The most important rights and privileges of church membership is the shepherding care of the church: “All baptized persons are entitled to the watchful care, instruction and government of the church, even though they are adults and have made no profession of their faith in Christ” (BCO 6-3). All members—communing and non-communing alike—have a right to the shepherding care of the government of the church. The significance of this point cannot be overstated.
While the word “Presbyterian” refers to the elder-ruled (see 1 Tim. 5:17) nature of our church government, the congregation plays an important part in the overall function of the church. Indeed, one of the central principles of Presbyterian church government is that the power Christ has given to his church is vested in the church as a whole, and that the elders exercise that power on behalf of the congregation—just as the eyes exercise the function of sight on behalf of the rest of the body. Sight belongs to the whole body (not just the eyes), and spiritual church power belongs to the whole church (not just the elders).
This class will consider the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the congregation as a whole within the Presbyterian system.
Why is Church Membership Important?
Church membership is important.1 The Bible never suggests in the least that believers are independent from one another. Rather, again and again the Bible teaches that each of God’s people are individually members of one another, just as our bodies are made up of various limbs and organs: “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom. 12:4–5).
There is a sense in which the Bible speaks of the “church” in its universal, invisible sense that it stretches across time and through every tribe, language, people, and nation (e.g., Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18; Rev. 5:9–10). But there it is also the sense of the word “church” that refers to individual, local, visible congregations—many of which were so local that they met in single houses (e.g., Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Cor. 1:1; Col. 4:15; Phile. 2).
These congregations have a clear sense of who is a member, and who is not. This aspect of church membership is painfully clear in the passages that talk about excommunicating unrepentant sinners from membership in the church (Matt. 18:17; 1 Cor. 5:1–13; 1 John 2:19), and in the passages about welcoming repentant sinners back into the membership of the church (e.g., 2 Cor. 2:4–10). It is impossible to remove someone from membership if that person has never been a member, and restoration to membership is meaningless apart from a formal membership process. Moreover, several Biblical commands are impossible apart from local church membership (e.g., Gal. 6:10; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 5:5).
The Bible never at any point suggests that a Christian may be a member of the universal, invisible church without also being a member of a local, visible church. Some have observed that the Bible never explicitly instructs us how we should become members of local, visible churches; however, the Bible also never explicitly instructs us how a man and a woman get married. Of course, the Bible clearly understands that there is a difference between the married and unmarried. The same thing is true for members and non-members of a church.
In sum, church membership is essential so that (1) the church can be blessed with the gifts that Jesus has entrusted to each individual in our midst, and (2) each individual can receive the shepherding that Jesus commands for his sheep. For as long as you are here, we hope that you will be blessed by, and a blessing to, the other members of your local congregation.
Types of Membership
There are two primary kinds of membership in the PCA: non-communing and communing membership. Non-communing members are the covenant children born to believing parents, while communing members are those who “commune”—that is, who partake of the sealing ordinance of communion.
Non-Communing Members: Covenant Children
Flowing out of our covenant theology, we recognize that the children of professing believers have special standing in the church, as distinct from the children of unbelievers:
The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. (WCF 25.2)
So, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter proclaims that the promises of the gospel (and, thus, baptism) are not only for “you,” but also “for your children” (Acts 2:38–39). Then, the Apostle Paul urges believers to remain married to unbelievers for the sake of preserving the holy status of the children: “For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy” (1 Cor. 7:14).
These are even stronger covenant promises than the children believers enjoyed under the old covenant. Previously, the children of mixed marriages were excluded from membership in Israel on the basis of the unbelieving spouse (Deut. 23:2–8; Mal. 2:11–12). In the new covenant, children are counted as holy on the basis of the believing spouse.
Accordingly, the Book of Church Order insists that:
The children of believers are, through the covenant and by right of birth, non-communing members of the church. Hence they are entitled to Baptism, and to the pastoral oversight, instruction and government of the church, with a view to their embracing Christ and thus possessing personally all benefits of the covenant. (BCO 6-1)
The “nurture, instruction and training of the children of the Church are committed by God primarily to their parents” (BCO 28-1).
Beyond this, the church has a special role in bringing up covenant children to know and love the Lord:
The Church should maintain constant and sympathetic relations with the children. It also should encourage them, on coming to years of discretion, to make confession of the Lord Jesus Christ and to enter upon all privileges of full church membership. If they are wayward they should be cherished by the church and every means used to reclaim them. (BCO 28-3)
Therefore, when a child is baptized, the parents make three vows for raising their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” but the congregation also takes a vow:
Do you as a congregation undertake the responsibility of assisting the parents in the Christian nurture of this child? (BCO 56-5)
We do not raise children with the presumption that they are regenerate, but neither do we presume that they are unregenerate until “converted.” Our children are covenant members by birthright, and we raise them to be faithful covenant members by trusting in Jesus for their salvation.