The WHAT of Church Membership
What is my job as a church member? The answer to this question can be found in understanding the keys of the kingdom that Jesus gave to His church.
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.” Matthew 16:13-20.
Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ. He gets it right. This answer does not come from mere human observation. This belief comes only through a supernatural work as we see in 16:17—the Father in heaven revealed this to him.
Then Jesus declared that He will build his church on a rock. Petras is the word for rock in Greek. So Jesus renamed Simon the son of Jonah as Peter—the rock. Jesus intended to set His church upon a foundation. But God does not build his church on personality but on truth. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, and it is on this confession that God builds his church. God does not build his church on a line of bishops from Peter or on the papacy. The traditional, Protestant interpretation of this passage since the Reformation is that the rock is not Peter but the confession of Peter.
But we have to admit, that Peter can’t be separated from the confession; nor can the confession be separated from Peter. Peter is instrumental in the foundation of the church—he preached the first sermon at the festival of Pentecost. He is chief of the Apostles. And the Apostles wrote most of the New Testament and instructed the church. The church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Eph 2:20). There would be no church without the apostles.
Jesus also gave Peter keys, and by extension gives them to the rest of the Apostles. He is deputizing them with authority from heaven—“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (16:19). Whatever it is that they’re doing with these keys it has to do with locking and unlocking. They grant access or deny access. And what they do on earth, the reality will also have been true in heaven.
Who Holds the Keys?
But if we keep reading in Matthew, we’ll see something else interesting.
“Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault, between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18:15-20.
Just prior to this passage Jesus spoke of recovering the lost sheep; leaving the 99 to pursue the one. We learn that it is not the will of our Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. We must pursue those who go astray. Therefore, Jesus speaks about what to do with those who sin against us and go astray.
What should we do? First, we tell them. And we hope they repent. But what if he doesn’t? What should happen next is that more people need to get involved. Maybe the initially offended man is exaggerating his case. Maybe it’s not as serious as he claims. Therefore one or two others accompany the initial man, assess the situation, and if they too are convinced this man is in unrepentant sin, then they all together plead with the unrepentant sinner to repent.
But what if he refuses? Then what? Those witnesses tell it to the church. Notice what happens after that—“and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector” (18:17). First, the one man spoke to him, then the two or three, and now the whole church now is speaking to him. And there seems to be implied disbelief and shock that this unrepentant man would refuse to hear even the pleas of his church to repent.
If he refuses to repent after listening to the church, then what? They are to treat him as outside of God’s people. He is not to be a part of the church anymore. But then Jesus tells us something in verse 18 that we’ve seen before. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (18:18).
Jesus is now interpreting what he meant in chapter 16. What does it mean to loose and bind here on earth? It has something to do with this unrepentant man’s status in God’s community. The church has made a judgment. “Let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector.” They have decided to do something. In the next verse, Jesus speaks of binding and loosing. What does the decision of the church toward this man and the binding and loosing on earth have to do with one another? The answer is that Jesus is not changing the topic. He’s elaborating on it.
What the church says on earth about a person’s status in God’s community we learn that above in heaven there is agreement. Notice the connections in verses 16, 19, and 20. “one or two more with you,” “if two of you agree on earth,” and “where two or three have gathered.” Did you see how two or three are linked together in the passage? Jesus is speaking in one continuous theme. He is linking these verses all together.
Notice also verse 20. They are “gathered together in My name.” The word “church”, as we showed in the last article, means literally the gathering; assembly, or congregation. Jesus is linking verses 17 and 20—“tell it to the church” and “where two or three have gathered together in My name.”
What we learn in this passage is that the church is the final round of authority. First, one man goes, then two or three go, and then the church goes to the unrepentant man. There is no other group after the church. The church is the final stop. Jesus does not appeal to a higher authority here on earth because there is no higher authority on earth for His kingdom.
But why two or three? What significance does that number hold? Two or three is emblematic of the witnesses of the Old Testament law. Jesus said for one or two others to go along so that in total there would be two or three to help establish a case and to confirm every detail if it ever needs to be presented to the church for final deliberation. In Old Testament law, accusations must be verified by two or three witnesses. Therefore we should understand that the gathered, visible church is the basic unit of kingdom authority. The witnesses go before the final court for a decision. The congregation of the local church possesses the keys of the kingdom. They are the ones who bind or loose on earth. The keys of the kingdom do not belong to a papacy, but to the assembly.
Well, how does this relate to Peter’s confession—that we believe Jesus is the Christ and is the Son of God? The answer is given in the next section and is the purpose of Matthew including Peter’s next question about forgiveness:
“Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.’” 18:21-23.
To summarize the following parable for the sake of time: one servant is forgiven a staggering amount of money by the king, yet this servant refuses to forgive a much smaller amount from his fellow servant.
Now, look at the middle of the passage: “So, his fellow slave fell to the ground and was pleading with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So, when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened” (18:29-31).
His fellow servants saw him have an unforgiving spirit. They were distressed. But how many servants? Did you notice that? There is more than one. So, perhaps we could say there were two or three. They realize that this servant is not behaving as someone who was forgiven a vast sum of money should behave. They report this to their master, and the master agrees with them. He believes the witnesses. He calls this servant and says that the servant has not been changed by his forgiveness. Therefore, he is not forgiven.
Jesus concluded the story by connecting the king in the parable with His Father in Heaven. “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts” (18:35). The lesson we should learn is that how we relate to others shows whether we have a right relationship with our master in heaven. When your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault. How many times? As many times as he is in need of correction. And how many times should we forgive him if he is repentant? As many times as he is repentant.
But it may be that our brother is unwilling to forgive. He may be unwilling to let go of his sin. What do we do? We plead with him to repent. And if he doesn’t—if he refuses to listen even to the church—then we say, we cannot say with confidence anymore, based on your actions, that you are forgiven by our master in heaven. You say Jesus is the Messiah, come to bear our sins—that Jesus is the Son of God, according to Peter’s confession—and yet, your life does not show that Jesus is your Lord. Therefore we have decided not to treat you as an insider, but as an outsider to the church. Remember, the fellow servants were distressed by this man’s actions in the parable, and their master agreed with them. He too was troubled by this unrepentant behavior. So what is done on earth by the church there will be an agreement in heaven.
The first time the word “church” appears in our Bibles we see four things: (1) the confession of Peter as the entrance, (2) necessary evidence of discipleship that accompanies the confession of faith, (3) there is an inside and an outside to the church, and (4) the assembly of believers in the local church are those who hold the keys of the kingdom, declaring, in so far as humanly possible, those who are walking as true disciples, who both affirm the confession of Peter and live out evidence of discipleship that accompanies their confession of faith.
The Meaning of the Word “Church”
What does the word “church” actually mean? The English word church come from the Latin Kurios, meaning “Lord.” This is where we get the work Kirk. Simply, a church are those who are of the Lord.
But the literal word in the Greek, the language of the New Testament, is ekklesia. That word means assembly. (We explored this in the previous article through Acts 19:39-40). “The term Ekklesia was in common usage for several hundred years before the Christian Era and was used to refer to an assembly of persons constituted by well-defined membership. In general Greek usage, it was normally a soci-political entity based upon citizenship in a city-state” [Louw & Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, 1988.]
The word is made of two parts Ek = out. Kalo = call. Simply, the church are those who are called out. There have been some who have taken this meaning and spiritualized it. They say Christians are those who are called out from the world. Generally, this is spiritually true, but that’s not actually what the word means.
It means those who are called out from a larger body into a specific, smaller group for a political purpose. Robin Osborne, who is on the faculty of Cambridge, wrote this in his book The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture:
“The ekklesia of ancient Athens is particularly well-known. It was the popular assembly, open to all male citizens as soon as they qualified for citizenship, later changed to all citizens. This was the first pure democracy. The assembly was responsible for declaring war, military strategy and electing the military generals, and other officials. It was responsible for nominating and electing magistrates, thus indirectly electing the members of the Areopagus. It had the final say on legislation and the right to call magistrates to account after their year of office. A typical meeting of the Assembly probably contained around 6,000 people, out of a total citizen population of 30,000–60,000. It originally met once every month, but later met three or four times per month. The agenda for the ekklesia was established by the popular council. Votes were taken by a show of hands, counting of stones and voting using broken pottery.”
It should be noted that all this was happening 600 years before the birth of Christ. Democratic processes and members’ meetings are not new concepts.
Jesus has given authority to the gathering of Christians, which is called the church—ekklesia. They gather in his name, and the presence of Jesus is among them when they make decisions concerning the discipleship status of a person. Matthew 18:20 (“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst”) is not about poorly attended prayer meetings. Verse 20 is about when you vote someone out of the church. Jesus says I am among you, and I am approving of what you did, in so far as you have acted according to the confession of Peter in examining this person's life and confession. Verse 20 is about when we baptize someone based on their confession of faith and visible gospel fruit. Jesus says I am among you, and I am approving of what you did.
To bind or to loose is to render a judgment or verdict in heaven’s name. Remember, judges do not make laws. Nor do they make someone innocent or guilty. Judges compare one’s actions against the law to determine if they are innocent or guilty. When you walk into a courtroom to be on trial, you are either already innocent or guilty. The judge’s job is to find out which.
So in one sense, you either believe or don’t believe in the gospel. Either you have made the same confession that Jesus is the Christ and you have submitted your life to him, or you have not. The church’s job is to find out which. We are discipleship inspectors, and we declare our findings publicly. We affirm disciples in their discipleship. When we vote someone into membership or baptize them we are saying “Yes, we think you are a Christian, based on your confession and by what we have observed of your life.”
The keys of the kingdom deputize the holder to pronounce a judgment concerning the what and the who of the gospel. What is the right confession and practice of the gospel, and who is a right confessor. (See Jonathan Leeman’s Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism, 2016).
The Two Marks of the Church and Your Job Description
The true church must first have the pure preaching of the Word of God. They need to hold the true gospel. They need to understand it and affirm it and protect it. And secondly, they need to rightly administer the ordinances. They need to guard and oversee the community of those who have affirmed that pure gospel through who they baptize and who they give the Lord’s Supper to.
Jesus binds his authority and presence to the gathering of witnesses. There is a trust that Jesus has given to every Christian to take ownership of the gospel witness wherever they live. He authorizes them to do this not as individuals, but through their gathered assemblies. And these assemblies make decisions. Or we would say, they vote.
“A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord.” Baptist Faith & Message, 2000. Article 6.
Did you read that phrase “through democratic processes”? Where do we actually see this played out in the Bible? Are you saying people actually voted in the Bible? Are you saying that New Testament churches operated by democratic processes? They made decisions and took responsibility for their own churches and didn’t leave all the decisions to the leaders? Does the Bible really speak to how churches are to be organized?
Is This Really in the Bible?
Let’s look at five different passages together.
Acts 6:2-5
“So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this need. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.” And this word pleased the whole congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.
This is a more general passage that shows how the apostles respected the competency of the first church to make decisions. The apostles did not make every decision. They lead, they came up with the idea, but they left key matters for the church to decide. The church took ownership for their own gospel witness.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present: in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Did you notice any concepts or words that were similar to Matthew 18?
They are assembled when making a decision—“when you are assembled” / “where two or three have gathered together” (Matt 18:20).
They gather in the name of Jesus—“in the name of our Lord Jesus” / “gathered together in My name” (Matt 18:20).
The power and presence of the Lord are in the church assembly and in their decision—“with the power of our Lord Jesus” / “shall have been bound in heaven,” “I am there in their midst” (Matt 18:18, 20).
The church is making verdicts—“one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst” / “let him be to you as the Gentile” (Matt 18:17).
1 Corinthians 6:1-8
“Does any one of you, when he has a case against another, dare to be tried before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not worthy to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint those who are of no account in the church as judges? I say this to your shame. Is it really this way: there is not one wise man among you who will be able to pass judgment between his brothers? On the contrary, brother is tried with brother, and that before unbelievers! Actually, then, it is already a failure for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brothers.”
Did you again notice any concepts or words that were similar to Matthew 18? The concepts are the same—a brother sins against you. We can also see how Paul expects the congregation to be competent to try these cases.
2 Corinthians 2:5-7
“But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—in order not to say too much—to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather graciously forgive and comfort him, lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive sorrow.
We discussed this passage in the previous article. But consider what the word “majority” implies. (1) They knew who was a member of the church. (2) They had some sort of gathering. (3) They had a discussion. (4) They let people voice their positions. (5) And eventually the question was called. Will we remove this man? (6) And somehow they know who was for and who was against. (7) And they counted and knew they had a majority. In other words, it was a democratic process.
Please remember that these people were not Neanderthals. They knew what a senate was. They knew what a vote was. They knew what the Greek city-states were. They knew about democracy. This church took responsibility for the problems among themselves. They understood, based on Matthew 18 that the congregation had the authority to put people out of the church when it was necessary.
Galatians 1:6-9
“I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed!”
Whom is Paul addressing? He is addressing church members in the area of Galatia. Whom does Paul hold accountable for false teaching being allowed to spread among them? He expects the members of the church to take responsibility for the right teaching of the gospel.
2 Timothy 4:3.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.”
There is an assumption that the church has the ability to choose their own teachers. Paul is not talking about a podcast or future books the church members might purchase. Paul is talk about their choice to elect their own pastors and teachers. It is implied that the congregation has the authority to vote in and out their own teachers.
Where Does This Leave Us?
Both the New Testament’s explicit authorizations and descriptive examples demonstrate that the assembled congregation possesses the keys of the kingdom to bind and loose on earth what is bound and loosed in heaven. Congregationalism is not about mere democracy or voting on the color of pew cushions or photocopier purchases.
Congregationalism is the trust that Jesus has given to every Christian to take ownership of the gospel witness wherever they live. He authorizes them to do this through their gathered assemblies. The gathered assembly affirms the true gospel message; and it affirms those who belong to that gospel message through membership, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
As one pastor once told me, the gospel is like a diamond set in a ring. The church is the ring that holds the diamond witness. The prongs that hold the gospel in place are our holiness, our love, and our unity. We can lose that gospel witness and the diamond fall out if we are no longer holy, no longer loving, no longer united in truth, or no longer embracing the true gospel.
Whose job is it to make sure that we hold onto that diamond of gospel witness? It is your job. And it is my job.
Practically, what does this mean for what we vote on? What is the congregation’s jurisdiction? What things should we be involved in?
I believe biblically there is a strong case to be made that a congregation should exercise a vote in matters of (1) membership admission and removal, (2) matters concerning the church’s statement of faith, (3) who the pastors are, (4) the annual church budget (which sets the overall trajectory of our gospel ministry), and (5) anything else that would affect the overall direction of our gospel ministry or affect the peace and unity of the church.
The final arbiter, in matters of disciple and doctrine, is the membership of the church. You may be at a church one day where all of the pastors of the church may want to abandon the gospel. But it is the responsibility of the church to say No!, and to fire them, if necessary, if the pastors ever try to lead a church to abandon the gospel.
Where Do I Begin?
Here are two meaningful ways you can start:
(1). Help guard the front door. At our church, First Baptist Church Lindale, we believe in meaningful membership. The foundation is that every member should be a Christian. So we are careful about who joins the church. We have a three-hour membership class. We ask every member candidate to write out their testimony. We publish abbreviated member testimonies so that other members can read them before voting on them. Every member candidate sits down with a pastor and they discuss the gospel. We tell our people that they have a responsibility on the front end in examining these people. If you see something concerning about them, then speak up before we vote on them.
(2) Spur on those inside. We need people to spur us on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Make an effort to make friends in the church. Take people out to lunch or breakfast on your own initiative. Talk to them about what they’re learning in the Bible. Ask how you can be praying for them.
Ministry in the church shouldn’t always come with a t-shirt. Take your own initiative to help others look like Jesus. Don’t wait on a pastor to tap you on the shoulder and give you permission to go visit someone’s home or to take them a meal.
You have a responsibility also on the back end in your fellow members’ ongoing discipleship—not just to vote them in, but also to look after them. Your Jesus-given, kingdom job at this church requires you to take responsibility for one another. To that end, we also publish a Member Directory. We encourage our members to pray through it page by page.
Our vote to accept someone into membership is a pledge to say I will keep our member covenant with them. Your vote is a promise. I will pray for you. I will use my words to encourage you when you are faith-hearted. I will admonish you when you are idle.
Is This Strange?
Maybe this all sounds strange to you. American culture has trained us to be consumers. Many people assume that their needs count for more than their loyalty. “My needs are not being met, so I’ll jump to another church that can meet my needs.” After all, when you go to Wal-Mart you’re not interested in helping fellow shoppers govern the store.
President George W. Bush once spoke about the soft bigotry of low expectations. My friend, Jesus is calling you to something better than merely attending church as you would attend a movie theater.
Because as the kingdom of priests, as being a part of God’s visible authority on earth, you have been given the keys of the kingdom. You have access to Scripture, access to God, and access to gifts for ministry. And with the keys that He has given you Jesus expects you to exercise that authority with your local church.
You are competent to know the gospel and to defend the gospel. You are competent to oversee the church’s statements of faith and the church’s membership. You are competent to take ownership over the gospel witness of your church.