Edit: SCRIPTURES that support Local Church Membership

Scott Bushey · #1 (**permalink**) 09-07-2005, 08:33 PM

I am compiling a list of resources on the topic of church membership.

Please help me out.........

[Edited on 9-8-2005 by Scott Bushey]

VirginiaHuguenot · #2 (**permalink**) 09-07-2005, 08:54 PM

See Daniel Wray's Importance of the Local Church; The Duty to Join the Church and to Remain with Her by Wilhelmus a Brakel in The Christian's Reasonable Service; John Angell James' Christian Fellowship, Or the Church Member's Guide; William Crowell's The Church Member's Manual; Abraham Kuyper's The Implications of Public Profession; David Clarkson's Public Worship to be Preferred Before Private; and The Duties of Church Members to the Church by Thomas Murphy.

Belgic Confession:

Quote:

Article 28: The Obligations of Church Members

We believe that since this holy assembly and congregation is the gathering of those who are saved and there is no salvation apart from it, no one ought to withdraw from it, content to be by himself, regardless of his status or condition.
But all people are obliged to join and unite with it, keeping the unity of the church by submitting to its instruction and discipline, by bending their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ, and by serving to build up one another, according to the gifts God has given them as members of each other in the same body.

And to preserve this unity more effectively, it is the duty of all believers, according to God's Word, to separate themselves from those who do not belong to the church, in order to join this assembly wherever God has established it, even if civil authorities and royal decrees forbid and death and physical punishment result.

And so, all who withdraw from the church or do not join it act contrary to God's ordinance.

Westminster Confession, Chap. 25:

Quote:

II. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion;[2] and of their children:[3] and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ,[4] the house and family of God,[5] out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.[6]

See also Westminster Directory for Public Worship, Westminster Form of Presbyterian Church Government, and WCF XXI.VIII.

[Edited on 9-8-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]

BrianBowman · #3 (**permalink**) 09-07-2005, 08:57 PM

My wife and Anne and I take our membership vows at Peace PCA in Cary, NC this coming Sunday! We have been there about 14 months and have completed their "Church Life" course as well as taking a Sunday School course on The Sacrements.

It is great to be part of this wonderful church with a Presbyterian form of government along with TE's, RE's, and Decaons that take seriously their call to ministry.

Brian

[Edited on 9-8-2005 by BrianBowman]

NaphtaliPress · #4 (**permalink**) 09-07-2005, 09:44 PM

See David Clarkson's Public Worship to be Preferred before Private here. And while it may be needless to say on this forum, "society meetings" are not public worship and "home church" is an oxymoronic term.

doulosChristou · #5 (**permalink**) 09-07-2005, 09:45 PM

http://www.johnbunyan.org/text/bun-baptism.htm

Scott Bushey · #6 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 12:35 PM

Scriptures supporting the membership principle?

Compiling a list

VirginiaHuguenot · #7 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 12:36 PM

Hebrews 10.25 comes immediately to mind.

DTK · #8 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Scott Bushey
Scriptures supporting the membership principle?

Compiling a list

Scott,

I would argue that Hebrews 13:7, 17, & 24 presuppose membership in a local church. In other words, one cannot obey and be submissive to leaders that one has not recognized as those who have the rule over him/her unless one has in some way come under their authority, which I think these three verses presuppose. I think the same thing can be argued for 1 Timothy 5:17-20.

But, then, I suspect you've already included these in your list.

Blessings,
DTK

Scott Bushey · #9 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 01:08 PM

David,
Here's the thing, scenario:

Non denom church. No official membership. 5000 people meeting on the Lords day. The smaller number of the 5000 are close to leadership, serve actively in ministry and submit to their leadership (by choice). If one of these people need discipline, they follow the biblical precept. If it reaches the point where the pastor or elder needs to be involved, and the person refuses to repent, they ask the person to not return. Now, there is no formal membership role, but at the smaller level, they practice a dicipline of sorts.

How do you answer this rationale?

DTK · #10 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Scott Bushey
David,
Here's the thing, scenario:

Non denom church. No official membership. 5000 people meeting on the Lords day. The smaller number of the 5000 are close to leadership, serve actively in ministry and submit to their leadership (by choice). If one of these people need discipline, they follow the biblical precept. If it reaches the point where the pastor or elder needs to be involved, and the person refuses to repent, they ask the person to not return. Now, there is no formal membership role, but at the smaller level, they practice a dicipline of sorts.

How do you answer this rationale?

Ah Scott, You have now expanded your previously simple request.

But seriously, given your scenario, if the larger body has no formal membership role, then they are de facto under no one's ecclesial authority regardless of what they're asked to do or not to do. And that discipline cannot fulfill the ultimate paradigm of that prescribed by Holy Scripture in exclusion from official church membership as per 1 Cor 5:13. Moreover, I don't think that the obedience and submission required to one's elders as an after-thought of involvement meets the paradigm of shepherding prescribed for elders in Hebrews 13:17, viz., as those who watch out for [their] souls. In other words, I don't see how they are providing the pastoral care implied by this text if they are simply brought in toward the end of such disciplinary proceedings.

Furthermore, given the scenario of Matthew 18:15-17...

Quote:

15 "œMoreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 "œBut if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that "˜by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.´ 17 "œAnd if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

...you can't declare someone ecclesiastically not to be what he/she never professed he/she was, and the above is a definite action of an ecclesiastical adjudicatory. In your scenario, when such folk are asked not to return, are they told that they will henceforth be regarded as "publicans" or "heathens" until such time as they demonstrate the fruits of repentance? I don't think that the scenario you've offered can logically presuppose what is required in Hebrews 13:7, 17, 24.

I'm sure there are probably some defects in my response, and you can point them out and help me. But I have to ask - were you really simply looking to compile of a list of Scriptures supporting church membership?

What you will find in Holy Scripture, particularly the New Testament, is no explicit command to unite with a body of believers in some formal fashion, but rather the presupposition of that reality virtually every where you turn in the pages of the same, given the covenantal nature of "one another" ministries within the context of a local church.

Blessings,
DTK

Poimen · #11 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 02:15 PM

Scott:

I wrote a 7 page paper on the necessity of church membership. If you would like it, please u2u me with your e-mail.

Scott Bushey · #12 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DTK

Quote:

Originally posted by Scott Bushey
David,
Here's the thing, scenario:

Non denom church. No official membership. 5000 people meeting on the Lords day. The smaller number of the 5000 are close to leadership, serve actively in ministry and submit to their leadership (by choice). If one of these people need discipline, they follow the biblical precept. If it reaches the point where the pastor or elder needs to be involved, and the person refuses to repent, they ask the person to not return. Now, there is no formal membership role, but at the smaller level, they practice a dicipline of sorts.

How do you answer this rationale?

Ah Scott, You have now expanded your previously simple request.

But seriously, given your scenario, if the larger body has no formal membership role, then they are de facto under no one's ecclesial authority regardless of what they're asked to do or not to do. And that discipline cannot fulfill the ultimate paradigm of that prescribed by Holy Scripture in exclusion from official church membership as per 1 Cor 5:13. Moreover, I don't think that the obedience and submission required to one's elders as an after-thought of involvement meets the paradigm of shepherding prescribed for elders in Hebrews 13:17, viz., as those who watch out for [their] souls. In other words, I don't see how they are providing the pastoral care implied by this text if they are simply brought in toward the end of such disciplinary proceedings.

Furthermore, given the scenario of Matthew 18:15-17...

Quote:

15 "œMoreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 "œBut if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that "˜by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.´ 17 "œAnd if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

...you can't declare someone ecclesiastically not to be what he/she never professed he/she was, and the above is a definite action of an ecclesiastical adjudicatory. In your scenario, when such folk are asked not to return, are they told that they will henceforth be regarded as "publicans" or "heathens" until such time as they demonstrate the fruits of repentance? I don't think that the scenario you've offered can logically presuppose what is required in Hebrews 13:7, 17, 24.

I'm sure there are probably some defects in my response, and you can point them out and help me. But I have to ask - were you really simply looking to compile of a list of Scriptures supporting church membership?

What you will find in Holy Scripture, particularly the New Testament, is no explicit command to unite with a body of believers in some formal fashion, but rather the presupposition of that reality virtually every where you turn in the pages of the same, given the covenantal nature of "one another" ministries within the context of a local church.

Blessings,
DTK

David,
Forgive me; the initial goal was to compile a concise list of relevant passages that I could use in putting together a paper for a friend. This friend is in a church that is much like the one described above.

Your last statement is the challenge to me.........

DTK · #13 (**permalink**) 09-08-2005, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Your last statement is the challenge to me.........

Thanks for the clarification, Scott. I wish I could be of more help to you.

Blessings,
DTK