Today I’m at the Subtext Forum (meeting at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) where Ed Stetzer will speak to our second gathering about the church in the suburban context. Ed is a former professor of mine from seminary, has been a help to me over the years in numerous ways – and is a friend. If you can’t make it to the forum, be sure to pick up some of his books. To start I’d recommend Breaking the Missional Code, Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living, and his newest Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them.

Steve McCoy and I put this event together and we’ll probably be twittering some of the fun (here and here). You can also follow the subtext twitter feed.

This past Saturday I led a group of people through our first membership class (Redeemer Orientation) and I thought I’d share a little about why we have membership, why we continue to use the language of “membership,” and how the class is structured.

We do church “membership” because we believe it is a healthy way for us to practice what the Bible teaches should be true of a local church. Specifically, formal membership enables us to function as a covenant community characterized by a unified faith, work and discipline. Apart from membership we find that these things are more difficult to maintain.

And yes, we use the term “membership.” Some of my friends opt for the term “partnership” instead, believing it has less baggage than “membership.” While I don’t agree with that assessment, I don’t think it’s a big deal. We use the term membership for two reasons.

1. The term is biblical (Rom 12; 1 Cor 12; Eph 2:19, 3:6, 4:25, 5:30).
Call me nutty, but I like using biblical terms whenever I can. But to be fair, I don’t think we have to use the word. Jesus chose not to use the word “Messiah” for himself because of the confusion that was likely to result (there was a lot of cultural/theological baggage attached to that title). He preferred “Son of Man.” Concerning joining a church – we just don’t believe people who may be averse to the idea of “membership” are comforted or fooled by calling it partnership. Either way people have to join. But if “partnership” works better for another church – that’s cool with me. Whatever we call it, the important thing is to practice it well and lead people toward a healthy understanding of life as the church.

2. The concept is biblical.
The Bible demonstrates that the church is analogous to many things; the church is likened to a building (1 Cor. 3:9, Eph. 2:21, 2 Cor. 6:16), a body (Rom. 12:4-5, Heb. 12), a flock (1 Peter 5:2), and a family (1 Tim. 3:15. Eph. 1:5). At Redeemer we really favor the idea of church as family – which is another reason we maintain the word “member.” I am a member of my family. And when a person joins The Redeemer family, it is less a business partnership, and more of an adoption, or marriage, as we all become members of one household. The family metaphor and membership work against the practice church shopping, and even idea of favoring a church as one might favor a particular Starbucks location because of a particular barista or blend of coffee.

Participating in the Redeemer Orientation is not a promise to seek membership with us, nor is completing the class a guarantee of membership status, but it is a prerequisite for all who seek membership. Our class consists of 3 sessions that happen in one day over the span of 3 hours. That is much shorter than some church’s membership process, and a bit longer than others. For us this seems like a good fit. People have been asking for an outline of what we cover so here it is. Just the bullet points, obviously there is much more detail in the class.

Redeemer Orientation

Part 1: The Gospel (The Heart of Our Church).

A. The Gospel

1. The gospel is historical (1 Cor. 15:3-7).
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

2. The gospel is theological.
The gospel is the good news that through the cross of Jesus Christ we have the forgiveness of our sins, and the redemption and restoration of all things.

a) Forgiveness, peace with God (Eph. 1:7)

b) Restoration of all things (Col. 1:19, 20)

B. The Gospel and You

1. Conversion: Faith and Repentance (Mk. 1:15)

2. Your identity in Christ (Gal. 2:20)

C. The Gospel and Others

1. A Redeemed Community (1 Peter 2)

2. The church as family (1 Tim. 3:15. Eph. 1:5.)

Part 2: The Church (The Shape of our Church).

A. What is a local church?

1. Defined

A local church is a covenant-community of Christ followers where:
The word is rightly preached.
The sacraments are rightly administered.
The mission of God is shared.
The leadership is biblically formed and functioning.
The discipline of members is practiced with grace.

2. A healthy church.

3. Healthy church members.

B. Church Distinctives

1. Confessional.
A confessional church is a church that is essentially united around a clearly articulated faith. We believe that it is the truth of God that gives birth to the people of God and compels them to move forward on the mission of God.

Confessionally, we are Reformed and baptistic.

2. Missional.
A missional church is one that recognizes itself as God’s missionary people to those they live among. This means we do not see ourselves merely as those who send missionaries to other countries, but as missionaries ourselves to a unique time and place (the greater Fox Valley area in the far west suburbs of Chicago in the third millennium). As a missional church we are looking for ways to serve our community with the gospel in word and deed and are seeking to be an active part of God’s redemptive work here in our city.

3. Relational.
A relational church is one that sees itself not as a distributor of religious goods and services, but as covenant community, a family, who share their lives, practice hospitality, and live out the missional nature of the church not as individuals but as a peculiar people. It means that relationships are valuable to us, and we strive to develop them both inside and outside of the church.

Part 3: The Mission (The Movement of our Church).

A. Our purpose statement.
“to love and serve God and others”

The captures our movement in summary form. It is the essence of God’s law, as well as the proper response to the gospel.

B. Our Paradigm. “The table, the pulpit, and the square.”

This is whiteboard time and when we show visually how all the parts of Redeemer are designed to work together. I’ve blogged on this in the past, but we have tweaked it since then and I may blog on it in the near future.

I have really benefited from reading through other church membership practices. Feel free to share what you do, and have found helpful or problematic concerning membership in the comments.

C. John Miller’s Outgrowing the Ingrown Church is proving to be insightful, convicting and encouraging. Early on in the book he lays out 7 characteristics of an introverted church that limit the church’s movement on mission with God. If you have spent time as a part of an introverted church, you’ll recognize them immediately.

1. Tunnel Vision.
Miller says that an ingrown church is afflicted with a kind of tunnel vision that limits its potential ministry to those things that can be seen. It is faith/trust in the visible, human resources a church has on hand rather than in the promises of God. Miller says this is fundamentally the sin of unbelief in Christ’s presence with and the Spirit’s power in us as the church.

2. Group Superiority.
Many ingrown churches become egocentric out of fear of extinction, and wind up focusing on one aspect of their church culture that makes them unique. This allows them to feel good about themselves while finding fault with other churches in the area who do not measure up. In my circles I have seen ingrown churches who want to point to their right doctrine not only as an aspect of their identity that sets them apart from other churches, but almost as a justification for their lack of growth. “We are Reformed, and don’t play games like those sell-out churches up the street. If we played games like them we’d be growing too – but superficially.” Miller’s point is that ecclesiastic introversion allows us to feel good about where we are (stagnant, atrophying).

3. Extreme Sensitivity to Criticism.
Fear of extinction creates anxiety over any negative criticism and conflict in the church, and encourages a church to avoid issues it needs to address.

4. Niceness in Tone.
I mentioned this last week, but everything mentioned above leads to a “nice tone,” particularly among leadership, that creates a safe place to exist. Safe and comfortable, as opposed to walking in lock-step with Jesus as he leads his people into the world.

5. Christian Soap Opera.
Miller points out that an introverted church often tends toward a form of self-destruction via gossip (all offered in a “nice tone” of course). Weakness in faith as it relates to the missional promises of God leads to weakness in faith in other areas – in this case love and forgiveness. Miller has some great words on gossip’s danger -check out the book.

6. Confused Leadership Roles.
In the typical ingrown church leaders do not function as “pace-setting” examples, but as “sweet, but saltless” friends. The pastor is expected to do all the work in the church without challenging or equipping members to participate in the mission of God themselves.

7. Misdirected Purpose.
Miller says that an ingrown church’s controlling purpose has to do with “survival – not with growth through the conversion of the lost.” I first encountered this idea a few years ago when I was still a part of our local SBC association. At the time Steve McCoy pointed out that our associational planning and strategy seemed to be about surviving (keeping the boat afloat) rather than thriving. The survival mentality robs the church of optimism (hope), and consumes her time with inward activity.

Miller doesn’t offer these insights as a poke at “those churches,” but as a reflection of what he found in himself and his church. He said, “we cannot change unless we know where we are and where we should be. Honesty about our aversion to God’s purpose is the most important ingredient in repentance.”