Christ’s Body, Not Man’s Roll

    In today’s world, drama persists whenever people gather.  Everything is political, whether it’s the workplace, families, or even the church.  It’s just a reality that is a consequence of our fallen natures.  And navigating this drama and these political realities in our churches is something all of us need to learn as we progress through this life.

    All this drama inside churches is something I’ve struggled with throughout my life.  And it’s something I continue to struggle with today.  Those who deny that it exists are blind to the realities of this fallen world.  Whether you like to admit it or not, based on my experience, it’s something that is completely unavoidable as believers are not immune from the temptation of sin.  We drink iniquity like it is water.  We are so steeped in sin that often we’re not even aware of all our vile sins.  But every church, while its believers have been purified from the stain of sin in God’s sight, they are still composed of sinful people that will engage in all manner of sin.  There is not a local church around today that is solely governed by the Word of God.  Every local church has sinful political realities it must face.  Gossip persists.  Political alliances persist.  Cliques exist.  No matter how hard we try to stamp it out, the reality is it’s something we must all be forced to deal with if we are going to assemble ourselves for fellowship and worship.  No local church is immune from this harsh and sad reality.

    Let’s take official local church membership for example.  I consider many local church membership policies to be political.  I do not believe we should have membership rolls, but due to requirements for 501c tax-exempt status by the IRS, churches need to have these.  It’s a forced political situation that believers often must submit to so that the requirements of the state are fully satisfied.  There is a strong argument to be had for just paying taxes and ignoring 501c status, but that’s a topic for another article.  I don’t see any reference to official membership rolls in the New Testament.  The local churches of the early believers often met underground, in caves, or in houses, in violation of state policy. And while no doubt, they were unable to escape the political nature of man (see Paul and Barnabas), I doubt they maintained official membership rolls. 

    But God says all believers are members in HIS church – in HIS body.  The local assembly is just a smaller expression of His body, but it is in no way the exclusive representation of Christ’s universal church.  Local churches should be formed organically, and all believers, based on their confession, should be treated as “members” because in reality, all believers are truly MEMBERS of the greater body of Christ.  There should be no such thing as a member of Christ’s body having lesser importance in a local church than other members, regardless of membership roll status, or role assigned (ie. pastor, deacon, elder, large donor, etc.) within the assembly.  In my opinion, membership rolls are just a man-made construct, and I think local churches would be better off trying to avoid them as much as possible.

    And while I am technically on the rolls at one church, I only submitted to this construct because at the time, I saw that it was probably best to compromise my beliefs to get along better with my siblings in Christ.  There is nothing inherently sinful with membership rolls, I just see them as an unnecessary political construct that can be used as a tool of control.  Many churches see them also as a method of maintaining church discipline.  However, it is my opinion that church discipline does not require membership rolls.

     Local churches can also develop a mentality of exclusiveness with membership roll policies.  They can start to view themselves as special clubs and pattern their governance after the manner of the world’s assemblies, often authoritarian, with one pastor at the top serving as sort of a monarch.  Others can devolve into mob, democratic rule, rather than governing by the biblical model of consensus.  They can fall into the trap of not recognizing other local expressions of Christ’s church in the same geographical vicinity, failing to recognize “members” of other churches as not as important as "our" believers, or not “one of us.”  An “us vs. them” mentality can form, and then political alliances form, and before long, God’s church is no longer locally united, but scattered and divided.  This is a pattern that has been repeated many times throughout history.

    Often, local churches will split over political differences or secondary doctrinal issues.  And while that’s not necessarily ideal, that does not mean fellowship cannot continue between the people that attend these churches.  For example, after John Gill was no longer pastor of New Park Street Baptist church in London, he was replaced by John Rippon.  Rippon was different than John Gill, and a lot of the old members of the church didn’t like his ministry as much as John Gill’s, so they split off and formed a separate local assembly.  Unlike today’s church world where differences of opinion often result in polemical states of war, Rippon recognized that these people split off for the sake of conscience and the old church helped the new church form.  There wasn’t a spirit of competition between the two assemblies, and while differences remained, the people as guided by the Holy Spirit were able to overcome them.

     The Bible describes local churches as small organic assemblies.  Here are some passages that describe how churches operated in the New Testament:

Acts 2:46 – Believers met daily from house to house, not just one location.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 – We are all baptized into one body, not separate bodies.

Hebrews 10:24-25 – The command is not “attend only one church,” but “don’t forsake gathering together” and encourage one another.

Romans 1:11-12 – Paul longs to be mutually encouraged by different groups of believers.

Colossians 3:16 – The Word of Christ dwells richly when we sing, teach, and admonish each other, not just within one congregation.

Matthew 16:18 – “I will build MY church.”  - Christ is not talking about building independent isolated local congregations.

Hebrews 13:17 – Local churches provide guidance and community.

    Being committed locally does not exclude fellowship elsewhere, especially when much doctrine is shared.  We see this in the book of Acts with Timothy. 

Acts 16:1-2 - “Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus…. Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.”

    It is obvious that Timothy maintained fellowship at three different places simultaneously, moving back and forth between the congregations of Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium.  And so, is there anything preventing us from being this way when opportunity presents itself?

    I like to think that this is true for me.  I attend three different churches on a regular and semi-regular basis.  I attend a sovereign grace church in Jackson, MO whenever I get back to visit my home state.  And here in Ashland, KY,  I now regularly attend Thirteenth Street Baptist Church and Hurricane Road Grace Church.  I am not committed to one of these places more than the others, as to me, they are all three equal manifestations of Christ’s body.  Wherever Christ’s people are gathered, in my mind, I too am a “member” whenever I am amongst them, regardless of whatever their “official” church policies might state.  Why?  Because Christ died for me just as much as He did for them.

    And it pains my heart to see any sort of division amongst Christ’s people who have erected walls to fellowship based on extra-biblical rules, contrived drama, or political shenanigans.  And while I don’t expect anything to change regarding this situation in my lifetime, I can continue to seek to avoid this sort of drama in my life, as well as encouraging others to escape the man-made political systems and see the bigger picture.  If you rest fully in Christ for all your righteousness, then you too are part of Christ’s universal church, and in the end, that is the only church that truly matters.  I would admonish you to act accordingly, and live your life according to the Word of God rather than the extra-biblical rules of men.