CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTENDING A BIBLICAL CHURCH

The inception of the church can be well traced over 2000 years back when Christ proclaimed “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matt. 16:18). “Hades” here stands for hell and thus we can safely arrive to the conclusion that the devil is not asleep in the ‘church-building business’. He is in hot pursuit of the church, wants to obliterate it and frustrate its efforts, but as Christians, we rest on the fact “the gates of Hades will not overcome it”.

The profound importance the church bears should then be evident to us via the strong force that is against it and who eventually promises to cushion it and see it through to the end.

In the New Testament, we see the word ‘church’ appear quite often. There are elements required in order for a church to exist and among these elements are its members. This brings me to the issue of ‘Church Membership’. Many people who claim to be Christians in Kenya tend to downplay this issue in as much as it is important. Well, church membership has not been concisely described by definition in the New Testament; however, there is a kicking presence of it. The book of Acts clearly brings out the issue of membership and refers to members of a church as ‘believers’.

During Peter’s time, whenever a sinner received salvation, he/she would be instantaneously identified with a certain group of people; the church (Ref. Acts 2: 38). There are also a number of responsibilities that come about with being a member of a church, and this boils down to the question, “what should I look for in a Church?’.  As Christians, our conviction is that the Bible is efficient and that we rely on it as our authority, and thus the beauty of this question is that the answer conspicuously lies in the Bible. Therefore I’ll do my best to back my findings with Bible verses as I narrow down on one specific critical element of a Biblical church.

A Biblical Church is:

·         GOSPEL-CENTRED

The gospel is the cornerstone of the church.  The mission of the church is to preach salvation and what Christ did for us on the cross. A church that preaches the gospel, glorifies God (Ref. Philippians 2:11). Eph.3:21 clearly explains that God will be glorified in every church that focuses on Jesus. If our passionate motive is to glorify God, then, we must constantly preach, teach, and be reminded of what Christ did for us on the cross.

In this day and age, churches are multifaceted and rocked by different doctrines. This has caused a wave of confusion concerning what direction to take when settling for a church (again the confusion only creeps in when we decide to be ignorant of what the Bible tells us).

God’s design for the church was not for it to preach and purely maximize on the ideologies of sentimentalism, moralism, emotionalism or legalism for this matter as is the trend of majority of churches today. When we dissect these doctrines and compare and contrast them with the early church, we find that these are some of the things the Bible deems ‘strange teachings ‘of which Paul in the Bible gives a stricture (Ref. 1 Timothy 1:3-11). We should keep it at the back of our minds that at the end of the day, it is all about God’s glory. In viewing the above doctrines and many more including mysticism (Paulo Coelho and the likes) we discover that these are self-centered teachings that only magnify man’s sin… ‘How to get rich quick’, ‘Channeling your inner vision’, ‘how to get back to your enemies’….the list is endless. No semblance of God’s glory in this. We can’t call ourselves Christians if all we believe in is in prosperity of wealth, health etc. Our prosperity, again, as the Bible puts it, is in heaven not on earth. May I encourage you to trust God for salvation and not the worldly things? If we put our trust in prosperity we risk hell for trusting in the wrong thing other than Christ Jesus who died for us on the cross so that before God, He sees us as spotless and righteous. Can’t we at least show an appreciation for this?

When believers joined the early church for example, their conviction was not based on these. Nor was it what we call today Prosperity Gospel. Their conviction and means of conversion was predicated upon belief, repentance and baptism (Ref. Acts 2:38)

When Paul addresses the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:1, he starts by reminding them of the Gospel, and warns them not to side track from it, otherwise their belief would be in vain.

As a means of conclusion, let me take this moment to challenge you that as accountability will be demanded on the day of judgment from our spiritual authorities, so will our accountability be demanded as members of the church: how we executed our roles as members, including what sought of church we attended, how we listened, what we listened to and whether all these at the end of the day gave God his due glory.

Food for thought: Is your church Bible-centered when it comes to preaching the gospel or are you part of the Hades that is frustrating the church? I am not asking here whether you use the Bible in your church but whether your pastor FAITHFULLY preaches the Bible a lone and the pure gospel. Many today add to it and minus from it in their preaching. Be warned. 

Article by:  Lois Oduor