“We just want people to think of the church as their family.”
In our church’s membership process, one topic I always cover is the idea of formal membership. Some Christians instinctively resent any whiff of formality in the membership process. Having a class, interview, and official vote on their membership makes them feel like we’re suspicious of their commitment to the church or that our church is more about filling out the proper forms than it is about family.
Every church has a sense of membership. Every church has some kind of idea of who is a part of that congregation and who is not. But in some churches the distinction between the church and the world is blurry, while in others that distinction is more clearly defined. The life of the church may feel more natural and organic in church without formal membership—but it’s the organic relationships of a commune, not a family. Communes are just people who happen to live near one another, but a family is a web of organic relationships that develop within defined commitments and roles. If you want the church to be a family, commit to formal church membership.
FORMALITY BRINGS CLARITY
The family
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