The Privileges of Church Membership
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I read a story this week about an older couple who wanted to take a plane ride and they went to one of these places where you could get on and ride in a small airplane. They found out it was one hundred dollars a head and the old guy said to the pilot, “Well, I just can’t afford that.” The pilot said, “I’ll make a deal with you. If I take you up in the air and you remain perfectly silent and you don’t shout out, I’ll give it to you for free.” So he took them up. He did a loop-de-loop and he went around and he did all the banks and that kind of stuff and he kept waiting to hear them yell out and nothing happened. Well, he took them back to the ground and he kind of looked back and he said, “Well, I did everything I could to make you shout out but I didn’t hear a word.” And the old man said, “Well it was touch and go there when Mama fell out of the airplane….”
Not many things make Presbyterians yell out, get excited, but I think we should get excited about being a member of God’s Church. As we prepare to do our congregational meeting a little later, it is a time to re-access and talk about our membership. That’s what I want to talk about and I am organizing the sermon according to our three rocks, according to the vision that we have come up with: Worship, Discipleship, and Service. You will see that as we go along.
First, let’s pray.
Lord God, be with us now as we consider your Church and our part in it and what we are supposed to be and do. As always Lord, I pray that there will be something in it that would speak to each one of us, that you would be talking to us and saying, “Do this” or “Don’t do that.” If you would be saying to us, “Here I am, bless you and be thankful,” that you would say to us “I am your God and you are my people.” I pray these things Lord in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, first about church membership. As we all know, if we haven’t lived in a cave in the last several months, there has been a huge discussion about health care and all those different things. You know, some of the debate centers on the idea of what should be a privilege or what should be a right, what should be something we should expect. That discussion happens on all kinds of arenas. Sometimes people talk about it in terms of jobs: Is that something that is a right or is it a privilege? I don’t pretend to be able to answer all those different kinds of questions, but today I want to talk about church membership; and very definitely, church membership, membership in God’s Church, is not just a right. It is not an entitlement. It is a privilege. Well, why is that so?…because church membership, like your salvation, is a gift. We all know that salvation is a gift, at least we should. Salvation is something God gives us. Paul says, “The wages of sin are death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” We receive that gift by faith. “It is by grace we are saved.” When you are saved, when you come to Christ, God places you in the Church. You become a member. It is kind of like the opposite of “membership has its privileges.” In this case, salvation has its privileges and it is a membership in God’s Church.
Now, to some degree, of course, I am talking about “Big C”. I am talking about God’s universal Church, the Church that has existed since the beginning of time and will go to the end of time. The Church that is in heaven and the Church that is here below, the Church that is here now and all over the world. We might ask a good question, “Well, O.K. I get the idea that being a member of ‘Big C’ is a privilege. What about ‘little c’? What about the local church?” Well it too is a gift of grace. “Little c” wouldn’t exist without “Big C”. In other words, this expression of God’s Church wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Big Church.
But you know what? That is part of the problem we have. In every era God’s Church faces challenges. Along the way the Church has faced heresies, threats from within, threats from without, people trying to destroy it. In our history, American history, we are facing some similar things; but one of the things we are facing is a philosophical issue, lifestyle issue. I would deem that as consumerism. Now, I don’t think there is anything wrong with being consumers or the market economy or anything like that, but it bleeds over into how we view the Church. You see, we view the Church kind of like a department store. We can go to this one or that one to get what we need. People hop from one church to another. I know one pastor who was not very kind about that, he calls them “bunny hoppers.” They hop from one place. “I have grown tired of this one; I’m going over to that one.” Or “This one has a much better program and is more exciting than that one.” That is not all wrong but it really does go right through the core of where we are in almost everything. We have a choice to do literally everything. That is a marketing strategy for a lot of people now. You have a choice of many applications for your cell phone. I mean there are thousands of them. You have a choice of what school you go to. It used to be, as I was reminded this morning, that you had to go to this school in this district. Now it is open enrollment. You can choose anything you want.
Even cruise ships, you know, I have only been on one cruise. But it used to be that you went at this time to eat. Of course, they had food all the time, but if you wanted dinner you went at this time. Now you have a choice. There are choices everywhere. The same is true with church. It is treated as a department store, or even worse, a club membership. You know, I was an associate pastor of my first church in North Carolina. I learned a lot about things I’ve never heard before at that church. One woman came in and laid her check down on the desk and said, “I am here to pay my dues.” That is the problem when we talk about membership in our culture because it sounds like we are a membership of Lifetime Fitness. We expect services for our membership dues. So a lot of people look at their tithe exactly the same way. “I am paying my dues and I expect goods and services.” So if you have a child, “I expect a program for them or I am going to take my dues somewhere else.” Or “I have been a member of this place for fifty years and I havepaid my dues so I am owed.” It goes across the board. It is this entitlement mentality. You know if you ask any pastor what frustrates him or her most about church it is this. Maybe top five. In fact, many issues are this way. When you sit down in front of a couple doing counseling, it is almost always, “My spouse is not giving me what I deserve. I am unhappy (he or she).” Or “Life is not giving me what I deserve. I am unhappy. What can I do about it?” Heaven knows, a lot of things you deal with in a church are “we aren’t getting what we want.” Now to some degree, it is legitimate. But, as we talk starting about church this morning, I think there is a wonderful principle I heard about a few years ago. To some degree it became a cliché but it is still kind of like, it is not about me. It is profound. Actually someone did put it on a little button. It said, “I’m Third.” In almost every case in life, as a Christian, it is God first, others second, and you are third, I’m third, we are all third. It is not that we don’t think about ourselves but it is always in the context of God first, others second, we are third. And, ladies and gentlemen, we, all us human beings, tend to go three, two, one. Or at least, three, one, two.
Membership is a privilege, not a right, because it is a gift from God. Whether it is “Big C” or “little c,” it is a privilege. Yes, you made a decision to join here, it is still a privilege. One of the great privileges we have, first and foremost, is Worship. Worship is the most important thing that we do. Do you know what, you know I told you we were going to talk about Worship, Discipleship and Service, do you know which of the three that will continue into heaven? Well, that is a rhetorical question. You already know. It is worship. Discipleship is growing to knowing God in his will and his truth. I think we will learn more in heaven but it will be very different. Discipleship will not be the same, and there will not be any need for service or missions because everybody will be a believer. There won’t be any injustice, there won’t be any hunger, there won’t be any of those things. Missions will go away, but worship will remain the same. Now I know that is depressing to some of you.
I repeated this story many times about one of the prime ministers of England. His name was Lloyd George. He said, “The thought of worshipping into eternity made me an unbeliever for years.” Well let me just say that worship in heaven will be exciting, it will be fun, it will be joyful in a way we can’t even think about. But it continues. It is the most important thing we do. But again it is not about us, first.
I had a pastor friend who was approached by a member of his church who rarely attended services. After talking for a few minutes he said, “John, I am curious. Can you tell me what the purpose of worship is?” And the man answered quickly, “Well the purpose of worship is to praise God.” He got that right; but my pastor friend then asked, “Why do you rarely attend worship?” The man answered, “I mean no offense, but your sermons don’t reach me and I don’t enjoy the music.” I hear that all the time and I am not insulted by it. I learned a long time ago that I can’t reach everyone. Everybody has a style of communication. Everybody does it a different way, and it doesn’t necessarily touch everyone. But there are three things to consider about worship. One is worship is a service not a serve us. Did you know that worship is considered a service? We call it the Worship Service. Often we do think, well I am going to a worship service. I think, in our minds, we think we are going to be served; but it is considered, theologically, a time to serve God. But very often we come, going, I hope the sermon means something to me or the music, or whatever it happens to be. Now, remember, that is a legitimate consideration; but it is third. It is third. Others are second. God is first.
Another thing to consider is that it takes effort to worship. It takes effort to listen to a sermon. Often we come passively. Jazz me! Reach me! Inspire me! Again, legitimate considerations. But we are third. You have to come with some effort toward God and listen, take notes, listen to the music even though it isn’t quite your style. What are the words saying? Even if nothing happens, it is still O.K.
Thirdly, and this is very serious, if you are a Christian and you are not prevented by some illness or job or other legitimate reason, and you are not going to worship, you are not in God’s will. It is not an option. You might say, “Well I am worshipping at the lake or the golf course, or the beach.” Fine. Great. You should have a quiet time personally with God, but corporate worship, almost everything in the Bible when it mentions worship, it is corporate. It is community. You were saved into a community. It isn’t just you and me. It isn’t John Wayne. It is about being together. If you aren’t attending somewhere, you are not in God’s will. Now, I want to be very careful here because you might walk out and say, “Did you know what I heard at church today? Chris said ‘You are going to hell if you don’t go to worship’”. No. We are all saved by grace. We are saved by grace, not by works. But if you don’t go to worship somewhere you are missing something. You are missing what God wants you to do. Even more seriously, you are making worship about you. You may not think so, but you are. You are making worship about you.
That leads to the second point about worship. It is so important I made two points about it. Again, it is the I am third, rule. Worship is about God, others and you in that order. Yes, when I say “you” I mean me, too. It is about God, others, and you. Notice what the Bible says, “Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God.” (Romans 4:11) The Bible is very serious about this. Very serious about this. Again it is the rule of three. Very practically speaking, that means that how blessed we feel is a secondary consideration when it comes to worship. Actually, it is a third consideration. The real question first is how does God feel about our worship? You see we are going there to worship God, first, and the question is, what does God think of your worship? Does he have a smile? Or is he just going,” he wasn’t there today. I’m not sure what he was doing.” “She wasn’t really thinking about me.” There may be some legitimate reasons for that, but in most cases, are we thinking about playing golf at one? Or lunch? Or, I just don’t really care for this?
It is about God and secondly it is about others. You know I mentioned that in the Bible worship is almost always in the context of community. It is about others. Most of us know who Fred Rogers is. He was obviously “Mr. Rogers” but he was a Presbyterian minister. One day he went to a church and heard the biggest turkey of a sermon that he had ever heard in his life. He was sitting there, and you know the toughest audience in the world is ministers. When I go and speak in front of a group of chaplains it is like “Oh my gosh.” I am one of them and I know I can’t judge them because I have been there and I have sinned against brothers who are speaking. But here he is, and he said, “It is the worst sermon I have ever heard. He didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t know where he was going. It was delivered poorly, and all of it.” Then he looked next to him and saw the woman next to him crying because it had touched her so deeply. It was about her that day, not him. It is about everybody else. If you don’t show up, you are missing from the body. You are missing from the body and there is something missing there.
And third, it is about you. I’m not going to say it isn’t. There are considerations. If you go to a place and you are a member of a church and you just can’t stand the worship, you should go somewhere else. You should go somewhere else where you can get something out of it; because if you are not going at all, you are not in God’s will. You are not in God’s will.
The second piece, following Christ takes desire and effort. Here I am talking about Discipleship. One of the main purposes of God saving us is to make us mature in him. That is what the whole vision is about, that our church is going to focus on worship and discipleship and among many verses, Ephesians 4:15, “God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything.” In other words, God’s purpose for you and me is to make us a little more like Christ every day. To make us a little bit more like Jesus Christ every day. Discipleship is necessary. It is something we all have to be and do. Now what is it? Well, I heard an example last week in the Marriage course. I was listening to what they were saying about marriage and the teacher said this: Marriage is the most important relationship you will ever have—the most important. They anticipated the objection, well what about the relationship with our children? They pointed out that our children, our whole goal for them is separation. From day one when we raise our children, we are trying to get them out of the house, because it is better that way… I am just kidding. Speaking as an empty nester, it is better, a whole lot better…but that is another issue. Now we want them to become independent so that they have their own families. But in marriage your desire is to grow closer for the rest of your lives. Actually our relationship with God is both of these things. Discipleship is about learning to follow Jesus, to know Him personally more and more. It is also becoming stronger in our knowledge of the truth in our faith so that we can stand when the chips are down and the bottom falls out, because it will. It will.
You know, most of us have probably heard of The Picture of Dorian Gray, that character in literature looks young all the time for years and decades; but he has this picture which he keeps covered up. It actually shows his true state of age. So he may look young but the man in the picture is a decrepit looking person. I think spiritually a lot of people are just like that. Many people don’t grow up in their faith. It takes effort. We have to try. We can’t just blow it off. We choose what we want to do and how we use our time. I encourage you to make a commitment to being a disciple and to celebrate it.
Last but not least if you are not serving, you are missing God’s purpose for you. If you are not serving, you are missing God’s purpose for you. Among many verses, Ephesians 2:10: “It is God himself who made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.” That is what it is about. Have you ever wondered why God just doesn’t immediately take us up to heaven the moment we accept his grace? Well the answer is that God has saved us to serve. This is the third privilege of being a church member. We serve people in the church and outside of the church. It is our purpose. It is what we are to do. It is part of the fabric of the Christian life. It includes those actions of worship and discipleship. It is a response to worship and as we grow in ministry we stop asking who is going to meet my needs and we start asking more and more how can I meet the needs of others. It doesn’t matter how old we are or how young we are. Yes, when we get older it is harder to get out of the house, but we can still pray; we can still do things, if we want to, if we decide to.
I read a wonderful story about a Chinese Christian woman who was arrested because of her faith, put into a horrible prison and she couldn’t talk to anybody about her Lord. She decided she would do something about it. She volunteered to clean all the toilets in everybody else’s cell. As she went and cleaned up everybody else’s toilet, she would tell the people in the cells about Jesus. She made it happened. She served. Serving is what we are called to do.
A man who was a very strong man in his ego but he was trying to grow asked, “How do I know if I am growing as a servant?” And someone said, “When someone treats you like a servant, it won’t bother you.”
Find out. Ask God what you can do for Him, not what others can do for you.
I want to close in a prayer. As we approach the communion table, I would ask you to think about parts of this prayer that apply to you, that you and I, we all, might become greater servants in our lives. The prayer goes like this:
Lord God, you asked for my hands that I might use them for your purpose. I gave them for a moment then withdrew them for the work was hard.
You asked for my mouth to speak out against injustice and tell others about the Christ. I gave you a whisper that I might not be accused.
You asked for my eyes to see the pain of poverty in those that were hurting. I closed them for I did not want to see.
You asked for my life that you might work through me, and I gave a small part that I might not get involved.
Lord forgive me for my calculated efforts to serve you only when it is convenient, only in places where it is safe, and only with those who make it easy to do.
Lord forgive us, renew us, make us usable instruments that we might take seriously the meaning of your cross and your life and your death and your resurrection.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.