“...And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.” (Acts16:5)

Are you a member of a church? Many modern American Christians minimize the importance of church membership. Salvation, church attendance, or other matters may be emphasized, but somehow church membership is not. Why? Let’s explore.

The New Testament provides few direct statements on the subject, so, some try to justify a casual attitude toward membership. The lack of verses, however, should be understood against the backdrop of the early church. Membership was probably a given in those days. The idea of being part of a local church but not an official member seems foreign to the New Testament. Salvation was followed by baptism and then church membership. It’s the modern church–not the ancient one–that separated attendance from membership.

Church membership seems to be the norm in I Timothy 5:9. Paul’s instruction about supporting widows includes this: Don’t let a widow under the age of sixty “be taken into the number.”  Why would Paul use an expression like “the number” unless the early church had a clear-cut method of accounting for membership in a local church? “Number” comes from a word that gives us our modern word “catalogue” and probably refers to an official list of church members. 

Luke’s language in Acts appears to reflect membership as understood--not optional. At least seven times (1:15, 2:41, 2:47, 4:4, 5:14, 6:1, and 16:5), he refers to numerical growth of the early church. Why was that necessary (and how was it possible) if membership was not in view? Also, Paul’s great illustration of a church functioning like a human body (1 Corinthians12) is confusing and weak if the foot, hand, ear, and eye can be part of the body one moment but not the next. Membership, then, promotes accounting and accountability.

Is it accountability that causes many to decline church membership? A bad experience in the past? The early church appears to consist of members, not just attenders. In triumph and trouble, members served the Lord and the church. Leadership encouraged and rebuked members. Paul’s aforementioned illustration in I Corinthians 12 is nonsensical if a body part can simply claim not to be part of the body and thereby avoid its intended purpose on a technicality (“You can’t touch me. I’m not a member.”)

If a bad experience causes a fear of commitment, think of the foot refusing to walk. That’s not how feet work. Think of a congregation refusing to serve or worship. That’s not how churches work. Pray about your membership status.