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Deepening Our Commitment to the Body of Christ
21 May 2000 Dr. Charles Revis
Emphasizing the Importance of Church Membership
Arthur Boers wrote in The Other Side: "I often visit newcomers in town and find them to be church shopping.
They want to know what they can get out of church.
Churches are one more consumer commodity.
Worship services are not a place for us to serve God and neighbor but a place where people expect to purchase the best: inspiring worship, good music, moving sermons, quality childcare.
As if we buy God and not vice versa.
"
USA Today reported in May of 1994 that 48% of church-goers attend an average of once a month.
These two examples affirm what many church leaders are saying: that the American church is weak because the people who are attending are low in commitment: to Jesus and to His movement embodied in the church.
Today's church situation reflects our culture's values.
Our culture is composed of consumers, crowds, and disconnected individuals.
Consumers purchase products and enjoy the benefits of services.
Crowds like to be entertained.
Disconnected individuals do their own thing when and how they please.
On any given Sunday a church may simply be a gathering of a crowd of consumers and detached individuals showing up for a spiritual boost.
If the church simply remains a crowd, then the church will decline and die.
Knowing this Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in S. Barrington, IL, says that in their church they work overtime at:
Turning pewsitters into disciples.
\\ Moving comfortable Christians into radical Kingdom builders.
Indeed, they do.
When I visited Willow Creek I was amazed at the number of people who served throughout that church.
As you drive in the place you are directed by smiling traffic controllers.
They have a food court (the equivalent of a cafeteria, AM~/PM, and four fast food restaurants), a huge book store, and a cappuccino bar.
Friendly greeters hand out brochures and answer questions.
99% of these people are unpaid servants.
They serve because they believe they are a part of a giant team that is highly effective in connecting spiritual seekers with Jesus Christ.
And, indeed they are.
They also emphasize moving beyond church attendance to commitment to the body through church membership.
They have specific requirements for those who choose to commit to their body.
It's a common misconception that church membership is like belonging to the "jelly of the month club," or joining Costco.
We hear the word "membership" and assume it means something like: associating with an organization by having your name on a roll, paying dues, and showing up at a few meetings.
This misperception appears in the following story:
Three pastors got together for coffee one day and found all their churches had bat-infestation problems.
The first pastor said, "I got so mad.
I took a shotgun and fired at them.
It made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats."
The second responded, "I tried trapping them alive.
Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church."
The third said, "I haven't had any more problems."
"What did you do?" asked the others, amazed.
He replied, "I simply baptized and confirmed them.
I haven't seen them since."
All too often this is true.
We've had people who join UBC simply to get their name on the roll, and that was almost the last time we saw them.
The biblical ideal for membership is far from these images.
We've forgotten that the term "membership" originated with Christianity.
The Bible teaches that membership means becoming a vital organ of a living body.
It has nothing to do with some cold induction into an institution.
Any organ that is detached from the body will soon shrivel and die.
It will never achieve what it was created to do.
The same is true for Christians who are not committed to any specific congregation.
Paul writes in 1 Cor 12:12-14:
"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.
So it is with Christ.
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many."
Over the last twenty years highly effective churches have discovered that incorporation of new members into church fellowship does not happen automatically.
They have developed systems to assimilate the people they reach.
Without such a system, there will be as many people going out the back door as are coming in the front door.
One of the basic components of this process is a required membership class.
A number of studies have shown that the way people join an organization greatly influences how they function in that organization after joining.
This is equally true for the church.
A membership class sets the tone and expectation level for everything else that follows.
The best time to elicit a strong commitment from new members is at the beginning, when they join the church.
If little is required to join, very little can be expected from members later on.
The membership class teaches the church's purposes, strategy and the meaning of membership.
It's a place for teaching membership responsibilities.
The intention here is to strengthen commitment and connection to the Body upon joining.
There is no intention to discourage people from visiting, attending, investigating or feeling that they're part of the church.
In fact, evangelistic churches remove as many barriers as possible for seekers.
But, for church membership, they raise the stakes, so that membership leads to commitment and service.
In fact, one rapidly growing church in Colorado Springs, that has very high standards for membership, emphasizes this in their membership brochures.
Their requirements for membership include commitment to Christ, commitment to serve, commitment to tithe, and commitment to pray.
They must meet with a pastor, attend a membership class, and sign a commitment card agreeing to these four areas of commitment.
High requirements!
But, on their membership brochure they explain: "Before you make this step of commitment, let us reaffirm that you don't have to be a member to enjoy and participate in the ministries of our church.
We exist primarily for the benefit of our non-members.
We want to serve you, pray for you, minister to you.
Whether you join or not-we're here for you."
At Woodmen Valley Chapel (the name of the church) we take membership very seriously.
We are not interested in building a big roll of faceless names.
Membership means commitment.
I'm focusing on membership because our Deacon Board, Executive Board and staff are proposing a higher requirement for membership than we've had in the past.
We want every new member to attend a new members class and agree to a church covenant.
I trust you will sense the wisdom of moving in this new direction.
There was a golfer named Jones who was twenty minutes late at the first tee one Sunday morning, and the other three members of the regular four-some were almost ready to drive off without him.
Jones apologized and explained, "I agreed with my wife that this Sunday I'd toss a coin to see whether I played golf or went to church.
Heads, I played golf.
Tails, I went to church.
And you know fellows, I had to toss that coin forty-three times before it came up heads."
"If your religion doesn't take you to church, it is doubtful if it will take you to heaven."
The difference between "attenders" and "members" can be summed up in one word: commitment.
This commitment is summarized in the new church covenant we are considering for adoption in today's congregational meeting.
PROPOSED UBC COVENANT
Having received Christ as my Lord and Savior and been baptized, and being in agreement with UBC's statements, strategy, and structure, I now feel led by the Holy Spirit to unite with the church family at UBC.
In doing so, I commit myself to God and to the other members of UBC.
With God's help I will do my best to live out the following commitments:
1.
I will protect the unity of my church.
Satan targets the church.
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