The Southern Baptist Convention is most likely far smaller than what we report. And our membership rolls most likely contain a multitude of unregenerate individuals. Our Baptist forefathers would view our present condition with shock and horror.

What are the consequences of such meaningless membership?

It Gives a False Assurance of Salvation to Multitudes

It is common for a man or woman to join a Southern Baptist church, but then to stop participating in worship and fellowship—sometimes for decades. Yet when the church says or does nothing, the individual continues to believe he or she is saved. This is the case because of our refusal to obey God in the matter of discipline.

We often say that we love inactive members too much to discipline them. Actually, our lack of discipline reveals our lack of love for these people who give little or no evidence of the new birth. Many such people are under the just condemnation of a holy God. This is the greatest and most grievous consequence of allowing them to maintain church membership without church involvement.

It Harms Our Gospel Witness

Hypocrisy within our churches is common, and Southern Baptist churches almost universally fail to practice church discipline. As a result, Christ’s bride is stained and soiled when she should be progressing toward radiance, holiness, and blamelessness.

Church history professor Tom Nettles has said that “holiness should pave the way for evangelism.” In other words, the holy lives of a congregation should undergird its gospel witness. Those who proclaim the gospel of God’s saving grace in Christ Jesus should be able to point to an assembly of believers who are new creations in Christ.

It Makes for Some Ugly Business Meetings

The typical Southern Baptist congregational meeting is characterized by routine motions and decisions. However, occasionally, when the Spirit begins to move in God-glorifying ways, unregenerate church members who haven’t been seen for years suddenly appear at business meetings. The result is not pretty. God-glorifying initiatives are halted, and godly pastors are often voted out. The occasions on which this has happened are too numerous to count.

It Hinders our Missionary Efforts

Yes, it is true that we have the largest number of missionaries worldwide of any American denomination. Our 5,000 International Mission Board missionaries span the globe. Yet this translates to one missionary for every nine Southern Baptist churches. In light of the Bible’s clear teaching on missions, is it unrealistic to think that every church should have a least one missionary serving internationally? More than 30,000 Southern Baptist churches have no missionary from their ranks. How can this be? Where is the passion to declare God’s glory among the nations?

The Membership Interview

Grace is the first church that I have attended or have been on staff with that conducts membership interviews.  For many Baptist churches, a person is accepted into membership upon filling out a membership card and being presented to the church almost immediately.  I would argue that such approaches have played a significant role in the unregenerate state of membership in the Southern Baptist Convention.  But that was not the point of this post, was it?   But all jesting aside, answering the why question for interviews will play a significant role in how you do them as well.

We schedule membership interviews throughout the week, and we generally do them before/after services on Sunday or in the late afternoon/evening during the weekdays.  At least two elders are present at the interviews (although we are looking at possibly doing it with just one), which typically last an 1-1.5 hours (depending if a couple is interviewed together).  The prospective member is asked to bring with them a written version of their testimony which we add to the application (we had already received).  Our approach to the interview is conversational and somewhat informal (it is intimidating enough for most people!).  The outline of our interview typically flows in the conversation like this:

1.  [PRAYER] Begin with prayer.

2. Explain that the church has entrusted the elders with the responsibility of interviewing prospective members, which includes hearing their testimony, understanding of the gospel, understanding of church membership, and commitment to church life.

3.  [TESTIMONY] We ask the prospective member to share their story of conversion (testimony), which may also lead to questions related to their previous church experience/background.

4.  [GOSPEL] We ask them to explain the gospel in 60 seconds or less. We are not looking for a seminarian’s answer, but we are looking to see if they understand who God is, what their sin has done, who Jesus is and why he came, what he accomplished on the cross, and how one benefits from his life, death, and resurrection.  If the prospective member struggles to articulate the gospel, we try to rephrase the question and give them additional opportunities to explain it to us.  If at this point they cannot tell us the message by which sinners are saved, we request to meet with them further to help them gain a better grasp of the gospel and perhaps result in their salvation.

5.  [CHURCH LIFE] We then ask them to explain their understanding of what it means to be a member.  We ask them about having read and committed to the church covenant (attending, praying, giving, serving, submitting to leadership, etc.), read and agreed with our church confession (giving opportunity to answer any doctrinal questions they might have), and understand and adhere to our practice of church discipline (bringing out both formative and corrective discipline).

6. [MINISTRY] We ask them to describe where they are spiritually (struggling, growing, new Christian, etc.), including their family life (if applicable).  We also ask them to share with us how they believe God has gifted them spiritually, what they are passionate about, and where they see them serving to edify the body of Christ.  Because our small groups is such an integral part of our body life, we ask them about their participation and involvement in our growth groups as well.

7.  [MISSION] Lastly, we ask them about our core practices in mission, included our multi-ethnic commitment locally, our passion to be a church planting church, and our desire to see members involve in international missions.

8. [THEIR QUESTIONS] Before we conclude with the interview, we ask them if they have any questions for us and if there is anything that would prevent them from fulfilling their commitment to our church. We then explain the follow-up process and vote and close with prayer.

A couple of docs we have been trying to develop is (1) a list of specific questions to ask along these various areas of the interview, and (2) an assessment form for the membership interview where we can put our thoughts/comments on record (it easy to forget, for instance, what they said their spiritual gift was).  Another thing we are beginning to do is record their testimonies on video with the creation of a “Grace Story Center” where we have a growing collection of testimonies of God’s saving grace available to the public.

Congregational Vote and Formal Welcoming

Unless there are reservations from the elders after the membership interview, the following Wednesday night prayer meeting begins with the elders presenting to the congregation the prospective members for a formal vote to accept them into membership.  The elders give a brief summary of the membership interview and how they are coming (by baptism, statement, letter) to join, followed by an opportunity to discuss the matter.  As far as my memory can tell, I do not recall any vote that has not been approved unanimously.

After the congregational vote, the final part of the membership process if formally welcoming the new members into our church family which for us takes places on our Communion Service, the last Sunday night of the month.  They have the opportunity during this service to publicly share their testimony, though it is not required.  At the close of the service, they are asked to come to the front of the sanctuary so that the church family can come by and speak with them, hug their necks, and so on.  A time of fellowship/reception concludes our time together that evening.

So there you have it.  The next part of the “kingly” administration that I hope to address is body life integration and ministry placement.  In other words, what now that they are members?  I may be holding off for that one as I will be traveling the next couple of weeks, but I do my best to keep this series going.

Those of you who hold membership interviews, I’d love to hear how you do it, who does it, what questions you ask, etc.  I hope that some of this process has been helpful to you.  If there are any questions or matters to discuss, please let me know in the comments.  May God direct our efforts to shepherd the flock with wisdom and prudence and encourage growth in the gospel through the community of faith!

Once regular attenders have expressed desire to become members of Grace, the process looks something like this:

a.  Membership Packet (with application for membership)
b.  Membership Classes
c.  Membership Interview
d.  Congregational Vote (during Members’ Meeting)
e.  Formal Recognition at Communion Service (last Sunday night of the month)

Membership Packet

Inside the membership packet, we include the following information:

1.  Membership Application
2.  Church Purpose and Vision
3.  Church Covenant
4.  Church Confession
5.  Church Constitution

I am currently working to add our church’s core values/practices and philosophy of ministry which includes being a church planting church and interweaving gospel, community, and mission in the fabric of our identity. We ask the prospective members to read through these documents, become familiar with them, and note and questions or issues they may have with these pre-commitments.  We also make these documents available on our church website (we plan on revising/editing our constitution and updating the language of our covenant later this year).  For those of you who would like to see what our application looks like, click here.  It is a simple, one-page application that prospective members fill out and give to one of the elders who assists in setting up the membership interview.

Membership Classes

In the past, we have held our membership classes on consecutive Monday nights, devoting 2-3 hours each night to instruction, discussion, and fellowship.  However, we are looking to rework the schedule for a Friday night-Saturday noon deal where the class can be taken in one weekend.  Although we have not done this yet, here is a schedule I have worked up in recent weeks:

Friday Night

6:00-7:30 Dinner with Pastoral Team and Their Families (Grace Gathered)
7:30-9:00 Session 1 (Who we are, what we believe, core values/practices)

Saturday Morning

8:30-10:00 Session 2 (How we live and operate, systems and structures)
10:30-12:00 Session 3 (What we are doing [ministry] and where we are going [mission])
12:00-1:00 Lunch with Deacons and Grace Growth Group Leaders (Grace Scattered)

The goal behind these classes are not simply to drill them with information about the church but to give them access to the leadership and gain a sense of life in the body.  With two opportunities to share meals with the church leadership, prospective members can have everyday conversation and learn more about the day-to-day lives of those serving the church whether pastors, deacons, or small group leaders.

Those who attend the membership classes will have various degrees of exposure to church life, but it is important not to assume anything, especially the gospel.  There may some, perhaps several, who are seeking to become members of your church who are unconverted, and it is through the membership class that they learn of their need first and foremost to repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ.  Another important aspect of the membership classes is the informal approach that can be adopted where they feel comfortable asking questions or raising issues they have without feeling embarrassed or intimidated.  Whether newly converted or believers who have been long-time members of another church, if you are careful and intentional in the various expressions of church life, people will have questions or express curiosity as to why things are done the way they are.

In my next post, I will conclude the membership process talking about the membership interview, pastoral assessment, and congregational vote.  For those of you do membership classes, I would love to hear how you do it (format, content, how often, etc.) and in general what your membership process looks like.  Thanks for contributing to this discussion!

The fourth and final aspect of the assimilation process is the prospective member (I will launch into the membership process next).  Membership in a local church may be a difficult thing for some attenders, especially if they think that it is not required or feel that they are being forced to sign a contract.  But membership in a covenant community of local believers is vitally important.  To assist our attenders in understanding membership better, I have compiled these excellent Q&A links from IX Marks and printed them off for their reading pleasure.  Also here is an excellent four minute response from John Piper on the importance and necessity of church membership:

I don’t want to jump ahead into the details of the membership process just yet, so let me just say a few things in general at this point in the membership process.  As a Baptist church, we at Grace strongly believe in regenerate church membership which simply says that the church should be comprised of born-again, baptized believers.  We also believe that a church ought to be pre-committed in what we believe (church confession) and how we agree to live together (church covenant).  During the assimilation process, regular attenders ought to be exposed to the nature and constitution of your church, including how intentional and careful you are when it comes to membership.

If your approach to church membership is fickle or flimsy, it is likely that you will experience nominal church members, a wide back door open, increasing need for corrective church discipline, and greater potential of disunity in the body of Christ.  Obviously, none of these things can ultimately be eliminated, but if you are careful and intentional with how you handle membership on the front end, you communicate to the congregation that you genuinely care for the sheep and you communicate to the prospective member the privilege and responsibility of membership from the beginning.  In a way, a healthy and robust approach to church membership serves as a form of church discipline and an expression of devotion to Christ, the church’s Head, in pursuit of a pure church who embrace the gospel and are unified with a common purpose to glorify Jesus in word and deed.

So who are those that are prospective members?  People who have come to understand/embrace the gospel and have also come to understand/embrace your church.  In the next series of posts, I will explain the membership process that we have laid out here at Grace.  Till then, let me hear your thoughts on you approach membership.  As a learning community, I believe we can strengthen and encourage one another’s efforts to serve the body of Christ!

HT :: Phil Awtry

Sunday: Paul’s Prayer to the Colossian Church
Monday: Monday Is for Membership: Expositional Listening, Part 1
Tuesday: Cultivating Community Contacts, Part 2
Wednesday: Centrality of the Word in Acts
Thursday: The Promise of Humility (Chapter 1)
Friday: Fuel Friday: London Dwell Conference Audio
Saturday: A Cross-shaped Mission

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“The first order of business is to know the gospel . . .

The gospel or good news of Jesus Christ is that God the Father, who is holy and righteous in all his ways, is angry with sinners and will punish sin.  Man, who disobeys the rule of God, is alienated from the love of God and is in danger of an eternal and agonizing condemnation at the hands of God.  But God, who is also rich in mercy, because of his great love, sent his eternal Son born by the Virgin Mary, to die as a ransom and a substitute for the sins of rebellious people.  And now, through the perfect obedience of the Son of God and his willing death on the cross as a payment for our sins, all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, following him as Savior and Lord, will be saved from the wrath of God to come, be declared just in his sight, have eternal life, and receive the Spirit of God as a foretaste of the glories of heaven with God himself.”

- Thabiti Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 40-41.

So . . . if you gave your church members 60 seconds to explain the gospel, could they give a similar response?