We’ve spent this week talking about church membership, and now that we’ve found a new definition and explained how to select a church, I want to present a few different models of membership.

There’s a classic story —we’re talking like “Footprints in the Sand” level of classic— about a man who goes to talk to a pastor. The pair are sitting by a fire, and the man finally asks the question that prompted their meeting: “Do I really have to go to church?” The pastor responds by silently picking up a set of tongs and reaching into the fire to pull out a single ember. Separated from the rest of the fire, the ember burns brilliant orange for a moment and then fades to a dull gray as it cools.

The object lesson shows that, separated from our communities, Christians can easily lose their passion and warmth and light. There is certainly truth to this idea, but the story oversimplifies several key factors of Christian life:
– exploration and growth
– solitude as a temporary spiritual discipline
– serving the world outside the walls of the church
Our philosophies of church membership have to leave room for these, or they are incomplete.

When our primary goal is just to get people into a church and keep them there, we start to think of membership as a set of goals to be reached. The classic church growth term is “assimilation,” and a membership process with this mindset might look something like this:

In my previous ministerial life, I read books on church growth. I used charts like this one broken down into precise timelines with weeks and months. I assigned all sorts of metrics to membership. I may not have really believed in membership, but I could certainly show you data! Of course, once you start to question the commonly accepted understanding of church membership, these processes fall apart quickly as well. After all, why take such formal steps toward something so poorly defined?

Missiologist Alan Hirsch has proposed a more realistic and practical model for membership in the current age. Look at the spiral on the right, and imagine people moving inward or outward along the line. Those moving inward have their eyes toward the church and are looking for ways to serve there. Those moving outward have their eyes toward the world and are looking for ways to serve there. If you are involved in a church in any capacity, you are somewhere on that church’s spiral, and the greatest danger isn’t moving all the way out; it’s remaining stagnant where you are.

This model allows for personal growth;
it allows for changes in calling;
it allows for emotional peaks and troughs that may affect our attention and attendance;
and it allows for engaging the world while also serving the church.
We should never stop growing in our spiritual lives, and this growth is just as likely to lead us outward as inward, so we need a model of membership that accommodates this. The fireplace metaphor and the assimilation model don’t allow for growth and change and collaboration beyond the walls of the church. They speak to the importance of connecting people, but their usefulness ends there. In a culture where church membership is increasingly fluid (or even nonexistent), the spiral may be more helpful.

Clearly, this isn’t the end of the conversation about church membership, and it wouldn’t surprise me if this week’s posts have raised just as many questions for you as answers. Thank you for walking with me on this journey, particularly as I defined this concept for myself and made the decision to move my membership to a church that more closely fits my values. On Sunday, I’ll agree to the following:

As a member of this congregation,
will you faithfully participate in its ministries
by your prayers, your presence,
your gifts, your service, and your witness?

I’m on Swaim UMC’s spiral, but I’ve made it clear that I’m facing outward, and the leadership there aren’t just okay with that; they’re excited and supportive! I hope you’re able to find communities that offer you that kind of support and guidance as well, and if I can be of any help in your own discernment process, don’t hesitate to reach out.