CHURCH,
MEMBERSHIP
TODAY, millions upon millions of spectators will watch the Super Bowl. People reorient their lives for three hours of athletic entertainment that will absolutely consume the nation and many parts of the world. The onlookers will be fans of one team or another, rejoicing when their team progresses and being heartbroken when their team falters. For approximately three hours of great intensity, spectators will watch twenty-two men on a field go to battle. The spectators, you and I, will cheer or boo, critique or analyze as the game is played. When the game is over, and the winner has been determined and everything is brought to finality, the fans will go back to business as usual with shirts that have not gotten dirty, pants that have not gotten ruffled, and bodies with no bruises or bumps. There is a big difference between being in the stands and being on the field.
Jesus Christ has a lot of fans. Folks who want to show up to see what’s going on. Folks who want to critique, analyze, or cheer. Folks who, when the dust settles, haven’t broken a sweat.
They don’t exert much energy. In fact, they picnic while the game is played. Jesus’ spectators are quick to analyze how the folks on the field are doing. They analyze privately by getting on the phone and talking to friends, not understanding that there is a marked difference between sitting in the stands of the living room and being on the field.
It’s easy for a person to ask why a play is not made when they are not the ones running the ball. It’s easy for a person to blame a player for not executing when they are not on the field staring opposition in the face. The view from the field is a lot different from the view in the stands.
We must ask ourselves whether we are simply Jesus fans, or functioning members on the Jesus team. There is a marked difference between the two.153
MANY Christians today are spiritual orphans—children of God with no family relationship. Others are like foster children, bouncing from house to house, never finding a home; it just doesn’t take five years to find a church.
We all know that babies grow best in families. When there are children in the world who have been orphaned or who are not a part of suitable families, we want to get them into good families. We don’t want those children out there on their own. Why? Because we understand that children grow best connected.
If you are a disconnected saint, you are living out of the will of God. Being connected does not just simply mean church attendance either. Attendance only is simply attachment. Church membership is attachment accompanied by fellowship and service that gives you a chance to rub shoulders with people.154
[Fellowship]
Heb. 10:25; Acts 2:42
MANY people shirk church membership, using the excuse that they just don’t like people. But just let things get bad enough in their lives. When they get sick they like people—such as doctors. When they are jobless, they like people—employers. The truth is, they only like people when those people are doing something for them.
Christians who receive and never give at their local churches are leeches. Leeches want all the benefit without doing any of the work.155
[Giving; Servanthood]
MOST of us are familiar with the old American Express slogan, “Membership has its privileges.” When you become a member of various groups, usually associated with that membership are benefits. Even to be a part of the church, there are certain things that members have access to that visitors do not.
I remember receiving a packet from American Airlines some time ago—a Platinum booklet because I’m a Platinum flyer. It’s a booklet that I’ve never read. I got it in the mail but put it aside because I had no knowledge of the privileges of membership that I possessed. There was a card in the book I never saw.
The other day, someone brought to my attention something on the card that’s been there all the time. This bit of information would have made life much more convenient, but because I’d never read what was available to me, there were benefits that did not accrue to me. Many of us who are part of God’s family have little idea of all the benefits of membership.156