Church Membership - Part Eight

In our church, there is a third requirement for church membership. That requirement is that you agree to support the work of the church financially and spiritually as you are able.

Remember, we are a family. The church is the family of God, and our local church is a family within the extended family of the universal church. So how does a family operate? In our family, we have visitors who often come and stay with us. We love having guests. We want them to feel at home, and we don't expect them to do the dishes or take out the trash. We serve them, and we do it joyously.

But things are different for the members of our family. If you are a part of our family, you are expected to pull your fair share of the load. You will take your turn with the dishes, and you will have assigned chores. We don't call them chores in our family, we call them acts of service or acts of ministry to the ones we love. But the jobs are the same. And if you are a part of the family, you are expected to carry your fair share.

Now certainly, babies aren't given a job. And the jobs that are given are age appropriate. I don't give my four year old a chainsaw and send him out to cut firewood. That would be stupid on my part. But we can expect our four year old to pick up his toys when he is done playing with them or help set the table. As he grows in ability and maturity, the complexity of the job will increase. And if one of our kids doesn't do his chores (I mean acts of service), he pays the consequences. Only our guests get away with doing nothing. That's how it works in our family.

Now, shouldn't we have the same expectation of people who join our local church family? shouldn't they be expected to contribute something to the well being and health of the church? If you are our guest, we will serve you gladly; but if you are part of the family, you are expected to serve along side of us. You are expected to pull your fair share.

And we will give you ministries based on your spiritual maturity and according to your spiritual giftedness. New believers won't be asked to preach a sermon, for instance, or become a deacon. No one should be given a job above their skill level. But you should expect to do some ministry within your skill level and giftedness.

This is Scriptural, you know. Ephesians 2:8-9 teach that we are saved by grace through faith, and that it is not of works. But the next verse, Ephesians 2:10, talks about our work. It says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we could walk in them." We aren't saved by our works, rather, we are saved to work. We are created to work for God. Even before we were born, God planned work for us. God gave us at least one spiritual gift so that we could accomplish the work He'd planned. He also gave us His Spirit to indwell us and empower us to do the work. He supplies all we need.

God expects us to get the job done. What an abomination for a true believer to sit on his duff like so much dead wood and just soak up the good benefits that come from Christ without ever lifting a finger to help. Yet, how many people sit in church week after week like a bump on a log, or like a corpse in a pew? They never give back to God any of the money that he provides to them to live on, and they never serve Him with the gifts he has given them. If they were created to work for God, they have aborted their purpose.

Certainly, God gave His best to us. John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." God sent His Son to the cross to die for us as our substitute so that He could offer us eternal life as a free gift. All we have to do is reach out our hand in faith to receive it. How can we not be so eternally grateful that we we wouldn't do anything for Him? We should be willing to pay any cost - to go any distance - for the one who loved us this much. So why then is it a strange thing if we expect members to support the work of the church?

What about you? Are you a guest or a member? If a guest, how long are you going to simply go along for the ride? When will you commit yourself to the work of ministry?