In a world obsessed with autonomy, where Christians often treat the local church like a spiritual buffet, sampling what suits them and leaving when it doesn’t, the biblical vision of the church stands in stark contrast. Scripture presents the church as the covenantal body of Christ, a community where believers are bound to one another in radical interdependence. As Michael Horton aptly puts it, “A church is not a group of friends that I’ve picked, it’s a group of brothers and sisters that God has picked for me. So I can’t just pick up and leave if I don’t like something…” Church membership is not an optional extra but a biblical mandate, essential for a faithful and healthy Christian life. It provides the structure for shepherds to know their flock, for members to know their shepherds, and for the keys of the Kingdom to be wielded faithfully through the sacraments and covenantal worship.
The Biblical Foundation of Church Membership
Scripture portrays the church as a unified body. In Romans 12:4–8, Paul writes, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” This is no loose affiliation. The imagery is organic—like limbs attached to a torso. Each member has a distinct role, but all are interconnected, contributing to the health of the whole. To claim you can be a Christian without belonging to a local church is like saying a hand can thrive detached from the body. It’s unnatural and defies God’s design.
This theme continues in 1 Corinthians 12:14–20, where Paul rejects the notion of a body part declaring independence: “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” God has arranged the members as He chose. The local church is a divine institution where believers live out their calling in submission to one another. To reject this is to reject the Creator’s blueprint.
The Covenant of Membership
Church membership is the formal expression of this biblical reality. It’s a covenant—a solemn, mutual commitment between a Christian and a local church. The church baptizes or affirms the individual’s baptism and, where applicable, their profession of faith, promising oversight and care for their discipleship. The individual submits to the church’s authority and love, pledging to serve the body. This covenant isn’t about extra rules; it’s about embodying our membership in Christ’s universal body in a concrete, local way.
As a Reformed Church, we hold to covenant baptism, recognizing that God’s promises extend to believers and their children (Acts 2:39). Children of believers are baptized into the covenant community, marked as Christ’s own, and raised to live in line with their baptism. For new converts or members transferring from other churches, we require a seemingly credible profession of faith alongside a valid baptism. But for covenant children, baptism is their entry into the church, and their lives are to reflect that covenantal reality. Membership, then, is about covenant faithfulness, beginning with a valid baptism and continuing on with a life that honors it.
The Sacraments and the Keys of the Kingdom
The sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—are central to the church’s life and the exercise of the keys of the Kingdom, as they visibly enact God’s covenant promises. The sacraments are not mere symbols but efficacious means of grace, conveying what they signify to those who receive them in faith. The right preaching of God’s Word typically brings people to conversion, awakening faith through the Spirit’s power. Baptism then incorporates believers and their children into the covenant community, marking them as God’s own and granting them the privileges and responsibilities of covenant life. Baptism is not a bare sign but a divine act that objectively unites us to Christ and His body, conferring the promises of forgiveness and the Spirit (Acts 2:38–39).
The Lord’s Supper sustains and nourishes this covenant standing. Through communion, the church affirms members’ ongoing union with Christ and one another, strengthening their faith as they feed on Christ’s body and blood by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 10:16–17). The Supper is a covenant meal, not just a memorial but a real participation in Christ’s life-giving presence, renewing the covenant and equipping believers for faithful living. These sacraments, administered within the covenant community, are integral to the keys of the Kingdom—binding and loosing (Matthew 16:19, 18:15–20). Baptism binds individuals to the church, while communion looses them to live as God’s people, and both undergird the church’s authority to discipline and restore.
The Power of Covenant Renewal Worship
Central to the church’s life is Covenant Renewal Worship, the liturgical rhythm that shapes our identity and mission as God’s people. Each Lord’s Day, we gather to participate in a divine drama that renews our covenant with God and one another. This liturgy—rooted in Scripture and the pattern of heavenly worship—follows a distinct movement: we are CALLED to worship by God’s gracious initiative, humbling ourselves before His majesty; we CONFESS our sins and our faith, acknowledging our need for grace and our trust in Christ; we are CLEANSED by Christ’s atoning work, assured of the pardon He provides; we are CONSECRATED by the right preaching of the Word, experiencing the culture of heaven and being equipped to align our lives with God’s Kingdom and will, so that His will is done on earth as it is in heaven; we COMMUNE with Him at His table, united with His people in the Lord’s Supper; and we are COMMISSIONED with His blessing (benediction), sent out to live for His good pleasure, spreading the knowledge of His glory until it covers the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).
This Covenant Renewal Worship is profoundly formative, but its impact is magnified when we worship alongside a known, accountable community. Membership ensures that we are not strangers in the pews but brothers and sisters bound by covenant, sharing in the same promises, burdens, and mission. Knowing and being known by those we worship with deepens our confession, strengthens our communion, and sharpens our commissioning, as we are held accountable to live out the covenant we renew each week.
The Necessity of Defined Membership
Membership is critical for mutual accountability and the proper functioning of church leadership. Pastors and elders are called to shepherd a specific flock, not every Christian indiscriminately. Hebrews 13:17 commands believers to “obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” Elders will answer to God for those entrusted to their care, not for the universal church at large. Likewise, Christians are not called to submit to every pastor or elder but to those God has placed over them in their local congregation. Without a defined membership, this relationship becomes impossible. How can shepherds know their sheep, or sheep their shepherds, if the flock is undefined?
This clarity is essential for wielding the keys of the Kingdom through preaching, sacraments, discipline, and liturgy. Faithful church discipline, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 5, requires a defined “us.” Paul instructs the church to “purge the evil person from among you,” but this is incoherent without a clear boundary of who is “among you.” Membership, rooted in baptism, sustained by communion, and shaped by Covenant Renewal Worship, establishes this boundary, enabling the church to exercise discipline lovingly and faithfully, calling members to repentance and protecting the body’s purity. Without membership, the keys are fumbled, and the church’s witness is weakened.
Why Membership Matters
John Stott captures the urgency of this truth: “If the church is central to God’s purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives. How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the perimeter what God has placed at the center?” The church is God’s plan to display His glory (Ephesians 3:10). It’s not a side project but the stage where His redemptive work unfolds through Word, sacrament, and liturgy. To sideline the church is to sideline God’s purpose for your life.
Though being a member of God’s church is a great privilege, membership isn’t just about privilege—it’s about responsibility. Scripture commands believers to love, serve, exhort, forgive, and bear one another’s burdens. These require a specific people, a local body where you’re known and accountable, united through the sacraments and Covenant Renewal Worship. Without formal commitment, these commands are optional, subject to convenience. But the Christian life is a call to die to self, to seek the good of others in the messy, beautiful reality of a local congregation.
Objections and the Lone Ranger Fallacy
Some resist membership, claiming they can follow Jesus alone. But this lone ranger mentality defies Scripture. You can’t obey the “one another” commands in isolation. You can’t submit to elders without a church. You can’t receive the sacraments or participate in Covenant Renewal Worship apart from the covenant community. You can’t grow into maturity without the sharpening of fellow believers. A brick lying alone isn’t fulfilling its purpose; it’s meant to be built into a house. Similarly, a Christian unattached to a church isn’t living the life Christ intends.
Others hesitate due to past wounds—hypocrisy, legalism, or abuse in churches. These sins grieve God, but the answer isn’t to abandon the church; it’s to find a faithful, gospel-preaching congregation and commit to its health. The church isn’t perfect, but neither are you. That’s why we need each other—to grow, correct, and persevere, nourished by Word, sacrament, and liturgy.
A Call to Covenant
In a culture that prizes autonomy, church membership is a radical act of obedience. It’s a declaration that you belong to Christ and His people, marked by baptism, sustained by communion, shaped by Covenant Renewal Worship, and lived out in covenant community. It’s a pledge to submit to your shepherds, to serve your fellow members, and to uphold the church’s discipline. The church is God’s family, His flock, His bride. To love Christ is to love His church, and to love His church is to covenant with a local body.
Why wouldn’t you join a church? What’s holding you back from committing to a people who will walk with you toward glory? Find a faithful church, receive or affirm your baptism, partake in the Lord’s Supper, worship in covenant renewal, and take your place in the body. Your faith—and the church—will be stronger for it.