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"If you\u2019re thinking about \u201Cmoving your letter\u201D to our church, don\u2019t bother. It\u2019s a pretty bad situation: we\u2019ve been doing church for just over 10 years, and we still don\u2019t have a clue about determining church membership.\r\nFasten your seat belts; it\u2019s going to be a bumpy ride. If you want something well thought-out, go read Dallas Willard. I\u2019m of at least six minds on the matter, and I\u2019m the pastor.\n\r\nDon\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m sold out for the local church. I\u2019ll show my cards up front: \u201Cme and Jesus\u201D doesn\u2019t cut it. I believe Jesus has called every authentic follower into relationship with a local congregation of believers. Please allow me to be rude: I believe if you\u2019re not tied in tight with a local church, you are just plain deceived and open to significant danger.\n\r\nBut here\u2019s the thing\u2014we just can\u2019t figure out how to do church membership. Some congregations receive believers into their church through baptism, others ask members to sign a covenant, and still others require a catechecism class and confirmation ceremony afterward. But none of those methods do it for me. Perhaps one is as good as the other\u2014or perhaps one is as bad as the other.\n\r\nThe closest we can get to membership at our place is that we know it when we see it, and we know it when we don\u2019t see it. I guess that\u2019s pretty thin, theologically speaking. All across the U.S., church membership rolls are swollen with names of people who haven\u2019t ventured into worship with their co-members in years. Their official pastor wouldn\u2019t know them if they both met in a fender-bender. That\u2019s thin, too.\n\r\nSome of the New Testament models are challenging. The church is described as the God\u2019s house, God\u2019s field and God\u2019s temple, and that\u2019s just in one chapter (I Corinthians 3)! The New Testament images of the church are vivid and many. These passages convince me that the church membership is vital to a believer, like a heart or kidney. But none of the images help me determine a membership model.\n\r\nWhere\u2019s the balance? Here are some examples I\u2019ve witnessed:\n\r\n**I\u2019ve visited Pentecostal churches where church attendance is the standard. They literally take attendance and post it publicly. And why not? Corporate worship is vital to spiritual health. And yet \u2026\n\r\n**I visited a church in the Amazon basin of Peru where the local pastor asked me to visit a \u201Cbackslider\u201D and urge him to return to the fold. Turns out the guy was a baker who used a mud oven to ply his trade. He was a backslider because he skipped church two Sundays in a row to build a roof over his oven before the rainy season set in. At least the pastor noticed he was missing. And yet \u2026\n\r\n**I\u2019ve visited large churches where the pastor and staff would have no idea whether or not I had attended in the last two months, much less two weeks. At least there\u2019s freedom in a place like that. And yet \u2026\n\r\n**I\u2019ve visited churches where new members sign agreements regarding doctrine, attendance, commitment or giving. Correct doctrine seems pretty important, doesn\u2019t it? And I have no problem with measuring commitment by time, energy and money. And yet \u2026\n\n\r\nBut I\u2019m rambling. Trouble is, I can\u2019t leave this alone because I know it\u2019s so important. I\u2019d like to get to the place where we settle it to our (and God\u2019s) satisfaction.\n\r\nI totally believe Jesus when He says, \u201Cyou must be born again.\u201D I believe Him so much that I think we really are born into God\u2019s family. We don\u2019t choose our family; our family chooses us. I wouldn\u2019t let my four-year-old run away from home. I would go after her. And yet my 21-year-old is ready to leave home, marry and start a new family, and I\u2019m all in favor of that!\n\r\nI\u2019m convinced that being a part of a church should be authentic, natural and organic. We should just know. Robert Frost said that home was a place where, \u201Cwhen you have to go there/They have to take you in.\u201D\n\r\nThat\u2019s as much as I\u2019ve got. Perhaps the rest of you can set me straight. I\u2019m willing to listen.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/blog/1277-church-membership-for-dummies>