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Originally Posted by Blue Tick  Quote: |
One of Calvary Chapel's distinctives is they do not have church membership. I am aware that there are certain major drawbacks to that but CC seems to be doing pretty well in spite of that distinctive.
| The appearance of doing well is not the same as doing what scripture commands and teaches. What CC appeals to is emotion, individualism, self-centered idol worship, and
anti-establishment attitudes. The concept of having an formal membership within in CC is an anthema and those churches that do are equally archaric and dead. My experience with CC is that the "pastors" are not pastors but CEOs who run the "Church" as a papacy. The top down and that's it. Do not question. The sad thing is that they believe their running it biblically. |
They may be in error, but they do base their polity on the Bible. They use the theocratic model under Moses whereby the pastor is basically Moses and the elders are appointed because the burden of being the 'Moses' of the church is too great. (Exo 18) I disagree with their form of polity but it is actually based on the Bible.
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Originally Posted by Blue Tick Being in church membership is a lot like marriage. |
This I agree with. Many (not all!) do not want to commit to a church body for the same reasons that many do not commit to marraige.