Series: I Am a Church Member
(based on and adapted from Thom Rainer’s book of the same name)
“I Will Be a Functioning Church Member”
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
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Today, we start doing something new that will last for six weeks. We are beginning a a book study together as a congregation. We are reading, considering, and discussing the information in I Am a Church Member by Thom Rainer. I hope everyone who got a copy last Sunday read the Introduction and Chapter One this week. If you belong to one of our adult Sunday school classes, you most likely went through the discussion questions at the end of Chapter One this morning. If you didn’t get one, we ordered more copies and they’re sitting on the table just in front of the sound booth.
Rainer has been a pastor and a seminary professor. He also led a group of people who researched congregational lifestyles. Rainer currently serves as President and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources. He has written 24 books; the bulk of which deal with the study of local congregations and the principle of church health.
Some of you are probably wondering why we are doing this study and why we are using the material by Rainer. The short answer to the first part of that question is that I have found book studies like this one bring a unique focus to the topic at hand and unites the congregation in weekly study and discussion.
The answer to the second part of the question is that I chose this particular book because it is short – an introduction and six chapters that are only 10-12 pages long for a total of 79 pages. I chose it because it is simple – the themes in each chapter are easily understood. I also chose it because the principles in the book are practical – the principles are effective when put into practice.
Why do we need to do such a study? We need to do this study because the idea of church membership has become misunderstood. There are a lot of folks in our society that have wrong conceptions about church membership. Another reason is that there are more and more people who believe that membership in a local congregation is unnecessary.
On the whole, church membership has declined. Research on 557 congregations from 2004-2010 have shown that 9 out of 10 churches in America are declining or growing at a slower pace than that of their communities. The rate of growth of the population of the local community is much larger than the rate of growth for most churches.
One of our main problems is that we are failing to connect with a large segment of our population. It seems we have become generationally irrelevant.
Sociologists arrange the generations into groups with specific traits. The Builder generation is comprised of those people who were born before 1946. Following the Builders are the Boomers who were born between 1946 and 1963. After the Boomers come the Gen Xers who were born between 1964 and 1980. The next group is dubbed the Millennials. They were born between 1980-2000. They are the most populated generation grouping with around 80 million members. In comparison, 2/3rds (66%) of the Builder generation (born pre-1946) are Christians. But only 15% of the Millennial generation are Christians. That means that we have all but lost the generation of people between the ages of 15-35.
We can blame the problem on multiple causes. We can blame it on our culture (and we often do). We can blame it on the godless politics of our government (and we do that as well). We can even blame it on the churches, both the hypocritical Christians and the lack of strong spiritual leadership at the congregational ;eve;. There are lots of Christians who are doing that, too.
Rainer gives this analysis of the situation: “If outside forces and culture were the reasons behind declining and non-influential churches, we would likely have no churches today,” Rainer says. "The greatest periods of growth, particularly the first-century growth, took place in adversarial cultures. We are not hindered by external forces; we are hindered by our own lack of commitment and selflessness.”
We do need to look in the mirror. One reason that we have become weak and irrelevant is that we have lost the biblical understanding of church membership. Rainer says, “We join our churches expecting them to serve us, to feed us, and to care for us. We don’t like the hypocrites in the church, but we fail to see our own hypocrisies.”
In a summary of the issues we’ll be addressing over the next several weeks, Rainer says that God has intended the church for us “to serve, to care for others, to pray for leaders, to learn, to teach, to give, and in some cases, to die for the sake of the gospel.” We have become ineffective because we have turned the meaning of membership upside down.
This morning, we start a journey. It’s a journey designed to discover and in some cases rediscover the privilege and joy of church membership. It’s also a journey that will lead us into better church health. If even one of our members becomes healthier, there will be a greater impact on our community and even across the world.
Our first step in the journey is for me to determine that “I Will Be a Functioning Church Member.” What does that mean and how does it play out in my life and the life of my congregation?
Membership Means We Are All Necessary Parts of the Whole
There are a number of passages in the New Testament that deal with the idea of church membership. The longest and most detailed passage is found in Chapters 12, 13, and 14 of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth.
In Chapter 12, he uses symbolic language to describe church membership. In Chapter 13, he defines what should drive church membership. Then in Chapter 14, he covers some issues regarding the corporate worship time at the church in Corinth.
1 Cor. 12:12-14 – Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Some church leaders and members view membership as a modern business or organizational concept. Membership is biblical. A little later in vs. 27, Paul says, “Now you are the body of Christ.” The pronoun “you” is in the plural form in the original language. It’s the 1st century Koine Greek version of our Southern “Y’all.” The concept is that each person joins together to make up the church.
When the New Testament talks about the church, it uses two closely related yet slightly different ideas. There is the church universal – every Christian across the globe makes up the church universal. But there is also the church local – the individual congregations that make up the world-wide body of Christ.
In the 1st century church, when you became a Christian, you became a member of not only the church universal but also the local church. The church is most effective at the local level.
Here’s how it played out in the New Testament. Local congregations – the most well-known being the church at Jerusalem and the church at Antioch – began missionary efforts and started new congregations across the Roman Empire. Local leadership was put in place to shepherd and teach the members of the local congregations regarding the way of discipleship. The early Christians were called to practice the “one anothers”: serve one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, comfort one another, bear one another’s burdens, and so on. There are over 30 “one another” passages in the New Testament.
Members comprise the whole and are essential parts of it. In vs. 14, we’re told: “Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” The whole cannot be complete without the individual members.
The church is a body. Paul uses a physical body as a representation of the church. He says that God has put this body together according to both a plan and a purpose just like our physical bodies. In vs. 18, Paul says: But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. In vs. 24, he tells us that God has put the body together.
David said in Psalm 139:13-14 – For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. The human body is an amazing piece of work. Truthfully, how could anyone ever believe that it is the product of time plus chance plus matter?
The stomach’s digestive acids are strong enough to dissolve zinc. Fortunately for us, the cells in the stomach lining renew so quickly that the acids don’t have time to dissolve it. The lungs contain over 300,000 million capillaries (tiny blood vessels). If they were laid end to end, they would stretch 1500 miles.
Human bone is as strong as granite in supporting weight. A block of bone the size of a matchbox can support 9 tons – that is four times as much as concrete can support. Each kidney contains 1 million individual filters. They filter an average of around 2.2 pints of blood per minute, and expel up to 2.5 pints of urine a day. The muscles of the eyes that cause us to focus move around 100,000 times a day. To give your leg muscles the same workout, you would need to walk 50 miles every day. Everything in our body seems to work together by design.
God has designed the church as a body as well. He has designed it and set it in order. It is set up so that each individual member must do its part or the body (the church) doesn’t operate the way it was intended to do.
Membership Means That We Are Different but We Still Work Together
1 Cor. 12:15-27 – Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”
22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
There is both unity and diversity. The parts of the body must work together for the health of the body.
Imagine with me that your brain receives the signal that you’re thirsty. Your eye sees the bottle of water across the room. However, your feet and legs decide they’re not going to transport the bulk of the body across the room. If so, there would be no drink of water.
Even if you could get the legs and the feet to cooperate in the endeavor, what would happen if your hands refused to grasp the water bottle, twist off the cap and lift the bottle of water to your mouth? Or what if your mouth refused to open to receive the water? Or what if the stomach refused to accept the water and regurgitated it back up? It wouldn’t do the body any good.
Each part has to do its work or the whole body suffers. If one part of the body doesn’t do its job, the body doesn’t function well; but if one part does its job well, the rest of the body benefits. Paul says in vs. 26: If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Membership Means That Everything Has Its Foundation on Love
The church at Corinth was a troubled church. People were arguing, fussing, and fighting. They were scrambling to reach positions of power and authority. They were belittling to those who did not meet up with their personal preferences and preconceived ideas. So Paul writes this letter to reprimand their behavior and remind the members concerning Christ’s design for the church.
In the middle of teaching about the proper functioning of the body of Christ, Paul adds a section about love. It’s Chapter 13 and we have nicknamed it The Love Chapter.
On what occasions do we most often hear the words of 1 Cor. 13 read? Weddings, right? I’m not saying the principles given in this chapter shouldn’t be read at weddings or applied to any type of human relationship. But 1 Cor. 13 wasn’t written as a love poem to be read at a wedding ceremony. It was written to be read to a congregation where the idea of church membership was misunderstood and misapplied. The “Love Chapter’ is written to the church.
1 Cor. 13:4-8a – Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
If we could abide by the principles of love, every church would be a healthy church. We are not to love our fellow church members because they are lovable. We are to love the unlovable as well. We not just to pray for and encourage our church leaders when they’re doing the things we like. We’re to pray for and encourage them even when they’re doing things we don’t like. We’re not supposed to serve just when other people are joining in. We are to serve the church even when we’re alone in doing so.
What would happen if our church was a beacon of love in a world where the darkness of apathy engulfs our land? These principles of love are sufficient to cause a revival in most churches.
Church Membership is Functioning Membership
In many cases, we have been following the wrong model for church membership. We have adopted the country club member model instead of the church of Christ model. The country club offers perks and privileges. It says, “Come and be entertained and served.”
The country club model when implemented in the church says things like this (and I’ve encountered every one of them in my 29 years of ministering in local congregations): “I write a nice check to this church on a regular basis. If you don’t do things my way then I won’t give my money.” “I’ve been a member of this church for over 30 years and I have the right to have things go the way I want them to go.” “Preacher, you need to come around to my way of thinking or you;’’ be looking for another church to preach at.”
We must follow the biblical model instead of the country club model. The biblical model says, “Go and be a blessing and serve others according to Christ’s example.” It says, “God has designed the church for a purpose and we will follow that purpose.” One is selfish and the other is sacrificial.
Someone has described the church that follows the country club model as a sports arena. The multitude is in the stands cheering or criticizing and complaining about their team’s performance. Meanwhile, there’s only a handful of people on the court or on the field sweating and straining to accomplish the ultimate goal – winning the game.
In the biblical model everyone has a function. That was God’s picture of the church as given to the apostle Paul, wasn’t it? Each one of the parts is supposed to fulfill a role. The foot’s function is to walk. The hand’s function is to grasp and to hold. The ear’s function is to hear. The nose’s function is to smell.
The concept of an inactive church member is an oxymoron. An oxymoron is when two ideas expressed together seem totally incompatible and inconsistent. Biblically, no such church member exists. We are a body where all the parts work separately but are united toward one goal and purpose.
Most churches keep a record of what they deem as active and inactive members. The definitions vary from congregation to congregation. In some churches you can remain on the membership rolls without ever showing up or giving anything to the work of the church. In other congregations, you’re considered an active member if you’re a CEO Christian – Christmas and Easter Only. In some congregations, you are a revered member just because you give a large sum without ever lifting a finger in service or ministry.
That kind of membership is not the biblical definition of membership. It is self-engineered, self-centered, and self-maintained. It has no place at all in our church. A biblical member of the church is someone who gives abundantly and serves without hesitation.
Biblical membership gives without qualification. It views the tithes and offerings as joyous giving with no strings attached. Biblical church members serve and minister as a natural way of doing things. And they do it all based on the foundation of selfless love. The most pressing question is: How can I best serve my church?
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Rainer and his fellow researchers estimate that most church rolls are inflated by a factor of three. That means that however many people we have in our current membership records, only 1/3rd of them are functioning members. Only one out of three gives abundantly and serves without hesitation.
Today, we are making a pledge to be different. We are making a pledge to be members the way the Bible teaches it and the way that God designed it. We are pledging to be functioning church members. Let’s take the pledge together.
The First Pledge
I like the metaphor of membership. It’s not membership as in a civic organization or a country club. It’s the kind of membership given to us in 1 Corinthians 12: “Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27). Because I am a member of the body of Christ, I must be a functioning member, I will give. I will serve. I will minister. I will evangelize. I will study. I will seek to be a blessing to others. I will remember that “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).
Christ purchased the church with his blood. The church does not belong to the elders or deacons. It doesn’t belong to the church members with the longest seniority. And it doesn’t belong to the church members who donate the most amount of money. It belongs to Christ. He is the head over the body.
The true church is made up of those people who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They are committed to him and he is committed to them. How about you?
