My dear readers,

Membership

Membership implies benefits. Swimming and golf club memberships mean access to pools and golf courses respectively. Some memberships bring status; few can afford the high membership price in countries like Singapore. Most of us have memberships in clubs or gyms. Due to this common membership mentality, church membership might have lost its biblical significance. Not a few believers do not wish to be a member of any local church because they feel that membership is unnecessary; as long as they attend church and give their tithes and offerings, they believe they are right with God.

Is church membership supposed to be an integral part of every believer's life, or is it an appendix?

The local church concept was not an invention of the church or any believer! The Lord Jesus Christ is the Founder and Head of the church (visible and invisible). Colossians 1:18-20: "And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."

God founded the church witness in Christ to replace the national witness Israel, when the Sanhedrin Council that represented Israel rejected Christ's teachings and His claim to be God incarnate, and they crucified Him. Just as Israel was a visible witness for Christ in the Old Testament, the visible church (or local church) was the visible witness for Christ in the New Testament. God will always have His witness! The local church witness was born in Acts 2, during what is commonly known as the Pentecost, when Jews from all parts of the vast Roman Empire gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. The Lord ordained this Feast to bring salvation grace to 3,000 souls when Peter preached his first message after the ascension of Christ.

What constitutes a Christ-honouring local church witness?

Acts 2:42-47 reveals the key elements of a God-honouring church at the first church assembly, "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."

From the above passage, the essential spiritual elements that constitute a Christ-honouring church include preaching God's Word, Christian fellowship, the sacraments of water baptism (cf. Acts 2:41) and Lord's Supper, prayers and the sharing of lives and substance. Fellowship groups and Bible Studies were new additions to the modern-day church due to the needs and size of the congregations after the invention of the printing press and the 16^th Century Reformation. Every believer can hold in their hands a translation of the Bible and study the Bible for themselves.

Our church organised Fellowships for teenagers, youths, young adults, adults, senior adults and believers in their golden years to minister to their respective spiritual needs. These Fellowships must focus on God's Word. For example, the needs of teenagers are very different from the needs of adults in their golden years. Leaders from these Fellowships must plan messages from God's Word to cater to their respective needs. Believers struggling with similar problems in different stages of their lives can pray and help one another to lighten each other's burdens. Church life includes being blessed by other believers and blessing others in return when they serve one another in Christ. God describes this mutual help among believers in a church as ". . . labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (cf. 1 Cor 3:9). When we serve, we are co-labourers with God, building up the spiritual lives of others. When others serve, and their service blesses us, we are the husbandry or building, being built up in the faith. In this reciprocal way of ministering to one another, God's people help one another grow in grace and in the knowledge of God in Christ as one happy family praising and serving the Lord together.

Every believer must be a committed member of a sound biblical church to experience the above spiritual blessings. This is God’s will for His people in the NT local church witness. Membership means a commitment to Christ and being a blessing to one another in Christ. If a believer is not a member of a church, how can he serve effectively to God's glory? The church leaders cannot trust him with any spiritual responsibilities over the spiritual well-being of God's people, especially the children. His doctrines are unknown to the leaders. He did not make any covenantal promises to abide by the church's teachings and understanding of the Bible. If he is asked to teach a doctrine and it is different from what the church teaches, the leaders cannot rebuke him, for they appointed him without due diligence. The leaders will have hurt God's people, betraying the members' trust having allowed an outsider to teach God's Word erroneously.

The local church is a place for believers to grow spiritually from infancy to maturity. The leaders in every Christ-centred local church must protect, nurture, admonish and provide spiritual food for God’s children like it is their heavenly home on earth. Sinners must experience the gospel according to Scripture preached and taught in the church to be saved. The church is a spiritual witness for God’s people to the glory of God.

In these last days, fundamental local churches are very lacking because Jesus prophesied that in the last days, before His return for the church (called the First Resurrection or the Rapture), Christianity will fall away, i.e. become apostate. The generation of believers of the last days are living in perilous times because of the predominance of the false gospel and apostate churches. Many are professing believers rather than truly born-again believers where carnality is accepted as spirituality, and deceptions and erroneous doctrines are received as truth. There is a pervasive cultic mentality, whereby professing believers follow their leaders mindlessly; it dominates the last days Christianity as a preamble to the cultic worshipping of the Antichrist as God during the Great Tribulation. Relationships and friendships among leaders and believers have become the glue that unites people in churches rather than the redemptive work of Christ where Christ is the Head and only One to be exalted, and His truth is the cement that builds up His people in the church.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a sound biblical church that one can be committed to as a member in these last days. May God be merciful to protect and preserve all the sound and fundamental churches in these last days for the protection and blessing of God’s children and always for His glory in Christ.

Are you a member of a sound biblical church? If you are, be thankful to God and do your utmost to cherish and protect it for Christ’s sake.