Restoring Regenerate Church Membership

By and large, in our day, church membership has really lost much of its biblical meaning. Centrally, the loss has been seen in compromising the principle of regenerate church membership. For example, it has been said that the typical Southern Baptist church has 233 members, but only 70 are present at the regular Sunday service of worship. The obvious question is, where are the other 163 members? Could it be they are at home sick, in a nursing home, on vacation, or in the military? Some may fit these categories, but not all 163. The painful truth is, the majority of the church membership are members in name only but not in fact. In other words, their names may be listed in the church records as "members", but there is no physical nor spiritual evidence that they are indeed faithful disciples of Christ.

In the rural South, where I pastor, this problem is pandemic. Church membership is more of a form of "fire insurance" (i.e., to keep the sinner out of hell) or a sentimental family tradition ("Mom, Dad, and my Grandparents were members, so I guess I'll join too"). What makes this situation even worse, is that many pastors who are obsessed exclusively with "numerical" church growth, will compromise the gospel commands to savingly believe on Christ alone and repent, for shallow decisions which results in bloated membership rolls of unconverted sinners. Recently commenting on this problem in Southern Baptist life, Dr. David Dockery (president of Union University) observed:

"It seems to me that we are doing harm to the person and to the church by allowing them to stay on the roll. One thing worse than people being lost in their sins is lost people who think they are saved because their names are on a church roll."

The obvious challenge confronting churches with unregenerate church membership is recovering and maintaining the biblical ideal of a church membership that is genuinely saved. But how can this be done? Where can such a recovery begin? The restoration of regenerate church membership must start by reinstating three Scriptural practices that were once common in evangelical churches (especially Baptist churches): first, there must be great care given in the receiving of new members. Many churches are hasty, careless, and irresponsible in how they receive prospective church members. Rather than looking for spiritual fruit that points to a true conversion, they look only for someone's base desire to join - as if they are joining a community club or the local gym. The Bible however teaches us that we are not to lay our hands on anyone hastily lest we share in their sins (I Tim.5:22). The context of this mandate is affirming and receiving men into public ministry. Yet, there is a principle that can be applied here to church membership: prospective church members should only be affirmed by the church if their testimony, character, and understanding of the gospel is biblical. Questions like, how is a sinner made right with God? who is Jesus Christ? what is sin? what confidence do you have that God accepts you? why do you believe you're a Christian, and what is the gospel? - should be asked of any who wish to join a church. Endorsing strongly this careful approach to receiving new members, Mark Dever once said:

"Guard carefully the front door and open the back door. In other words, make it more difficult to join...and make it easier to be excluded...the path to life is narrow, not broad. Doing this will help churches recover their divinely intended distinction from the world."

Second, there must be the faithful practice of formative and corrective church discipline. Many churches fail in one or both of these types of biblical discipline. And the result has been a membership of gross spiritual immaturity, the spread of false doctrine, divisive relationships, and all-out unrestrained sin. Together however, both formative and corrective church discipline maintain a level of spiritual healthiness that separates the church from the world by upholding a Christ-exalting purity of doctrine and life (see Matt.18:15-17; Rom.16:17-18; Gal.6:1-2; Eph.4:11-16). In short, they provide a boundary for all members which makes a clear distinction between the sheep and the goats.

Finally, there must be a formal commitment to maintain God-honoring relationships. This means having a written church covenant that spells out the church's mutual obligations to fulfill all of Scripture's "one another" passages (e.g., Jn.13:34,35; Rom.12:10; Heb.10:24,25). Keeping such a covenant clarifies the spiritual & relational commitments that church membership biblically signifies.

The Myth of the Non-Resident Church Member

There is no such thing as a "non-resident church member." Despite the fact that this is an actual category recognized among churches (most notably Southern Baptist churches), the very concept is in direct contradiction to what the Word of God identifies as a legitmate member of Christ's church.

When one is described as a "non-resident church member" they are typically classed as someone who has made a public profession of faith in Christ, received baptism, and has joined a local church - yet, for whatever reason, they are completely absent from the fellowship and service of the church they have joined. However, in spite of their disappearance, they are still considered as members in "good standing" of that local church. In fact, their credibility as church members is especially seen when they just happen to reappear to vote the latest pastor out of the church (I know of this experience first hand)!

But when we turn to God's Word, the characteristics and conduct of a genuine member of Christ's church is anything but the non-residential type. First of all, there is nothing superficial about the salvation they have received. They were chosen from eternity by God for salvation (Eph.1:4; II Thess.2:13), given to Christ for redemption (Jn.6:37; Eph.1:7; Tit.3:14), and regenerated by the Holy Spirit unto a new life (Jn.3:3-8; Tit.3:5). They have also been taken out of Adam and placed into Christ (Rom.5:15-19), being forever liberated from the power of sin (Rom.6:1-14). And they have become a part of Christ's living body, the church, and thus joined eternally to all of God's redeemed people (I Cor.12:12-13; Rev.7:9).

Second of all, there is an evident change in who and what they are. They are called a "new creation" (II Cor.5:17), a "new self" (Eph.4:24), and "light in the Lord" (Eph.5:8). The fruit of this transformation is seen in the growth, process, and progress called "sanctification" (Rom.6:19,22). The manifestation of this inner divine work is a manner of life that is being conformed to the image of Christ (II Cor.3:18). Hence, there there will be humility, love, patience, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, joy, forgiveness, and self-control - which are all Godward virtues exercised for the sole purpose of glorifying God (Gal.5:22,23; Eph.4:17-5:8; Col.3:12-17; cf. I Cor.10:31). Moreover, there is seen in them a growing hatred for sin that is carried out in the daily work of killing sin by the Spirit (Rom.7:14-25; 8:13). And finally, this transformation is also evidenced by an intentional witness to bear to others the glory of Christ in the saving message of His gospel (Acts 5:42; Rom.10:15).

Lastly, they desire the fellowship of other believers and seek that fellowship in the gathered community of a local church (see Acts 2:41-47). This means that they place themselves under the teaching of the Scriptures (Acts 2:42a) and thus under the discipleship of a faithful pastoral ministry (Eph.4:12-13). They also strive to build up other believers by bearing their burdens, exhorting them to holiness, praying for them, worshiping with them, and stirring them up to love and good works (Eph.4:16; Gal.6:1-2; Heb.3:12-14; Eph.6:18; Col.3:16; Heb.10:24-25).

Are there really non-resident church members then, in the light of what Scripture says? No. The truth is, if someone claims to be a "Christian" yet refuses to be committed in covenant with a local church - their entire claim is false and hypocritical (see I Jn.2:19; 3:14). So what should we look for in someone who joins a church? More than a decision but a life transformed by grace.

A Cardinal Baptist Doctrine

One of the most important foundational and historic principles in Baptist church life is what's called, "regenerate church membership." This principle simply states that the church can only be made up of people who have been "born again" (Jn.3:3-8). The church therefore cannot be composed of any other person but those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit with credible proof of that inward work by a life of saving faith in Christ and repentance of their sins. Or to state this principle in the words of the 1689 Baptist Confession:

"All persons throughout the world who profess to believe the gospel and to render gospel obedience unto God by Christ are, and may be called, visible saints, provided that they do not render void their profession of belief by holding fundamental errors or by living unholy lives; and of such persons all local churches should be composed "(Chap. 26, para. 2; italics mine).

Writing once on the practice of this principle in Baptist churches during the 18th & 19th centuries, Greg Wills observed:

"Baptists believed that Christ designed his churches for the redeemed. They held that the churches should admit the regenerate only. They therefore required persons seeking admission to the church to give evidence of their conversion. Members knew they could not peer directly into another's soul - they could not know certainly whether a person was truly born again. But they were convinced that Christ required them to judge the evidence. They admitted persons who 'in the judgment of charity' gave satisfactory evidence of conversion."

Needless to say, regenerate church membership is mandantory to the health of a local church. For one thing, it separates the church from the world. This principle maintains the truth and integrity of biblical teaching which draws a clear distinction between believer and unbeliever (see Eph.4:17-5:14; I Jn.3:4-10). A regenerate church membership says that Christians cannot be under the same "yoke" with a non-Christian - "for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols" (II Cor.6:14-18)? The church may be in the world but the church is not of the world (Jn.17:16).

In addition to this, the principle of regenerate church membership treats conversion to Christ as a supernatural work of God. One of the great implications of this principle is that to be a true member of the church results from one thing only: the sovereign, omnipotent grace of God in Christ bringing salvation to a lost sinner (Eph.2:1-10). Church membership therefore is the consequence of what God has done to bring the sinner to Himself. Thus conversion to Christ is not a decision made, a prayer prayed, or an aisle walked - but the work of God in the sinner delivering him from the tyranny of sin and uniting him to Christ, whereby he is supernaturally baptized into the body of Christ, which is the church (see Rom.6:1-11; I Cor.12:12-13; Eph.1:22,23). And the visible proof this divine work is a life in love with Christ, trusting Christ, and obeying Christ above all things. Such a person bears the marks of a genuine member of Christ's church.

Finally, regenerate church membership keeps the door to the church narrow & exclusive. There is no "open door" policy under this principle. It is not "come one, come all" - no matter what you believe. The door to church membership allows only those who trust in Christ alone for their salvation and bear the fruit of that trust in a life of faithful obedience to Him.