Church Membership

Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow is a story about what happens when a person stays in one place long enough to truly belong there. Jayber is the barber in the small town of Port William, and over the years he becomes woven into the lives of the people around him—their joys and sadnesses, failures and successes, their families, arguments, and the ordinary routines that comprise their lives. The folks of the town are not perfect, and Port William is not an ideal community. But they become Jayber’s people nonetheless. Near the end of the novel, he comes to see that what holds them together is more than a shared space or friendship. The main character reflects on the town: 

“What I saw now was the community imperfect and irresolute but held together by the frayed and always fraying, incomplete and yet ever-holding bonds of the various sorts of affection… I knew that, in the midst of all the ignorance and error, this was a membership; it was the membership of Port William and of no other place on earth.” 

Jayber’s story does not need to be unique. All of us have the option to live amongst a people and make them our own. We can be part of a membership - something far deeper and consequential than a membership at Costco or the local gym.

For followers of Jesus, the primary place of membership is the local church. In the church we exercise our God-given giftings, carry out the unique roles in the congregation, and function as living members in the body of Christ.

In our denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America), members make five vows when joining a church. These are the vows that we took when we joined the church as members. They’re not vows to just attend the gatherings, they are promises to belong to a particular body of Christians in a way that involves mutual obligation - including receiving care and correction and actively seeking the good and peace of the church.

Along the way, we will experience what Jayber Crow experienced - an integration into the lives of a place and people. We will be shaped by the church and we will shape the church. By the grace of God, our lives become more oriented toward Jesus and his mission as we participate in the life of the body. And the body is stronger and healthier as each member gives of himself or herself to it. This is a big part of what it means to belong to Indelible Grace Church as a member. 

This coming Sunday we will hear about the meaning of church membership - why God established it, why it matters, and how membership in the church is the context in which we carry out the devotions that we’ve been going through in our current sermon series. We’ll also have an opportunity for current members to renew their membership vows.