Service is a vital for being part of a local community. It shows that you are giving, committed and involved. It benefits you directly in untold ways as well. Now say you wanted to work with children at a library club. What would be required? Do you like children and reading? (Can you read well?) Do you have any experience? Are you a local resident? You’d certainly need a police check since you’d be working with a vulnerable group. Let alone standing for public office or joining the military, there are requirements for service.[1]

Service is a vital part of Christian discipleship. Faith isn’t static, it’s an action. We express it through holy living and service in the local church. Joy attends to the servant who reflects the serving nature of their Master, for it is “better to give than receive.” (Acts 20:35; Phil 2:6–8).  Every member is meant to have a ministry to serve in (1 Cor 12:1).

But to be able to serve in the local church there is a similar check: are you a Christian? Do you have a credible testimony of conversion? Have you been baptized by immersion? Do you show the fruit of faith? Do you agree with our Statement of Faith? What gifts do you have? Christianity, while personal, is not private; it is meant to be lived out corporately. You cannot have the bee without the hive, and bees serve the hive! Our faith is expressed and the local church authoritatively discerns it through membership (Mt 16:18, 18:18). Membership is how we know who represents Jesus as part of Markdale Baptist Church. As such, membership is the ordinary pathway to service in the local church.[2] (Handbook 7.1; 13.3.5 and 13.4.1.3).

This should not surprise; just as police checks ensure the safety and success of library programs, the local church, as Christ’s representative body on earth, warrants equal care. Being a member ensures those involved in ministry are qualified to serve as Christians, are committed, teach the same doctrine and practice, are held accountable, exemplify the ‘one anothers’ and are united in purpose. To be a member is not only to aid your assurance but enable one to fulfil their call to service as a follower of Christ.

Other blogs on Membership
Learn more or apply to become a member.


[1] Another illustration is marriage. To enjoy the legal and spiritual blessings and privileges of marriage you must get married!

[2] Exceptions might include when we ask someone we believe to be a believer to help in a one off capacity (or an unbeliever in appropriate settings) or when we partner with other likeminded churches and their members. 

This is a subject of importance for prospective members and current members. 
The answer isn’t because we’re worldly or traditionalists or masterminds. It comes down to the Gospel and the Bible, the Christ ordained nature and design for Christ’s people in local congregations.

The Church is A Believing Church (Nature) (Acts 2:41)
The Church isn’t made up of those who visibly associate with it. It is made up of those who’ve believed the Gospel. This is true both universally and locally.

Given the nominalism of nominal Anglicanism in the 1600s Baptists were doubly sure that the visible Church would only be made up of those with credible confessions.

Membership is for believers.

The Church Has Christ-given Authority (Design) (Mt 16:18, 18:18)
Those called out from the world and united to Christ in faith are His representative body on earth. Believers have the responsibility to seek out visible entrance/association with local congregations. To churches He has given the authority to “bind and loose.” It is the body and not prospective member who ultimately affirms who it believes may enter. To apply and be admitted to the Church is an important matter. It is the skeleton that gives shape to the body. The structure that sustains, enables and guides all of the ‘one another’ relationships and activities within the body (not unlike baptism and marriage).

Early Baptists rigorously applied this in welcoming new members and in discipline. Great solemnity was observed in covenanting together to form the local body. Local Christians were seen as “brothers and sisters,” those with whom one had a unique relationship.

Membership identifies who represents Jesus.  

Church Membership is Biblical (Authority)
From the emphasis on local congregations, the selection of Deacons, discipline to the submission to leaders, numerous verses bespeak membership in the local church.

Early Baptists didn’t invent membership, they observed what they saw in Scripture and applied it to their reformation of the church.

Membership is biblical.

Church Membership Works
Aside from biblical warrant it is difficult to conceive of any other way of defining/organizing, objectively, who and what the church is.

The Baptist practice of membership has remained an effective means of ensuring the world knows who represents Jesus for 400 years.

Membership works and so we practice it.

Read More