Are You a Chruch Member or Attender: Functioning Membership

1 Corinthians 12:26–27 KJV 1900

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Membership has perks...

If you are a member of a

Whether you are a member of a Sam’s club, a bike club, a golf club, Book club, Yacht club or the neighborhood club in your back yard tree house

They all have one thing in common - BENEFITS!

If you are a member of a club, then you can expect certain things...

When I was a boy, my friend Mike Uzzell and I had out own club. Way back in the woods, high in a tree we built it and the membership was exclusive!

Mike, Phillip Texture, Johnny Edwards, James, Scott Rowe

You can probably tell by the names what the main membership perk was...

NO GIRLZ ALLOWED!

No other rules… I mean you had to pack into the back country on mules to get there - swing across the creek on a rope and climb 30’ up a tree to get into the club!

Only problem was at 12 and 13 yrs old, it didn’t take long to figure out that maybe our one rule was not so smart!

We have know from our early days that membership has its rewards and perks.

Membership means I am served.

Church membership has taken on the same meaning...

Church is about what I can get from it...

You might be a Church

Someone else will take care of it...

Because I am a member here, there are things I expect.

I need this program for my kids...

Don’t make me withhold my tithe check...

This is the style of music I expect...

I don’t pay good money to listen to sermons that long!

You know how long I’ve been a member here?

If you’ve ever made those statements or had those thoughts, you may not have a biblical understanding of Church membership - as defined in the Word of God.

You tithe, offering and special gifts are not membership dues.

You time chasing a vacuum cleaner around the sanctuary is not a putting in your time for special consideration down the road.

In God’s eyes, member ship cost him everything!

Let’s spend some time looking at what that means.

, , and 14 gives an in-depth look at church membership.

Home Work: Read and study

Chapeter 12 = Many member

Chapter 13 = Central governing attitude

Chapter 14 = Deals with Corinth who has a wrong view of membership

Modern view of Church Membership:

Country Club

What benefits me

Business/organization

Profit and loss and making money

1 Corinthians 12:27–28 KJV 1900

27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

Verse 27: members of a church comprise the whole and are the essential parts of it.

Members are individual parts of the whole body.

Some are eyes, ears, noses, feet and others hands...

1 Corinthians 12:12 KJV 1900

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

Membership means everyone is different, BUT must work together.

In the country club, you pay others to do what you don’t...

In the church everyone has their own job to do!

Each part has to do it’s job or the body suffers...

The whole body stops functioning

1 Corinthians 12:26 KJV 1900

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Corinthians 12:26 KJV 1900

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

Membership Means that Everything we Say and Do is based in LOVE.

is commonly called the love chapter and is one of the most referred to chapters of the Bible.

Used at weddings

Vow renewals

Teaching of Dating

How to handle sin

Teaching of agape

Yet rarely as it is given...

The motivating attribute of the church!

If we could figure out how to live by the love chapter, we wouldn’t need much else!

Revolutionize our church!

The problem is we have allowed society to define what love is rather than God!

Love is patient, kind, does not envy, is not boastful, conceited, improper, selfish, provoked or keep record!

These principles in alone have the ability to change church as we know it!

We don’t love church members only...

We don’t just love the unloveable...

We don’t just love when thing are feeling fight...

(One of the greatest lies of all time is the idea of “falling in love”. You think that Jesus “fell in love with you”?)

Church Membership should be Functioning Membership

How do you maintain membership in your favorite club?

Pay your dues...

You do and you will be served.

How do you maintain biblical membership?

Give cheerfully and service without hesitation

What is BIBLICAL church member is not...

CEO - Christmas and Easter Only

We will always have those who fill the roster sheets...

110 ppl on the roster and ______ here...

People who fill like their financial support are dues...

People that feel like their position gives them rights…

That is NOT biblical membership!

Has no place in our churches...

Biblical Membership is giving and serving without qualification!

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP IS FUNCTIONING!

Note: Body is unified

Hand does not involuntarily wave...

But it does involuntarily attend to the body… scratch an itching nose without thinking about it

Note: One body many parts.

Each part has it’s function and does it automatically

Note there is no such thing as an inactive church member...

What about the appendix?

I say there’s a purpose, man has just not figured it out yet!

Conclusion:

Conclusion:

One of the most important questions you should ask yourself is: “How can I best serve the church?”

What is my function?

Church researcher Thom S. Rainer suggests that church rolls are inflated by a factor of 3.

In other words, in a church of 300, there are only 100 true Biblically defined members…

I am making a call for you to become a functioning part of this church!

Over the next several weeks, we are going to be studing what church membership as the Bible says and making some commitments.

The First Commitment

I am a church member.

I like the metaphor of membership. It’s not membership in a civic organization or a country club. It’s the kind of membership given to us in “Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it”. 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 it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” .

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Date:

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