Won’t having a more demanding membership process keep people from joining the church?

Maybe. It’s certainly more likely to keep non-Christians who profess to be Christians from joining the church.

But it’s more important to have more attending and submissive members than it is to have more members, since the Scriptures calls Christians to attend and submit to their churches. In the West today, a church will only grow in more attending and submissive members by having a careful membership process.

What’s more, if membership in a local church entails certain expectations and responsibilities, it’s loving and wise to make those expectations clear to prospective members before they join.