An elevator pitch for church membership
Is church membership actually in the Bible?
How many times have you heard someone ask that? Maybe you’re asking it yourself.
If I have 15 seconds to answer that question—maybe I’m on an elevator with you—I would tell you to look at the church discipline passages in Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5. Jesus and Paul talk about “removing” someone from the body. What is a person being removed from if it’s not what we today call membership. Yes, it’s an implication, but it’s a very clear implication.
Or I might point you to passages like Acts 2:41, where it says three thousand people were “added to their number;” or Acts 6:2, which says the apostles called together “the full number of disciples;” or Acts 12:1, which says Herod attacked those “who belonged to the church.” They knew who belonged. They could name the disciples. Did they keep all those names on an Excel spreadsheet? I don’t know, but they knew who they were. Read More
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