I really respected how you approached the subject of "church membership." Here
is an area of ministry that can be misunderstood at times. I do not claim to be an
expert in this area but a deeper look into what makes it effective is really needed
in the Body of Christ. a Membership and the congregation coming together for
worship, prayer, and other meetings is important. a Being a Christian is not the
walk of a lone-ranger but a community of converted people working together for a
common cause and that is to be spiritually strong, and fulfill the great commission.
We must not forsake coming together as a team to prepare for strategic
advancement of the Kingdom of God. I also like how you discussed church
leadership. a Here is where the rubber meets the road. Leaders are vision casters
and motivators, shepherds, and learners. I say with conviction that a Church
Leader should be passionate about the things of God and know their individual
purposes as well as staff purposes. Leaders need to be well-training in the Word
of God and able to teach in a practice manner. a There is so much more to being a
leader than just holding a title. We as lay leaders must also be teachable,
approachable, prayerful, and prophetic at times.
Your church is similar to many others. I have found that a more faithful
presentation of the gospel in evangelism, calling for both repentance from sins and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, results in more genuine conversions. Too many
churches water down the gospel or the response to the gospel and call people
just to believe in Jesus and they don't take the issues of repentance or Lordship
salvation seriously.
Biblical evangelism can then be used to deal with church membership--if someone
is truly saved, they will want to serve the Lord (and His church) out of gratitude.
Of course, there are many more expectations for membership, but that's a start.
Finally, the matter of church leadership can help equip the saints so biblical
evangelism is done (and church membership is valued).
You are right in that the church needs to be doing more with regard to volunteering. I
see the same people every church function doing the same thing. There are no new
faces in the cooking or the serving. When it comes to land work that needs to be done,
tilling, or restoration and such, in a way I can see why the same people do that, not
everybody owns a tractor and it is hard to get it done by somebody else. Jesus did not
save us to be doing nothing in our spare time. All have been called to do something
because we all have a gift that needs to be used for the building of the Kingdom, people
are without excuse. My suggestion is to implement a rotation to where everybody who
has an excuse, no longer has one. I hear all the time, well I was not called to ministry, I
do not have the time, or I am not interested. When we got saved, that got us interested.
The Holy Spirit will certainly woo somebody to do more than fill a pew on Sunday
morning for two hours. If old people can find something to do, these younger folks can
to. We are not called to be a member of a church, once we got saved, we became a
member of a body, 1 Cor. 12:12-27 the body of Christ. Once we became a member of
him, Christ has something for us to do because we are connected to him, he is all about
the Father's business. He wants us using our spiritual gift. He does not want it to go
dormant, he knows we will be accountable for what we did with it and he is not going to
let it go to waste just to tell his Father, "They were not interested, so I never pressed the
issue." a a a
Mark Dever. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (3rd Edition). Vol. Third Edition.
9Marks. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013.
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