Membership has its responsibilities

Where do I belong?

We’ve all asked this question from time to time. It’s a question common to humanity.

I belong in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I belong to an association of Christian editors. I belong to a family with a flamboyant eastern European history. I once belonged to a community theatre group in Abbotsford. I even belonged (during a particularly crafty period in my life) to a fabric store discount club.

And, most significantly, I belong to the church. For better or worse, I’m a member of the Mennonite Brethren church.

On Easter Sunday, I transferred my membership from one MB church to another because of my recent move to another province. Four of us stood before the enthusiastic congregation and read aloud from a membership covenant. We promised, among other things, to practice a life of spiritual growth and formation, to attend and participate regularly in church gatherings, to generously support the life of the church with our finances, and to actively pray for, and seek to develop, a love for the public.

Declaring these things in front of a watching crowd left no room for frivolity. We said our vows and our friends observed. There was no way we could take membership lightly. This was a serious event and our words proved it. We understood that our subsequent actions would uphold the integrity of the church and continue its mission in the world. Daunting? Perhaps. But a high calling, nevertheless. Membership has its responsibilities.

This idea of a membership covenant fits well with our Anabaptist understanding of the church: a place of obedient discipleship and accountability within a local community.

In the past, this high ideal sometimes resulted in extreme disciplinary measures (including excommunication) and legalism. However, the value of radical and accountable living is not completely lost in the MB church today, even though it may be tempered with the reality of living in a fallen world. Walter Unger, chair of the Board of Faith and Life, writes, “We do well to remember that our Lord’s ideal of the church to be presented one day without spot or wrinkle and the reality of how we experience the church as imperfect people on a pilgrimage, will always be in tension. . . .”¹

This month we’re taking a look inside the contemporary MB church. We’re considering various models and methods of church, from urban to emergent, and reflecting on some cultural challenges. Given our current social climate, many people feel the church is in need of an extreme makeover. Others warn of the danger of constantly craving fresh ways of doing things, preoccupying ourselves with change, and, as one writer stated, bowing to “the idol of newness.”

But, of course, the church is more than models, structures, or organizations. The church is people. Committed people. People of belonging. People called to live faithful lives of discipleship. People who live, breathe, and move each day with Christ, in intimate fellowship with each other.

1. Walter Unger, “The church without spot or wrinkle.”