Whether we know it or not, American culture has had a significant impact on Christianity. Our modern, “spiritual but not religious” age has reshaped Christianity to become individualized, personalized, privatized, politicized, spiritualized, transactionalized, trivialized, and “comfortized.” One specific area where this increasingly apparent is in the doctrine of the church. Once understood as essential, church attendance and membership, along with baptism, are now considered trivial, unnecessary, unbiblical, or as simply an “extra step” for mature and serious Christians. In our efforts to reform our churches to Scripture, we not only must recover the centrality of the gospel and the sufficiency of Scripture but the centrality of meaningful church membership.
Here are some resources to help you think more biblically about baptism and membership in the local church. These books and articles cover what baptism and membership are, how they are connected, as well as issues such as the timing of baptism, joining a church, why the local church is essential, and the important role members play in the life of the local church.
On Church Membership
- Twelve Reasons Why Membership Matters. The Christian life in the New Testament is church life. Christians today should expect and desire the same.
- Metaphors and Membership: How Biblical Metaphors for the Church Require Church Membership. If you’re looking for the words “thou shalt be a church member” in Scripture, you won’t find them. But if that troubles you, let me encourage you to think a little differently about how to arrive at biblical conclusions.
- Why Baptism is Required for Church Membership. An excerpt from Bobby Jamieson’s excellent book (see below).
- What Is the Relationship Between Church Membership, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper? Baptism and the Supper are the signs and seals of church membership.
- Must Baptism Precede Membership? Of Course!. Baptism (and the Lord’s Supper) is the mechanism that Jesus has given us for declaring someone to be a member of his body, and this happens among real people in a real place called the gathering of a local church.
- How Formal Membership Makes the Church a Family. If you want the church to feel like a family, commit to formal church membership.
- Meaningful Membership & Shepherding the Saints. Church membership isn’t just a useful tool in the pastoral tool belt; it’s the tool belt itself.
- Church Membership Is an Office and a Job. Church membership is an office, too. It’s a job that comes with authority and responsibility.
- Why Members Voting on Members Is Their Most Important Job. When church members vote on new members, they’re deciding on those with whom they’ll share the highest authority in the church.
On Joining a Church
- “On Why Baptism is Required for Membership”. This is an excerpt from Bobbie Jameison’s book Going Public (see below for a link). This a must-read.
- Joining a Church the Ancient Way: From Clement to Egeria. As it was in the earliest days of the Christian faith, so it is again: entry into a local church should be by way of catechism, creed, and baptism—and in that order.
- How Long Should A Membership Process Take? Your membership process—whether shorter or longer—is a tool for discipleship, usually one of the first ones people come in contact with.
- Listen and Observe: The Benefits of Examining Baptismal Candidates. We protect the gospel by ensuring that the gospel sign (baptism) is closely associated with genuine gospel work (regeneration).
Books on Baptism and Membership
Going Public: Why Baptism Is Required for Church Membership. To answer the question of whether baptism is required for church membership, Going Public seeks to rebuild ecclesiological foundations, digging deep into the Bible’s teaching on baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership. Bobby Jamieson describes how baptism and the Lord’s Supper transform a scattered group of Christians into a gathered local church. It traces the trajectory of a church’s birth, how gospel people form a gospel polity.
Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. In Rediscover Church, Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman discuss why church is essential for believers and God’s mission. Through biblical references and personal stories, they show readers God’s true intention for corporate gathering: to spiritually strengthen members as individuals and the body of Christ. In an age of church-shopping and livestreamed services, rediscover why the future of the church relies on believers gathering regularly as the family of God.
Reason for Church: Why the Body of Christ Still Matters in an Age of Anxiety, Division, and Radical Individualism
In The Reason for Church, pastor Brad Edwards connects the dots of our current church crisis and provides compelling reasons to come back. Edwards offers an honest-yet-hopeful vision for church as a necessary institution. With radical individualism tearing us apart, we need compelling reasons to fall back in love with Christ’s bride, now more than ever.
Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism. The vision of congregationalism pictured in this book offers an integrated view of the Christian life. A Christian’s “church job” should not be divided from everyday life because the saints are tasked with guarding and growing one another all week. Congregationalism is biblical, but biblical congregationalism just might look a little different than you expect. It is nothing less than Jesus’ authorization for living out his kingdom rule among a people on mission.
