Becoming a Church Member.

On a Saturday at 8am I went to my Get Connected class to become a member of my local church (NLBC) New Life Body of Christ. Get Connected was a class to inform potential new members on the history of NLBC, their beliefs, and expectations of members. I learned that becoming a church member is more than routinely coming on Sunday. It is using your talents to spread the Gospel.

Once the class was over the instructor gave us a form to fill out. The questions that caught my interest were when it asked of my talents and a fill in the bubble next to ministries I would like to participate in. There were many ministries to choose from such as youth ministry, music ministry, audio and technology ministry, singles ministry, and more. This was an example of how many parts of the church form the one body of Christ.

Becoming a church member means to be held accountable. As a church visitor it is easy to come to church whenever you feel like it. You won’t be expected to attend Sunday school and midweek Bible study. Your absence won’t be noticed.  But, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing shameful about being a church visitor. Some people do not have the opportunity to participate in more than Sunday service, or your only interest in the church is to learn. But, what is the benefit of learning and not doing. Colleges don’t expect you to just show up to class and learn. Colleges want you to participate in building the campus by joining organizations, paticipating in sports, having on campus jobs. Same with the church. You’re not getting all you can from a church by merely sitting and learning.

God doesn’t want us to consistently be only visitors of a church. Jesus did not talk about the Gospel among his friends and went home. Jesus spread the Gospel by reaching out to people in various locations. Jesus chose disciples with different talents and professions that would diversify the teaching of the Gospel to reach various cultures, social classes, and every nation.