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Do we take church membership seriously?

Marten A. Mol

Every week, I drive through the Ontario countryside for meetings in Burlington. Along the way, I pass a country church. Recently I stopped for a closer look at a sign posted on the church door. It read:

“Attention! Behind these doors we worship regularly with liars, thieves, gossips, backbiters, troubled marriages, alcoholics, drug takers, good doers, hard workers and cheats. We welcome hypocrites, the jealous, the envious, the coveting, materialistic sinners of all sizes, shapes, heritage and colour.”

I walked closer and found the next message in smaller letters:

“The good news is that we all have something in common. We have all learned that the church, the body of Christ, is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. We have all heard and understand that the Lord is our rest, that He reaches out to save us, and that we are the redeemed community of the saints. We come here to worship and praise Him, and to continually plan how we might be better agents of change, salt and light in a darkened world that needs the good news that Jesus saves. You are WELCOME, but be warned that we take our church and Christianity seriously.”


When we take church membership and Christianity seriously, it produces change, the kind of transformation Paul saw in the converts in Corinth: “The wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. But you were washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:9-11). Only faith that brings about real change is sustaining. It produces the miracle of the new birth Jesus talks about in John 3:3-7.

As I traveled further along the highway to the Christian broadcast centre for my meeting, I realized more and more that there is no substitute for the local church. No Christian television program or private walk in the woods can substitute for gathering with fellow believers in corporate worship. The local church is God’s concept and is basic to the propagation of the gospel, as well as crucial for fellowship and for the real operation of the gifts of the Spirit.

The local church is given the task of teaching and disciplining those people who become part of the body of Christ through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. It is not a club or museum for believers. True church membership is a means toward greater personal discipline, character and honesty.

It is a responsible decision to join a church. In my denomination (Christian Reformed Church), we have seen a substantial decline in membership over the past three decades. Many people somehow do not feel that responsibility, faithful attendance, service, giving generously and allowing the next generation to have greater influence are to be taken seriously. Instead, they prefer to receive the spiritual food, fellowship and blessing the church provides. But, like a Christian television program, they then turn off their further obligations.

Unorganized Christianity is no match for highly organized errors and evil. There is strength in unity. Scriptural organization greatly increases power, and multiplies the church’s influence for good.

Church membership is serious stuff, satisfying the great need in the lives of God’s people. Anyone who tries to be a lone Christian becomes a non-committed one. The local church enables spiritual life to take root and provides opportunity for life-enhancing change.

Marten A. Mol is a businessman and vice-chair of Crossroads Communications Inc. He lives in Aurora, Ont. and can be reached by e-mail at dca_travel@compuserve.com. This article is reprinted, with permission, from the April 13, 1999 issue of ChristianWeek.

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Last modified January 11, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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