Where's the Verse?

Open our bulletin any Sunday and you'll find a short line on the inside: "We believe church membership is biblical. See Pastor Bart to learn more." It's a true sentence, but it's a short one, and it invites a fair question. Where's the verse?

There isn't one that says, "Join a local church and put your name on its roll." I'd rather admit that up front. Christians who skip membership usually aren't lazy or rebellious. Some have been hurt by a church that used its roll as a club. I can empathize with that.

Others reason that they already belong to Christ's Church, the one that spans every nation and century, so a local list adds nothing. That second reason sounds the most biblical, and it's the one I want to push back on hardest.

I believe in the universal Church. Every believer, in every place and every age, belongs to the one Church of Jesus Christ. But ask where that Church gathers. Where does it worship together, serve together, carry one another's burdens? The New Testament shows the whole Church assembled in one place only at the end of the story. Hebrews calls it "the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven" (Hebrews 12:23), and John sees "a great multitude that no one could count" standing before the throne (Revelation 7:9). That gathering is coming, and I can't wait for it. We aren't there yet.

Until that day, the universal Church shows up on earth as local congregations. Paul wrote "to the church of God in Corinth" (1 Corinthians 1:2). He didn't treat the Corinthians as a branch office. They were the church of God in that city, and he told that one quarrelsome congregation, "you are the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:27). The word the New Testament uses for church, ekklēsia, means an assembly, people called out and called together. It's hard to claim you belong to an assembly you never assemble with.

So the universal Church gives you every reason to join a local one. A believer who drifts from church to church, or watches from a distance, may truly belong to Christ. What they miss is the life the New Testament describes: shepherds who know their name, brothers and sisters who notice when they're gone, a body that needs their gifts. Hebrews tells us not to give up meeting together, so that we can "spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24–25). That takes people who've committed to each other.

The early church plainly knew who its people were. When about three thousand believed at Pentecost, they "were added to their number that day" (Acts 2:41). Paul told the Corinthians to deal with a man in open sin and drew a line between "those outside the church" and "those inside" (1 Corinthians 5:12). In his next letter he mentions a discipline handed down "by the majority" (2 Corinthians 2:6), so somebody was counting. Timothy's church kept a list of widows it had committed to support (1 Timothy 5:9).

Then there are the leaders. Hebrews tells believers to trust their leaders, because "they keep watch over you as those who must give an account" (Hebrews 13:17). Peter tells elders to shepherd "God's flock that is under your care" (1 Peter 5:2). No pastor can give an account for everyone in Ionia County. A shepherd answers for particular sheep, and those sheep have agreed to be shepherded. Membership is how a church says out loud who they are.

Does joining mean you can never leave? Of course not. Christ may call you to worship and serve somewhere else, for a job-related move, a family need or a new ministry. Again, I can relate. When He does, you go with our blessing, and if it's another Wesleyan church, your membership can move with you. Membership is a commitment to the people God has given you now.

Our own family of churches grew out of that conviction. John Wesley never set out to start a denomination. In 1739, people under conviction of sin began asking him to pray with them and advise them, and their weekly meetings grew into the Methodist societies. Wesley gave the members a short set of rules to test whether they were serious and to help them live holy lives. He put the principle bluntly: "The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness." He meant that nobody grows holy alone. The Wesleyan Church still keeps a revised form of his rules, and it calls membership both a privilege and a duty.

The Discipline of The Wesleyan Church, our denomination's book of belief and practice, describes membership as the basic, entry-level relationship with the church, a doorway into discipleship rather than a reward for finishing it. It sums up the path as believing, belonging and becoming. To join, a person confesses faith in Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit's inner witness of new birth; has been baptized; accepts our Articles of Religion and the way the church is governed; and commits to a discipling relationship in the local church. In the membership covenant, new members also promise to pursue holiness in every part of life.

That promise is what I most want you to hear. Joining Pathway means making a commitment in front of the church, and the church makes one back to you. We'll pray for you, tell you the truth in love, and come looking for you if you drift. If a church once used its roll against you, it broke the very promise membership is supposed to carry. Members also vote in our local church conference and can serve in elected leadership, which is part of how a congregation takes ownership of its own life.

None of this makes attenders second-class. If you worship with us and haven't joined, you're welcome here, and you're loved. But if Pathway has become your church, I'd like to talk with you about making it official. Find me on a Sunday, or send me a note through pathwaywes.com/contact.