It could happen to you. A group of families had been trying to force the pastor to leave for almost two years. He had tried repeatedly to address their concerns, but nothing seemed to satisfy them. They finally managed to gather enough votes to call a special congregational meeting. Confident that a majority of the congregation supported his ministry, the pastor came to the meeting expecting victory. His confidence sank, however, when he noticed a number of faces he only vaguely recognized. Suddenly he remembered that the church bylaws granted membership to anyone who professed faith in Christ, financially supported the church, and regularly attended Sunday worship. He then understood the danger he was in. If the unfamiliar people in the fellowship hall said that they had put a dollar in the offering plate and attended a church service every two months, they could claim voting privileges in the pending showdown. As he looked at his deacons’ faces, he could tell they had come to the same conclusion. A great deal of frustration and anger was about to be unleashed in the body of Christ.

(1) The Biblical Basis for Membership

Many churches do not place a strong emphasis on formal membership. As a result, many, if not most, of the people who regularly attend their worship services are attenders rather than members. This means they have never made an explicit commitment to the policies and practices of the church. This can put leaders in an awkward position when an attender becomes entangled in serious sin. If leaders attempt to minister to an attender as though he were a member, they can face devastating lawsuits. On the other hand, if they decline to confront sinful conduct or warn others of it, the attender generally continues in his destructive behavior and often goes on to injure other people. In either case, God is dishonored and the body of Christ suffers.

This problem can be partly solved by arranging for attenders to give implied informed consent to your Relational Commitments¹. Implied informed consent is a useful defense against a lawsuit, but it is not as sure a defense as explicit informed consent.² The best way to obtain explicit informed consent is to encourage people to become official members by joining your church and explicitly embracing your governing and relational policies.

While there are no Bible passages that explicitly mandate formal church membership, the biblical description of the church implicitly supports the concept of a formal membership commitment. For example:

• Jesus assumes that the local church will be a specific congregation with a ruling body having authority to include members by baptism (Matt. 28:19) and to exclude them by excommunication (Matt. 18:17-20).
• Believers are called to submit to their leaders (Heb. 13:17; 1 Thess. 5:12-13), and leaders are called to know and look out for the people God has placed under their care (Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 5:1-4; Acts 20:28-30).
• Scripture repeatedly presents the church as a body made up of many parts that are joined together into a single unit (1 Cor. 12:12-30; Rom. 12:3-8).

All of these concepts would be rendered meaningless or ineffective if churches allowed believers to wander casually from church to church, picking and choosing what they will believe and do at any given moment. The fact that many churches do condone superficial, transient, and autonomous relationships among their people is a major factor in the ineffective witness, disgraceful divorce rate, and overall weakness of the church in our time.

Peacemaker Ministries believes the clearest answer to these problems is reaffirming the church’s historical practice of encouraging believers to commit themselves to formal membership within a particular congregation. Doing so can only strengthen the local church’s ability to make known to a fragmented, rebellious, and obsessively independent world the manifold wisdom of God, the glory of his Son and the unifying power of his Spirit. ³

(2) Legal Benefits of Membership

Church membership is generally viewed by the courts as being a matter of contract, whereby members freely choose to associate with a particular church community and in doing so accept the benefits and duties of that association. ⁴

As explained previously, since non-members have not accepted such duties, a church can encounter significant legal liabilities if it tries to exercise jurisdiction over or impose membership responsibilities on them. For example, since non-members have not explicitly consented to the confidentiality, counseling, disciplinary or conflict-resolution policies of a church, the church may face a lawsuit if it divulges any confidential information regarding the non-member, even if only between a pastor and an elder.⁵ Lawsuits also may arise when pastoral counseling fails to meet the needs and expectations of a non-member.⁶ And many churches encounter legal threats when they confront a non-member about sinful conduct or notify another church to which a non-member flees about such conduct.⁷

When people join a church, they are generally assumed to have accepted its jurisdiction and consented to its policies, even if they have not actually read them, as long as the policies are not highly unusual, unconscionable or contrary to public policy. In the case of biblical principles of confidentiality, mutual accountability, and church discipline, which may seem highly unusual to some segments of our society, it is wise to make sure that members have been fully informed of your policies and have expressly consented to them (informed consent).⁸

(3) How does a church establish membership?

For the reasons discussed above, it is wise to establish membership in a clear and explicit manner.⁹ We suggest the following four steps. While only the declaration of membership is essential to establish membership, it is best to include all four steps to fully establish and prove the membership commitment.

• Membership class: In addition to describing your church's mission and doctrinal beliefs, a membership class should provide specific instruction about your policies, especially those dealing with conflict resolution, confidentiality, counseling, and church discipline. Attendance records should be kept for each class, especially for those days when the policies described above are discussed.
• Membership interview: A membership interview may be performed by two officers of the church, who meet with the member to discuss the member's understanding of and consent to the church's mission and policies. A record of the meeting and its content should be signed by the officers and retained in the church files (see model Record of Interview in The Leadership Opportunity Supplemental Materials binder/CD). In addition to verifying a member's consent to the church's policies, a membership interview is usually an excellent opportunity to draw out and address any concerns or apprehensions a person has about membership, and to reaffirm the church's commitment to minister to the member in a manner that honors God.¹⁰
• Declaration of membership: Each member should be required to make a formal declaration, before witnesses, that he or she wishes to join the church and agrees to be bound by its policies. The content, date, and witnesses to the declaration (if other than the entire congregation) should be noted in your official Minutes.
• Written commitment: Further evidence of express informed consent may be obtained by requiring new members to sign a written commitment to membership, which includes a specific reference to having received a copy of the Relational Commitments and to being willing to support and submit to them (see model Church Covenants in The Leadership Opportunity Supplemental Materials binder/CD.

(4) How does a church encourage membership?

Since the concept of formal church membership has been badly neglected in recent years, most churches need to deliberately step up their efforts to encourage attenders to become members. This can involve several activities:

• First and foremost, provide regular, clear teaching on what the Bible says about the nature of the church (a united body), mutual accountability, and the benefits of formal church membership. In addition, provide members easy access to Joshua Harris’ excellent book on this subject, Stop Dating the Church. This book provides a winsome and convincing argument for committing to a particular church body.
• Promote an environment in which people feel safe, cared for, and genuinely loved. One of the best ways to do this is to mention your Relational Commitments regularly and, more importantly, to live those commitments out daily. As you promote membership, be especially sensitive to people who have had a bad experience with church membership or church discipline.
• Make it your practice to listen sincerely to and address members’ concerns and complaints. If members cannot find a way to be comfortable and fruitful in your church, help them to find a church where they can grow and serve the Lord more effectively. In other words, make it clear that even if people join your church, the door is always open for them to leave if they find another church that better meets their needs.
• Point out that your leaders’ time and your church resources may sometimes be insufficient to meet everyone’s needs. Tactfully explain that when this happens, Scripture calls you to give first priority to serving your members as compared to attenders or outsiders (Gal. 6:10; cf. 1 Tim. 5:8). Thus, if attenders suddenly encounter a marital crisis or other serious problem, they may not be able to meet with a pastor or leader as quickly they would like.
• Remind people how formal membership can help to reduce your church’s exposure to legal liability. Point out how much easier it will be to maintain this protection by persuading new attenders to become members if a large percentage of the congregation has already made this commitment.
• Explain that leadership positions and service in your children’s and youth ministry are reserved for people who have made an express commitment to the church and its relational policies. Point out that this limitation is an integral part of your commitment to protect children from being harmed by unaccountable workers during church activities.

When someone declines to become a member after attending your church for several months, talk in person to find out why he or she is reluctant to make this commitment. Be patient but persistent in encouraging him or her to reconsider becoming a member.

Endnotes

¹See The Leadership Opportunity Supplemental Materials binder/CD.

² Church leaders often can prove explicit consent to church policies simply by presenting a signed membership covenant. Implicit consent is harder to prove, because it requires presenting witnesses and unsigned documents that will convince a judge or jury that an individual actually received, read, and implicitly consented to a particular policy or practice.

³ For a detailed justification of formal church membership, please see the third chapter of Donald Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines within the Church (available online at www.biblicalspirituality.org/whyjoin.html). See also Alfred Poirier’s book, The Peacemaking Pastor, pages 281-285. Joshua Harris’s book, Stop Dating the Church, provides a winsome and compelling explanation of why Christians should become members in a local church.

⁴ See Hester v. Barnett, 723 S.W.2d 544, 559 (Missouri 1987); ("The consent to submit to the discipline of the church ... is one of contract, therefore, between the member and the religious body.")

⁵ Id.

⁶ See Nally v. Grace Community Church of the Valley, 47 Cal.3d 278, 253 Cal.Rpt. 97, 763 P.2d 948 (1988) (cert. denied 109 S.Ct. 1644, 104 L.Ed.2d 159).

⁷ See Guinn v. Church of Christ of Collinsville, 775 P.2d 766 (Okla. 1989).

⁸ This is especially true if a church wants to preserve its right to continue church discipline after a member attempts to withdraw, or to warn other churches of a fleeing member's sinful conduct. At least one court has held that such activity by a church is illegal unless the member had been fully informed of the policy and expressly consented to it, thereby waiving her right to unilaterally withdraw from the church (Guinn v. Church of Christ of Collinsville, id.).

⁹ Membership may be considered to consist merely of regular attendance at a particular church over a certain period of time, if that is the traditional view of the church, as reflected in its official documents, customs, usage, and teaching. When mere attendance is the only condition for membership, however, the question of whether membership actually exists in a given situation may have to be decided by a jury, if a person later claims not to have been a member, after all.

¹⁰ If you do not require members to have a personal interview, you should make sure that they answer all of the questions covered in the model Membership Interview Form found in  The Leadership Opportunity Supplemental Materials binder/CD.