LittleDrummerBoy
Senior Member
The churches I've attended in my life are split about 50-50 on whether they practiced formal church membership. Half simply had informal membership whereby if one had a believable testimony of being a Christian and attended regularly, one was considered a member. Not only was formal membership not required for any service or leadership positions in the church, formal membership was not defined or available. The other half of churches I've attended have had some kind of formal membership process where joining included a testimony of salvation and baptism, and usually agreement with a statement of faith and often a membership covenant.
I can see how formal membership can be useful if the church has a congregational form of government or other democratic processes for decision making, selecting leaders, approving budgets, etc. I've also seen churches use formal membership as a way to encourage greater accountability, giving, and service. The biggest downsides I've seen are churches with formal membership often fail to see that a member's service to the kingdom of God may be outside of that specific local church, and that churches with formal membership are more likely to attempt accountability for legalisms and denominational peculiarities present in their covenants and statements of faith. They may claim the Bible as their sole source of faith and practice, but then they use membership as an accountability tool for stuff that is not in the Bible.
I can see how formal membership can be useful if the church has a congregational form of government or other democratic processes for decision making, selecting leaders, approving budgets, etc. I've also seen churches use formal membership as a way to encourage greater accountability, giving, and service. The biggest downsides I've seen are churches with formal membership often fail to see that a member's service to the kingdom of God may be outside of that specific local church, and that churches with formal membership are more likely to attempt accountability for legalisms and denominational peculiarities present in their covenants and statements of faith. They may claim the Bible as their sole source of faith and practice, but then they use membership as an accountability tool for stuff that is not in the Bible.