“Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.” (v. 10)

I gotta tell you:

I get real nervous about church membership.

It’s not that I am nervous about the concept: as a metaphor for how we belong to one another in Christ—how we fit together as a body under His “head”—church membership is perfectly biblically suitable.

What makes me nervous is the way a lot of churches go about it: “If you want to join our church today, just raise your hand and come on down….”

That right there is a recipe for disunity.

Disunity has nagged Jesus’ church from the beginning. We claim Christ as Lord, but we also follow subordinate teachers and teachings, hanging them as the banners under which we huddle. We factionalize and fracture—and we lose sight of the essentials in pursuit of the tertiary.

Churches, please lead would-be members toward unity is Christ. Teach and train them. Seek agreement under Jesus’ lordship—and, if mutual submission under Him isn’t for them, then welcome them as friends without affirming them as members.

Nothing less than our witness of Christ is at stake here.

— Tyler