Why Church Membership Matters

This is part of a series that provides examples of how you can manage different details of church leadership. You can read about why we don’t pass an offering plate here.

What does it mean to be a member of your church? Do you know who your members are, and how they are doing? What makes them different from non-members?

Church membership today is often misunderstood, misapplied, and undervalued. You can see that in the numbers: church membership is down considerably over the past 20 years, including a 10% drop among people who say they are religious. But even among those who are still counted as church members, there are many whose membership shouldn’t count. If you have three times as many members as you have attendees—as is the case at many churches—it means that the bar for membership is so low that you don’t even have to be present to win.

Membership should mean something. It isn’t just an honorary title, a census number, or a letter on file. Being a member of a church means that you are submitting to that church’s shepherding authority and are living out your faith as a part of that local body. The term “body” is intentional; member of the church are to be as connected as the different parts of a human body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Church membership is supposed to be the norm for followers of Jesus; it is assumed in the way the Bible talks about how we live out our faith together. You can’t fulfill all the commands of Scripture—submitting to leaders, giving an account, and correcting those “inside” the church—without being a church member.

Who Do Christians Submit To?

In Hebrews 13:17, Christians are told to “obey your leaders and submit to them.” But which leaders are they supposed to obey and submit to? If you are a member of a church, the answer is simple: you obey and submit to the leaders (ultimately, the Elders) of that church. Those are “your leaders.” However, if someone is not a member of any one church, this command becomes impossible to follow. You can’t submit to all leaders at all churches, especially ones that disagree with each other theologically. And if you pick and choose who you obey on different issues, you aren’t really submitting to anyone.

In fact, church membership could easily be defined this way: it is a choice to submit yourself to the leadership and care of a specific church. That’s what makes you a member, regardless of the terminology or the processes used.

Who Will You Give an Account for?

Although Hebrews 13:17 is talking to church members in general, it has huge implications for church leaders specifically. It says that church leaders are “keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” That is a heavy responsibility, and one that is not to be taken lightly. And if you are going to give an account for people’s souls, it is important to know which souls you will have to give an account for.

Acts 20:28 tells church Elders to “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” Who is your flock? You can’t “pay careful attention” to everyone everywhere. You are responsible for the people in your church body, who are submitted to your leadership. Membership defines the scope of authority and accountability for local church leaders.

Who Is Inside (or Outside) the Church?

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 says that Christians are not to judge the morality of those outside the church, but are to judge “those inside the church,” and remove unrepentantly immoral members from fellowship if needed. The church is a body, not a building; people can only be “inside” or “outside” of the church is in terms of membership.

Matthew 18:15-17 also gives a process for how to correct a fellow believer who sins against you. If the person does not listen and repent, the last two steps are to “tell it to the church” and then treat him as an outsider (“a Gentile and a tax collector”). Membership defines who constitutes “the church” that you are to “tell it to,” and removing someone from membership is the final step in encouraging that person to repent.

Church Membership Is Loving

Church membership is a way to love and care for people in your flock by taking responsibility for their spiritual care. Even removing someone from membership should be motivated by love, in hopes that it will lead to their repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10) and eventual return to fellowship.

There are different ways to manage church membership, and we discuss our approach in detail in How We Do Church Membership. The question for now is, how is your church doing at loving people through membership? Is your membership process biblical, and if not, what needs to change?