Rethinking the End Goal of Church Membership

As a student, I get plenty of opportunities to sit in class and daydream. Now, mind you, my daydreams are not that of your average college student, especially those at a secular university. I do not sit in class and gawk at the girl in front of me and daydream about asking her out (like those seeking their MRS degrees would be)- instead, one daydreams about the Church and the Kingdom. In fact, on Monday, Jesus and I had our own little conversation and think session about Church Membership.

Let me state this. I love the Church (global) and the church (local). I believe you cannot have a church without the Church and vise versa. They go hand in hand and as a future pastor, future church botanist, I spend lots of time dreaming about what the church could be and the expression it could take in a local environment. Most of the time I have these think sessions it is usually big picture stuff about how the church and the Church can better reach it's community - it's city. But this time, it was being inquisitive about a part of the church, I've never fully understood and that is church "membership".

Again, I love the church. I do. But, correct me if I'm wrong - are we not all members of the Church once we encounter Jesus? Not only that, I agree that we are all commanded to be a part of the Church - and the church. Now, one of the ways that previous generations before me have did that is by allowing one to become a church "member". There is nothing wrong with that - but from past experience of being a "member" - what's the point? One spends at least a month of their life sitting inside a church building learning what this church is all about and where it stands (all good things to know) and then from there they want to make sure one knows Jesus (an important thing as well. After this one gets voted in, and is allowed the "privileges" of a church member (i.e. voting, discipline, etc), one almost becomes a share holder of the church (a good thing yet again). And that's it. You can vote at business meetings. You show up on Sundays, maybe one other time a week - you are a member, a super-Christian and thus can now be officially allowed to lead in one's church.

Now don't get me wrong, I've gone through the membership process - it's valuable, but its end goal needs some help. Now, the church one is currently at - does not have membership. They tried it, no one did it. So, they rethought things. They just want one to be connected. If one wants to be a leader, one has to go through training. Heck,now one feels far more like a member of this current church then he ever did at the one where he was a "member". This non-member church doesn't have business meetings - instead, during the main services they have "family conversations" were they incorporate it into the main portion for all to hear...

Here's what I'm getting at - why does the American Church feel the need to have members if all it does is just help us put boundaries on our attendees?

Membership is a tricky thing. I believe in having membership - but it is extra-biblical (not a bad heretical thing, but not a mandatory, have it or you are a heretic kind of thing). So, if I believe in membership, what is the point? There are lots: I agree that it is a good way to make sure your leaders are equipped - so it is training. I believe it is a good way to talk to your people about what the vision for your church is all about and what God has uniquely called you to express for the Kingdom. But, really, membership? We are all already members of the Church and a class won't make me any more or less of a member of the Church. Which lead me to this conclusion.

As with everything in the Church and church - it is about Mission. So, leadership training is about the mission (equipping leaders to fulfill the mission); casting the vision of your church is about mission (because your church is about mission and that is the vision). With the lens of the gospel and vision, what if membership was no longer about a class and being able to call yourself a member, now being able to lead, being able to vote, etc - but what if it was about mission?

What if instead of voting them in as members, after the membership class is over they now become sanctioned as missionaries to their communities? What if membership classes are now about missionary commission? What if by the time one is through the membership class, they are now official "insert church name here" missionaries to "insert name of city here". Therefore, membership classes are there to emphasize to your people that being a member of both the Church and the church is about mission, about being missionaries. Thus by the time one is commissioned they are not a "member" but a "missionary", an "ambassador" of the Church by the church for the Kingdom to the world - starting with their community.