Ask FGBC #57: What Are the Requirements for Church Membership?

Introduction

If someone told you the word “membership” can’t be found in the New Testament, would that settle the question? For many Christians, the idea of formal church membership feels like an unnecessary tradition. But what does Scripture actually teach about belonging to a local church, and what should a church require of those who want to join? Pastor Jim Butler walks through the biblical case for church membership and the specific requirements at Free Grace Baptist Church.

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Transcript

Is Formal Church Membership Biblical?

Wim Kerkhoff: Okay, next question is similar to, related to the last question: what are the requirements for church membership?

Pastor Jim Butler: Yeah, that’s a good question. I want to first deal with church membership, because there’s some persons, groups, churches that don’t believe that the Bible teaches formal membership. So the idea basically is, “I’m a blood-bought child of God. I’ve got the Holy Spirit, so therefore I’m a member at your church.”

Well, I took this from Dr. Barcellos when we first started the church here in Chilliwack. I basically co-opted the constitution from their church, and I thought these were very sound and valid observations from Scripture.

Five Reasons Membership Is Necessary

So as far as membership, the word “membership” can’t be found in the New Testament. It’s not the case that you have a Romans 17 that says, “Thou must find a good confessional, Reformed Baptist church and join it by way of formal membership.” We don’t have that, and that’s admitted and acknowledged. But the concept of membership is necessary for at least five reasons.

First, the church at Jerusalem could be numbered. You see that in the book of Acts, Acts chapter two. The church at Jerusalem could be joined. You see that in Acts five and in Acts nine.

You’ve got the duties of the pastoral ministry. When a man becomes a pastor by God’s grace, he’s not got unlimited jurisdiction. In other words, if he flies over to Europe and he visits churches there, he’s not a pastor in those churches. He’s a pastor in the church that has recognized his qualification, that has examined him for fitness for service, has ordained him to function as their pastor. So that argues that there’s a definable group of people that are accountable to a particular pastor or the pastoral ministry at that church.

And then the duties of Christians toward their pastors. Same idea. If a member from our church goes over to Europe and he goes and visits a church, he’s not subject to the pastoral ministry in that church in the manner he is in his own church, his own local church. There’s a relationship built into the local church between pastors and the people that facilitates camaraderie, fellowship, and accountability that, according to my read of the Scripture, can only be fostered in a local church context with a formal membership.

Church Discipline and Matthew 18

And the final observation, the final part of the concept, is the discipline of the church. You know, Jesus speaks to the church universal in Matthew chapter 16: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Again, people, you know, there’s disagreements about, is there a universal church? I’m not — I don’t want to get into all that. I assume that what he’s talking about in Matthew 16 is the universal church: believers from all ages, believers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, the people of God, identified as the church of the living Christ.

Matthew 18, I think he’s dealing with local churches. And in Matthew 18, he’s dealing with church discipline. So if your brother sins against you, go to him. If he hears you, you’ve won your brother. If he doesn’t listen, take two or three witnesses. If he doesn’t listen to them, tell it to what? Tell it to the church. Not the church universal. I don’t send emails out — if we’re going to discipline somebody in our church, we don’t email churches in Europe to tell them, “Hey, guess what’s going on.”

So these particulars that you see in the New Testament argue strongly for a concept of church membership that’s formal in nature, that’s in a particular local church.

How Churches Receive Members

Now, in terms of how churches receive members, again, we don’t have a Romans 18 on that one that tells us, “Okay, now that you’ve got all that settled and established, this is the way that you receive members.” In our church — and I’m quoting from our constitution — prerequisites for church membership:

A credible profession of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and repentance toward God. Right? You need to be a believer. Acts 8: “If you believe in your heart, yes, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” So there needs to be — and we say “credible.” I mean, if it’s obvious that there’s scandalous sins involved in a potential member, we’re going to hold off. We need to deal with these scandalous sins. You got to clean those things up.

Baptism by immersion, in accordance with the command of Christ and the practice of the New Testament church. So faith, baptism.

The Role of a Confession of Faith

And then we require a general understanding of the confession of faith. And I think that’s protection, not only for the church, but for the would-be member. I think it’s disingenuous for persons to enter churches where the churches do not have a published statement of faith. In other words, if I’m a member — shopping, and I don’t like that language, but granted, for a moment — shopping for a church, I want to know what I’m getting into. I want to know that I’m going to get faithful exposition. I’m not going to get a woman in the pulpit. I’m not going to hear that sodomy is okay. I’m not going to see tongue speaking. I have a specific thing I’m looking for in terms of the local expression of the pillar and the ground of the truth.

So a confession of faith not only protects a church, but it protects would-be members of a church from getting into something that’s not what they’re looking for. So these arguments that confessions are exclusive and bigoted and narrow — I’d argue just the opposite. It identifies for you, right off the bat, this is what we believe. I think that’s honest communication on the part of the church to would-be members, necessary for those would-be members to make the decision then to join that church.

Because church membership, if we take these pieces of data, is necessary. But the church that you will join, God leaves that up to you. There’s not a Romans 19 that says you must join a confessional Reformed Baptist church. So it seems the better part of wisdom for churches to express — we use a confession of faith — what we believe. And we like to stress, there’s not going to be any surprises. What we lack in the razzmatazz and the bells and the whistles, we try to provide stability. And, you know, biblical confessional orthodoxy to help weary pilgrims on the way to heaven.

Constitution and Bylaws

So a general understanding of the confession of faith, along with a willingness to submit to the doctrine and government of the church, to promote its unity and well-being — I do not find that outlandish. I think that that is a necessary requirement that even the light of nature teaches. In other words, any association of persons together ought to be a voluntary, joyful association. If somebody takes our confession and says, “I disagree with all 32 chapters, you better receive me into the membership,” I’m probably going to point out, “You’re not going to be happy here, and if you’re not happy here, you’re going to probably do your best to make us unhappy too. Find a church where there’s 32 chapters that you agree with and go join there.”

And a thorough understanding of the constitution and bylaws. Again, light of nature, I think, teaches us that constitutions and bylaws aren’t bad. They define parameters for membership. They speak to issues that the confession doesn’t and that the Bible doesn’t. So we always present this way: the Bible is the absolute authority — it’s the Word of God, infallible, inerrant, inspired, infallible and inerrant. The confession defines for us our doctrinal approach with reference to understanding the Scriptures. And the constitution deals with things that the Bible and the confession don’t, and it just sets forth parameters for membership. And it’s not that hard. It’s just not — we’re not asking, you know, for you to gash your arm and pour blood into a glass. It really isn’t esoteric. It isn’t mysterious. It’s very basic. It’s very much to promote order, to promote unity, and hopefully peace in the church and on the part of the member that is joining that church. So that’s how we practice that.

Can Young People Become Members?

Wim Kerkhoff: I guess the question around age then: is somebody 14 years old, 15 years old, gets baptized, but just they haven’t dug into the confession yet. Would that be holding back — they’ve been under the preaching, they agree with the preaching?

Pastor Jim Butler: I think there’s a question concerning children and baptism and membership later. Yeah, I would just head that off at the pass and say, for our church — again, I can’t speak for how every Reformed Baptist church does it — but we’ve settled on a case-by-case basis. I mean, children are wonderful, and we believe that children can be saved. The argument — you know, I hear this in a largely paedobaptist community: “Oh, you practice adult baptism.” That’s not accurate. We practice believers’ baptism, and God has young believers. And we’re not against young believers being members of churches. We think that’s good. We think that’s a blessing. We think that’s the evidence of the grace of Christ and the salvation of sinners. That’s what we hope for. That’s what we pray for.

The married couples in our churches, they’re faithful, they raise their children, God saves their children — yes, they can be baptized, yes, they can be added to the church. Do they need to have the Apostle Paul’s understanding of the confession? No. I don’t think any of us as adults have — what would the Apostle Paul — and I’m speaking anachronistically, there was no 1689 for Paul — but you know, we do the best we can with what we have. And giving them those documents and running through it with them, I don’t see any reason to keep a child or a young person out.

Simple-Mindedness and the Need for Christ

Wim Kerkhoff: Yeah, and obviously people are simple-minded, in a loving way, right?

Pastor Jim Butler: So “the law of the Lord makes wise the simple.” We’re all simple-minded. We’re all, you know — why do we need Christ as Prophet? Because we’re ignorant and we need to be taught. So there’s no harm, no foul in admitting our sin, our simpleness, and our ignorance. And the fact that, you know what, like Cam mentioned earlier about chapter three of the decree, there’s going to be tough stuff when you deal with, you know, the perennial question that has come up: if God is sovereign, then he must be the author of sin. That’s going to come up when we study the decree of God. And so, yeah, there’s nothing prohibiting a child or a young person from membership in the church.

Wim Kerkhoff: Yep, it’s for our good to be shepherded and, yes, rebuked. And we’ve seen there’s been some major public cases, right? There was like Ravi Zacharias, who was not a member in a church. So you can go off the rails and hide. Yeah.

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