Part 1: Church Members Function

Introduction

The sermon series

Today, we begin a new short sermon series (only 4 weeks long). We pause from our study of 1 Tim to look at the topic of church membership.

It goes right along with what we have been discussing in 1 Tim: leadership in the church—elders and deacons—and their character and roles. We even looked at some ideas pertaining to men and women in general.

Now, it’s a good time to hone in on all of us as members of Paoli Christian Church.

What does it mean to be a member of Christ’s church?

What do we mean when we say church membership?

Who should be considered a member?

What do members do?

I will be using Thom Rainer’s book I am a Church Member as a springboard and outline for this series (we have some in the foyer and have ordered more).

We will be looking at 4 main ideas over the next 4 weeks:

Members are to:

Function (chapt 1)

Strive for unity (chapt 2)

Set aside preferences and desires (chapt 3)

Submit and pray for their church leaders (chapts 4-6)

Intro to Church Members Function

Thom Rainer in his book I am a Church Member indicates that between 2004 and 2010, 9/10 churches in America are declining—in attendance (in general) and membership (in particular).

We now have more current studies that show us that this is still the case.

Graph Illustrations:

Church Membership Among US Adults Now Below 50% (Gallup)

Heritage Foundation Study: Religious Services: Frequency of Attendance

Pew Research Center: 33% of Americans say they attend religious services in person at least monthy - pay specifically attention to the Evangelical line

What is the issue here? Why is there a decline in church attendance and membership?

Certainly, there are probably multiple factors, but Rainer focuses upon one primarily:

“I am proposing that we who are church members need to look in the mirror. I am suggesting that congregations across America are weak because many of us church members have lost the biblical understanding of what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. We join our churches expecting others to serve us, to feed us, and to care for us.”

Thom Rainer, I Am a Church Member, 5

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (p. 5). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

We have lost why we are here, why we are the church. The American church has lost what its purpose is.

Rainer points out that too many have the idea that church membership is something akin to membership in a country club and thus think it is here to please and serve them individually.

Another way to put this is that many have succumbed to our American consumerist mentality: the church is here to serve our desires, opinion, and wants, and when it does not, we try another church restaurant with a menu that we like better.

Rainer gives some examples:

“This is my church, so you have to play the music just the way I want it.”

“Look pastor, you need to remember who pays your salary.”

“If you don’t do this program, I’ll withhold my check to the church.”

“I’ve been a member of this church for over thirty years, so I have a right to get what I want.”

“This church doesn’t do what I like, so I’m going to leave.”

“I don’t pay good money to this church to listen to sermons that long.”

Challenge in this sub-series: to become a church member God desires us to be.

I say “sub-series” bc this short series is in line with our series on 1 Timothy—the idea of a blueprint:

When the Church follows God’s design, it becomes the Church that God intended it to be.

A part of God’s design for his church is that:

Church members function.

When we become Christians, we also become a part of the church—a body of believers—and God has expectations of us. One of them is that we, as a body, function.

First, let’s look at this metaphor Scripture uses for the church:

1. The Church is a body (1 Cor 12:12-14).

1 Corinthians 12:12–14 NASB95

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

Illustration: Church as body

The body is one yet diverse (v.12).

1 Corinthians 12:12 NASB95

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

One body, multiple members/parts; Jesus as head throughout Scripture

Just as the body has multiple members, so it has multiple tasks.

Romans 12:4–5 NASB95

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

As a body, we also need to recognize that we, collectively, are the body of Christ in which God the Holy Spirit indwells:

1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB95

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

Everyone who is a Christian is a part of the church body (v.13-14).

1 Corinthians 12:13–14 NASB95

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

This is how we become part of the body.

What are some implications of being a body?

We stand in a unique relationship with Jesus.

We are in a covenantal relationship with Christ. We are committed to him as a husband and wife are to be committed to one another.

What we say and do are, therefore, very important. We are to reflect the character of Christ in all that we do and say. Which means:

We are to representatives of Christ in this world.

We are to point the way to Jesus; we are to show the world how to live and love.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:13 NASB95

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

Salt not only preserves and makes things taste good; it cleanses.

Matthew 5:14–16 NASB95

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

The world is supposed to see how we live and recognize that we are followers of Jesus. When they do, they are to be attracted to Jesus and glorify God.

But another implication of being a body is that it functions. It does things. This is the main point in our text and for today: the church as a body has members who function.

2. The body is to have members who function (1 Cor 12:15-26).

If a body does not function, if it does little or nothing, what is it? Dead.

Dead illustration

So, we are to function as Christ’s body, his church. Every member . . .

Every member has a function (v.15-24).

See descriptions in this text: nose, eyes, ears, etc.

1 Corinthians 12:15–24 NASB95

If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,

Discuss: several truths here, but focus on 2 for a moment: (1) every Christian is a part of the church body and we all have a particular function that we are to fulfill (2) there is no function that is more important than another one

“With a country club membership you pay others to do the work for you. With church membership, everyone has a role or function.”

Thom Rainer

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member (p. 12). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Everyone has a function; everyone is to use his or her gifts; everyone is important.

We ought not think that one gift is better than another, or think that one person is lesser than another because they have a different gift.

Romans 12:3 NASB95

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

If every member is to function, the next question is HOW are we to function as we use our gifts? What should be our motive?

Every member is to function out of love and care for others (v.25-26).

1 Corinthians 12:25–26 NASB95

so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Paul instructs us here that we are not to make distinctions among ourselves according to giftedness. We are not to divide ourselves into groups, thinking one is better than another.

There is to be unity in diversity.

(1) Love and care so we may be united, no division (v.25)

(2) 12:31 - chapter 13: Love

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NASB95

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

If we are to function from the motive of love and care for others, then we ought to be motivated to do something for one another: serve one another.

Every member is to function by serving others (v.27).

1 Corinthians 12:27 NASB95

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

Recall that every Christian in Scripture is called a diakonos, servant or minister.

This is the opposite of the culture and world (a consumerist mentality).

Matthew 20:20–23 NASB95

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to Him, “We are able.” He said to them, “My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”

Discuss

Matthew 20:24–27 NASB95

And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;

Service can be painfully difficulty. Reason: we are selfish. And so we must kill the Self. The essence of all sin and rebellion against God is pride, making ourselves the center of the universe.

As Harry Blamires [BLAM ers} writes in his book The Christian Mind: “In the Christian moral system the key sin is pride—that perversion of the will by which the self is asserted as the centre of the universe” (p.89)

“We are not merely imperfect creatures who must be improved: we are . . . rebels who must lay down our arms. . . . The question why our cure should be painful, is that to render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, wherever and however it is done, a grievous pain. . . . However often we think we have broken the rebellious self we shall still find it alive. That this process cannot be without pain is sufficiently witnessed by the very history of the word ‘Mortification.’” CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Illustration: Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Why do we, ultimately as church members not function or struggle with functioning in the church? Because we are selfish. The Ego; The Self.

We must kill our egos, the self. We do this by:

When we hear someone needs help, we help them; if someone needs food, we give them food; if someone needs yard work help, we help do the yard work

Conclusion

The church is a body that functions.

For the Christian today who is a member of PCC: challenge is to take the pledge at the end of the first chapter in the book that we are using as a guide for this series:

The First Pledge:

“I am a church member. I like the metaphor of membership. It’s not membership as in a civic organization or a country club. It’s the kind of membership given to us in 1 Corinthians 12: ‘Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it’ (1 Cor. 12:27). Because I am a member of the body of Christ, I must be a functioning member, whether I am an ‘eye,’ an ‘ear,’ or a ‘hand.’ As a functioning member, I will give. I will serve. I will minister. I will evangelize. I will study. I will seek to be a blessing to others. I will remember that ‘if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it’ (1 Cor. 12:26).”

________________________________________________Sign and Date

Rainer, Thom S.. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference (pp. 18-19). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.