This Makes Me Angry Series

This week I went to BJ’s. How many of you are members at BJs? Okay, a lot of you. I'm not a

member of BJ’s. But I decided to walk around there and see what was all going on. As I was

walking around BJ’s not being a member, I felt a little uncomfortable not being a member and

walking around there. I was thinking, “I think more people ought to feel uncomfortable if they're

not a member. If they're an attender of a church and not a member of a church, they should feel

uncomfortable being at that church.” I think some people say, “Well, membership isn't in the

Bible.” Well, that's wrong. The word ‘member’ itself is in the Bible talking about how we're one

body and we're members of that body where we can use our spiritual gifts and so on. Of course

the concept of membership is taught throughout the New Testament about the “one another”

passages and commitment and connection. That's what membership is. Commitment and

connection. I'd like you to think about that. Commitment and connection. But you might say,

“Well, yes, that's true. But there's nothing in the Bible about filling out a form and meeting with

the elders and then attending the Navigating GraceWay class.” And I would say that fits under

another principle about membership, which has to do with submitting. You submit to the church

you're going to and if they have a system for becoming a member, then that's an important thing

that we do. It's an important part. There's an equation. It looks like this when we talk about

church membership: Connection, plus commitment, over submission. All three of those concepts

are very important.

I want to tell you a story about my own life where I learned this when I was quite young. I got

saved when I was three years old. My parents nurtured my faith and I grew in my faith over the

years. But that's the marker for me when I was three. My parents wanted me to wait a little until I

got a little older to get baptized. And so I didn't get baptized till I was six. But when I was six, it

was a meaningful experience for me to get baptized to enjoy that relationship with Christ in a

special way as I got baptized.

When I was ten years old, my family moved to Oklahoma City and my parents wanted to

become members at the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City. But they had a requirement, an

odd requirement that you had to be baptized in a baptist church in order to become a member. I

don't agree with that. It seems to me that it's a problem. But my dad came to me and taught me

something very important that day. He came to me and he said, “Your mom and I are going to

become members at First Baptist Church at Oklahoma City. You can become a member if you'd

like or you don't have to become a member. But if you decide to become a member, you're going

to have to get baptized again. Now we want you understand, Scott, that your first baptism at six

years old is your baptism. That's your baptism, recognizing that you were a Christian. You were

a believer that was baptized. This baptism is a different kind of baptism if you choose to get

baptized. This is more of a baptism of submission. Submission to the church, because that's their requirement.” And I did choose to get baptized again. I've been baptized twice. I know some of

you been baptized twice as an infant and then as a believer, but I was baptized twice. As a

believer once. This second baptism was really a baptism of submission. The lesson my father

taught me in that imperfect situation was a valuable lesson not just for that church, but

submission is an important concept we need in life. I need that concept of submission in my

relationship with my wife. We enjoy a mutually submissive relationship together.

One of the things I really enjoy about GraceWay is I get to work with Pastor Don. Pastor Don

and I have agreed that we are mutually submissive. That's really important to me in coming to

GraceWay that as I'm working with him that we're submitting to each other. He’s a great guy to

submit to. And he submits to me. So we're continually working on that submission.

I want to encourage you to think about that in regards to membership here at GraceWay.

Commitment, plus connection, over submission. And maybe God would motivate you to feel

uncomfortable walking around the church and being a part of the church if you are not yet a