Membership must mean something … but what? …

I shared a brief conversation with Micah this morning. He said something like the following (sorry Micah for not recalling it exactly), “If I am going to be a member, I want it to mean something. I think the way it is practiced in Baptist churches makes membership meaningless. If there is no real meaning, then count me out.” I could not agree more.

Much has been written about church membership by Oklahoma Baptist bloggers since the Daily Oklahoman reported on a decision Henderson Hills Baptist Church may consider. Perspectives range widely on the matter – Paul, Rick, Wade, Paul
B
, more than one post by Wes, and Robin are a few I have read. The Baptist Messenger online is carrying a number of articles on the subject.

One of the most difficult things to do is clarify issues when it comes to a “distinctive.” Something may make us distinctly Baptist. Growing up in Oklahoma City it was not uncommon in high school to face the common perception that to be Baptist meant you did not dance, play cards or go to movies. Not to mention the shock produced from the participation in tobacco and alcohol in any form by adults. Some seem to take pride in a sort of “martyr” complex when criticism comes that Baptists are known more for what
they are against than what they are for; a sentiment with which I find it hard to disagree.

The documents available at the Henderson Hills website seem to be calling for a more substantive understanding to church membership. They may well not have said it this way, but it seems to me they want to say what membership is for rather than what it ensures against. They are for obedience. They are for the working out of holiness in the life of Christ followers. They are for baptism by immersion. They are for elevating baptism to something more than an initiatory right into a local church. They are for celebrating
the Lord’s Supper/Communion by those who have been brought to the table by the grace work of God. To read any number of “concerned” bloggers is to read that Henderson Hills is against baptism and against Baptist “distinctives.”

Our denomination passed through the fires of a takeover/resurgence (or whatever designation fits your position) based upon the sufficiency of Scripture. We now find ourselves supporting our practice with Tradition and conclusions drawn from what seems more implied than explicit. We want to make strict parallels between membership in, say, the church at Corinth in the first century with membership in the First Baptist Church of any town USA today. The problem comes when you visit our town (Tuttle) and find not
one church much less one Southern Baptist church. We fear considering our cultural situatedness for fear we would tend toward some kind of perceived relativism. Could we really say the Apostle Paul had in mind the “church on every corner” and churches of different “stripes” on those corners? The Spirit may help us understand how to understand the authority of God in these new situations, but to think this was going on in the first century is a stretch. To tie what we do today with what was understood then would
be to ignore the passing of time and the current situation in Christendom.

What’s more, we have so many “Baptist Distinctives” what are we to do when they clash. For example, where does local church autonomy end? We prize the purview of the local church to be self-governing. Yet, we have a local pastor in our state who indicated he will present a motion to encourage our cooperative bodies to sever those same cooperative ties because Henderson Hills may exercise their local church autonomy.

The issue clearly relates to ecclesiology, eschatology and The Kingdom of God. When we are more concerned with our Baptist Distinctives than the push by a local church to work out what it looks like to follow Jesus and participate in a local church so that membership really means something, we have moved from a “people of the Book” to a people of “Baptist Tradition.” I do not mind considering Tradition so long as we agree to call it what it is. When we pass off our Tradition as somehow the explicit outworking
of Scripture, we face not only issues of logic and history but a larger issue – integrity.

I support any church wrestling through the issue of church membership. Anyone recall Tom Ascol’s motion at the SBC in Greensboro. The question was really about the meaning of church membership. When we lay claim to more than we can find membership in practice has become something less than what any of us hope. Membership must mean something.

About the Author
Husband to Patty. Daddy to Kimberly and Tommie. Grandpa Doc to Cohen, Max, Fox, and Marlee. Pastor to Snow Hill Baptist Church. Graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reading. Photography. Golf. Colorado. Jeeping. Friend. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and should not be construed as representing the corporate views of the church I pastor.

2 comments on “Membership must mean something … but what? …

  1. Anonymous says:

    Todd

    What a marvelous post. Your 7th paragraph says what I believe is forgotten by many in our day of baptist life.

    IMHO your post ought to be added to those being distributed by the Baptist Messenger in fairness to the whole Body of Christ. I hope Dennis Newkirk and members of HHBC are afforded the opportunity to read what you’ve said. Thanks.

    Paul Burleson

  2. says:

    Thanks Paul, you are too kind. I found your post discussing the six hours you spent reading the material on the HHBC website to be a great illustration of thoughtful interaction. One of the problems is the issue has been lost in the way it has been presented both in The Oklahoman and the Baptist Messenger. To read these pieces sounds as though HHBC is anti-baptism. They are anything but anti-baptism. I do wish the recent “pull-out” section of the Messenger had been left out. Primarily because too much was left out of the attempt to inform and help readers to think through the issues. IMHO it was more unhelpful than helpful. But, that was not my call.

    Again – thanks for stopping by.

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