Why Church Membership?

JESUS HEART NOLA
Friends, I just started a facebook group for trying to get people together for a NOLA trip called "Jesus Heart NOLA: Columbus/OSU missions group" If you're interested, join up or shoot me an email, message on facebook, or comment on this post.


WHY CHURCH MEMBERSHIP?
I think a lot of college students and young people in general struggle with the question of whether or not to join a local church or join the church they attend. As this is a concept that is not necessarily addressed in the scriptures and of which there are a wide variety of opinions, the answer isn't easy.

As described by a leader at my church, church membership helps make a believer more committed and accountable to a local body of believers.

Why is this important? Quintessentially because young people do not like to be bound to any choice, especially a specific church body. Church membership implies that one give up on church shopping for the perfect pastor, service or programming. It means that you settle down, for better or worse with a community and become a part of it, invest, sacrifice, volunteer, submit, and tithe to it.

Being bound to a church body makes it easier for a body of believers to help refine you in that way only community can. We call it "holy sandpaper," this concept that the believers around us, especially through conflict, help us to become more holy by helping to reconcile our hearts to Christ. If we choose to pick up our bags and move on every time a storm comes, how will God use community to help shape us? How will we help bring the Kingdom of God into other people's lives (and our own) if we run every time we aren't satisfied with the church? If the drought is precisely where God increases our faith in Him, how does always seeking that greener grass affect our walk with Christ?

Maybe you found greener grass but watch still, even "seemingly perfect" churches will let you down! The key is realizing our faith is in Jesus, not his church. Though our faith is in Jesus, he calls us to be a part of his Bride, the Church.

WHY THE BRIDE?
Though Jesus' Bride (Church) is made up of imperfect people (like us) and hence the church will make mistakes, God continues to move through imperfect churches and helps them accomplish crazy things that can only be credited to the Father. Just as they (we) make mistakes, will we stay and initiate the process of forgiveness and reconciliation? In your qualms, should you throw out the baby with the bathwater, you naturally loose the baby! Certainly we don't want to lose the baby, but we should also deal with the bathwater correctly as doing so will help us grow as believers. If one is not committed to a congregation of believers, one will probably leave that fellowship, essentially tossing the baby and the bathwater and any possibility of growth.

You may say — "I've got my act together, I don't have issues with anyone and I feel like I'm a mature Christian, why do I need to submit to a community?" Certainly there can be times that God calls you to be alone but these are few and far between. You should not be deceived, faith in the Father is best practiced as a community, as it was in Acts and as people have been recreating for two millennia. I have some questions for you to ponder:
— What do you think has change over the past 2000 years?
— How did Jesus live his life?
— How will you love others and allow yourself to be loved by others if you isolate yourself? How will this help you "love your neighbor" or reach, baptize and disciple the nations without being in relationship with others?
— Furthermore, how will your renegade tendencies affect any future marriage you may enter into?
— Ultimately, if we can't submit to a church body, how will we submit to Jesus?

BOTTOM LINE
I strongly encourage people, regardless of age or position, to join their church or at least make a commitment to a single church, even for a limited period of time. This commitment should read something like For the foreseeable future, as lead by God, I will attend and participate in a worship service, small group, as well as a ministry or area of service and will submit (obey in action and heart condition) to church authorities and I will submit (a.k.a. lovingly commit or give) my time, energy, and money for the service of the Kingdom of God, first through my local church and second through other groups and ministries.

Going to a service at one church, a small group in another, and serving in a third is cool maybe but it negates the point of submitting to a single church and whatever God would choose to teach you and/or have you help others through that experience. If this is what you really REALLY think God is calling you to do right now - that's cool, serve away.

In the absence of a clear Word from God instructing you to split or limit your involvement with a bonafide church, you really shouldn't. Because, there is a reason why God instructs us to do this and it is to help make and mold us/others to be more like Christ as well as to help us reach the lost and help the needy. When we submit (obeying of mind and heart and hence lovingly sacrificing and giving) ourselves to one community, it sets the stage for transformation of our souls. This doesn't mean that if you have extra time, you could not participate/serve in a ministry with another church... but it does require that your first priority is to loving your congregation - short of a word from God to do otherwise. God has placed you in that church with certain gifts to help that church achieve the vision and mission God has set aside for them. When you subtract your heart or yourself from that, you mess with God's plan and this isn't a good place to be in. We want to be in his plan, not running from it. If you've given up hope on your local congregation, recommit! Look for ways you can bless one's current body (especially as they reach outward) and then look for other organizations to serve through.