Nuggets #31

An Unstoppable Force by Erwin McManus
On the Job Training (cont.)
For a lot of people, church membership is not that different from a membership at Bally. (a health club) They're a part of something that they do not take part in. Another problem with the word membership is that many times it is associated with being exclusive. Many people struggle with churches having membership rolls because it feels exclusive and alienating to those outside.
I certainly understand the biblical imagery of membership. Paul describes the church as the body of Christ and all of us are members of that body, members in the same sense that arms and legs are members of the human body. To be dismembered is to be cut away from the body that brings life. I can imagine how inconceivable it would be for Paul to think of a Christian as someone who was not a member of the body. But time corrupts language and the word member in our present context is quite different from the time in which Paul used it.
We decided that everything that we could do for a person we would do regardless of membership. If you want to learn the Scriptures at Mosaic, you don't need to be a member. If you want to receive counseling, you don't need to be a member. If your desire is to be loved, accepted, cared for, or encouraged, you certainly do not need to be a member. Everything we can do, it is our intention to do for everyone, regardless of membership. There is really only one reason to become a member at Mosaic.

Don't mean to be mean, but tomorrow we'll look at what that reason is. How is membership handled at your church?