Topic
Church Membership
3 sermons · All topics
Ask FGBC #57: What Are the Requirements for Church Membership?
Church membership is not named by a single proof-text, yet the New Testament data — the numbered and joinable Jerusalem church, the bounded authority of pastors, the mutual accountability of members, and the discipline procedure of Matthew 18 — together demand a formal, local church membership. The prerequisites a confessional Reformed Baptist church may rightly require are a credible profession of faith, baptism by immersion, a general understanding of the confession of faith, a willingness to submit to the church's doctrine and government, and familiarity with its constitution and bylaws. A published confession of faith protects both the church and prospective members by ensuring honest communication of what the church believes before anyone commits to join. The question of young believers and membership is handled on a case-by-case basis, with no principled bar to admitting a child who has professed faith and been baptized.
Ask FGBC #37: Why join a church?
Church membership is not optional for the Christian: Scripture commands gathering together, pastoral ministry presupposes a definable flock, and the means of grace — preaching, baptism, the Lord's Supper, mutual accountability, and church discipline — are administered within the bounds of a local, covenanted congregation. The question of why one should formally join a church is answered first by the authority of God's command, and then by the necessarily local character of the duties owed between members and their pastors. Those who have been hurt by church abuse are exhorted not to abandon the institution but to find a congregation where they can commit themselves as members.
Of The Church (2LFC26.12)
Church discipline is not an optional appendage to church life but one of the three marks of the true church, alongside pure preaching and right administration of the sacraments. This exposition of 2LCF 26.12 and Matthew 18:15 establishes first that formal church membership is a biblical obligation for all believers — evidenced from Acts, Hebrews, and the Thessalonian epistles — and then that membership entails real liability to the church's censures and government. The sermon focuses on the first step of Matthew 18's disciplinary process: private confrontation, its proper aim (winning a brother), its proper disposition (humility, love, and a willingness to be shown a misunderstanding), and the complementary obligations of the one being rebuked.