The title of this post may not elicit the most excitement from my readers, but I think it is an important one. What we say about who gets counted in the church says a lot about what we think about the Gospel and the way that human beings can and should connect with God.
Here are some “theses” or “thoughts” that I wrote in 2012 after some serious prayer and consideration of this issue. My view has not substantially changed.
- Church membership must be based on our definition of a Christian, since all Christians are members of the true church invisible and should be members of the visible church.
- A Christian is someone who has repented of their sins and believes in Jesus Christ for salvation.
- Consequently, the test for church membership should be a credible profession of faith in Christ with a promise of repentance as well as a desire to do this in the context of a particular local church (as the questions for membership indicate in the Presbyterian Church in America’s Book of Church Order).
There is much hostility to the idea of the “institutional” church today. Many do not believe that it is authentic and believe that it promotes formalism and bureaucracy over true community, etc.