What does it mean to be a member of a church? This is a question I have been wrestling with lately and I think there is a lot in this question we need to take note of.

Let me first describe what I mean by the church. I am not talking about the church as in all Gods people. That is an exclusive club of those who believe, the requirement is faith, and God is the judge of whose in and whose out. I am talking about the local institution of the church.

What is a member?

I don't know of many things these days that are memberships like the ones we have with the church. Often we think of memberships like AAA, a health club, or even a country club. Something where you pay money to get services in return. Memberships like the church are something totally different.

When someone is a member of a local church they are saying they believe what that church is saying, in general. And, that they are willing to publicly align themselves with that churches message and community. Now, I think this is something big and not to be taken lightly.

How picky should we be in joining?

When it comes to being a member of a church how picky should we be? Should a person just agree with the basic teachings? Should a person agree with an overwhelming majority? Is it somewhere in the middle? What about going beyond the teachings? What about the way the community carries itself? Does that matter?

Then there is the other side of the coin. Who should a church let in to the membership? Is there a point where they should kick them out? How about holding other accountability somewhere in the middle?

I've been asking myself these questions and wondering how membership in the local church compares with being part of Gods church.

The Early Church

To try and understand what's going on in all this I decided the best place to start was with the early church. I am not talking about the early church of 200 or 300 A.D. but the early church from that first century.

Looking at the early church there are to parts. On one side we have the Jews. For them it was different because it was about accepting the prophecy. They believed in God and this was just the next step. To accept Jesus for what he was and His fulfillment of prophecy.

For the gentiles it was different. They had a lot of gods. For them, to add another god was nothing new. But, Christianity is about rejecting other gods and accepting the God of the Jews as the only God and Jesus as our God and savior. For the gentiles this was a huge swing in their beliefs. So, how did the early church respond?

They responded with a few things. They didn't let people become members right away. There was a membership process and it could last up to two years. During that two years people learned about the faith and living the faith.

Does that apply today?

It amazes me that there was a process that could take up to two years to become a member of the early church and yet it grew at a rapid pace. I wonder if this would work today with our instant gratification. Being the type who thinks learnin is good I am a fan of the idea of people having to work for their membership, learn what the bible teaches, and accept that. I, also, think knowing and believing what you are signing up for is important.

For Christians transferring churches this should be different than someone just coming to faith. Someone just transferring churches I can imagine a short set of classes that outline what that church is all about. But, doing something like that for someone just coming to faith makes me feel like we would leave them hanging. Instead of taking a journey of faith discovery with them a few short classes seems like we are giving them the intro on the church and dropping them in the bucket of the congregation.

This is my 2 cents and what I am still tossing around in my mind. Anyone else see something different?