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. c Membership and the congregation coming
together for worship, prayer, and other meetings is important. c 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. c 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. c 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. c 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." c
Mark Dever. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (3rd Edition). Vol. Third Edition.
9Marks. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013.
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