A QUESTION I WAS ASKED:
Is Membership of a Local Church Congregation Necessary For Salvation?
I received this thoughtful and deep-thinking e mail recently:
“Is membership
of a specific local church necessary for salvation? My pastor says it
is not, but that I should still make a commitment to his
congregation. I am reluctant because of previous bad experiences.
Within the last 15 years I have twice been a member of a church but
with a bad final outcome. On the first occasion shortly after
becoming a member of a church I was involved in a very deeply hurtful
incident with a member of that church. The pastor assured me of his
support but his words meant nothing because although he knew I would
not be able to attend for a while, within mere weeks I was apparently
no longer even considered a member and he never rang me even once. I was
apparently just forgotten about. This deeply hurtful and very disappointing episode was noticed
by my non-Christian family members -hardly a good advertisement for Christianity!
Then for a few years I considered
myself 'independent' which was brilliant because I could travel all
over the country and visit my friends in their churches.
When I was
at home I seemed to vary church attendance between about three places
but sometimes I simply stayed at home. I gave my offerings to a
famous Christian charity during this time rather than to any local
church and my conscience was entirely clear about it. Then two years
ago I finally decided to take on 'church membership' again, but
within weeks I knew that I should have resisted the arm-twisting. The
pastor insisted that I stopped supporting my charity and give the
money to them instead. Looking back it was obvious that he only saw
my membership as a way to increase their money takings. My experience
of the last 15 years is that I have taken “church membership”
more seriously than the pastors who talked me into it have. The second
pastor told me to travel less because they needed my money!! (Not
exactly subtle!!) I am now resisting membership of a local church. Am
I doing right? What is your view?”
( B.L.J., N.C., USA)
Now
here is the truth: There is not a single Scripture which anybody can
quote to show that we should make an ongoing commitment (financial or
otherwise) to a specific local church congregation! If I were you,
to be perfectly frank, I would continue to resist it. I am afraid
that evangelical churches (which should really know better) are often the
worst at encouraging commitment or “membership” to/of a
specific congregation. I also have to sadly agree that “church
membership” is all too often seen as a purely financial affair.
Our own experience is strangely not too dissimilar to the lady who e mailed.
The very last place where I was put under pressure to become a
member, I plainly told the leaders that my commitment was to my
websites and not to them (our websites are reaching 20,000 plus people per
year with biblical truth - Update: By late 2006 our sites were receiving 100,000 plus 'hits' per year),
but that we were happy to attend their
congregation for the time being. I told the senior pastor that there
is a big world out there and many folk urgently need biblical truth
and I see Museltof Countercult and Apologetics as an evangelistic
mission which the Lord has presently graciously granted to me. But he was
completely disinterested in that, only having interest in the tiny
group of people he was able to influence (about 35-50 local people
per year).
In our city a small group of evangelical ministers meet regularly
to consider their evangelistic tactics. They (perhaps somewhat arrogantly)
undoubtedly see themselves as the final bastions of Christian truth in our city, yet,
in a single year and through my websites, I am influencing
about ten times as many people as this group of ministers put together! They have a
'local focus only' approach. I am also increasingly reaching the sort of people that local churches
can never reach: the sort of people who would never dream of
walking into a church hall yet who do have genuine
questions about the gospel. I feel that the myopic approach toward the
evangelistic potential of one's local congregation (but, mostly, not to other local congregations!)
is, at times, not only legalistic but is an example of the religiosity which Jesus
observed in the Pharisees!
To
be utterly frank, some of the strongest and most commited Christians
that I know are no longer members of any local congregation although
they all (as we do) have many Christian friends. My judgment –
for what its worth – is that specific local church congregation
membership may well be a part of a system which is coming to an
end. I don't think Christians can deny that Globalism is where
we are right now (with its good side and bad side) and we should
proceed and be prepared to evangelize within that current reality.
Yes, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, we do need to meet together
for fellowship and worship but there are many ways we can do that.
Some Christians seem to really prosper as long-time members of a
particular congregation and I don't think we can knock that, but many
other believers are increasingly challenging this 'local-focus only'
approach, as I do. At the present moment neither my wife nor I are members of any local congregation
(although we have good relations with several such congregations) and I do
not anticipate this changing. I realise that my position challenges many
long held assumptions about church worship patterns - especially among
evangelicals - but I believe there is a time to challenge religious assumptions and traditions.
Traditionally we evangelicals have advised new believers to
'Join a local evangelical church' but I think I would say,
'Seek a warm association with 2 or 3 local evangelical churches.' Our
commitment should be to the Lord Jesus Christ and to Holy Scripture
but not necessarily to any single local congregation which might be
fine now but – with any future change in pastor – could
go into serious error! My advice to Christians would be: be
careful and cautious what you might be agreeing to as an ongoing
commitment!
Robin
A. Brace
2004.