Members of One Body

The fellowship is not a loose association of individuals who happen to believe in Jesus. It is the body of Christ. A single organism. With Christ as the Head.

Paul draws out the implications of this metaphor.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

You are not on your own private journey with God. You are part of a body. Your wholeness depends on being connected. Your health is inseparable from the health of the whole.

Paul continues with a picture.

If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. (1 Corinthians 12:15-18)

You are not placed in the fellowship because you are like everyone else. You are placed there precisely because you are different. Your particular gifts, your particular perspective, your particular calling is needed.

The implications are staggering. If I am an eye, I cannot judge the foot for not being an eye. If I am a mouth, I cannot say to the ear, "I have no need of you."

"The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor" (1 Corinthians 12:22-23). The church is supposed to be a place where the weak are honored. Where the hidden are valued. Where those who seem insignificant are shown to be essential.

This is worked out in church membership.

The concept of membership in a local church is not a modern invention. It is deeply biblical. You are not merely a member of some invisible universal church while remaining independent from any local congregation. You are bound to specific people in a specific place.

Hebrews warns:

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Membership means commitment.

It means you have committed to stand with these people. To live alongside them. To bear with them even when they disappoint you. It means you have given your leaders the authority to shepherd you, correct you, guide you. It means you are accountable to them and they are accountable to you.

This is not easy. It is far easier to be a spiritual consumer. To visit a church when it suits you. To leave when you find something better. But membership is covenantal. It is a vow.

The 1689 confession describes the local church this way: a company of believers who have voluntarily bound themselves together to walk in faith and obedience to Christ. The local church is not something imposed from above. It is not controlled by external authorities. It is an assembly of believers who have chosen each other and committed to living life together under Christ's headship.

Paul writes, "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (1 Corinthians 12:26).

This is what real membership produces.

You cannot be indifferent to the suffering of your brothers and sisters because their pain is also your pain. You cannot envy their honor because their joy is also your joy. You are woven together at such a deep level that separation is not possible.

When you place yourself under the care of a local church. When you commit to its covenant. When you show up not just when it is convenient but when it is costly. You are testifying to something radical. You are saying that the fellowship of Christ is so valuable that it is worth ordering your life around. You are saying that isolation is not an option. You are saying that you need these people and they need you.

At Mayflower, this is why membership matters. Not as a transactional list. As a covenant of believers who have chosen each other in Christ and committed to walking together.