Recently church membership has been seriously floating around in my cerebral cortex. The more I study the New Testament and other churches, the more strongly I feel that church membership shouldn’t be in LifePoint’s future. Why, you may ask? Good question.

First of all, Members shouldn’t be defined by attending a class, signing a pledge or by simply attending. They should be defined by their commitment to the body. If you aren’t serving, it doesn’t matter how many generations of your family have sat in your pew or are buried in the church cemetary. Church membership isn’t sedentary, its active. If you aren’t an active part of your body, then you aren’t a member.

Even the term member implies special treatment. Members of a country club can use golf courses and retreats not open to the public. YMCA members can use workout facilities that others don’t have access to. To quote a famous advertising campaign: “Membership has its privileges.” Is this consumer mindset really what we want attached to being a part of the local body of Christ? Come to LifePoint, become a member and sit back and enjoy the show. Thinking about church membership in the same way that we think about other professional or recreational memberships is just asking for trouble. Again, being a part of a local body is about serving, not being served.

That’s about all I have time to write at the moment, I’ll try to finish this thought up sometime later today. If you have any questions, concerns or thoughts about what it means to belong to the local body of Christ, leave some comments. We loves the comments.

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