Last night Mary Beth and I attended one of the quarterly “All Members Nights” at Vintage21. This is a night where all members and membership candidates join together for a time of worship, updates, and planning. During the meeting the pastor made an unsettling comment: “All of you here tonight, the members, are the local body of Christ.”
Now, I am forced to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, Vintage21 is a church composed of Christians, doubters and seekers. It would not be accurate to say that all these individuals are a part of the body of Christ. But is it accurate to say that only the members of a local church are to be considered part of that local expression of the body of Christ? Are individuals who have attended, served, given financial over a period of weeks, months, years not considered to be a part of the local body of Christ?
This forced me to consider my theology of membership in general. Where does the concept of being a “member” of a local church come from? I can’t recall any particular biblical text that lends to the concept of membership; believers gathered together weekly for worship, communion, baptism, fellowship, and song, but there is no mention of membership logs. Where have we derived our theology of membership?
Please don’t misunderstand me. The modern church practice of membership has many benefits. Membership allows the church to distinguish between her regenerate and non-regenerate attendees (only God ultimately knows who is regenerate and who is not, but signs and evidences of true faith are usually required for membership). Membership allows the church to exercise church discipline. I remember an incident in a previous church I attended where a man was openly having an affair, refused to repent and was publicly disciplined by the church. Later he attempted to sue for defamation of character. Yet, in becoming a member the individual submits himself to the church’s authority. Membership in congregational churches insures that only the regenerate vote for those who will lead the church.
Despite all these benefits and more, I struggle to find a biblical basis for the concept of membership. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist. I simply don’t have the answers. Do you? Does membership in a local church have biblical basis? How has the concept of membership developed historically? Drop me a line!
Martin Luther was instrumental in changing the religious world. This fact shouldn’t come as a surprise to many of you. But you may not know that his theology had substantial import for the believer’s involvement in the socio-economic world.
τὸ γὰρ ἀξιονόμαστον ὑμῶν πρεσβυτέριον, τοῦ θεοῦ ἄξιον, οὕτως συνήρμοσται τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ ὡς χορδαὶ κιθάρᾳ. διὰ τοῦτο ἐν τῇ ὁμονοίᾳ ὑμῶν καὶ συμφώνῳ ἀγάπῃ Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ᾄδεται. καὶ οἱ κατ᾿ ἄνδρα δὲ χορὸς γίνεσθε, ἵνα σύμφωνοι ὄντες ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ, χρῶμα θεοῦ λαβόντες, ἐν ἑνότητι ᾄδητε ἐν φωνῇ μιᾷ διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τῷ πατρί, ἵνα ὑμῶν καὶ ἀκούσῃ καὶ ἐπιγινώσκῃ, δι᾿ ὧν εὖ πράσσετε, μέλη ὄντας τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ. χρήσιμον οὖν ἐστιν ὑμᾶς ἐν ἀμώμῳ ἑνότητι εἶναι, ἵνα καὶ θεοῦ πάντοτε μετέχητε.
Translation: “For your body of presbyters, being worthy of its name and worthy of God, is attuned to the bishop as the strings are to a harp. Therefore, Christ is sung in your unity and harmonious love. And also every man must become this chorus, so that being a harmonious unity, receiving your pitch from God, you might sing in unison with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, in order that he might both hear and recognize you, because of the things you do well, partaking in the melody of his Son. Therefore it is advantageous for you to be in unbroken unity, so that you might always partake of God.”
νομοθέτης, today’s Greek word of the day, comes from Philo’s de mundi opificio (If I am not mistaken, the translation being “Concerning the Creation of the World”).
I am a bit distraught. I have been utilizing an invaluable resource I received as a Christmas present from several family members in order to further conduct my research in the area of the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3. I started with the Westminster Theological Journal and was delighted to find that 7 articles addressed my passage with a keen eye towards the entire biblical narrative (Old and New). Trinity’s contained approximately 3-4 articles (one was even co-authored by Dr. Michael Travers, English professor at the College of Southeastern). Another feature of these articles that stood out was the distinction made by each author between the baptism of John, Jesus and New Covenant or Christian baptism.
Greek students, what are the cardinal rules you were taught in Bible College and or Seminary about the basic features of Greek manuscripts? There is no versification, there is no punctuation, there are no formal citations, there are no paragraph divisions, there are no divisions between the words, and uncial texts are written in ALL CAPS.
ἐνθύμησις 