Being together is as natural as syrup on pancakes. Yet, let’s not assume that until they do gather, they are not the “called out body” or that meeting with each other infers the formation of a local church organization. I knew a family in Arkansas that consisted of nineteen children. The majority of children in that family were acting individually, yet still as one member of the family. They did naturally come together and had to accept some rules of order each and every day. Togetherness in the family and in the church is difficult when forced into the mold of today’s society. The culture is destroying both. Yet, we can see a difference between a family and a corporate business model. No one could deny the importance of having some organization in a family. Yet, no family forms themselves into a corporate business structure with two days of operation, an operating expense account, and elected officials to oversee the members at the appointed times. Instead, the family of people interacts when older and wiser men skilled in the word provide an example to follow. Older women teach younger women (Titus 2). Deacons and deaconesses serve the needs of brethren. Each serves in whatever capacity they are able and they accomplish it without the formation of corporate offices. Each is serving the other from their own volition with the strength and ability God has given. If we are not members of an institution and are, in fact, brothers and sisters in the family of God, we are going to be much more involved in each other’s lives than is generally expected in the membership of an organization that meets once or twice a week. In fact, I fear that the commitment level attached to our corporate membership in a church organization has a striking resemblance to other offices and memberships like the Rotary Club. We go to our scheduled meetings as a contribution to society or the church organization, but spend little or no time outside those meetings because we have our secular business and other interests that require our attention. For this reason, the description of “church membership” often leaves the wrong impression where the demands are not high and the sense of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices almost non-existent.
Acts 9:31 reads,
“So the church (the called out, ekklesia) throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified; and, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, was multiplied.”
This does not describe what is often envisioned – a local church membership structured with its place of operation, operating fund and leading officials that make decisions for the group. Acts 9:31 is the first time the word “ekklesia” (church) is used since Acts 8:3 where they were scattered throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria. Again, we emphasize that there is no reason to change its meaning. The references in both cases are to saints now living in those regions who were at peace and being strengthened in the faith.
If they followed the customs of many churches today, we would expect them to walk down the aisle and “place membership” in a local church organization. In some churches, until this is done, they would not be used in the “worship service” and the elders could not officially oversee them. This is very understandable if our perception of the church is an organization to which we become members in order to serve on a duty roster and carry out the work delegated to us by an eldership. Yet, no such description is ever found in the Bible. It’s not there because there is no local church organization.
Placing membership in a church is used in the same sense that we speak of belonging to one. In what sense do you or I belong to the called out? Belonging to a church fits the membership in an organization. We hold memberships in organizations and belong to it in the same way. Yet, Christians belong to Christ and are members of His body, not in the sense of holding membership in a corporate organization. Two passages are held up in support of “placing membership” in a local church organization. The first is Acts 9:26. It reads,
“And when he was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: and they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.”
Was Paul looking to place membership in an institutional church organization at Jerusalem? This passage tells us that Paul wanted to be among the saints in Jerusalem, but they were hesitant to consider him one of them, not knowing the change he had made in becoming a disciple of Christ. In addition, their acceptance of him was not necessary for him to be an apostle or carry out His work. The work of Paul is not dependent on him placing membership somewhere in a local church organization. Paul writes that God set in the church apostles (1 Cor. 12:28). There is nothing in Acts 9:26 that suggest Paul requesting to be a member of the church in Jerusalem as if the church was an organization to which you must submit an application for membership and considered at the review board. He just wanted the fellowship of brethren wherever he went, especially with the apostles of our Lord who lived in Jerusalem. Of all places, he would most naturally desire to know them.
A second attempt to prove local church membership is taken from the figure of the church being the body of Christ. Since Paul writes of “members” of the body, it is assumed that Paul is discussing the local church organization as a body that is composed of an arm, eye, or an ear, etc. If a local congregation is the body of Christ and there is only “one body” (Eph. 4:4), which one of the many congregations is the body of Christ? For this reason, it is clear that he is likening each saint as a part of a living organism, a body. Paul writes, “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him (1 cor. 12:18). Therefore, one does not place membership in the body any more than our hand places membership in our human body. If our hand cannot place membership in our physical body, how can a hand/person place membership in the body of Christ? This figure of a body depicts each saint as a part or member of a living organism, not a dead organization. Therefore, church membership is applicable only when a local church organization exists. If there’s no local church organization, there is no “placing of church membership” in it.
Knowing something about the origin of the institutional concept of the church helps us understand how we have evolved from a simple family of believers into an organization structured similar to corporate America.