Church Membership and Faithfulness

Church Membership and Faithfulness

A couple of years ago, I learned that a Presbyterian church in the Austin, Texas area had admitted an avowed atheist into membership. The atheist, a professor at the University of Texas, wanted to check out his belief system, or perhaps better said, his un-belief system, from the inside and the only way he could do that it seemed to him was to join a church. With a sympathetic pastor and an accommodating session, he did just that.

I realize that we live in a culture, both sacred and profane, which challenges authority; people doing their own thing; marching to different drummers; eschewing discipline to allow for free expression of one’s actions. So, though I may have been dismayed and offended that this church and its pastor did not follow the polity of our denomination’s faith and practice, many others just shrugged the matter off with a dismissive “so what’s the big deal anyway; isn’t it the church’s responsibility to receive lost sinners?” And the answer is “Yes, but …” Yes, we have that responsibility, but it comes with an invitation to acknowledge one’s sinful state, and that this person has no hope, in life or in death, without the sovereign grace of God manifested through a savior, Jesus the Christ. The big deal is that the church – the pastor and the session – negated by its actions the very purpose of church membership. In an old ad for the American Express credit card, there is that elitistic phrase: "membership has its privileges." I believe that is what the atheist wanted, and the leadership of that church acquiesced. But church membership, at least in the Reformed tradition, is not about privilege, rather it is about obligation and responsibility. In short, it is about faithfulness.

One of the joys of parish ministry was in watching a person grow in his or her faithfulness. I tended to serve in churches for several years at a time – from ten to twenty years – so I was afforded that opportunity of seeing God work his good pleasure in the hearts and minds of people who came through the doors of the church. I well remember a Jewish woman, married to a Christian man at the time, coming up the long sidewalk to the temporary buildings were our offices were located as we finished construction on our church. She was looking for a church to raise her family, and wondered if this is where they should be. I think I told her to visit with us for a few Sundays and see if she couldn’t answer that question for herself. Eighteen years later,she stood before that congregation, having presented herself for baptism and to profess her faith in God and in Jesus her messiah. There was not a dry eye in the house, including my own. Over those eighteen years, she engaged herself in the mission ministry of the church. She helped in educating our congregation on the meaning of the seder meal; she helped in preparing this meal and in leading our people in the celebration of Passover. What became so obvious to so many was this woman’s faithfulness and love of God, even though she had never crossed the threshold of membership. But for her the church she chose, or was chosen for her and her family through God’s beneficence, was never a laboratory experiment to test the various compounds of belief systems and ecclesiastical doctrine. Rather, without the pressure to join up or be left behind, the church provided for her a place to be herself; to raise questions and to seek answers, to take as much time as it takes to turn her life over to him who is the redeemer of lost sinners. At the conclusion of one of his parables, Jesus counseled, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

I have argued for several years that we need another category for defining participation in the local church. “Active Member” no longer means much as far as our church rolls go; in fact being an active member in that church in Austin means you don’t necessary have to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Active Members just have to show up; they just need to be visible from time to time. Granted the great majority do far more than that, but the requirements to remain in that category per our polity are pretty lame. Yet how do we account for the “faithful” who serve without becoming “active members?" Maybe we don’t need to. Maybe we, like Jesus, just need to appreciate how they model the gospel message and give thanks for that. And maybe we just need to give thanks to God for that irksome episode down in Austin, Texas for providing us with the opportunity to look at church membership in a new light. For when it comes right down to it, when last trumpet sounds, God is not going to ask us what church we joined on earth. Rather, he is going to ask us if we were faithful to the work of his church which he, through his Son, entrusted to us.