Have you ever wondered why biblical churches ask people to join? Whether it’s called “partnership” or “membership” here are a few reasons why each Christian should join himself to a gospel-believing local church.

It’s biblical. In Scripture’s unfolding story, we see a God who gathers people as his own to be a set apart community. The Old Testament nation of Israel had clear boundary markers designed by God to mark themselves off as God’s chosen people. After Christ died and rose again, inaugurating the new covenant, the people of God are not determined by genealogy but by God’s regenerating power within (Jeremiah 31-32; Galatians 3:28). The people of God are those who have embraced the gospel and thus have a personal relationship with God.

Now God’s people are being gathered into his family from every nation, tribe, and tongue across the globe (Revelation 7:9). In the New Testament, we see how this universal church finds its visible expression throughout the world in local churches. Local churches are neither buildings nor social clubs. They are the believers who together commit themselves to loving God and each other through faithfulness to his gospel and his mission as they regularly gather to preach that gospel and exercise the keys of the kingdom.

Church membership is assumed throughout the New Testament. The authors of the New Testament epistles often knew to whom they were addressing their letters within the churches, and they assumed that Christians belonged to these churches. The original audiences of the New Testament epistles knew each “one another” they were specifically to love (Romans 12:10). Christians are to follow their own church leaders, not just anyone called “pastor” (Hebrews 13:17). How else can a believer obey this passage unless they have specific leaders who are their own? Likewise, Peter commands pastors to “shepherd the flock that is among you,” (1 Peter 5:2) indicating that the pastors knew the specific individuals for whom they are responsible and will one day give an account (Hebrews 13:17). There is an assumed belonging which New Testament Christians had within specific local churches.

In Acts 2, we see that “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (v. 47). When some of the widows in this Jerusalem church weren’t receiving the aid they needed, the church assembled itself in Acts 6:1-2, recognizing to whom (the widows of that church) they (the church members) were responsible.

In Matthew 18:17, Jesus indicates that “the church” has the responsibility for determining who belongs and who doesn’t based on whether they are genuinely repentant. Jesus speaks of this authority and responsibility in Matthew 16:19 in how he will give “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” to the church. The Apostle Paul relies on the same logic in 1 Corinthians 5 when he indicates that a man who chooses egregious sexual sin over Jesus should be considered neither a Christian nor, consequently, a member of the church in Corinth. When it comes to New Testament churches, we see clear and helpful lines for “those inside” (1 Cor. 7:12) and “those outside” (1 Cor. 7:13). Clarity in this regard is obedience to the Lord. But it is also most loving to both believers and unbelievers, because the lines exist to authentically reflect a person’s posture toward Jesus.

Christians should join themselves to local churches because that is the pattern seen in Scripture.

It’s loving. In John 13:35, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love marks the Christian and the Christian community. Christianity is not an individualistic enterprise. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:21, “And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” How can we know we belong to God if we are not loving the people God loves as his own and has called us to love as family? The New Testament speaks of bearing burdens and using spiritual gifts to especially minister to those in one’s own church community (Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 12).

Given the individualism and consumerism in the West, many churches often fear calling people to membership/partnership. Strategies are adopted to let people ease into commitment gradually. Start by simply coming, then maybe join a small group based on one’s preferences and demographics. After a while, perhaps begin to donate and then eventually volunteer. Dropouts along the way are all too common. Commitment sadly isn’t. Many professing Christians spend most of their lives never knowing what it is to commit themselves to a body of believers.

In his book, The Compelling Community, Jamie Dunlop distinguishes between consumer-based commitment and calling-based commitment. He points out how the deepest and most meaningful relationships (and thus community) are usually created by formal commitment. Churches aren’t meant to be places where people bail after a few weeks of songs they don’t prefer, inconvenience, or even hurt feelings. Rather, the “secret sauce” that makes a community of believers shine in this dark world is the supernatural ability to love people unlike yourself and to forgive those the world says you should forget. When believers love one another, forgive one another, prefer one another, and serve one another sacrificially, the world takes notice. This committed love is the kind of love Jesus intends for his people to experience in the church. Committed church membership is loving.

It’s assuring. Mark Dever helpfully writes, “Membership in a local church is not an antiquated, outdated, unnecessary add-on to true membership in the universal body of Christ; membership in a local church is intended to be a testimony to our membership in the universal church. Church membership does not save, but it is a reflection of salvation. And if there is no reflection of our salvation, how can we be sure that we are truly saved? …. In becoming a member of the church, we are grasping hands with each other to know and be known by each other. We are agreeing to help and encourage each other when we need to be reminded of God’s work in our lives or when we need to be challenged about major discrepancies between our talk and our walk,” (Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 164).

Scripture is clear that a Christian does not experience salvation through the church, but through Christ alone. That’s a large part of what the Protestant Reformation was about. However, as Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman write, “[A] Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble,” (Rediscover Church, 11). God designed the local church to be ground zero for a Christian’s accountability and encouragement from others by affirming and reaffirming a Christian’s citizenship in God’s kingdom.

Like embassies of God’s kingdom, churches carry authority from him (“the keys of the kingdom of heaven”) and represent him throughout the world. The biblical ordinances of the church (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are two essential and unique ways churches do this. As members witness a new believer’s baptism, they encourage that brother or sister by saying, “Yes, we affirm that your gospel profession is credible. Welcome to the family!” As members regularly and obediently partake of the Lord’s Supper, they profess their own faith and affirm the faith of those alongside whom they eat and drink.

This is also done within relationships among members. When a member sees her fellow member struggling, she has a responsibility to encourage her, support her, call her to fight sin, and/or simply pray for her as a sister in Christ. Church membership is deeply assuring to our hearts as the church initially and then continually affirms a Christian’s profession of faith biblically.

It’s missional. God’s strategy for reaching the nations is the local church, and he doesn’t need a Plan B. The church is where disciples are built up in the faith and where God gives leaders “to equip the saints for the work of ministry…” (Ephesians 4:12). As believers disciple one another and pray for one another, they are accomplishing the Great Commission. Churches thereby equip and encourage believers to weekly enter their workplaces, universities, and neighborhoods with the gospel message. Their increasing passion for God, love for the lost, and knowledge of the Scriptures means an increasing witness of the gospel through their lives. Being a member of a solid local church maximizes a Christian’s ability to brightly shine in the world.

However, God has much more in store than simply the witness of individuals. In Scripture, we see that God designs local churches to corporately display the power of the gospel. As a watching world sees churches filled with people loving and serving one another – people who would otherwise have no reason to love one another – the power of the gospel shines forth.

Jesus said that all people will know we are his disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35). Small or large, rich or poor, new or historic, God designed the local church to display the glory of his saving power through the holiness, love, and labors of believers who have been transformed by the gospel.

Much more could be said about the value and importance of membership/partnership in a local church. Suffice it to say here, though, that believers belong in churches. Have you ever felt alone in the faith, Christian? Perhaps so, but isolation is a place God never designed as normative for his children. You are part of a family, and God designed you to experience the highs and lows of this life with others who will bear your burdens and whose burdens you can help bear. You weren’t intended to be without the godly and sacrificial leadership of pastors who will love you like Christ’s own. You weren’t intended to figure out the Christian life on your own without other saints older and godlier to help you and those who you will help. You weren’t intended to love from a distance, but in person, life-on-life. Because one day, dear Christian, we will know the full consummation of Christ’s kingdom, the fulfillment of what we experience glimpses of today as members of his local churches.