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[The following is excerpted from the book, Gather: Getting to the Heart of Going to Church, Copyright © 2021 by M. Hopson Boutot. Click here to download the entire book for free.] 

What’s the meaning of church membership? Why does it matter? Is it simply about having your name on a list? Or being accepted and included? Or the ability to serve in the nursery or on a ministry team or a committee? Or having a place to call home whenever you’re able to attend? Or the confidence that some church somewhere will host your funeral and be mentioned in your obituary? In fifteen years of ministry, I’ve heard each of these reasons and more. But none of them do justice to the meaning of membership.

Pastor and author Jonathan Leeman helpfully explains that the role of a church member is to “guard the what and who of the Gospel.”(1)  In other words, the church member’s job is far more significant than what many people think. The church’s fidelity to the Gospel will rise or fall on the faithfulness of its members.

What does it mean that church members are to guard the what of the Gospel? If you’re a church member, it is partially your responsibility to ensure “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” is faithfully taught at your church (Jude 1:3).

Consider Paul’s words to the church in Galatia. He was astonished at how quickly the church had abandoned the true Gospel. He urged them to reject any so-called Bible teacher who contradicted this Gospel. But who was he writing to? Not the elders, not the deacons, not the ministry team leaders, not the denominational representatives, but the entire membership (Galatians 1:1-9)(2). It is the responsibility of church members to guard the what of the Gospel.

What about guarding the who of the Gospel? If you’re a church member, it is partially your responsibility to ensure that your fellow members who profess Christ live up to that profession. We see this most clearly in passages that deal with church discipline. For example, consider the role of the church in Matthew 18:15-17. Jesus instructs His followers to bring unrepentant sinners before the church if previous attempts to confront and restore them have failed. Then, if the sinning member still does not repent, he is to be removed from membership by the congregation. The same type of instruction is given in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 when Paul instructs the church to remove a man whose life grossly contradicts the faith he claims.

Notice in both instances, it is not the elders or the deacons or any other group that is tasked with this responsibility. It is the membership itself. It is the responsibility of church members to require those among them who profess faith in Christ to live in accordance with that profession. Church members are responsible to guard the who of the Gospel.

Now consider this two-pronged responsibility alongside the sin of non-attendance. Will non-attendance help or hinder one’s ability to carry out these responsibilities? How effectively can you guard the what of the Gospel if you’re not faithfully present to hear what is taught? Sure, you can always listen to the sermon audio online later, or perhaps even livestream the service (more on that in chapter 7). But even with these incredible technologies, your ability to effectively guard the what of the Gospel will be minimized without faithful attendance.

Or what about guarding the who of the Gospel? This responsibility likely requires your physical presence even more. After all, how can you do your part to help the members in your church faithfully live out their profession if you’re not faithfully present? Forget knowing how a brother or sister is doing in their walk with Jesus for a moment—members absent for extended periods of time may return to church to find a host of new members they don’t even know at all. And how effectively will you be able to assist in the pursuit of wayward, sinning members (as instructed in Matthew 18:17a) if you’re not present to hear what’s going on in their lives?

Non-attendance is sometimes a sin because it hinders the faithful execution of your responsibilities as a church member to guard the what and who of the Gospel.

1.  Jonathan Leeman, Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2016), 235.

 2. Of course, this doesn’t mean that elders, deacons, etc. shouldn’t also help guard the gospel. But they do so first and foremost as part of the membership. They are members first before they’re office-holders in the church. It is partly their exemplary faithfulness as church members that qualifies them to hold an office in the church.