Church membership
Historic orthodoxy
The formal, mutual commitment by which a Christian joins a particular local church, submits to its elders, and takes responsibility for its other members.
Also called: meaningful membership, church covenant, membership covenant, membership interview
What it means
In the New Testament those who believed were baptized and "added" to a known body. Churches knew who belonged: they could count widows, choose officers, gather to discipline, and receive or remove someone. Paul speaks of judging "those inside" the church, and Hebrews tells Christians to obey their leaders, which assumes they know who their leaders are and the leaders know whom they watch over.
Membership is how that belonging is made clear today. Many faithful churches ask those joining to profess their faith, be baptized, meet with the elders, and affirm a church covenant: a statement of what members promise to God and to one another. This is not a club's paperwork. It is a public way of saying "I belong to these people, and they belong to me."
Without real membership, church discipline cannot happen, elders cannot shepherd, and the Lord's Table cannot be guarded. The site values membership that is formal, meaningful, and practised, and shows how each church handles it.
In Scripture
About three thousand were baptized and added to the church that day.
The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The church judges those inside it, which requires knowing who is inside.
Members obey leaders who keep watch over their souls as men who will give an account.
You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a member of it.
Where it comes up
Confessions: LBCF 1689 26.6; LBCF 1689 26.12; WCF 25.2; WCF 26.1
Related terms
Covenant bodyHistoric orthodoxy
The church understood as a people bound to Christ and to one another by covenant, whose members know, care for, and answer to one another under their elders.
Church disciplineHistoric orthodoxy
The church's loving correction of members and officers who persist in serious sin or false teaching, aimed at their repentance, the purity of the church, and the honour of Christ.
Fencing the TableHistoric orthodoxy
The elders' guarding of the Lord's Supper, so that it is received by baptized believers in good standing in a true church, and not by the openly unrepentant or unbelieving.
Covenant childrenA view held among orthodox Christians
The teaching, held by paedobaptist churches, that the children of believers belong to the visible church as members of the covenant, though they come to the Lord's Table only after a credible profession of faith.