Theology Thursday: The Biblical Support for Church Membership

August 7th, 2025

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Is there biblical support for church membership?

At MCC, we desire to practice meaningful membership, and believe that doing so is a crucial aspect of the discipleship process and vital for living out our mission to know God and make him known, for realizing our vision to Love20, and for embracing each of our four core values: unity in gospel truth, spiritual formation, theological thoroughness, and relational authenticity.

As such, we're spending a few Theology Thursdays diving into MCC's membership philosophy and policy. Today: Does the New Testament actually teach and/or model church membership?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The biblical legitimacy of the formal recognition of local church bodies (which is to say, church membership) can be summarized with the following points:

Christians possess a special power and corporate identity when formally assembled.

Paul writes that when the Corinthian church is “assembled…the power of our Lord Jesus is present” (1 Corinthians 5:4). Later in the letter he refers to when they “come together as a church” (1 Corinthians 11:18), indicating that they are somehow more “a church” when together than apart. This gathered assembly, it seems, has the power to do things, to make decisions and pronouncements on behalf of Jesus.

Christians are commanded to separate themselves from the world.

Paul does not forbid relationships with non-Christians, of course, but he does tell Christians not to do anything that might risk compromising their primary identity as believers. When he says in 2nd Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” he is not just talking about marriage, but how all believers should view their formal associations.

Just as God wanted a clear line between Israel and other nations, so God requires a clear, bright line between the church and the world: “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” (2nd Corinthians 6:17, referencing Isaiah 52:11 and Ezekiel 20:34,41)

The authority and faithfulness of the local church shape and orient the lives of its members.

Christian life in the 1st century generally consisted of the following steps: individuals were baptized, added to the church, and then gathered to hear the apostles' teaching.

From there, the believers structured their lives around other members of the church: their meals, their praying, their schedules, their financial and property decisions, their provision for widows and orphans, etc.

Their belief was made public, it was officially recognized and they were formally included in the family of God, and then it was developed through teaching, worship, and fellowship.

Christian leaders are responsible for specific Christ-followers.

Peter tells elders to “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care” (1 Peter 5:2). And he says something similar to the elders in Ephesus: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” (Acts 20:28).

These metaphors were not chosen haphazardly. A shepherd does not tend (at least as a matter of priority) to stray sheep or sheep from another shepherd’s flock; he tends to the sheep in his flock. So it is with pastor-shepherds.

Church membership allows elders and ministers to know for whom they are responsible.

Christians are responsible to submit to specific leaders.

The author of Hebrews writes: “Obey your leaders and submit to them” (Hebrews 13:17). Clearly, believers must know who their leaders are. Paul writes to Timothy: “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor” (1 Timothy 5:17). Christian followers must, then, know whom to honor.

In terms of the example set by the early churches, Acts 2:37-47 indicates that these local groups kept a record of those who professed Christ and been filled with the Holy Spirit, and the churches tracked their growth. There seems to be an awareness in Romans 16:1-16 of who is included as members of that specific church.

Perhaps the most persuasive argument for the biblical understanding of church membership is not explicit scriptural passages or examples (there aren’t Bible verses that say “Church membership is good! Here’s what it is and how to do it…” ), but the implicit consequences of the teaching of the apostles when it comes to the local church.

Paul tells the church in Corinth to “expel the wicked person from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:13). To be expelled implies that the person belonged in the first place. The exact nature of that belonging isn’t spelled out, but some type of church membership is a reasonable conclusion here.

In his letter to Titus, Paul says to give a divisive person two warnings, and then “have nothing to do with them” (Titus 3:10). John talks about false teachers who “went out from us” because “they did not really belong to us” (1 John 2:19).

The New Testament writings seem to indicate that local churches knew who belonged to their body, and who did not. Members of a family know who their brothers and sisters are. If the church is like a family, as Paul says it is, it is reasonable to expect membership to be not just encouraged but expected.

Next week: Church discipline and excommunication

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Posted in Theology Thursdays