Growth Track

Hebrews 13:17 instructs believers to “obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” This verse highlights the importance of spiritual leadership and accountability within the local church.

Without membership, it becomes unclear whom church leaders are responsible for shepherding and to which leaders believers should submit. Membership helps define these relationships, ensuring that elders are accountable for the care of specific members, and that believers are committed to the spiritual leadership within their local church.

The New Testament is filled with “one another” commands—clear instructions on how believers are to love, serve, and build up one another in faith. These commands, such as stirring one another up to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25), bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and encouraging one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), assume deep, committed relationships within a local church.

Without church membership, who are we called to consistently meet with, serve, and encourage? Membership provides clarity and commitment, ensuring that we live out these biblical commands in a meaningful way within a community of believers.

The Bible calls the church to care for its members in a deep and intentional way. In 1 Timothy 5:9-10, Paul gives instructions about providing for widows, assuming a defined community of believers under the church’s care. Similarly, Acts 20:28 charges church elders to “pay careful attention... to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God.”

Without membership, who is included in this care, and who are leaders accountable for shepherding? Membership places you under the spiritual care and protection of godly leaders, ensuring that the church fulfills its biblical calling to provide guidance, encouragement, and support for its people.

Biblical church discipline is a means of restoring believers and protecting the church. In 1 Corinthians 5:1-2, Paul addresses unrepentant sin within a local gathering, instructing the church to remove the offender. Likewise, Matthew 18:15-17 lays out a process for addressing sin among believers, ultimately involving “the church” if repentance does not occur.

Without membership, who is included in this process, and who has the authority to guide someone toward repentance? Membership defines who the church is and provides a clear, loving, and biblical path for accountability, correction, and restoration when a believer is caught in habitual sin.