BJU still struggling with IFB-X issues.

I’d also like to add an addendum. At the year or so I attended this other church, I never transferred my membership. In fact, membership at this other church seemed non-existent. I never even heard membership mentioned at any point. I once asked a leader in the church (not the head pastor) about membership, and he kind of waffled a bit about the subject and said something to the effect of “just attend the church…you’re a member.” It was almost like there’s no such thing as membership…at least I never heard otherwise, and I was even involved with the church as a youth group assistant, so it’s not like I was just popping in and leaving.
 
Huk said:
I’d also like to add an addendum. At the year or so I attended this other church, I never transferred my membership. In fact, membership at this other church seemed non-existent. I never even heard membership mentioned at any point. I once asked a leader in the church (not the head pastor) about membership, and he kind of waffled a bit about the subject and said something to the effect of “just attend the church…you’re a member.” It was almost like there’s no such thing as membership…at least I never heard otherwise, and I was even involved with the church as a youth group assistant, so it’s not like I was just popping in and leaving.
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I believe in membership so I think that you should get the ball started rolling, even though they also have a responsibility to initiate the reinstatement. If you don't have a strong conviction about membership then it's not that big of a deal and I understand why you wouldn't initiate.
 
ALAYMAN said:
I believe in membership so I think that you should get the ball started rolling, even though they also have a responsibility to initiate the reinstatement. If you don't have a strong conviction about membership then it's not that big of a deal and I understand why you wouldn't initiate.
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I’ll think and pray about it. When I was a member, I found a level of accountability with the pastor that I’m probably avoiding now as a non-member. For example, he was always kindly nudging me to be in Sunday School and if he didn’t see me at service for a few weeks he’d text me to see if everything was okay. As a non-member, he just shakes my hand and says it’s nice to see me. It makes me feel like he’s my dad, which he’s actually slightly older than my dad.
 
Huk said:
I’ll think and pray about it. When I was a member, I found a level of accountability with the pastor that I’m probably avoiding now as a non-member. For example, he was always kindly nudging me to be in Sunday School and if he didn’t see me at service for a few weeks he’d text me to see if everything was okay. As a non-member, he just shakes my hand and says it’s nice to see me. It makes me feel like he’s my dad, which he’s actually slightly older than my dad.
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my sunday school teacher is kinda like a grandmother to me... she;s is definitely old enough to be... .. she has never told any of us just how old she is but she did tell us about being a young girl on her way to sunday school herself when the japanese bombed pearl harbor... (if that is any indication)... ... she saw much of it from the church grounds as it happened....

she is also familiar with bob jones university but has never given us her opinion of it..... she is herself a hawaiian from the old school days who attended kamehameha schools growing up ...and is in many ways more fundamentalist than most people on the forum..

i don;t know if this would qualify as an ifbx thing, but i always let her know ahead of time if i am not going to be in sunday school.... ..if i don;t say something and just fail to show up, she will call the moment the class is over to find out why..... but it;s more out of concern than it is control... ..and as far as actually joining the class or officially becoming a member - if you visit and return more than once then she considers you a member already... ..like part of the family....
 
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aleshanee said:
but it;s more out of concern than it is control... ..and as far as actually joining the class or officially becoming a member - if you visit and return more than once then she considers you a member already... ..like part of the family....
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It would almost be worth starting a new thread about church membership. It seems like “membership” has changed in recent years. I wonder from denomination to denomination, how it works differently and what the historical context of membership is/was. Maybe membership is becoming an antiquated practice…I’m not sure. Like I mentioned to Alayman, I can see the accountability factor being a positive thing for a Christian, but it seems I shouldn’t be treated any differently as a former member who regularly attends, sends his kid to youth activities and even out of state camp, etc. Literally the only difference is standing in front of the church (again) and shaking hands at the end of a service. Strange.
 
Huk said:
It would almost be worth starting a new thread about church membership. It seems like “membership” has changed in recent years. I wonder from denomination to denomination, how it works differently and what the historical context of membership is/was. Maybe membership is becoming an antiquated practice…I’m not sure. Like I mentioned to Alayman, I can see the accountability factor being a positive thing for a Christian, but it seems I shouldn’t be treated any differently as a former member who regularly attends, sends his kid to youth activities and even out of state camp, etc. Literally the only difference is standing in front of the church (again) and shaking hands at the end of a service. Strange.
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my class is a little different than most in that it;s taught in the hawaiian language... . and our teacher is aware that some are there more so to improve on their hawaiian language skills and reading.. but if she can accomplish the dual mission of teaching them hawaiian and also discipling them in Christ ...or even bringing them to Christ... then she is happy with it.... ...

i actually joined the class for both reasons.... to have a place i can go into the world from to serve and also to help me with the language... .i joined it while i was still a member of my old lutheran church which i eventually left.. .. and because the class i had been a part of there was becoming really strange - moving in liberal directions in ways i was not comfortable with....

but i think as far as accountability goes i have always gotten the impression our teacher feels a greater burden of accountability for us than she would ever expect of us in return toward her or the class... ..she is always there and the door is always open... no one is made to feel like an outsider....
 
I know with the Cowboy church that my wife and I visited and were associated with for a while is considered a person who attended more than once a member. A person can request recognized membership, and that has been done for many of the members there. But, it's not necessary.
 
I know that our different efforts at "membership" are attempts to make sense of these verses.

Mt 18:17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector -there must be some mechanism to determine who is "The church"

1 Cor 5:12,13 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church[b] whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Obviously there were those inside and those outside. How do we determine that?

In my opinion, any attempt on the part of a local church to make that distinction is valid. There are no rules for church membership in the NT. When people ask me, I share those two verses and say, "what we do is our best attempt to carry out that distinction. " I have never had anyone say that was a bad idea.
 
Huk said:
I’ll think and pray about it. When I was a member, I found a level of accountability with the pastor that I’m probably avoiding now as a non-member. For example, he was always kindly nudging me to be in Sunday School and if he didn’t see me at service for a few weeks he’d text me to see if everything was okay. As a non-member, he just shakes my hand and says it’s nice to see me. It makes me feel like he’s my dad, which he’s actually slightly older than my dad.
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Keeping my answer brief, because this topic does require a lot of well-developed and nuanced interpretation of Scriptures, the essence of membership is EXACTLY encapsulated in that wonderful word you used, accountability, and that accountability is mutual within the membership between leaders and "laymen"(for succinctness and lack of a better term).
 
ALAYMAN said:
Keeping my answer brief, because this topic does require a lot of well-developed and nuanced interpretation of Scriptures, the essence of membership is EXACTLY encapsulated in that wonderful word you used, accountability, and that accountability is mutual within the membership between leaders and "laymen"(for succinctness and lack of a better term).
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I agree.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Keeping my answer brief, because this topic does require a lot of well-developed and nuanced interpretation of Scriptures, the essence of membership is EXACTLY encapsulated in that wonderful word you used, accountability, and that accountability is mutual within the membership between leaders and "laymen"(for succinctness and lack of a better term).
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I’m genuinely intrigued by the subject, if you don’t mind, I’m going to start a new thread because I don’t want to hijack the Bob Jones thread. Bob had some good verses, maybe he can copy/paste those over.
 
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