Does Church Membership Matter?

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