Support the Local Church With Your Membership

Yesterday was a good day of worship for FGMBC. Our service has been changed to 8:30 am due to our construction and our small building was rather cold yesterday morning. But once we got going things heated up pretty quickly. We didn't catch any in the net but I am convinced that a seed was planted and watered.

We continued our series of lessons on The Importance of Supporting the Local Church. This week we discussed Support the Local Church With Your Membership. Membership was actually my fourth point from last week's message but after much research on the topic I felt it deserved a message by itself. Footnote: Please be praying for me it is my desire to publish these sermons in a book that will be a blessing to other ministries.

I said a lot yesterday but will keep it brief in this post.

Topic: Support the Local Church With Your Membership
Text: Various Scriptures

Ron Cook of Providence Baptist Ministries writes in a 2005 editorial entitled Church Membership, “A Christian without a church is a Christian in need of a church”.

I believe his statement speaks volumes to the growing trend in our Christian community that church membership doesn’t matter in the life of a believer. Christians don't take their membership in the local church seriously. Church membership in the minds of many Christians, pastors, leaders, and lay persons these days are nothing more than a number to count. How many names we have on the church roll? How many people attend Sunday service? How much money comes through the door every week? So forth and so on. The number in church membership takes precedence over the persons of our membership to the point that many church management systems recommend assigning a number to a member to keep track of a person’s contributions and attendance. And the difference is being 1 or 1000 depending on where your last name falls in the alphabetical order or the date you joined the local church.

The point is that church membership is more than bodies and bucks. Church membership is more than a number to be assigned to a person. Church membership is more than weekly attendance.

We miss the importance of church membership when we focus on a roll count rather than a unified fellowship of believers who make up the body of Christ in the local church.

There are two major issues relating to church membership I want to address before moving on:

- As a Christian, do I need to be a part of a local church? My answer: YES!

- I’m already a member this isn’t relevant to me? My response, yes it is!

Let’s be very clear as pastor and people that supporting the local church is the responsibility of every believer to take their membership in a local church seriously. Here’s why:

• Membership can thrive at a church that holds the right commitments. - Acts 2:42-47
• It's time the raise the bar and ask for a serious commitment from our members - Eph. 4:1-6
• It's time to challenge members of a local church to love God and one another has the Bible commands

Thesis: Supporting the local church requires a total commitment to church membership in the local church.

Here are four (4) important elements of church membership in the local church that will raise the bar of our membership commitment in the local church:

1. The Affirmation of Church Membership - 1 Corinthians 12:12-19

Argument: Is church membership in the local church a biblical concept?

Response: The bible never uses the word membership to affirm church membership. However, the bible does affirm "One Church, One Membership ( Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; Ephesians 4:4)

1 Corinthians 12:12-19 affirms church membership with three (3) key distinctives:

A. Membership is diverse v. 12-14

B. Membership is unified v. 15-19a

C. God is in charge v. 19b

Conclusion: The bible affirms church membership as one church, one membership with diversity and unity.

2. The Activity of Church Membership (John 15:12; 1 John 3:23; Romans 12:10)

Argument: Effective ministry (membership) is building bridges that get us closer to God, together.

How do we build bridges that gets us closer to God, together? By submitting to a four-fold commitment:

1. I will protect the unity of my church
2. I will share the responsibility of my church
3. I will serve the ministry of my church
4. I will support the testimony of my church


3. An Appreciation for Church Membership

A popular credit card company mastermind a marketing campaign that was extremely effective, American Express says: “Membership has it’s Privileges!”

This philosophy is correct, even biblically. As a member of the body of Christ we have our benefits:

Benefit 1: The Sufficiency of Christ - As members of the body of Christ we have extreme privileges that those who are not believers don’t share. We have the forgiveness of sins, access to the throne of God, the hope of glory, the precious promises of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, a mediator that lives always to intercede for us. These benefits are extended to all those who are in Christ without distinction. There no lines of division. In Christ there is no partiality (Gal 2:6; James 2:9; Acts 10:34; Ephesians 6:9; 1 Tim 5:21; Proverbs 24:23).

The point is this, as a member of the body of Christ, our benefits will never run dry.

Benefit 2: The Sustainability of the Church (1 Peter 1:3-9) - The Church will never die.

Benefit 3: The Surety of Church Membership (Philippians 3:20-21) - Point, our membership will never die! When we die our membership is transferred from the local assembly to the heavenly assembly.

Conclusion: Being a member of the universa/local church is a privilege for us to enjoy.

4. The Accountability of Church Membership (1 Corinthians 5:11-13; Matthew 18:15-20)

I’ll never forget an experience I had some years ago. I was coming out of the Slauson Swap Meet and was approached by a Muslim wanting me to purchase “The Final Call”. I decline and proceeded to my car to go home. He kept talking, rather aggressively I might add. It appeared that he wasn’t going to let up so I stopped and let him continue to speak. Once, I felt I was able to get a word in, I asked him, “You said you were a Christian, right? He responded; “Yes”. I then asked, “Why did you leave the church?” He said; “Because there’s no accountability in the church”.

Point: If we (the church) don't take our membership seriously who will?
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I said so much more but just can't post all of it. Remember, I'm writing a book.

Our service ended yesterday pretty early because the Hispanic congregation's service starts at 10:30 am. So after church, I went to support my nephew Louis who preached at Beluahland Baptist church. He did pretty good job but lost his voice mid way through his message.

After church, I played with grandson (Little Jimmy) and left for my softball game. We won but was disappointed when I heard the Cowboys lost.

Tracy and tried to spend some quality time last night but fell asleep on each other at about 9 pm.

Yesterday, was a good day!

RESTORE THE LAND PROJECT UPDATE

Here's an update to our project, ALL IS WELL!!!!! Thank God!!!

This picture is a before shot of our back upstairs area after water damage some 15 years ago. From this mold developed which is dangerous and can create cancer of the lungs if not removed. It's gone!!!!!!!!!!!

After shot:

This is what it looks like now after removal of mold and reframing.

The hard part is over, demolishing. One of my biggest fears was during the demo process what they would find that could cost additional money. What they found was minor and didn't cost a dime extra, praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Building and Safety is giving me a hard time with the stage area because ADA regulations for the disabled. I wanted 2 additional steps for a choir stand but to do that requires a ramp and rails. So, I told the contractor to forget about the 2 steps to keep it simple and easy. I don't want any delays if I can help it. I'm ready to get back into the church.

There is still much work to be done but as of right now things are going pretty good and I can't complain. Keep us in prayer during your quiet time.

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Sermon Series Begins

We started our new sermon series entitled "The Importance of Supporting the Local Church". In the opening sermon I tried to argue that the church needs the support of its members to be effectively successful. Here is the sermon outline:

Topic: The Importance of Supporting the Local Church
Text: Various Scriptures

The book Nehemiah tells of Nehemiah’s desire to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. News was delivered to him by his brother and fellow countrymen that the place they called home was destroyed, demolished, gone, trashed, no more. Nehemiah starts to weep and pray to God on the behalf of Israel.

He continues on with his daily duties as a cupbearer for king Artaxeras. The king notices that Nehemiah is not the same Nehemiah on this particular day so he asks Nehemiah what’s wrong with you. Nehemiah proceeds to tell him of his desire to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and ask the king for his permission and blessing. The king consents and Nehemiah is on his way to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah organizes work on the wall, assigning sections to families, neighborhoods, and even guilds of tradesmen. But in verse 5 of chapter 3 something interesting is mentioned in the chapter. The text says; “Next to them the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord”.

This verse makes an interesting claim that there will be people in the church who will not support the church no matter how worth while the efforts of church may be.

The answers to the question as to why people will not support the church are too many to list. However, one thing can be said here is that the church suffers because of a lack of support from it’s members. People don’t support the church like they used to. That is not to say that the church has always had 100% support from the membership. But it is to say that support for the local church growing to almost non-existent.

Pastors, leaders, and workers have to come up with administrative strategies to get people to support the church. Some pastors settle for what they can get creating ministerial frustration and stress that ultimately causes that pastor to suffer burn-out to the point of quitting the ministry.

There are some members in the church who will not support the church simply because of personal prejudices, traditions, rituals, habits, and comfort. Some members are waiting for the church to fail because the leader(s) did not do it the way they thought it should be done.

And if the church fails, a building project fails, a ministry program fails, and/or membership drops off it’s never the members fault. It’s the leaders (specifically, the pastor).
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I’m convinced that this topic is one requiring immediate attention in our church as well as churches across this land and here’s why:

I believe the success of the local church is dependant on how much you invest into the local church. I believe the effectiveness of the local church is dependant on how much you support it.

Thesis Statement: The successful effectiveness of the local church is dependant on you, membership support.

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth not rust destroys and where thieves cannot break in and steal. For where treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Here’s the point I want to make here with this verse, if God doesn’t have your heart the church will not have your support.

So, how do we get people to become active supporters of the church? My answer, base your support on biblical principles not personal prejudices.

Here are three (3) Biblical Reasons the Local church is in need of you support:

1. The Mission of the Local Church - Matthew 28:18-20
Point: Supporting the local church is committing to fulfilling the Great Commission

2. The Message of the Local Church - John 5:39-40; Ephesians 4:4-6; Jude 3
Point: Supporting the local church helps carry the gospel message across the world

3. The Ministry of the Local Church - 2 Timothy 1:13-14; 2 Timothy 2:15; Matthew 7:24-29
Point: Supporting the local church enables the church to build a firm biblical foundation of sound doctrine.
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There is a fourth point I wanted to make in the opening sermon but thought it deserves a lesson by itself to stress it's importance. So, this coming Sunday, in part 2 of this message, we will study the biblical principle of The Membership of the Local Church. I've most the research but need more and then formulate my thoughts to drive the point home.

I pray this sermon series increases FGMBC's membership to greater support of the church's efforts. Please keep us in your prayers.

Confirmation!!!!!!!!

I met with our leaders last night to update the status of our project as well as carry-out some necessary administrative business. All went well until we started discussing finances. Our giving has been off due to our construction and the fact that for the past two Sundays we had combined services with my home church and the Hispanic church. This Sunday our service time will change to 8:30 am until the completion of our construction efforts and I don't see many supporting the time change.

I proceeded to tell our leaders that I'm not surprised at the lack of support by many of our members so far and I don't believe it's going to stop here. They had a puzzled look on their faces and I told the story of Nehemiah. After Nehemiah heard the tragic news of his hometown, he started praying immediately for favor to go back and rebuild. God heard his prayer and granted him favor to leave king Artaxerxes and go back to Jerasulem to rebuild the city. In chapter 3 we see leaders, priest, sons, brothers, daughters and grandsons come together to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. But in verse 5 the bible says; "The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors" - NIV. The point is this everybody is not going to support a worth-while effort no matter how worth-while the effort maybe. But, they're lack of support will not and did not stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem. I told our leaders that we will not receive full support of many members but that doesn't mean FGMBC will not be rebuilt with God's help.

As we continued our discussion, it was confirmed that the new sermon series I'm preparing to preach this Sunday, "The Importance of Supporting the Local Church", is well needed.

The support level since our construction began has been less than supportive. I have members who are disguntled because I didn't do it the way they think it should have been done. Others are disgruntled and feelings hurt due to some events that took place earlier this year in leadership changes that God navigated not ME. The result, lack of support in presence and finance. I explained to them that I knew this was coming and our economy is affecting many of our financial lives. But this is not the time to panic but to trust God, personally and corporately as a church.

I made a spare of the moment decision to have my pay cut for the month of October but then retrieved from that right away. It's too early to start cutting anything especially my financial support simply because people are non-supportive right now. We need to watch and pray instead.

I took a few moments to pray for direction before going any further with our discussion as they were writing checks to pay our bills. My nervousness and stress level quickly turned to celebration. I started thanking God for opposition because if all of this came easy then I would think it was of me not God. Not only that, we're writing checks to pay bills, me included that's more than enough reason to celebrate. We're not overflowing with cash but God is supplying our every need (and then some).

We will feel the crunch from the state of our economy as well as some lack of support from the members in the last quarter of 2008. But, God is still faithful to perform.

I woke up this morning excited wanting to see what God is going to do at the end of this. And believe you me, I believe God is able to exceedingly, abundantly, all we can ask or think.

I can't wait to get in the pulpit this Sunday. I'm to preach like a maniac, God willing!

New Sermon Series

I'm preparing to start a new sermon series this coming Sunday entitled "The Importance of Supporting the Local Church". These messages are purposeful in challenging the member of FGMBC to step it up in their support efforts.

I'm struggling with the opening message because of the many thoughts I have in my head and so I'm trying to formulate how I should approach this opening message. The opening message will not be my typical attempt at expository preaching. Instead, it will be topical using various verses to explain why this sermon series is an important study for us as a church. Right now, it's been formulated into 3 parts and in my opinion that's too long. So, I'm trying to condense it so I can get to Supporting the Local Church:

With Your Love - 1 John 4:7-11
With Your Prayers - Colossians 4:2
With Your Gifts/Talents - Romans 12:3-8
With Your Stewardship - Genesis 2:15
With Your Worship - Nehemiah 9:8
With Your Service - 1 Peter 4:10-11
With Your Hospitality - 1 Peter 4:9

I'm excited about the series but I'm going to have to work hard through this one but working hard with messages like this makes a great preacher.

Please keep me in prayer during your prayer time.

Happy B-Day, Clint

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