Church Membership 3: Responsibilities of Membership: Meeting Together

Introduction:

‘I don’t like to go to church because I don’t get anything out of it.’ This statement could be a reflection on the poverty of the pulpit in the present church, but it also reveals a consumer mindset by which the church is judged and found to be deficient, amateur, antiquated and thereby useless. Consumerism has infected everything we do, and those churches that have buckled to the market mindset and accommodated unbelievers in what they think church should be have not done us any favours but affirmed this mindset. We subconsciously go into all relationships now with the underlying attitude, ‘what is in this for me?’ Selfishness has been institutionalised in the form of consumerism, and so now the customer is always right, and any organization if it wants to continue to exist must bow itself to the whims and fancies of its users. Christians whose minds are not renewed by the word treat the church in the same manner withholding their presence, money, time, talents and positive critique until their unsanctified notions of what a church should be are satisfied. They fall into habits of casual use, irregular attendance, non-engagement, shallow relationships, prioritizing of personal hobbies and interests at the expense of commitment to the church, and all the while they wonder why their spiritual lives are in such a poor condition. The bible’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian and a part of the body of Christ flies in the face of this individualism. ‘Go your own way’ some lyrics from Fleetwood Mac characterise this age. Our young people when they get out of school are encouraged to find themselves with a year of travel. We have emblazoned upon our minds the lonely searching soul with his rucksack hitchhiking his way through countries and cultures, becoming independent, strong, self-determining and tolerant of different beliefs and views. Our book shops are filled with books encouraging you on your own personal spiritual journey encouraging times of isolation for meditation and contemplation in personal retreat with personal spiritual mentors. Self-help is now a recognised genre confused with spirituality, but this is not the spirituality of the bible. The present culture of self-serving attitudes and the bible’s view of interdependent life as the church are opposites of each other. The values that are presently shaping the western world are nearly exactly opposite to the teachings of the bible and what we are called to be as a church. No western Christian can intuit what church should be but has a long process of unlearning and relearning that needs to take place.

Test your own level of commitment to Paul’s. In 2 Timothy 2:10 he puts it this way, ‘Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.’ Paul views his ongoing gospel ministry, as painful as it often was, as the necessary means by which God was calling His elect to Himself. There is no suffering that is too great done in service to the church because it is Christ serving His church through us, and He would not count any task too much. Sadly following our sinful inclinations and the world’s attitudes shaped by the same sin, we suffer to serve ourselves not the church. ‘I don’t like to go to church because I don’t get anything out of it.’ This statement could be a reflection on the poverty of the pulpit in the present church, but it also reveals a consumer mindset by which the church is judged and found to be deficient, amateur, antiquated and thereby useless. Consumerism has infected everything we do, and those churches that have buckled to the market mindset and accommodated unbelievers in what they think church should be have not done us any favours but affirmed this mindset. We subconsciously go into all relationships now with the underlying attitude, ‘what is in this for me?’ Selfishness has been institutionalised in the form of consumerism, and so now the customer is always right, and any organisation if it wants to continue to exist must bow itself to the whims and fancies of its users. Christians whose minds are not renewed by the word treat the church in the same manner withholding their presence, money, time, talents and positive critique until their unsanctified notions of what a church should be are satisfied. They fall into habits of casual use, irregular attendance, non-engagement, shallow relationships, prioritising of personal hobbies and interests at the expense of commitment to the church, and all the while they wonder why their spiritual lives are in such a poor condition. The bible’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian and a part of the body of Christ flies in the face of this individualism.

‘Go your own way’ some lyrics from Fleetwood Mac characterise this age. Our young people when they get out of school are encouraged to find themselves with a year of travel. We have emblazoned upon our minds the lonely searching soul with his rucksack hitchhiking his way through countries and cultures, becoming independent, strong, self-determining and tolerant of different beliefs and views. Our book shops are filled with books encouraging you on your own personal spiritual journey encouraging times of isolation for meditation and contemplation in personal retreat with personal spiritual mentors. Self-help is now a recognised genre confused with spirituality, but this is not the spirituality of the bible. The present culture of self-serving attitudes and the bible’s view of interdependent life as the church are opposites of each other. The values that are presently shaping the western world are nearly exactly opposite to the teachings of the bible and what we are called to be as a church. No western Christian can intuit what church should be but has a long process of unlearning and relearning that needs to take place. Test your own level of commitment to Paul’s. In 2 Timothy 2:10 he puts it this way, ‘Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.’ Paul views his ongoing gospel ministry, as painful as it often was, as the necessary means by which God was calling His elect to Himself. There is no suffering that is too great done in service to the church because it is Christ serving His church through us, and He would not count any task too much. Sadly following our sinful inclinations and the world’s attitudes shaped by the same sin, we suffer to serve ourselves not the church.

We have been looking at various questions related to church membership. Firstly, we have answered why every Christian should be a committed member in a local church, secondly, we looked at who should be a member of a local church. Now we want to begin to consider what the responsibilities of membership are. Today we want to consider the importance of our meeting together and we will be exploring our unity which our meeting together expresses, the blessings we receive when we meet, and the times at which we meet.