλησίᾳ, which merely means “assembly”. In every case, the church is a group of people gathered together in one place. Furthermore, there is clearly a sense of permanence to the ἐκκλησίᾳ. When Paul writes a letter to the church of the Thessalonians, he is not hoping that some random people show up at a certain place to read his letter – no, he is writing to a specific group of people that need specific exhortations, who regularly gather together. The permanence is not that the membership is fixed, but that the assembly is consistent and ideally growing, not reducing.

So how does one qualify as a church member? I consider the existence of a formal membership or membership list of some value, which is why I engaged Rightthinker about it in my previous post. However, I do not think a list necessary for church membership. Following the Biblical and historical model, church members are those who are a part of a local body of believers that gathers together specifically for kingdom tasks. Those tasks can vary wildly, and necessarily may involve things that are not specific to the church, but should always include elements of worship, teaching and fellowship.

A church member is not an occasional attendee, but is someone who is dedicated to that community of believers. 1 Corinthians 16 contains instructions to collect funds when the church comes together on the first day of the week. 1 Corinthians 11 discusses the fashion and context of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper when the church (assembly) comes together regularly. The instances of the church (assembly) described as being together is countless, beginning with the apostles on the day of Pentecost, continuing with meeting in the temple and in synagogues and expanding to homes and specific locations for gathering. John and Paul both write of situations where someone is cast out of the assembly (church), as does Jesus in Matthew 18. Finally, Hebrews 10:24-25 explicitly states, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

There is no instance of a church which is not an assembly of believers, and furthermore this assembly is one that meets regularly to worship, teach, and build each other up. There is a significant body of Scripture dedicated to how the church (assembly) should be structured. Clearly the church is a community of believers, and I have yet to see Scriptural license for failing to join in an assembly. A church member is one who is a committed, regular attendee of the assembly.

That said, I recognize that there are other, non-Scriptural arguments used to defend a lack of church membership for an individual. The next post will examine the desert church fathers, the impact of technology upon the ability of the individual to grow outside of the assembly, and the priesthood of the believer.