From the beginning God has meant the church to be distinct. The New Testament word for church, ecclesia, literally means, “those who are called out.” In one sense this word refers to the universal church. Wayne Grudem defines the universal church as “the community of all true believers for all time.”^[1] But in another sense the word refers to the local church. In fact, the vast majority of the time when this word is used, it is used to refer to the local church.[2]

What a church is not. If you are a Christian, the church is not:

• a physical building;
• a denomination;
• a club;
• a voluntary organization where membership is optional to you;
• a friendly group of people who share an interest in religious things; or
• a service provider where the customer has all authority.

So, then, what is a church? A church “is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.”[3]

Jesus has given authority to the church to affirm and give shape to my Christian life and yours. In other words, the church is the place where life-on-life discipleship is to take place. Jonathan Leeman writes, “Just as the Bible establishes the government of your nation as your highest authority on earth when it comes to your citizenship in that nation, so the Bible establishes the local church as your highest authority on earth when it comes to your discipleship to Christ and your citizenship in Christ’s present and promised nation.” [4]

What then does it mean to be a member of a local church? Again, Leeman is helpful when he writes, “A church member is a person who has been officially and publicly recognized as a Christian before the nations, as well as someone who shares in the same authority of officially affirming and overseeing other Christians in his or her church.”[5] Once a person has made a credible profession of faith in Christ, he or she should be baptized and become a member of a local church.

To become a member of a church is to covenant with like-minded believers in pursuing Christ and growing into maturity in Christ. A covenant is more than a commitment to another group of believers although keeping covenants do require commitment. Covenants result in a fundamental change of identity. When a man enters into a marriage covenant with a woman, his fundamental identity is changed. He is now the husband of this woman. Now, a church covenant is not the same as a marriage covenant, but they do have similarities. Both involve “a commitment of the whole person in such a dramatic fashion that it bends our very identity.”[6]

^[1] Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 853.

[2] For the purposes of this document, the word “church” will always refer to the local church unless otherwise specified.

[3] Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus. Building Healthy Churches (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 52.

[4] Ibid., 25.

[5] Ibid., 29.

[6] Jonathan Leeman, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 249.