What Is Church Membership?

The office of membership in the church is not akin to casual, consumerist membership in a country club. Members of a church do not join to be served, but to obey Jesus, serve and participate with the church’s communal mission. The church is to actively equip members as a priesthood of believers to lead ministry as they have been gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

 

While we are a Southern Baptist church plant, we do have many people from all different sorts of denominational backgrounds. We praise God that has done something wonderful here.

 

Local church membership is a relationship of believers to one another as an expression of the work of Jesus Christ in their lives. Simply, it’s a proclamation of the gospel. The church is a unified family and membership is an expression of identity and mission.

 

“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
-Romans 12:4-5

 

New City’s purpose is that we exist to glorify God by making disciples who change the world around them.

 

As Christians, we are members of God’s household (Eph. 2:19) called to function, participate, and minister in a particular place within the body of Christ. A healthy body requires that each partner function properly. A healthy church requires the same—members who are sacrificially committed and well-equipped to do the works of service that God has prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10; 4:12). New City Church holds its members in high regard; we expect them to live as missionaries of the Gospel to the culture. God, in His sovereignty, placed us in Alma/Bacon County, among these people, in this century, for a reason (Acts 17:26-27).

 

Being a member of New City Church is really about being part of a family. All members are disciples of Jesus, unified by their identity in Christ. This unity is expressed in the way they collaborate in loving God, loving fellow Christians, and loving non-Christians. Members who enter into a covenant with their local church are called to a higher degree of responsibility and service. At the same time, the elders and deacons are covenanted to assist them first and foremost—to love and lead, provide counsel and aid, and pray for, teach, and guide them.

 

Why Should Christians Join a Church?

• Salvation includes a new life in the community of the Holy Spirit.

• Being a Christian means being a follower of Jesus.

• Real followers understand their need for help through the community of believers to follow Jesus well.

• Believers are a part of a body – to work in unison for maximum fruitfulness.

• To be equipped for ministry.

• To protect themselves from deception.

• To risk like Jesus and love others deeply, despite inevitable disappointment.

• To help and better the imperfect church.

• Because God declares it not good to be alone, and we are image-bearers reflecting a Triune God who is in community.

• Jesus loves the church; so should we.