Church Membership
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Rich Koster
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Are you asking about someone with no membership or who doesn't want to transfer their previous membership? In my humble opinion membership is making a submission to the eldership, and giving them permission to speak into your life.
yoyoceramic
Puritan Board Freshman
No membership. Could be for a variety of reasons. I didn't want to choose a particular reason and therefore hinder some responses.
raekwon
Puritan Board Junior
I'm gonna say that the response depends entirely on the reason, but for most reasons I can think of, I'll go out on a limb and say that the answer is "yes." Being part of the body of Christ entails much more than mere Sunday attendance.
Rich Koster
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Thanks for the clarification. I gather you see the exception I was getting at.
Tim
Puritan Board Graduate
In case this helps the discussion,
I lived in Cape Town for 3 1/2 years. I did not become a member at any of the churches there because I didn't wish to submit to that particular theology (I had some important differences). I retained my membership at my home church in Canada (after discussing this with my home elders). However, I loved my Cape Town brethren and joyfully and faithfully attended Lord's Day worship with them every single week.
This was not an ideal situation because of the geographical issues, but it was the choice we made.
I lived in Cape Town for 3 1/2 years. I did not become a member at any of the churches there because I didn't wish to submit to that particular theology (I had some important differences). I retained my membership at my home church in Canada (after discussing this with my home elders). However, I loved my Cape Town brethren and joyfully and faithfully attended Lord's Day worship with them every single week.
This was not an ideal situation because of the geographical issues, but it was the choice we made.
Jack K
Puritan Board Doctor
I'm assuming you have in mind people who have been baptized, but they either (1) were baptized in a church that doesn't connect baptism with church membership or (2) were baptized as a child and have resisted making a profession of faith in a paedobaptistic church.
In the first case, the issue would become much simpler if baptism were connected to church membership, as it should be. Then refraining would nearly always be a sin. In the second case, the refusal to join the church and make profession of faith is also a refusal to confirm the promises of baptism, which is a pretty serious matter and should be highly suspect.
That leaves only issues involving transfer of membership, which you said are not the issues you have in mind.
Actually, Tim's situation is more of what I have in mind. I am not thinking of those that have no desire for church membership or see it as wrong to join a church. I think we can all agree that those are not correct viewpoints. However, what of those that by the providence of God find themselves in an area where they don't feel they could join a church. Either because there is not a church that preaches the true gospel there or there is a true church there but there are doctrinal differences that causes one not to join. Is that person in sin because they refrain from joining a church for perhaps even an extended period of time?
Weston Stoler
Puritan Board Sophomore
I left my old IFB church around 2009 and I am just now settling down. Going to college and then moving back home and the fact that reformed churches in my city are far and few between (even though we have the most churches per square mile in the world as I have been told) makes it hard to be reformed and have a church. Now settling in the pca. getting the process of membership down!
I have travelled much and have chosen not to move my membership from my home/sending church.
If somebody is going to live in an area for 2 years but had a previous decade of solid church membership at another place and will return there after a tour of duty of job transfer, then that person may not desire to switch memberships during this mere 2 year period.
Due to rigid formalities sometimes some churches are unable to allow dual memberships for the travelling Christian, etc, and want a clean transfer from one church to another and then a re-transfer back two years later , and this is often undesirable.
Also, in many cases a church seems solid enough to attend, but maybe not enough to join....and so a family wavers on whether they REALLY want to join for quite some time. This is not disobedience, but merely a healthy hesitance in a world where there are many sub-par churches out there.
I have been in this situation once where I just wasn't sure if I liked a local church enough to join. When they made it a point to push for commitment i jumped ship to another church that did not show these tendencies to pressure their people and within 2 years I find out that a large exodus from that church occurred due to rigidity in enforcing some of the terms of formal church membership there. I am glad I never joined.
We can love Christ and His Bride, the universal Church while still having reservations about particular local churches.
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Can you give more details about this particular case?
If somebody is going to live in an area for 2 years but had a previous decade of solid church membership at another place and will return there after a tour of duty of job transfer, then that person may not desire to switch memberships during this mere 2 year period.
Due to rigid formalities sometimes some churches are unable to allow dual memberships for the travelling Christian, etc, and want a clean transfer from one church to another and then a re-transfer back two years later , and this is often undesirable.
Also, in many cases a church seems solid enough to attend, but maybe not enough to join....and so a family wavers on whether they REALLY want to join for quite some time. This is not disobedience, but merely a healthy hesitance in a world where there are many sub-par churches out there.
I have been in this situation once where I just wasn't sure if I liked a local church enough to join. When they made it a point to push for commitment i jumped ship to another church that did not show these tendencies to pressure their people and within 2 years I find out that a large exodus from that church occurred due to rigidity in enforcing some of the terms of formal church membership there. I am glad I never joined.
We can love Christ and His Bride, the universal Church while still having reservations about particular local churches.
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Can you give more details about this particular case?
Jack K
Puritan Board Doctor
In that case... I will note that, like Tim did, I have kept my membership with the church I used to attend before moving where I am now. This is because the church I now attend requires that members agree 100% with their faith statement, and I disagree on one point. I've asked that I be allowed to join while stating scruples on that one point, but have been (nicely) turned down. That just isn't the way they do things. And it seems to bother me that I'm not a member a lot more than it bothers them.
I remain in contact with the church that holds my membership, and still have good friendships there. I would not hesitate to ask the elders there for spiritual guidance if I thought I needed it from them. But in practice, my spiritual oversight comes from the church I now attend. As much as possible, I treat that church as if I were a member even though I'm not actually one.
Messed up? Yeah. Could I maybe be handling the whole situation better? Maybe. But I'm trying to submit to authority and join myself to a church as much as possible within the confines of the situation, short of leaving my current church altogether which would not seem to fit the spirit of what church membership is for.
In situations like this, or Tim's, where a person is trying to be conscientious and is not shunning the idea of church membership altogether, I think there's some room to not be a member.
Tim
Puritan Board Graduate
Another thought I have is that if one regularly attends one church as a non-member, yet retains a membership elsewhere, it is good to put all the elders in contact with each other. That way, there is a line of communication that can be used should some sort of discipline be necessary. It is a statement of submission and humility that says to both sets of elders, "please care for me in this non-ideal situation".
Unfortunately, often we don't wish to become a member at certain churches because of weak theology or practice. In such a case, it would be common that the elders at that church may not take this communication that seriously or see the importance. But this doesn't mean that you don't try.
Unfortunately, often we don't wish to become a member at certain churches because of weak theology or practice. In such a case, it would be common that the elders at that church may not take this communication that seriously or see the importance. But this doesn't mean that you don't try.
Scott1
Puritanboard Commissioner
Many good answers here, flowing from the "high view" of the Church, Christ's Body, given by Scripture, and a characteristic of reformed theology.
A key element of this is the need for committed accountability to a covenant community. It isn't merely about "going to church" because one finds it convenient to their circumstances.
It's about suffering to identify and submit to Christ's Body, serving His people, recognizing the authority He has appointed for their benefit through officers, and the ordinary means of grace that flow from it.
A key element of this is the need for committed accountability to a covenant community. It isn't merely about "going to church" because one finds it convenient to their circumstances.
It's about suffering to identify and submit to Christ's Body, serving His people, recognizing the authority He has appointed for their benefit through officers, and the ordinary means of grace that flow from it.
seajayrice
Puritan Board Sophomore
What is the best thing to do if you find yourself devoid of solid church options. Is it better to refrain from joining a church (the best you can find) or join the least offensive body?
Scott1
Puritanboard Commissioner
Finding the covenant community God wants you to serve and be accountability to is a high priority, at every age and every stage.
Just like sometimes you have to move to get a job, or move to a certain neighborhood because the schools are good, so it ought be in situating oneself for involvement in Christ's Body.
One's place in His Body is not subordinate to all other conveniences.
JoannaV
Puritan Board Sophomore
Very true. It's a lesson we can learn from Lot, who despite his hatred of the ways of Sodom still resided there... And even after that he went to the city instead of the mountain!
Having said that, sometimes it can be hard to find any church at all. Of course, if you've found the puritanboard then you can probably find a church. But it can be hard at times for a Christian to find a good church, when they know the Scriptures but they have neither a knowledge of theological terms nor a network of believing friends. Also at times one may indeed be stuck in a particular location for a time.
Jack K
Puritan Board Doctor
Critically, we must first check our own attitudes. I've been in this situation. Thinking through our church options in terms of which is "least offensive" is dangerous. It breeds arrogance, suspicion and growing annoyance with our Christian brothers—which is all contrary to the ideas behind church membership in the first place.
If we want to join a church (and we should), we must also be prepared to love it despite its faults and to celebrate what is holy and praiseworthy about it—the way we would with a person we love. Yes, we will also work to make it better and will at times be frustrated. But we first of all need eyes to see where the Spirit is at work and to appreciate that, rather than only seeing what we want to change.
Most communities in America have churches that still preach the Scriptures and can be considered true churches even if they aren't fully Reformed or don't fit the particular Reformed variety we're convinced is best. If such a church will have us without forcing us to violate our conscience, we should pick the best one we can find and join it—not because it's least offensive, but because we can see ourselves loving that church even as we love her Savior.
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