People come and go from church. They hop to and fro, trying to find the greener grass on the other side of the fence. But is there greener pastures, or are we called to be planted where we can make the biggest impact for the Kingdom of God? Today, I we’re talking about church membership and why I believe it’s biblical and needed in today’s culture. Also, we’re diving back into John Maxwell’s daily devotional on leadership. And I have a great tip of the week, something that will keep your computer battery life healthy.
Listen to episode: (0:45:51)
RESOURCES:
John Maxwell’s Daily Devotional on Leadership
Michael Hyatt – Michael thank you for being my virtual mentor and helping me follow the dream the Lord gave me of helping leaders succeed in their family, ministry and life.
Cliff Ravenscraft – Cliff, thank you for all the great content and the teaching on how to have an effective Podcast. You’ve helped me take my show to the NEXT LEVEL!
Fruit Juice – new app that tells you when it’s time to charge your computer and when to discharge. This app will help you give new life to your battery. That way, you can work longer on a discharging computer, than if you keep your computer in power all day long. Now, this app is only for Apple – but I’m sure there’s similar apps for PC, but I’m not sure what they are, since I use only a Mac.
MAIN TOPIC:
1. It’s Biblical:
I’ve heard a lot of proponents to church membership, but I’ve also talked to several critics of the idea of church membership. Yet, one thing is very clear. Membership is very biblically based. We find the Apostle Paul talks heavily about church membership in 1 Corinthians 12. In vs. 27 “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” What does Paul teach us? That we are One body but several members.
2. It’s a place to belong:
If you continue reading through Chapter 12, we find the Apostle Paul mention that each member of the body belongs with the other. You can’t have the hand say it doesn’t belong because the hand cannot exist apart from the body. So, my question to the critics of church membership, “can a believer in Christ survive without the rest of the body?” If the answer is *yes* then where do they belong?
We are called to be a part of something greater than ourselves. Paul reminds us that we are the body of Christ AND MEMBERS INDIVIDUALLY (emphasis added).
3. It’s where people care for you:
We are not called to go through life alone. If you’ve seen the Lone Ranger, you’ll notice, even he didn’t go through his adventures alone. He had Tanto. When we align with others within the church, we find there is a place where people naturally care for each other. If someone is sick, they need the body to minister to them. If someone is in need, they need the body to give them a lending hand.
“25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
Thom Rainer said this in Charisma Magazine: “Because church members all belong to the same body, they are motivated and mandated to care for one another.“
4. The world understands the concept:
There are proponents to membership that don’t like the word, ‘membership‘. They find alternative ideas to convey the same meaning; perhaps ‘partnership’. Now, I’m not saying using these terms are wrong, but I would argue that we must remain biblical in our use of them. But, the majority of nonbelievers understand what membership is, and even have a loose idea what church membership is.
5. It’s counter to culture:
Everything I teach is to be countercultural. We are called to live different than the world. To quote Thom Rainer; “We have abandoned too many things in our churches in order to accommodate culture. While we recognize that some people will think of membership in the sense of country club membership, we in the church need to reclaim its biblical intent. Church membership does not mean we get perks and privileges because we “pay our dues.” It means we give, sacrifice, and serve.”
We live in a world where it’s easy to give into the status quo. However, God calls us to live separate from culture. In-fact I say we are impact culture. But, we cannot impact culture if we do not belong to the local body of believers.
In other words, we are in this together. Our unity brings peace. Our unity brings a sense of safety to new comers. Our unity brings boldness in a culture that lacks it.
Let’s Talk About It:
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