More than Church Membership

Being a follower of Jesus involves being a member of a church. To identify oneself as a follower of Jesus is to align with others who are Christ-followers. Church membership is nonnegotiable.

Or is it?

Church membership was the center of one's Christen life during the era of Christendom. Church involvement included regular worship attendance along with participation in a Sunday School class. Service was in the church organization: singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School, serving on a committee, being an usher at worship, participating in a women's or men's group. Membership included financial support of the church. Mission was doing things for "the less fortunate," supporting charitable organizations and causes, and/or supporting missionary work in other countries.

This way of "doing church" was the norm for many generations. Long time church members often cannot think of doing church any other way. I believe this membership-driven way of doing church contributes to the division in The UMC today.

The current decline in church membership in mainline denominations exposes the weaknesses of this emphasis on membership and its way of doing church. This emphasis on membership and its way of doing church ...

• led to thinking of church in terms of an organization one joined. It produced an institutional church with structure, policies, and procedures. Conformity to a set of "norms" of belief and behavior (sometimes expressly stated, sometimes not) was expected. Violation of those norms generally led to some kind of rebuke or criticism. 
• focused on religious education: knowledge of the Bible, of what "we believe," and of what is expected of a "good Christian." 
• emphasized behavior - morals, a good Christian does/doesn't. 
• fostered a competitive, us-them spirit (we're better than the Baptists/Methodists/Catholics/etc.) and a not-so-subtle spiritual arrogance. 
• led to an inward focus - on us, on what we believe and how we do things, on what we expect and like. 
• focused on attracting others who are like us and getting others to agree with our beliefs and way of doing church.
• made us building-centered (dependent?) with a focus on Sunday (and sometimes Wednesday) activities. 

Church involvement often became the social life of its members.

Dealing with the end of the Christendom era and the rise of a post-Christian society has helped us rediscover a different way of being/doing church, a way found in the churches of the first and second centuries.

• Discipleship, not membership, is the focus. To be a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus, learning and living his servant ways of grace. One can be an active member of an institutional church, including believing what that particular church teaches, and yet not be a follower of Jesus. 
• Spiritual formation and transformation displaces religious education. Learning facts can leave the heart and head untouched and unchanged. What is needed is not more content to learn but the application of the content we know. How does the truth Jesus taught call us to change and grow? How does it call us to live? How is my life different today because I am a follower of Jesus? 
• Church is about Christian community, not an organization or institution or a religious-based social group. Christian community exists when spiritual friends walk together in Christ-centered fellowship, supporting one another on the discipleship journey. Spiritual transformation takes place in the midst of Christian community. 
• Living as a follower of Jesus involves loving others in Jesus' name. Ministry and mission are more than financially supporting some charitable group/cause or doing isolated mission projects to help those in need. Ministry is living in relationship with another, sharing what I have in order to make a positive difference in their life. Every Christ-follower is a minister. Each has been gifted by the Spirit with tools to use in loving others in Jesus' name. 
• Living the ways of God that Jesus taught keeps the focus outward, on those we are called to love, rather than on us and what we like/want. Living as a follower of Jesus is about loving and serving "as you are going" through life's normal routines and responsibilities. 
• Prayer is a vital part of the disciple's personal life and of the fellowship of spiritual friends. Prayer is more than a way to open and close a meeting. It is more than asking God's blessing on what we do. Prayer is walking in active, personal relationship with God. Prayer is vital because being a follower of Jesus is being God's partner in God's work of creating a God-shaped world.

So is church membership nonnegotiable to being a follower of Jesus? "Yes" and "No." Yes - active participation in a spiritual community is vital to being a follower of Jesus. We need each other. And "no" - that spiritual community may or may not be a part of an institutional church ... as many below the age of 60 are telling us.

As I see it, being a follower of Jesus is more than church membership.