THE #1 BIBLICAL REASON TO BELONG TO A LOCAL CHURCH PLUS 3 OTHERS

#1 Local church membership identifies the true body

(1) responsible for approving the church LEADERSHIP,
(2) potentially able to serve in church LEADERSHIP, and
(3) who have placed themselves under the spiritual authority of the church LEADERSHIP.

  • Acts 6:1-4 “choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom
  • Acts 15:22 “the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of  their own men”
  • Acts 20:28  “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.”
  • Hebrews 13:17 “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”

Note: Without local church membership the leadership is either too dictatorial (not accountable to anyone) or too vulner-able to unbelievers and uncommitted (accountable to the wrong ones).  Without local church membership a believer has no local church leadership they have stated they will submit to as their biblical spiritual authorities (no affirmed accountability to godly elders/overseers/pastors).

3 ADDITIONAL BIBLICAL REASONS TO JOIN A LOCAL CHURCH IN MEMBERSHIP

#2 Local church membership is consistent with the New Testament church EXAMPLE.

  • Acts 2:47 “added to the church” (Ex. 1:10 “added” = “join” in LXX)
  • Acts 12:1 “belong to the church”
  • 1 Corinthians 5:12 “those outside the church”
  • 1 Thessalonians 1:1 “the church of the Thessalonians”

Note: In the New Testament it is assumed that every believer was a part of both the Universal church and a local church.   To be a member of the universal body of all believers and to refuse to be a member of a local church body is totally foreign to the New Testament.

#3 Local church membership connects a believer to one particular “body” for MINISTRY.

  • 1 Corinthians 12:27 “you [the local church at Corinth] are the body [literally, ‘a body’ rather than ‘the body’] of Christ and each one of you a part of it”
  • Romans 16:1 “Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cencrea”

Note: This not “the” universal church with the foot in the USA, the arm in the UK, and the eye in Nigeria.  Each local church is “a” body of Christ with the various parts to joined and functioning.  For any part of the body to function (eye, foot, hand, etc.) it must be attached to a body!

#4 Local church membership protects the local church’s TESTIMONY.

  •  Matthew 18:15-18 “if he [an unrepentant blatant sinner] refuses to listen to the church, treat him as you would a pagan” 
  • 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 “Are you not to judge those inside [the church]? Expel the wicked man from among you.” 
  • Galatians 6:1 "Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

Note: Be careful here. We were all once “pagans” (holding to a false belief system) and “wicked” (defining morality and living it our way, not God's) unbelievers who were still welcomed to attend the worship service!  Yet we could not become members until we became believers. Believers who continue in blatant sin after caring confrontation are to be treated as their life dictates, like an unbeliever (we do not judge the heart, only the fruit), and therefore unfit for membership, but they are welcomed and encouraged to attend.  And we pray for genuine belief and repentance.

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