Church Membership
Make Sure Your Members Are Christians, Not Just Immigrants
By Jeremy Yong | 04.30.2020This article is written to pastors who serve in an international setting. If that’s you, I have but one piece of counsel: you must make sure your church members are Christians, not simply immigrants or expats.
Does the Book of Acts Teach Spontaneous Baptisms?
By Caleb Morell | 03.10.2020The claim that Acts demonstrates a uniform pattern of spontaneous baptisms is overstated.
Nominal Christianity—Not Complementarianism—Leads to Abuse
By Caleb Morell | 9Marks Journal: Complementarianism: A Moment of Reckoning | 11.22.2019Conservative views on marriage and family are not sufficient in and of themselves to create healthy families and marriages. Church participation and membership make a huge difference.
Some Counsel for Christians Leaving Toxic Church Environments
By Lucas O'Neill | 11.15.2019Recovery for genuine believers who have been damaged by failed churches is a grueling process.
4 Members Who Tear Down the Church
By Chopo Mwanza | 11.08.2019All these members have a common thread: self-centeredness. They’ve missed the very essence of salvation; they’ve failed to love God and love people with every ounce of their being.
6 Members Who Build Up the Church
By Chopo Mwanza | 11.04.2019Dear church member, pursue these qualities in your own life and encourage them in others.
9 Suggestions for Better Members’ Meetings
By Brad Wheeler | 10.28.2019Do member’s meetings always have to end in bitterness and bickering? I don’t think so. Here are nine suggestions to help set members’ meetings on the right track.
A Tale of Two Baptist Associations
By Geoff Chang | 09.23.2019Let me tell you the tale of two Baptist associations.
3 Ways Baptism & the Lord’s Supper Ought to Shape our Monday through Saturday
By Sam Emadi | 08.12.2019For too many Christians, baptism and the Supper are exclusively about personal professions of faith, and personal expression of one’s obedience to Jesus.
Confessing Sin Is Always Awkward, Sometimes Costly, and Absolutely Worth It
By John Lee | 07.22.2019It’s true. Confession could cost your reputation. It could result in an awkward conversation. But freedom in the gracious, holy light of God is priceless.
7 Well-Meaning Objections to Church Discipline — And How Pastors Ought to Respond to Them
By C. Greggsen, S. Emadi | 07.05.2019Let’s briefly consider some of the “good-faith” objections to discipline we’ve encountered and how we try to help church members understand the theological principles undergirding discipline.
Two Reasons a Church Shouldn’t Have Multiple Gatherings
By Kyle Schwahn | 07.01.2019I’ve pastored my church for over twelve years. We’ve always had two morning services, and I never gave them much thought. Until . . .
Mailbag #84: I Live too Far from A Healthy Church. What Should I Do? . . . Among Baptists, What’s the History of a Plurality of Elders?
By S. Emadi, S. DeMars | 05.31.2019— I live in an extremely rural area where we have many churches but none that are healthy. What should I do? — Many Baptist churches now have multiple elders. I understand the biblical case for this, but what’s the history of a plurality of elders among Baptists?
Episode 87: On Church Membership
By J. Leeman, M. Dever | 9Marks Journal: Church Membership: Following the Lord Together | 05.14.2019In this episode of Pastors’ Talk, Jonathan chats with Mark about our new Journal—Church Membership: Following the Lord Together.
Metaphors and Membership: How Biblical Metaphors for the Church Require Church Membership
By Sam Emadi | 9Marks Journal: Church Membership: Following the Lord Together | 05.07.2019If you’re looking for the words “thou shalt be a church member” in Scripture, you won’t find them. But if that troubles you, let me encourage you to think a little differently about how to arrive at biblical conclusions.
