The SBC loves to tout that we are the largest denomination in the United States with 16,266,920 members in 44,696 churches. That sounds impressive until you read the next line on the annual report and discover that the average attendance in worship in those same churches is 6,148,868. This means that only 37.8% of all the SBC members attend worship services on any given week - a little more than two-thirds! Of course, it is possible that many are ill, at college, in the military, or have some other valid reason for not being in their home church. However, that cannot be the case for all the absentees. Every week, over 10 million Southern Baptists fail at the absolute minimum level of commitment for a church member. In the past, it was generally accepted that no church and no denomination had the right to consider itself healthy unless more people attend than were on the roll. This is the standard in churches all around the world today and by our great-grandparents in America's past. As we attempt to gauge the health of the local church, a major symptom to examine is the mark of biblical church membership. Church membership is a serious matter - much more serious than many Christians understand or believe.

There is no single statement in the Bible that says "Thou shalt be a member of a local church." However, such a membership is definitely implied in the very nature of the church and its practices. Church membership is the means by which we mark the boundaries of the church. The Christian life is not to be lived in isolation but with other Christians. Christianity is personal but not private. A Christian is depicted in the Bible as one who joins with other believers in a formal commitment to love and be loved by those with whom we regularly interact and desire to hold accountable and to whom we are held accountable. In this study, we will see several Biblical passages that indicate that the New Testament churches had membership lists of some sort. They knew who was a member and who was not. When people became a follower of Jesus, they joined themselves to their local church. They joined it! In the New Testament, there simply was no such thing as an unbaptized believer. There was also no such thing as a Christian who was not a church member.

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