Joining a church

[Larry 2]

If you are a Christian you already belong to the one and only Church; the body of Christ. Paul expresses fear that many of these espoused to Jesus (That

[Floatingaxe]

If we need the local church, as proven there, then we need to truly belong.

Does one need to "belong" in order to belong. Nowhere does it say in scripture we must attend membership classes and belong to a church. In fact scripture merely states:

Hebrews 10

25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Now, when you have membership classes and go through the process to belong, what does that entail? Are you learning the doctrines of your denomination? Is that valid? When I was going through confirmation as a kid, one of the things they emphasized was martin luther and his articles he nailed to that door. Is that necessary to be part of His church?

To truly belong, we need to have a say in how the body's needs are being met and tended to. I believe our pastors, as they are so deeply committed to us, deserve our strong commitment of membership. They give us their all--and we should give no less.

To answer your questions: I am nondenominational, so there are no so-called denominational doctrines to lay hold of. We take in classes regarding the faith, and the Christian life that lead to an "Encounter" weekend where we really meet God and do spiritual battle. It is an amazing weekend and when we return, we are offered Baptism (for new believers) and the hand of friendship in membership if we so desire.

[Floatingaxe]

Being a part of a good local Church is important for several reasons:

1. Face to face accountability. I have never seen anyone who was faithful to their local Church AND willing to be accountable end up backsliding. Show me a member or leader in a church who falls, and you can almost bet that they had no accountability partners, no one to sharpen them.

2. Fellowship/Prayer support. I realize we have people who pray on Worthy and thats great, but there is no substitute for that one on one contact actually having a person pray with you in your home or at church or on park bench.

3. Wider impact - When you are an active part of a Church, you participate in the outreach it performs. Your arms are wider, your reach is further. You can touch lives and make an impact for Christ in ways that you could have never done by yourself. There are ministry opportunities in Church that you never get to be a part of if you are not there to participate.

4. Training. I have never met an effective Christian leader whose leadership skills were not honed and developed apart from being in a good church. Billy Graham, David Jeremiah, Adrian Rogers, John McArthur, Charle Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, Alister Beg, etc., are all people whose leadership skills were honed in Church. They all have membership in a local Church in common.

[Guest Biblicist]

I said "Yes" and I would add, absolutely.

Why???

Because...

Jadey wanted reasons and discussion.

Awww, poor Jadey...how does it feel to want?

[Iryssa]

As always, when I refer to the Body of Christ as the Church, I use an uppercase "C," and when I am referring to the type of church that is a congregation that meets to worship in a building (even if this building is someone's home), I use the lowercase "c."

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I think that the right sort of church is very beneficial to a Christian. It's worth taking the time to find a good church to call your home church, because there you will find congregational worship that will uplift you and encourage you in your walk, teaching to grow you deeper in the Word, accountability and fellowship to lend you (and others) a helping hand along the Way, and opportunities to serve the Church that will further the Kingdom. If you're not finding these things in a church and cannot seem to make waves to help that to happen there, I'd say it's time to move on and find another where those beneficial things CAN be found.

And yes, churches like that DO exist.

[ayin jade]

Just to toss a new wrinkle into this .....

Are there activities within your church, besides obvious leadership, that only members of that church can participate in? Are there activities that those who attend regularly or irregularly but are not officially members can participate in? What are these activities (for both questions)?

[OneLight]

Just to toss a new wrinkle into this .....

Are there activities within your church, besides obvious leadership, that only members of that church can participate in? Are there activities that those who attend regularly or irregularly but are not officially members can participate in? What are these activities (for both questions)?

For the first question, deciding the direction of the church through voting; attending member meetings.

The second question, helping around the church and the activities they have like cleaning and serving at the suppers.

[Guest Biblicist]

I will be happy to answer this, since I can not sleep right now...too much tea today.

"Activities" in our church that only members can be part of. NONE. Everyone is welcome to all activities. Those are considered outreaches. We tend to have a lot of church activities, fellowship dinners, youth meetings, afterglow's, lots of stuff for the teens to invite their friends.

Ministries are a different story.

Children's church, nursery workers, not only have to be members in good standing, but also pass a class about child care and laws about abuse, etc. Our nursery has been growing exponentionally, but the parents are not yet members and it puts a crunch on the workers. That's difficult. But it is a good problem to have!

Teachers, must be members in good standing, and in the near future each teacher will be given the opportunity to take Nouthetic Counseling courses, hopefully every teacher will be able to take this course over the next year. I'm excited about this one, I've been anxious to take the classes, my nepehew has allowed me to borrow some of his books.

The only thing that Pastor leaves up to the individual when it comes to participation is communion. You do not have to be a member of our church to participate. However, he does stress that you should be a Believer striving to follow in Christ's footsteps. We have lots of visitors from other churches, family and such that are members of their own church, and it would be wrong to deny them this fellowship just because they do not have their name on our registry.

How's that for discussion, Jadey?

[Floatingaxe]

Just to toss a new wrinkle into this .....

Are there activities within your church, besides obvious leadership, that only members of that church can participate in? Are there activities that those who attend regularly or irregularly but are not officially members can participate in? What are these activities (for both questions)?

Only members may lead a cell group, participate in the worship or dance teams, usher, do audio-visual team work, work with the children's or youth programs, etc. Non-members can assist in the church school as monitors, and are able to work in the nursery and toddlers areas (everyone needs a police check to do so), and help out in various work sessions around the buildings and grounds of our properties.

There is always something for everyone. We don't make it known to non-members that there is any exclusion. We keep it quiet, but if someone wanted to do a solo or something in services, our worship leader/pastor would explain to them that platform leading in any capacity needs to be done by members, first and foremost.

[ayin jade]

How's that for discussion, Jadey?

You can come out of the doghouse now lol.

Thanks for the well thought out post.