Are you fricking kidding me?!?!?!

You have read about my experience with church membership. And, my guess is that you have some experience with it yourself. I provided an article at the end of my last post that was recently forwarded to me as a positive reason for instituting a church membership program. I promised a personal response to this article, so here it goes...

As I read this article for the first time the other day, tears ran down my face. No my friend, these were not tears of joy, but tears of anger. My heart is saddened by the red tape that we as human beings love to put up in the church. Let me explain. I wholeheartedly agree that the church should be a place with high standards. That is what we are called to in God's Word! How we interpret that is a different story.

First of all, I LOVE this line from the article... "The church should be less like a cruise ship and more like a battleship, says Ken Sande of Peacemaker Ministries." That is fricking hilarious! I am not sure I have ever been to a cruise ship type church (except what I have heard of a new Christian cruise line on KLOVE). We should be more like a battleship? Says Ken of PEACEMAKER MINISTRIES??? WHAT?? Once again, a little confused.

Then, to go into the story of the church who had a crook in the community steal money from its congregation is PITIFUL! So, Ken is saying that the number one reason churches should have membership is so they don't get sued????? Do we as Christ Followers really view God as that small? Yes, we live in a sue happy society, but of all places, the church should be the light in the darkness willing to speak truth no matter what the cost. Honestly, is a signed piece of paper saying that someone agrees to the churches policies and bylaws going to hold up in court anyways? I have heard it said that it is always better to have a paper trail, but come on! This whole concept makes me sick!

Then, Ken speaks about our cultures resistance toward commitment. We should be leery of committing to every random organization! The problem is, the church is not a random organization. It should be a movement of people who love God and want to be a part of a mission that is bigger then themselves. If this were the case in today's church communities, then membership would be totally un-necessary!

He goes on and on then about how membership might be perceived by outsiders as elitist. Well, no crap! How would you like to walk in the door of a new church for the first time and have it made abundantly clear to you that you do not belong! Forgive the seeker-sensitive side of me. but why does the church need exclusive cliques, and why on earth would we require formal membership for a person to be able to express their faith in God and therefore serve faithfully in His church? It is LUDICROUS! Really, who do we think that we are???

I don't care what we do as a church, the front and back door as Ken says will always be revolving! That is life. We are human. Things change, and that in my opinion is good. People will come and go. It should never be about numbers! Who cares if you have the biggest church in your city? Who cares if people leave your community and go to another life-giving, Christ centered community? Praise God that people are joining the spiritual movement in your city, no matter what specific church or denomination they choose to be a part of!

All this crap about church policies, by laws and consents makes me literally want to throw up! (Can you tell I am passionate about this issue?) We as the church will die and will never accomplish anything that we have been called to accomplish by God because we will be stuck under mounds of paperwork, red tape and our butts will forever be sitting in committee meetings and membership classes. What is the point?

Will someone please tell me what the Bible or what Christ have to say about church membership?????

Basically, I feel as though I can not be a part of the "Real" church unless I go to a 12 week class, profess my faith (again, as if my baptism was not good enough) and sign on to all of the churches rules and regulations. That my friends is a sad day! As a passionate lover of Jesus, I will take no part. Now, does that mean that I wont faithfully serve my community with my time, talent and treasure? NO! That is not what that means.

How about this... What if our churches focused on their mission and calling as a church instead? What if we as leaders in the church cast such a strong, passionate vision for our communities that people would do anything to be a part of the movement? What if we actually believed the things that we hold as truth? What if our church was passionate about our local communities and making a HUGE impact for Christ? What if we actually understood the Great Commission as our primary purpose for existing? Can you imagine?

I have visited a church like this. The vision is communicated to its people every single week, on every publication and every where they look. The vision is so strong that people are literally flooding into this place to be a part of what God is doing there. As part of their vision, their people are all expected to serve. You can create that culture. People are joyful and excited to give everything they have to the cause of Christ.

If we as leaders feel like our only option to get people to step up their involvement in our churches is to require membership, then we as leaders have a BIG problem! We are totally missing the point. The church is not a random organization. It is a group of people called by God to change the world for Him. Anything less than that is a shame! When we commit our lives to Christ, that is a much bigger deal to me than signing a piece of paper that says I am a formal member of such and such church! It is almost comical when you compare the two.

Think about who Jesus himself chose to spend his time with? Were the tax collectors and lepors and prostitutes official members? Had they taken the class? Did they need to before they could be a part of Jesus? I am sure not going to argue with that. We have lost our focus!

Let us join together in prayer for our churches, our cities and for new leaders to rise up and cast vision and passion in our communities, so that the church of Jesus Christ can rise up and change the world!