Why Join a Church?

From The Forum Magazine, Spring 2013 - view the full issue here

When Ryan and Clarice married and moved far from their home communities it was their intention to join a local church. Clarice was a member of a CRC church and Ryan was RCA.

The first few months after the move they attended the local CRC church. They did not find the minister or the style of music to their liking. Then they began visiting the RCA church close to their home. They didn’t find it any more to their liking, so they began to attend a large non-denominational American evangelical church. The preacher was engaging and the music was more their style. They continued to worship there every Sunday morning.

After a year of regular attendance they still had not joined the church. They were uncomfortable with contacting their home churches about a membership transfer and were unclear what the membership process in the new church involved. Not joining seemed to have some advantages. Although they contributed money in the offering plate each week, they avoided the financial expectations of regular members. It also allowed them the option of skipping out of other responsibilities of membership: no nursery duty, no potluck preparation, no committee obligations. It gave them an informal anonymity that allowed them to do as they pleased. And it gave them an easy out if the worship ever changed. If a new minister came or the music became unpleasant, they could pick up and leave. Clarice’s parents wished that she and Ryan would join the local CRC, but were grateful they regularly attended worship services.

The experience of Ryan and Clarice is not unusual. When Christian young people go off to to college, they may worship on Sunday at a local church but their membership remains with their home church. Over time their membership in a distant family church seems increasingly irrelevant. This pattern of attending church without joining it follows many after graduation.

Here are the facts. In the 2012 General Social Survey it was found that in the United States, 20 percent of a nationally representative group were not part of an organized faith, a huge rise from 8 percent in 1990. More than 33 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds claimed “no religion,” compared to just 7 percent of those 75 and older. (The survey distinguishes individuals who are unchurched from those who claim to be atheists. The latter group is still only 3 percent of the population.)

The question for this short essay is whether choosing to affiliate formally with a local church is important. I will consider the question in two stages: first, by probing an underlying reason why many adults don’t officially join a church; and second, by examining the important biblical reason for joining a church.

An Underlying Reason for Not Joining

Some young people who have grown up attending church have a mistaken view of what a church is, and what church membership means. They think a church is like a retail store—a place where you go to get some things that you may need. What is it that a church offers that someone may need? The answer to that question is not the same for everyone. For some, going to church is a kind of habit they acquired in their youth. Sunday mornings just don’t seem quite right if you don’t go to a worship service. For some the music may be the draw. They may like the familiar songs, or the praise band, and the opportunity to sing along—a kind of group karaoke. Some may find the preacher inspiring or good at offering practical advice. Still others may enjoy the opportunity to see friends, like going to a coffee shop. When a person finds what she needs at a church she returns to the same church over and over, like many people who keep returning to their local Cheesecake Factory or Target.

But such individuals may choose to keep their commitment to the church at arm’s length. They don’t want to be members. They want to keep their options open. They may find another establishment that they like better. Or the church they attend could change; it could get a new preacher, or change its music so that it is not a place they enjoy as much. Their own preferences also could change, so that what they once liked is no longer enjoyable. Joining a church involves some risks that one can avoid by simply attending. This strategy makes good sense if the church is like a retailer. Why should one commit to a single retailer when another may emerge as even more satisfying? I personally don’t own a Target card and I’m not a preferred Cheesecake Factory customer. I don’t want to feel any obligation to retailers; my loyalty is based on my perception that they are meeting my needs and, if that were to change, I want to feel free to go elsewhere.

The idea that church is like a retail store involves a significant confusion. A retailer needs to meet your felt needs, but the purpose of a church is to meet real needs, whether or not they are felt. One reason this confusion about the church is more prevalent today is that many people don’t feel the need for the kind of help the church offers. There was a time when so many lives were peppered with trouble and sad events that people could not ignore the brokenness of human life, and they therefore recognized the need of divine help. But many today are shielded from the common effects of sin and have lives of relative ease. The problems they experience seem to require doctors or politicians, not a pastor. So the church is not seen as something needed; rather it is seen as an option, like buying groceries at Walmart.

Why Joining a Church is Important

We are social beings. We each have a need to have friends and to belong to some group. We associate with people who are like us in some respects. Perhaps we have the same occupation, or we have children the same age, or we went to school together. The community around which your social life is centered makes a lot of difference, because those with whom we share our lives have a significant influence on us. Their ideas slowly influence our ideas; their values impact our hearts. Sadly, many have abandoned the Christian faith because their social lives are centered around people who don’t know the Lord.

A church is the most important community to which a Christian can belong because Christians share a basic view of life that is much different than the currents of secular thought. We are exposed to these currents on a daily basis and it is a struggle for a Christian to keep the faith. Being surrounded by a church community is vital to consistently fortify one’s faith; without it faith is in real danger of atrophying.

At the same time, the church community is more than just a social group; it is rather like a family. Indeed, Paul refers to some of his fellow church members as “brothers.” Some refer to the institutional church as “mother church.” The church is both a place of love and caring, and also one of instruction, correction, and discipline. At some points in our lives we each need to have our ideas challenged, our consciences reawakened, and our hearts turned back toward the things of God. The church is an institution ordained by God himself for the nurture of his children. He instituted it for our good. This good comes to us informally in the fellowship of other Christians, and formally in the preaching of the word, in taking part in the sacraments, and in biblical discipling.

Yet there is another important reason to join a church. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul compares the church to a human body, and says that a body needs all of its parts to function properly. Each body part is valuable and needed. A person without a hand, or with ears that don’t hear, or eyes that can’t see, or legs that are paralyzed, is still able to function, even if not fully. Paul is not saying that a person should belong to a church because of the benefits of church membership. He is saying that the church needs every Christian to join so it can function as God intends. It is what an individual believer can contribute to the life and fellowship of the church and the witness to Jesus Christ that should motivate him to join the church.

When a person becomes a Christian it is because the Holy Spirit has been at work in his heart and mind, and has given him the gift of faith. The Holy Spirit brings a variety of gifts, abilities, and talents to each Christian which are intended for the good of God’s people and for reaching out to those who need to hear of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Some of these gifts are for kingdom work, so that a Christian is working for the glory of God in whatever job he has. Some of these gifts are for church work, so that a Christian can contribute by serving as a musician, or a nursery worker, or an elder, or a youth leader. Using the gifts that God has given in order to build up God’s family and draw others into it is a motivation for joining a church.

If a person thinks of a church as just another retail organization, there is little reason to officially join it as a member. The church is, in fact, a God-ordained institution. It is a place God has designed for spiritually nurturing his children, and a place where we can share the gifts God has given us for the benefit of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Joining it is an act of obedience.

(Calvin Van Reken, Professor of Moral Theology, Emeritus)