I. Pray

II. Introduction

Have you ever had a person approach you and ask the question, 'Why should I join a local church?' In one sense, this can be an easily answered question. Immediately, without thinking, you might be able to rattle off a number of reasons why a person should join a church like to hear the Bible taught, to worship corporately, to be in community with other believers, etc. Now these are all good reasons to join a church, but are they mandates from Scripture. Let me say it this way, I recently received an email from someone who asked the question this way, 'What commands am I being disobedient to by not joining a Church?' This is a different and more difficult question to answer I think. This morning our goal is to discuss these issues of the believers' responsibility to joining a local Church. We will begin by looking at how others have dealt with the first question and then we will look at how the Bible specifically answers the second question.

II. How have others dealt with the question of why join a Church:

A. Donald Whitney in Spiritual Disciplines for the Church asks and answers this question in the third chapter of the book. His list for reasons to join the church includes: Church Discipline, the Model of New Testament believers (see Acts 5:13, 1 Corinthians 14:23, pastoral oversight and leadership, biblical metaphors call for church membership, etc. Whitney does a good job in answering the first question and even in some of these answers deals with the biblical mandate for Church membership. There is much we can learn from this chapter (and from the entire book.)

B. Mark Dever in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church points out five major reasons for joining a Church. His list includes: assurance for ourselves, evangelizing the world, exposing false gospels, edifying the Church, and for the glory of God. This list obviously includes some reasons that are not mentioned exclusively in Whitney's list. Yet, at the same time there is some overlap in both of the lists.

C. Pastor Lee in our Membership Curriculum addresses the question of why join a Church. His answer includes these five reasons: evangelism, edification of our brothers and sisters, allow leaders to oversee your life, for the sake of salvation (assurance), to glorify God. As with the other lists there are some similar themes of evangelism, oversight, and salvation.

D. In the end, we would agree with all of these reasons to join the local Church. In fact, if any of these men were pressed to provide more reasons they probably could and would. Thus, we see from the outset that there are many reasons to join a local Church. Yet, how do we respond to the second question we raised earlier, namely 'What commands am I being disobedient to by not joining a Church?' I believe we can look at these lists and identify the answer to this question as well. This is what we want to look at next.

III. What in the Bible necessitates Church membership?

A. The command of Church discipline necessitates Church membership. In order to examine this more closely turn with me to Matthew 18:15-20. This passage is the clearest text we have dealing with Church discipline. In a real sense, we could look at the whole chapter to get the context, but basically Christ is instructing his disciples on what to do when people fall into sin. Thus, we see Christ begins in verse 15, "If your brother sins against youâ€¦" and from there he lays out the steps of Church discipline. First, we go to him alone and seek his repentance. If he does not repent, we take others to go with us to seek his repentance. If our brother still does not repent, Christ tells us in verse 17 "tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." Thus, according to this text, the final step of Church disciplines involves placing the unrepentant brother outside of the fellowship of the Church.
What exactly does all this mean for Church membership? Paul helps us out in his dealing with an issue of Church discipline in 1 Corinthians 5. Here Paul writes in verse 1: "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you." Read also with me verses 9-13. Notice what he says in verses 12-13: "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is not those inside the Church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. 'Purge the evil person from among you.'" In these last few verses we see Paul make a distinction between those 'inside the church' and those 'outside the church.' Now one could argue that he says nothing about Church membership, which in name he does not. Yet, how are we to obey Jesus' command to "let them be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" and Paul's command to "Purge the evil person from among you" if we have no way of distinguishing who is among us and who is not among us? Thus, even though these passages do not argue for Church membership explicitly, I believe obedience to them necessitates Church membership. Without Church membership we loose the grounds for Church discipline.

B. The Scriptural command for the elders in a Church to provide oversight for the Church necessitates Church membership. In order to think through this point turn with me to Hebrews 13. Look at verse 17 with me: "Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will give and account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage." Also, look at 1 Peter 5:1-5 with me. Peter points out in verse 2 that elders should "shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have youâ€¦" Again, although the writers of these passages are not dealing with Church membership explicitly, the commands they are giving to the elders and the Church cannot be kept apart from Church membership. What we mean is this, it is clear that the elders in a Church are called to offer oversight to the flock. The question obviously becomes 'Exactly who will the elders be giving an account for?' In other words, the elders cannot give an account for all the believers in the world. The only distinguishing mark for the elders is Church membership. Thus, Church membership is necessary for the elders to be clear about who they will give an account for.
In the same way, these passages also deal the responsibility of the Church to submit to their elders. Who exactly is to submit? Again, Church membership aids us in answering this question. As members of a local Church it is clear that we are to submit to the elders and that they are to give oversight to our souls. This is what Mark Dever and Lee mean when they speak about assurance in our salvation. The elder oversight involves this aspect of laboring for the sanctification of souls, which is obviously an important issue for the believer. Thus, the command of oversight and subjection necessitates Church membership.

C. It is unfortunate that the local Church has largely neglected both of these areas that we have listed which necessitate Church membership. Many Churches no longer practice Church discipline or see elder oversight to be essential to their ministries. This sad reality makes it difficult to argue from the Scriptures for the necessity of Church membership. Seeing Church membership as necessary is another reason to labor for the recovery of these ministries in the local Church.

IV. Some closing challenges:

1. The first challenge is to simply join a Church. If you are here this morning and you are not a member of a local Church, I challenge you to take membership seriously and to join a local Church. If you are still struggling with this, I encourage you to consider the reasons we have mentioned for joining a Church and to meditate on the passages that necessitate membership. In the end, realize the importance of placing yourself under the oversight of a local Church.

2. The second challenge I give you is to encourage others to join a local Church. Again, we began this morning by talking about what do you do when someone asks you why they should join a Church. I hope you have a better answer to offer them. Because the state of the Church is where it is, this can be difficult at times. Yet, we still need to communicate to professing believers the importance of joining a local body.

3. My third challenge is that you will labor for reform in the local Church. Again, this can be a difficult task and one that we do poorly. We simply need to be aware of the issue and the importance of taking membership seriously in local Churches. We should challenge believers we know to think through what in the Bible necessitates Church membership and encourage them to labor for this in their local Churches. Remember, we must do this with love and gentleness and truth. We are not to be Church discipline and elder oversight crusaders but we do need to encourage believers that we know to think about such issues. May God give His people grace in this area.

4. Last, I simply want to encourage you to support Cornerstone in the areas of discipline and elder oversight. God has been faithful to give us elders who labor for our souls in this Church. We should always be thankful for that and we should always work with them however the Lord leads us to work.

V. Close in Prayer

Why Join a Church?