What is Church Membership?
by Jonathon Leeman, 9 Marks

First, you may ask the question: What is church membership?
Answer: It’s a declaration of citizenship in Christ’s kingdom. It’s a passport. It’s an announcement made in the pressroom of Christ’s kingdom. It’s the declaration that a professing individual is an official, licensed, card-carrying, bona fide Jesus representative.

More concretely, church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and a Christian characterized by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.

Notice that several elements are present:
• a church body formally affirms an individual’s profession of faith and baptism as credible;
• it promises to give oversight to that individual’s discipleship;
• the individual formally submits his or her discipleship to the service and authority of this body and its leaders.

The church body says to the individual, “We recognize your profession of faith, baptism, and discipleship to Christ as valid. Therefore, we publicly affirm and acknowledge you before the nations as belonging to Christ, and we extend the oversight of our fellowship.” Principally, the individual says to the church body, “Insofar as I recognize you as a faithful, gospel-declaring church, I submit my presence and my discipleship to your love and oversight.”

The standards for church membership should be no higher or lower than the standards for being a Christian, with one exception. A Christian is someone who has repented and believed, and that’s who churches should affirm as members. The only additional requirement is baptism. Church members must be baptized, a pattern that is uniform in the New Testament. Peter said to the crowds in Jerusalem, “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38). And Paul, writing the church in Rome, simply assumes that everyone who belongs to the Roman church has been baptized (Rom. 6:1-3).

Church membership, in other words, is not about “additional requirements.” It’s about a church taking specific responsibility for a Christian, and a Christian for a church. It’s about “putting on,” “embodying,” “living out,” and “making concrete” our membership in Christ’s universal body. In some ways, the union which constitutes a local church and its members is like the “I do” of a marriage ceremony, which is why some refer to church membership as a “covenant.”

It’s true that a Christian must choose to join a church, but that does not make it a voluntary organization. Having chosen Christ, a Christian has no choice but to choose to join a church.

New Member Orientation Class
We offer a New Member Orientation Class that can be done before or after someone becomes a member of the church. This class goes into detail about what we believe as a church and how one can be involved in the work that God is doing at Allen Heights Baptist Church. Our next Connect Class will be held in the fellowship hall on April 7th and 14th at 9:30 AM. Please RSVP by emailing thechurch@allenheightsbc.org. Childcare is available upon request.

How Can I join Allen Heights Baptist Church?
(according to Article 1, Section 3 in the Church Constitution and By Laws)

A person shall be considered a member after that person has presented himself or herself in a worship service and been counseled by the Pastor.  New members will be expected to participate in the church’s new member orientation plan.  A person may present themselves for membership by any of the following ways:

1.) By profession of faith. A person publicly confessing personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, giving evidences of a regenerate heart and adopting the covenant and the articles of faith and practices held by the church, shall upon baptism, be admitted into the fellowship of the church.  New Christians are expected to participate in the church’s new Christian training program.
2.) By statement. Any person who has made a profession of faith and been baptized by immersion in a Southern Baptist church or in a church of like faith and order, but who, because of loss of records or similarly unavoidable circumstances cannot produce a letter of transfer, may be received into membership by statement.
3.) By letter. Any person from another Southern Baptist church or from a church of like faith and order may be received into membership upon receipt of letter of transfer from that respective church.

For More Information
Please contact the church office if you have any questions about Church Membership or if you would like to join us at Allen Heights Baptist Church. Phone: 972-727-9136 or E-mail: thechurch@allenheightsbc.org