This book was given to me at church and I was asked to read it and pass it on to another. The description in Amazon says,
“By offering a brief, straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it’s important, Leeman gives the local church its proper due and builds a case for committing to the local body. Church Membership [the book] is a useful tool for churches to distribute en masse to new and potential members of their congregation.”
- Link: Amazon
- Length: 132
- Difficulty: Easy-Popular
- Topic: Church Membership
- Audience: Mainstream Christians, New to a Church
- Published: 2012
Through the first half of the book I got the impression the primary use of this book would be to further establish the authority of church leadership over its members. It is also intended to give these leaders the responsibility to pronounce its members Christian or not and to refuse membership or excommunicate members who do not have a right understanding of the gospel.
I guess I was a little concerned the book was handed to me(!)
Ecclesiology is not my strong point. But I have a basic understanding of the difference between the visible and invisible church. Inaugurated eschatology, the now and not yet tension and how it can apply to churches and individuals. And the way God expresses his authority through Jesus, his word and the apostles. These are reflected in the book to varying degrees.
This post is one of my book reviews.
Contents – Overview
- Series Preface
- Foreword by Michael Horton
- Introduction: A Bigger Deal Than We Realize
- 1 We’ve Been Approaching It All Wrong
- 2 Membership Sightings in the New Testament
- 3 What Is a Church? What Is a Church Member?
- 4 What Are a Church and Its Members Like?
- 5 What Are the “Standards” of Membership? (Becoming a Member)
- 6 How Does a Christian Submit to a Church? (Being a Member)
- 7 What Happens When Members Don’t Represent Jesus?
- 8 Must Membership Look the Same Everywhere?
- Conclusion: How Church Membership Defines Love
- Further Resources
Main points
I finished the book in a single six hour reading. Then I slept on it to give it some thought.
The book at the start attacks the view that church is a social club. A laissez-faire attitude of come and go as you please. No commitment. No responsibility.
The book then describes Jesus’ authority over the church. It expresses his authority in terms of kingdom and uses the noun ‘Imperium’. The expression ‘imperial’ conjures up memories of Star Wars, Darth Vader, Imperial March and the dark side of the force with me. Possibly not the most helpful of words to use. So I googled ‘imperium’ and found the definition of the word is absolute power. 🙁
“Jesus has imperium. … The local church is the authority on earth that Jesus has instituted to officially affirm and give shape to my Christian life and yours. … So the Bible establishes the local church [especially its leaders] as your highest authority on earth when it comes to your discipleship to Christ and your citizenship in Christ’s present and promised nation.” (p21,24,25)
Notice the references to the pronoun ‘your’ in his statements. Remember again the book is a tool intended to be given to new and potential members in its congregation. The book directly addresses these new and potential members.
This book tells these new and potential members about the local church’s absolute power over them.
The book could quite easily be interpreted differently by 1) the church leaders and 2) the members under their care. The book constantly affirms the church’s authority over its members. The book doesn’t speak of church leadership, but in practice I see it is the leaders who have the authority and not every individual in the church.
Leaders would be affirmed in their authority, given responsibility and empowered in their role in the church. The members under their care are made aware of the authority their leaders have over them. They are urged to submit.
In principle to declare and believe Jesus is Lord is to recognise his authority over us. For good or bad.
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…”Safe?” said Mr Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” (C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
We like to think everything will be rosy. But sometimes we do err and need to be corrected and disciplined. I came to realise if we accept Jesus’ rule over us, for good or bad, then we should also recognise the authority he has given his church. I think Romans 13 is a good example of God giving authority to an imperfect organisation to dispense his will. The example also reminds us that this side of Jesus’ return no organisation is perfect either.
Leeman gives some definitions to summarise his thoughts on local church and membership.
“A local church is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.” (p52)
“Church membership is a formal relationship between a church and a Christian characterised by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.” (p64)
The first quote gives every individual responsibility in the church to affirm and oversee one another. This seems fine, but he then reduces who does this saying ‘through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances’. The church leaders are the only ones who do this.
Note the words he is using: ‘officially’, ‘oversee’, ‘formal’, ‘oversight’ and ‘submission’. Halfway through the book I thought there was something missing so far in his understanding of church membership.
Paul says in Ephesians
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. (Eph 5.22-30)
From this we can draw a table of several relationships communicating headship.
| Head | Husband | Christ | Church leaders |
| Body | Wife | Church | Church members |
Leeman often emphasises the authority of the church (husband) over its members and the requirement for its members to submit (wife). In light of Ephesians 5.22-30 I felt he neglected to balance the responsibility of the church members with the responsibility of its leaders (husband). Paul says the husbands are responsible to love and sacrifice for the members (wife) as Christ did the church (Eph 5.25). In wedding sermons I assume good preachers will speak about the responsibilities of both husbands and wives. It would be unfair otherwise.
Bear in mind again, this book is a tool to be given to new and potential members. It’s not meant to instruct church leaders in their responsibilities. That being said I think the book would make it easier for church members to submit to their leaders if they also knew the far harder and imposing obligations church leaders are under to serve them.
I found his emphasis on the power and authority of the church and its leaders quite legalistic.
Leeman sets up several standards for church membership:
- People need to understand and believe the gospel to join a church. (I’ve got a detailed description of what the gospel is here)
- People need to repent when they sin. (Full agreement)
- People need to be baptised. (Yep. That’s what they did in Acts)
These seem fine. However he seems to ignore other and perhaps explicit biblical standards of membership.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you,you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13.34-25)
16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (Mt 7.16-20)
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 Jn 3.9-10)
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. … 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (Jas 2.18,24)
Scripture properly sets up love, good fruit-righteousness-good works as well as faith, repentance and baptism. Why hasn’t he mentioned these?
Leeman encouraged signing statements of faith to make sure all the church members are on the same page doctrinally. It looks like he advocates signing variants of reformed confessions, not the Apostles Creed or Nicene creed.
After the first half of the book he softened his approach and talked about church relationships. Firstly he distinguishes between the institutional view of church he has written about so far with an organic view. Hard and soft. Structures and relationships.
The relationships in the church are understood through the metaphors of family, body, temple and people.
“The relationships that we share in the local church will ultimately prove more interconnected that a physical body, more safe than a father’s embrace, more collegial than brotherly love, more resilient than a stone house, more holy than a priesthood, and on and on we could go” (p76)
His brief discussion on relationships among the members lightened the seriousness of his discussion of the authority of the church over its members.
Leeman describes eight ways new and potential members can submit to a local church.
- Submit publicly by gathering to worship.
- Submit geographically by choosing to live closer to church.
- Submit socially by befriending people outside our comfort zones.
- Submit affectionately by having concern for one another.
- Submit financially by giving money to church leaders.
- Submit vocationally by giving priority to church ministry over work.
- Submit to the church for ethical instruction, accountability and instruction.
- Submit spiritually in the exercise of spiritual gifts, pastoral care and prayer.
Leeman recognises churches are not perfect and all these are a work in progress. I found all this helpful.
He then gives some helpful instructions for how members are to relate to their pastors. Formal affirmation. Honour. Submit. Pray. Bring charges against disqualified pastors. Fire gospel denying pastors.
Leeman recognises that all people sin. But he recognises there is a line where a person sin renders their profession of faith no longer believable.
“Let me put it this way: somewhere there’s a line between sins and sin patterns that you expect of Christians and sins and sin patterns that make you think someone may not be a Christian. Church discipline is warranted, you might say, when an individual crosses from the first domain into the second.” (p112)
I’m quite happy with this. Jesus said;
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. (Mt 7.15-18)
I’ve come to expect certain levels of holiness and sin in a believers life which distinguishes them from unbelievers.
In one of the later chapters Leeman gives an example of what excommunication looks like. The story describes a man who persisted in lying about his employment status in order to gain work. When the church found out they offered to help him financially and constantly urged him to come clean and repent. The man kept on refusing. Eventually the church, realising his witness was damaging to Christ’s reputation refused the man to receive the Lord’s communion. Excommunicating him. Or as he explains ex-communion-ing him. The story has a happy ending though. Some years afterward the man realised the wrong he was doing and reconciled to the church. They returned his membership.
Near the end Leeman gives some conditions for when people should not submit.
“All of us, at times, will be called to endure humbly a leader’s mistakes and sins. Nonetheless, should you find yourself in a church where the leadership is characteristically abusive, I would in most cases encourage you to flee. Flee to protect your discipleship, to protect your family, to set a good example for the members left behind, and to serve non-Christian neighbours by not lending credibility to the church’s ministry.” (p118)
How does one recognise abusive leadership? I’ll list a few characteristics Leeman mentions;
- Make dogmatic prescriptions in places where Scripture is silent.
- Rely on intelligence, humor, charm, guilt, emotions, or threats rather than God’s word and prayer.
- Punish those who disagree.
- Employ extreme forms of communication (tempers, silent treatment).
- Recommend courses of action that improve the leader’s own situation at the expense of others.
- Seldom give the benefit of the doubt.
The statements regarding non submission reminded me of Luther’s stand against the Roman Catholic church. He disagreed with their teaching and refused to recant. He famously said the words;
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”
There are rare instances where people are called to refuse to submit to the church because they have refused to accept biblical truth. On a personal note I do my best to read and interpret the scriptures with honesty and integrity using the reformed principles of Sola Scriptura, Ad Fontes and Semper Reformanda.
Leeman finishes explaining that the principles of church membership should look the same in every church. But there will be differences depending on the complexity of the society the church is in and whether or not society favours Christian’s or not.
Recommendation
I find it hard to recommend this book because of some past painful experiences I’ve had in church. If however I put aside my own experience and think how others would receive it I would say the following.
As I mentioned at the beginning, through the first half of the book I got the impression the primary use of this book would be to further establish the authority of church leadership over its members. It is also intended to give these leaders the responsibility to pronounce its members Christian or not and to refuse membership or excommunicate those who do not have a right understanding of the gospel.
I found it legalistic and unbalanced (members responsibility, not the leaders) at times.
The second section of the book has a number of helpful things to say. The eight ways listed to submit to the church are quite helpful. I could imagine any pastor would be very happy if his congregation supported his ministry in these ways.
I also think the gospel should be front and centre of the church and understanding it should be expected of members. That being said I would a small amount of tolerance about what the gospel is given the plethora of opinions espoused in the last few years. In particular I have issues (as several others do) with 9Marks book, ‘What is the gospel?’ I’ll review it in due time.
Copyright © Joshua Washington and thescripturesays, 2016. All Rights Reserved.
