Many years ago, someone asked Dr. Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan this via Twitter: “Can a person be a Christian without being a member of a church?” Dr. Keller’s answer was, in essence, “Yes, but not an obedient one.”
His answer was an important and instructive one. One can repent and give their allegiance to Jesus, without being a member of a church, this we must affirm. But one cannot obey Christ in an ongoing manner without, not only being a member of a church, but being an active participant in the one in which they have covenanted with.
Derek Rishmawy, commenting on Keller’s interaction there also helpfully said, “Still, yes, theoretically, I’d agree you can be a Christian, be regenerate, and so forth, and not currently be in regular attendance in church. But, and this is Keller’s point, there is no way you can claim to be a Christian who is actually trying to obey Jesus and grow in godliness without it. What’s more, you can’t say you’re striving to love Jesus either. Jesus says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15), which include those delivered by his apostles in the NT.”[1]
So what of church membership? Can one be a church member and thus be, in some sense, covered from disobedience by merely being listed on a membership roll? Well, no, since Hebrews 10:25 commands regular attendance. In other words, we need both: covenanting with a local church (what we call church membership) and active involvement in the life of the church i.e., bodily presence and service.
Now, in the second part of this short series of posts where we are talking about membership rolls and their often bloated state, we must ask: does the Bible address this? After all, we see no explicit mention of anything we, in 2025, would call a “membership roll.” Further, we must ask what the Bible says regarding what we are declaring when we (1) accept someone into membership; and (2) what we are declaring by keeping someone on the membership roll. Does the Bible concern itself with such things? Certainly, observe:
Membership Roll in Scripture?
Believe it or not, while a “membership roll,” is not mentioned in Scripture, we do have evidence that there was some kind of record kept of who was “in” and who was “out.” In other words, churches knew who they would consider as ‘part’ of the church. Consider a few verses…
In Acts 2:41: “there were added that day about three thousand souls.” Added to what? The number of the earliest church pre-Pentecost. Similarly, Acts 2:47: “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” They were added “to their number,” i.e., added to the church.
Consider the Lord’s words (which we will return to shortly) in Matthew 18. Jesus states that the last step of discipline is to tell the church and “if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” In other words, remove them from the church. But the question can be asked, “how can someone be removed from something they were never ‘in’?” The answer is in the question: you can only be put “out” of something that declared you as “in” in the first place.
Or 1 Corinthians 5. A man who “has his father’s wife” and the church is, not only passive, but is boastful about keeping the man within the church. Paul makes his declaration and gives his orders: “In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Again, the man is to be removed. But how can he be removed if the church at Corinth if he was never considered as part of the church in the first place? The church of Corinth knew who was part of the church at Corinth. While they didn’t have a church office with an old Mac in the corner that had a digital copy of a membership roll, but they knew who were part of the church and who weren’t.
What Are We Declaring?
In part one of this series, I said this: “If every church with a bloated membership roll doesn’t know where possibly hundreds of people are, or what they are doing, we are, in a word, lying.” Why would I say that?
Consider Matthew 18:15-20. This passage shows us that (1) we have a responsibility for one another (15); (2) we are close enough to even know when one is in ongoing, unrepentant sin; (3) the ultimate earthly court of appeals for declaring who is a member and who is not; (4) when they are declaring who is “in” or “out” they are merely echoing heaven’s own declaration (18).
Jesus also believes that there should be a distinction between the world and the church, such that there is a line of demarcation. The church ought to be holy, according to Jesus, and the members and elders have a responsibility to ensure purity. This does not mean, of course, that no one in the church sins, for this is impossible to avoid. At issue is ongoing and unrepentant sin. And if there is no discernable difference between the ethics of the church and those of the world, then the church is not only not pure, but they are telling the world “we are not that different from you.” In which case, what is the appeal?
Back to 1 Corinthians 5. One of Paul’s concerns in the text is that unchecked discipline will spread: “a little leaven leavens a whole lump” (6). It’s bad for the church for people who are considered “in” to walk in unrepentant and ongoing sin, because it can infect the rest of the body.
Let’s put it together, shall we?
When a church accepts someone into membership, or retains them on the membership roll, they are declaring this: As far as we can tell based on available evidence, these people are Christians, not in unrepentant sin, pursuing faithfulness to Christ.
And we are making these declarations:
- To heaven
- To the world
- To members actively involved
- To the members not involved
So, let’s return to my previous statement: “If every church with a bloated membership roll doesn’t know where possibly hundreds of people are, or what they are doing, we are, in a word, lying.”
We are lying on multiple fronts, and in a very serious manner. We are telling that people are faithfully following Christ and not in unrepentant sin when (1) we can’t possibly know that since we never see them; and (2) they are at least disobeying Hebrews 10:25 by virtue of their regular absence.
I realize this is a serious charge, but this is a serious matter. What favors do we do the church by keeping on a membership roll perhaps hundreds of people who we have allowed to slip through the cracks? Or perhaps are in need? Or perhaps are in sin in which they need help escaping?
My question, I guess, would be what would be the purpose of retaining people on the roll whom we cannot testify to in regard to their ongoing pursuit of faithfulness? Does it help them? Well, no because simply being on a roll gives no spiritual cover. While being an active member of a local church is necessary for obedience, Christ will not ask us at the end of the age if we were on a membership roll somewhere.
And I know we love our numbers in church in order that we may boast, but dozens, if not hundreds members unaccounted for is no boast. It means we have failed somewhere along the way, something we don’t want to admit, but must if we are to pursue a holy church.
“I would urge upon the resolve to have no church unless it be a real one. The fact is, that too frequently religious statistics are shockingly false…Let us not keep names on our books when they are only names. Certain of the good old people like to keep them there, and cannot bear to have them removed; but when you do not know where the individuals are, nor what they are, how can you count them? They are gone to America, or Australia, or to heaven, but as far as your roll is concerned they are with you still. Is this a right thing? It may not be possible to be absolutely accurate, but let us aim at it…. Keep your church real and effective, or make no report. A merely nominal church is a lie. Let it be what it professes to be.”
~CH Spurgeon
“Churches in his day were quite happy to report inflated statis-tics, but Spurgeon believed that such practices compromised the truthfulness of the church, making it a church in name only. As difficult as it was, Spurgeon wanted to pastor a real church.”[2]
[1] Derek Rishmawy, “Do I Have to Go to Church to be a Christian?’ A Few Rough Thoughts,” https://derekzrishmawy.com/2014/08/10/do-i-have-to-go-to-church-to-be-a-christian-a-few-rough-thoughts/#:~:text=The%20other%20day%2C%20someone%20asked,Heb%2013%3A17%20without%20membership.
[2] Geoffrey Chang, Spurgeon the Pastor: Recovering A Biblical & Theological Vision for Ministry (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2022), 128.
The Bearded Ecclesiologian 