Q. 41. Is everyone obliged to become a member of some particular local church?

Since the Church is the holy assembly of those who are saved, outside of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation, people should not withdraw from it, content to be by themselves, but are obliged to join and submit to it, keeping the unity of the Church.

Matthew 18:17–20; John 20:23; Acts 2:47; 1 Corinthians 12:1–30; Ephesians 2:19; Hebrews 10:24–25; 1 John 2:19.

  • Belgic Confession 28
  • WCF 25.2

Member. The language of church membership is drawn from those scriptural passages in which a local church is identified as a body or household with formally recognized and identifiable members, covenanted together for mutual service, edification, and accountability (1 Corinthians 12:25; Ephesians 2:19).

No ordinary possibility of salvation. Those whom God saves he also adds to the number of the visible Church: “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). Those who withdraw from the visible Church are, ordinarily, not Christians: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). “The visible church … is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (WCF 25.2). See Notes on Q. 40.

Obliged. It is the duty and privilege of every Christian to belong to a local church and to eagerly seek that church’s affirmation of salvation through baptism and church membership. “Every follower of Christ is obliged, by the very nature of the Christian institution, to be a member of some particular congregation” (Wesley, Sermon 39, “Catholic Spirit”). “It is the duty of those who are rightly baptized to join themselves to some visible and orderly church of Jesus Christ” (Baptist Catechism of 1677 104). We must “place ourselves under that discipline which consists in the enforcement of the laws of Christ (which are the rules of the society called the Church) upon the members, not merely by general exhortation, but by kind oversight, and personal injunction and admonition of its ministers. … Since this institution has the authority of Christ and his apostles, … it is no more a matter of mere option with Christians whether they will be subject to government in the Church, than it is optional with them to confess Christ by becoming its members” (Richard Watson, Theological Institutes).

  1. A Primer on Church Membership. Holy Joys. Article.
  2. If You Love Jesus, Join a Church. Holy Joys. Article.
  3. More coming soon.