What does "membership" mean?

Learning to think about church membership as a covenant

We have come to believe wholeheartedly that the Bible teaches believers to not just attend a local church but to commit themselves to be part of a local congregation in a way that the Scriptures sometimes compare to being a member of a body, and other times to being a member of a family. That sort of connection involves a voluntary decision to join into, hold to and persevere with, and devote one's self to the good of the other members. In short, it involves a covenant, not unlike the marriage covenant. When someone asks to become a member of Beacon Church, and then is recommended for membership by the Elders' Team to the congregation, they then affirm a covenant in front of the church to formalize their membership in Beacon Church. Think of this not as becoming a member of an organization, but becoming members together of one body.

Pastor and author, Matt Chandler, in an article on the question of whether "church membership" is biblical, cited a number of New Testament texts showing that it is hard to imagine how a Christian can obey the many commands we find in the New Testament (e.g., "obey your leaders and submit to them" in Heb 13:17) unless some kind of formal membership is recognized. He says, "When you begin to look at these texts it becomes clear that God’s plan for his church is that we would belong to a local covenant community of faith. This is for our own protection and maturation, and for the good of others."1

In spite of the fact that this teaching is well established in the New Testament, many Christians today are unfamiliar with it and even find the idea of church membership, much less a covenant between church members, strange and alien. The elders of Beacon Church understand this and are committed to providing ongoing teaching and equipping to help our church, its members and adherents, to grow in appreciation and love for a biblical understanding of obedience to God in this area of local church membership. Therefore, in addition to offering membership classes and other kinds of training from time to time, we wish to recommend this book, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, by Jonathan Leeman. (You can get a copy from the Christian Book and Music Store in Victoria or order one from Amazon.) 

Download the Members' Covenant

We encourage members and adherents interested in membership to read and study our Beacon Church Members' Covenant. You can download a copy of the current version here.

Members' Confession (i.e., "what our members believe") 

(See what our elders teach here)

We believe…

1.     The Bible, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, is verbally inspired by God and therefore utterly authoritative, trustworthy, and without any error in the original writings.

2.     In One God, existing eternally in three equal persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

3.     That Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate Son of God, born to the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, fully God and fully human, yet without sin.

4.     That though created in God’s image, Adam sinned against God, alienating the whole human race from God in physical and spiritual death. Therefore every human being is born with a sinful nature, unable to love God, hostile to God and under His wrath.

5.     That Christ Jesus died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures, in our place and for us, so that everyone who believes in Him is justified by faith on account of His blood.

6.     That the Lord Jesus Christ was raised on the third day and ascended to the right hand of God the Father, where He intercedes for us.

7.     That the great hope of all believers is the personal, visible, and imminent return of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

8.     That all who receive Christ, believing in Him, have been born again by the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God and heirs of eternal life. And that the Spirit leads God’s children to live in obedience to God, growing in holiness, in faith, and in love.

9.     That God will resurrect the bodies of both the righteous and the wicked: the righteous to eternal life in the presence of Christ forever, and the wicked to eternal, conscious punishment in Hell.