A Description of a Church Member
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Intro:
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
Today, as we bring in new members to our church, I want to preach on the subject of [A Description of a Church Member].
When I went to Junior High, they offered something our elementary schools did not— clubs. There was a club for everything:
Christian clubs
Drama club
Spanish club
Community improvement clubs
Just to name a few. Anyone could be in any club they wanted, but they encouraged us to join the clubs that aligned with our interests. All we had to do was become members of that club.
The idea was to become a member of what we liked and we could reap the rewards and benefits. That concept continued after high school.
In Oklahoma, when we turned eighteen, we were encouraged to register to vote. When we did, they wanted us to register with a party.
Some became members of the GOP others became members of the Democratic party.
On an international level, there has been a lot in the news about whether Ukraine can become a member of the European Union and NATO.
Moving from an international perspective, I have noticed that most websites require membership to receive the full scope of what they have to offer.
I can buy something on Amazon, but they promise, if I am a member, I can get free shipping.
I can watch something on YouTube, but they promise, if I am a member, they will remove the ads or commercials.
I got off Facebook in 2021, now if I want to see someone’s page, they ask me to become a member.
The idea is that when people join an organization, club, or business, they align themselves with other people who believe what they do and they can receive rewards and benefits in return.
One of the difficulties that has come from this wordly perspective on membership, is that it has skewed what it means to be a biblical church member.
In his book, I Am a Church Member, Thom Rainer suggests that the overall Church in the United States has weakened because, “many of us church members have lost the biblical understanding of what it means to be a part of the body of Christ.”
He goes on to say that, “God did not give us local churches to become country clubs where membership means we have privileges and perks. He placed us in churches to serve, to care for others, to pray for leaders, to learn, to teach, to give, and in some cases to die for the sake of the Gospel.”
Even though he wrote his book ten years ago, I feel his words are more timely than ever.
Our Homecoming speaker, Pastor Stan Welch, shared some alarming statistics, I want to repeat them:
Barna research group found that the average church attendee feels they are faithful if they attend once every six weeks.
According to Pew Research, one in five churchgoers in 2022 participated in virtual church once a month. And 57% did not attend in person or watch online. This stat is not for the general population, it’s for Americans who typically attend services monthly. The majority are not attending any services at all.
The common perception in our nation is that the Church is there to meet my needs, I will be there when I can, but if I can’t that is okay too.
So what then is Church membership?
To answer that we need to describe the difference between the Church and other organizations.
The church is unlike any group, club, or entity on the planet. The Church is the body of Christ, those who have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
The Church follows the leadership of the One who died and rose from the dead to make the church a reality.
The church is indestructible, undefeated, and eternally built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Jesus summarizes it this way:
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
We are the people of God, who are bought by the blood of Jesus, saved by the grace of God, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
When we become a member of a Church, we are not joining a club, we are aligning ourselves with the people of God, saying this is MY church and I will do MY part in helping MY church push back the gates of hell and extend the Kingdom of God!
So how then do we describe a church member? I want to look at Paul’s letter to the Corinthians to explain this. I have three points, As church members, [We Are All Different], [We Are All Dependent], and [We Are All Devoted].
Let’s begin
1. We Are All Different
1. We Are All Different
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
There were many local churches in the New Testament:
Rome
Ephesus
Philipi
Thessalonica
to name a few.
When I have read about these local churches, there are some I think, I would have enjoyed going to that church. Then I get to Corinth.
Paul wrote more to the Corinthians than to any of the other church and that is not because they were the:
best
holiest
and unified
In fact, the Corinthians were a spiritually immature congregation, that almost seem to enjoy division, disagreements, and disunity. Paul writes two letters to them to help them see what it means to be a part of the Church.
To describe this, he begins by comparing the church to a body. The human body has many parts, and all of those parts are necessary to make up the whole body.
The Corinthian church contained both Jews, Greeks, slaves, and free people. Their membership was made up of different people from different backgrounds.
So when we think of church membership, we should remember that we are a part of the BODY of Christ and we all have a different part to play.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
When I read that, it almost sounded like something the kid’s church teachers would have taught in Corinth. It is very basic:
Feet are not hands
Ears are not eyes
Feet cannot stop being a part of the body because they want to be hands. And ears cannot stop being part of the body because they cannot see.
How very simplistic, yet very profound.
Everyone in the has an important, yet different role to play.
There are two common errors that we can make a church members:
we can be too proud of our abilities
we can think we have nothing to give to the body
God brings us to the Kingdom of God for such a time as this. Differences do not disqualify us from membership. Our church would be in a world of hurt if everyone was JUST LIKE ME!
Okay, and let me add, our church would be in a world of hurt if our church was JUST LIKE YOU!
God has gifted us each of us with unique gifts and talents. Paul explained it this way to the Ephesians:
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
God has formed us and made us unique. He is not surprised to find our we are different— HE MADE US THIS WAY!
But as different as we are, we are all a part of the body of Christ, we are a part of His church. Church members are all different. But...
2. We Are All Dependent
2. We Are All Dependent
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
Paul continues using the body as a metaphor of the church. He shows that without the entire body functioning properly, problems begin to happen.
The body is dependent on the other parts of the body.
Paul joked, could the eye think it is better than the hand because it can see what the hand touched? The hand could argue, sure you saw it, but because of I allowed our body to hold or feel what you saw.
Or what about the argument between the feet and the hands, we hide our feet, but without them we could not walk to pick up with our hands what the eye saw.
Which is most important? All of them, without one everything ceases to function correctly. And what about the organs we do not see? We compliment people’s hair, or they have such a pretty face.
No one ever says, yeah, but have you seen their liver, it is gorgeous. Or that person’s heart pumps blood better than anyone else.
Personally I would be uncomfortable if someone said, Daniel, you have a really nice spleen.
Does that mean these parts are unimportant? No, if my internal organs stopped functioning, then my external organs and body would die. There is not one important part, they are ALL important.
There are NO weak parts of the body. In the church, often the ones who have the visible gifts get more attention, but I can declare right now, we need EVERYONE to use the gifts God gave them.
We are dependent on EVERYONE to keep the church moving forward and fulfilling our assignment.
I have the joy of preaching, but I could not do what I do, IF people did not:
lead worship
play their instruments
teach a Sunday School class
clean the church
mow the grass
weedeat
build
pray
send encouraging notes
decorate
We are dependent on ALL our members to do their part in moving our church forward.
The body is dependent on the other parts of the body. So what happens when one part of the body suffers?
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
It is amazing how a toothache can cause pain in other parts of the body.
The same happens in the body of Christ:
when one of us suffers, we all suffer.
when one of us experiences loss, we share in the grief
when one of us has good news, we all have good news
when one of rejoices, we all rejoice
We are dependent on one another. Does this mean we always see eye to eye and agree on everything? In a perfect world yes, in the real world, no.
But disagreements do not mean we have to be disagreeable. Because at the end of the day, we need each other.
I remember when I first became pastor, I shared about the porcupines. I shared it again in 2018, I think it is time once again to talk about, the porcupine dilemma.
In the cold of winter, porcupines will huddle up for warmth; they need each other to stay warm. However, as they get close, their quills poke the porcupines surrounding them, they NEED each other, but they NEEDLE each other.
So they have two options, huddle up and stay warm, or separate and stay out in the cold. In the end the best option is to endure temporary pain so they can stay warm and alive.
The same situation happens as believers, we NEED each other, but sometimes we NEEDLE each other.
We are all different, but we are all dependent on each other. Now, I want to look at what unites us:
3. We Are All Devoted
3. We Are All Devoted
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I find it interesting that in the middle of explaining the role of the body of Christ and how the Church should function, Paul takes a break to speak about love.
He compares being unloving to being childish. God calls us to put away childish things and look to Jesus and draw closer to Him.
Then he emphasized three aspects of the Church that are vital:
Faith
Hope
Love
Members of our church align their lives and lifestyle with what we believe. We are an Assemblies of God congregation, which means we are a Pentecostal and Evangelical church.
We have faith that:
Jesus saved the lost
Jesus heals the sick
Jesus baptizes people in the Holy Spirit, evidenced by tongues
Jesus will come to get us again!
That is our faith, and it gives us hope. We have confidence that God will walk with us in this life and He will come back to get us very soon!
But the greatest of these is not our faith or our hope, it is our love.
The love of God will make us more devoted to God and His close. Remember:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
Anyone who is a member of Vulcan Assembly of God needs to be the most loving person around. If we are not loving, John wonders if we know God at all?
If we feel we cannot be loving, we need to ask for God’s help! Through the Holy Spirit, we can be loving:
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
When we devote Jesus, we will fall more in love with God, and when we fall more in love with God, we can’t help but love His people and His Church!
Close:
How do we describe a church member?
We are all different
We are all dependent
We are all devoted
Today is an exciting day, because we are bringing in new church members. But, it is also an important day for all of us, because regardless of how long we have been a member of Vulcan Assembly of God, we share the same responsibilities.
When I joined our church in Salem, MO, there was a membership covenant we signed. As I close this service, I want to walk through this for every member of our congregation, current and new:
As a member of Vulcan Assembly of God,
1). I WILL PROTECT THE UNITY OF MY CHURCH
· By acting in love towards other members
· By refusing to gossip
· By following the leadership
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
2). I WILL SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MY CHURCH
· By praying for its growth
· By inviting the unchurched to attend
· By warmly welcoming those who visit
2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers,
23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.
3). I WILL SERVE THE MINISTRY OF MY CHURCH
· By discovering my gifts and talents
· By being equipped to serve
· By developing a servant’s heart
10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
4). I WILL SUPPORT THE TESTIMONY OF MY CHURCH
· By attending faithfully
· By living a Godly life
· By giving regularly of my tithe & offerings
“Let us not give up the habit of meeting together… but let us encourage one another.”
27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,
2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
Let’s commit ourselves to these attributes of a church member! We are all different, we are all dependent, and we are all devoted. So we will:
1). I WILL PROTECT THE UNITY OF MY CHURCH
2). I WILL SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MY CHURCH
3). I WILL SERVE THE MINISTRY OF MY CHURCH
4). I WILL SUPPORT THE TESTIMONY OF MY CHURCH