Requirements for church membership

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SparkleEyes

Senior Member
#1
Mar 23, 2013
771
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18
#1
What do you think the requirements should be for church membership? I know churches have different viewpoints on membership: no requirements at all, just show up; must submit info and sign some sort of belief statement; to submitting info and must follow strict rules.

What do you think Jesus wants to see regarding membership in one of His Christian churches?

FYI - Mine doesn't require it for attendance on Sunday or for anything outside of serving as an elder or pastor. We have as a very easy process: attend an evening "class" and submit a statement of faith (testimony) along with your contact information. :cool:
 
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mamasan

Guest
#2
#2
To be a member of our Sunday School, you need to attend three weeks in a row, and you are then considered a member of the class. To join the church, you must be saved, baptized, or have a letter from your prior church pastor advising that you have been saved and scripturally baptized. Then the congregation votes on your membership. We have not had anyone turned down by the congregation.
 
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Donkeyfish07

Guest
#3
#3
I'm of the opinion that everyone that does the underlined in the following scripture, is already a member of the Church. If any private organization wants to add to that, I have no interest in joining them myself.

Romans 10:8-9

"[SUP]8 [/SUP]But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
[SUP]9 [/SUP]That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
 
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Tintin

Guest
#4
#4
I'm not sure what you mean by church membership. Anyone should be able to join God's family. If they don't believe and they see God's love in action and hear the Gospel message and are allowed to ask the difficult questions, they're more likely to accept God's grace through Christ. I don't think there should be any requirements. Anything else is just putting up blocks to stop people coming to know Christ. As for people coming to know Christ, the only requirement is to have faith in/believe wholeheartedly in Christ, that He's the Son of God. In short, to trust that His suffering, death and resurrection redeemed us from the from the power of sin, death and the devil and to accept the grace that God has given through Christ.
 
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Donkeyfish07

Guest
#5
#5
Tintin said:
I'm not sure what you mean by church membership. Anyone should be able to join God's family. If they don't believe and they see God's love in action and hear the Gospel message and are allowed to ask the difficult questions, they're more likely to accept God's grace through Christ. I don't think there should be any requirements. Anything else is just putting up blocks to stop people coming to know Christ.
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I had went to a Church one time because I was interested in learning about the denomination (Not going to say which denomination it was because that Church may not represent the entire denomination). Last time I went to Church actually. I was obviously new and they said "I see we have a guest", and all of that. I didn't realize it until later in the service, but a guest is just how they refer to "non-members". In order to be a member, you were required to give 10% of your income. I was like, welp....guess I won't be going here again. There was no pressure for me to join in that way but I did get the distinct impression, they expect a commitment of that nature if your going to be attending every week.
 
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kennethcadwell

Guest
#6
#6
SparkleEyes said:
What do you think the requirements should be for church membership? I know churches have different viewpoints on membership: no requirements at all, just show up; must submit info and sign some sort of belief statement; to submitting info and must follow strict rules.

What do you think Jesus wants to see regarding membership in one of His Christian churches?

FYI - Mine doesn't require it for attendance on Sunday or for anything outside of serving as an elder or pastor. We have as a very easy process: attend an evening "class" and submit a statement of faith (testimony) along with your contact information. :cool:
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Membership standards in the church is a man made philosophy. To be a part of Christ church he does not have any qualifications accept to accept Him as Lord and Savior, to repent of your sins, and baptism. Christ says not to discriminate against anybody and not to keep some one out depending on how they look. He also said that we all have different positions in the church, so just cause you may go to church two or three times a week and some one else may go only once or worship with a group at their own house makes them no different in Gods eyes.
 
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Tintin

Guest
#7
#7
Whoops, yes. Somehow I missed repentance. That step is a must too.

Donkey, that's terrible. Yes, a person has to take part, make an effort and attend regularly to feel at home and build up trust and grow in their faith, but there should certainly be no roadblocks to joining the Church.
 
p_rehbein

p_rehbein

Senior Member
#8
Sep 4, 2013
30,932
7,012
113
#8
Pretty much in line with most of the comments here..........The Church of God Anderson Indiana simply believes that all blood bought, born again Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour are ALREADY a part of His Church.......and that is the ONLY ONE that counts isn't it?

On my "blog" page, I have an article about my church which describes a lot of what we believe and teach......you are welcome to read it.....God bless


(I do have one question for "mamasan" ................ what is "scripturally baptized?)

[not to start some big argument or any such, you can even PM me the answer to avoid a big to-do...thanks]
 
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Tintin

Guest
#9
#9
mamasan said:
To be a member of our Sunday School, you need to attend three weeks in a row, and you are then considered a member of the class. To join the church, you must be saved, baptized, or have a letter from your prior church pastor advising that you have been saved and scripturally baptized. Then the congregation votes on your membership. We have not had anyone turned down by the congregation.
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Wow. Just wow. Like I said, why create road blocks to the straight and narrow path?
 
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SparkleEyes

Senior Member
#10
Mar 23, 2013
771
21
18
#10
mamasan said:
To be a member of our Sunday School, you need to attend three weeks in a row, and you are then considered a member of the class. To join the church, you must be saved, baptized, or have a letter from your prior church pastor advising that you have been saved and scripturally baptized. Then the congregation votes on your membership. We have not had anyone turned down by the congregation.
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Oh my....that is a pretty exclusive club!!
 
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