Wendell Berry and the Beauty of Membership

Frequent readers of this blog will not be surprised that I was very encouraged by the recent article at The Gospel Coalition site by Matt McCullough regarding Wendell Berry and the Beauty of Membership.  The article focuses primarily on my favorite Berry novel, Jayber Crow, drawing parallels from membership in the Port William community to membership in the church. 

...Berry's stories bring to life truths at the heart of the community we're aiming for when we emphasize church membership. A thriving, covenant-shaped local church requires precisely the sort of self-abnegation Berry celebrates and is opposed by the same self-exaltation he portrays in all its ugliness.

Too often we try on new churches like we try on new clothes and for much the same reason. We're looking for style and fit, for what meets our needs and makes the appropriate statement about who we are. We put our churches in service of our desire to be somebody, and our commitment doesn't outlast the better options of Elsewhere. But this posture—beside its offense to the cross—leads to self-absorption, restlessness, and isolation.

Read the entire article here.

The Importance of Church Membership - 9Marks Audio

Church membership is different and more important than you think, says Jonathan Leeman in this 9Marks Workshop message, "Membership as Citizenship."  Click here to listen.  

Leeman is the director of communications at 9Marks and the author of Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus. His other books include Reverberation: How God's Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to His People and Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus.

Baptism and Church Membership - 3 Perspectives

The Gospel Coalition just finished a three-day forum in which they asked three different individuals to weigh in on the connection between baptism and church membership. In particular, they were seeking to answer the following questions:

How do baptism and church membership relate? What are the biblical bounds? Baptists debate, "Must one be baptized as a believer in order to join a church?" Meanwhile, Presbyterians and other paedobaptists consider, "Should one who'd refuse to let his children be baptized be permitted to join?"

Our hope is that this three-day forum will, by God's grace, drive us all to consider Scripture's teaching anew and disagree charitably when necessary.

• Michael Horton's article, Membership Requires Affirmation of Infant Baptism

• Jim Hamilton's article, Sometimes Obedience Results in Painful Separations

• David Mathis' article, A Happy Baptist, Happy to Welcome Others

Why Church Membership Matters

Why bother with church membership? Kevin DeYoung answered that question in a great post yesterday on "Why Membership Matters."