1 Corinthians 3:10-15
Conducting a Membership Interview
Pastor Albert N. Martin delivers a lecture from his Pastoral Theology course on 'Conducting a Membership Interview,' emphasizing its crucial role in maintaining the church's health and biblical integrity. He outlines the steps leading to an interview, the five fundamental concerns that undergird it (saved, participating, doctrinally united, submissive, and baptized adult membership), and practical directives for conducting the interview, including examining the applicant's state of grace, understanding of responsibilities, doctrinal teachableness, willingness to embrace elder oversight, and readiness for baptism. Martin stresses the importance of careful stewardship of the 'keys of admission' to prevent formalism and deadness in the church.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 14 sections · 89 min
- Introduction: The Cruciality of Membership Interviews 0:02
- Four Headings for Discussion 2:10
- Steps Leading to a Membership Interview: Generic Efforts 3:12
- Steps Leading to a Membership Interview: Specific Methods 10:03
- Fundamental Concerns Undergirding the Membership Interview 17:38
- Fundamental Concerns: Fully Participating Membership 23:22
- Fundamental Concerns: Doctrinally United and Submissive Membership 29:09
- Fundamental Concerns: Baptized Adult Membership 35:36
- Directives for Conducting the Interview: Examination of Grace 40:47
- Directives for Conducting the Interview: Responsibilities and Liabilities 56:52
- Directives for Conducting the Interview: Doctrinal Understanding and Teachableness 62:51
- Directives for Conducting the Interview: Embracing Elder Oversight 70:58
- Directives for Conducting the Interview: Readiness for Baptism 79:52
- The Sequel to the Membership Interview: Church Reception 83:33
Key Quotes
“one, if not carefully and biblically managed, can very quickly erode the strength of the church while increasing the church numerically.”
“Once you and the other officers and then the church lose this vision and passionate concern to be good stewards of the keys of admission, and exclusion, the door is wide open to formalism, deadness, carnality, and eventually for a church becoming a synagogue of Satan.”
“But there is nothing in the New Testament to indicate that that is an acceptable, let alone a desirable distinction.”
“So it is affinity, of mind and judgment, leading to confessional harmony, not confessional diversity, that lies at the root of true and vital spiritual unity.”
“One of the most subtle ways that the enemy has weakened the church is by causing its overseers to fail to make a distinction between what is necessary for a child to be saved and to regard them as saved and what is right and proper in terms of formal open confession of that work of grace and identification with the visible church of Christ.”
“Listen, if they've got the real thing they'll be like the unfortunate widow. They'll come back for 20 membership interviews if they need to. You're not going to keep them out. If they really love God and his word and love his people they'll keep coming back until you're satisfied.”
“Whereas the Bible says if you're supposed to do it and don't feel like do it and do it that's the virtue of principled obedience. So we've got a generation that doesn't know the difference between principled obedience and hypocrisy.”
“now they have a document by which alone they have right to rule and if they ever seek to rule contrary to that document the subjects are in the name of the true king to resist their rule for them to rule contrary to this document is tyranny and it is an act of religious obedience to Christ to resist tyranny in the church but in so far as they rule by the word of God Hebrews 13 17 says obey them that have the rule over you”
Applications
All listeners
- Seek to create a climate which emphasizes the necessity and importance of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ.
- Do not be reluctant to make applications with reference to the biblical teaching on the importance and necessity of church membership, even if some accuse you of promoting your own image.
- Occasionally preach on the subject of church membership, laying out exegetical materials for your people.
- Seek to create a relationship of warmth and accessibility with those who have begun to attend the church regularly.
- Take the initiative to inquire about church membership with regular attendees, but do so wisely, not too soon, to avoid appearing to only swell the church roles.
- Implement some method or scheme of bringing prospective members into the orbit of instruction concerning the nature and responsibilities of church membership, basic doctrines, and polity.
- For those contemplating baptism, provide biblical instruction on its significance, duty, and symbolism.
- Make it clear that if the church's materials reflect what they desire, they should formally apply for membership.
- After creating a relaxed climate and praying, undertake an examination of the applicant's professed standing in a state of grace, listening for understanding of essential truths and evidence of their power.
- Do not put words in applicants' mouths or use a simple list of yes/no questions; rather, encourage them to share their spiritual biography and the ground of their hope.
- If an applicant is 'top-heavy' on experience but light on Christ's work, wisely probe to get them to express what lies at the root of the changes in their life, focusing on Christ.
- If an applicant's understanding of basic gospel truths is deficient, encourage them to hold off membership, providing further instruction (e.g., tapes) and inviting them back for another interview.
- Do not feel guilty if you hold someone off from membership; it is for the good of their soul and the maintenance of the church's standards.
- If an applicant is weak on faith content, probe with simple, direct questions like, 'If you died 10 minutes from now, on what basis should God let you into His presence?'
- Keep the interview fluid and avoid a rigid list of standard questions to prevent nominalism.
- Undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding, ability, and determination to fulfill the responsibilities and accept the liabilities of church membership.
- Carefully assess if applicants understand commitment as duty and principled obedience, especially in a generation that confuses it with hypocrisy.
- Do not lay a burden of membership responsibilities upon those with limited mental capacity or emotional stability who are unable to bear it.
- Undertake an examination of the candidate's present understanding of and disposition of teachableness with respect to your confession of faith and constitution, avoiding both latitudinarianism and overly strict demands.
- Undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of and willingness to embrace the rule and oversight of the existing elders.
- Ask applicants if they are prepared to submit to the elders 'in the Lord,' meaning they will welcome admonition and guidance even in personal areas like romantic relationships or attendance.
- Encourage members to approach elders if they believe the elders are acting contrary to the Word of God, assuring them they will be welcomed, not intimidated.
- Undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of and readiness to submit to the ordinance of baptism where necessary, clarifying issues around previous baptisms and the nature of the ordinance.
- When addressing questions about previous baptisms, help individuals discern if their prior baptism was a true act of obedience to Christ with a desire to please Him, or if it was not a true baptism.
- Emphasize that a true baptism following conversion is not 're-baptism' if a previous one was invalid (e.g., infant sprinkling or a baptism without conversion).
- Ensure the whole church has some input in the opening of the door of membership, as they receive and exercise the keys of both inclusion and exclusion.
- Announce prospective members to the congregation at least one week (preferably more) before reception, inviting members to express any concerns to the elders.
- Receive new members before the gathered body at an appropriate time, such as during the Lord's Supper, to symbolize unity and allow the body to express its reception.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 168 paragraphs, roughly 89 minutes.
Introduction: The Cruciality of Membership Interviews
The following lecture is part of the Pastoral Theology course given at the Trinity Ministerial Academy in Montville, New Jersey.
Now in this final unit of Pastoral Theology, we have spent all but our last two sessions dealing with the matter of pastoral counseling, or what I prefer to call the private ministry of the Word to a peculiarly needy sheep. And today I want to direct your attention to a very crucial aspect of pastoral ministry, one, if not carefully and biblically managed, can very quickly erode the strength of the church while increasing the church numerically.
And this is an issue that relates very directly to the sober warning given by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10b and following, in which, likening the church to a building, he says that he was a wise master builder and laid a foundation, but let each man take heed how he builds thereon. And then he goes on to say that it's possible where a church has been laid in a solid biblical foundation, that superstructuralism,
material will be brought into that church that is defective, that will not stand the test of the final day, and a man's labors shall be burnt up, and contrary or in contrast to that, that a man may build upon that solid foundation of proper materials, described here as gold, silver, and costly stones. And I refer you to dabbing, in this very searching and helpful essay on that very passage, as it relates to, in part, to the subject that we take up today.
Four Headings for Discussion
And what we are going to be discussing is the conducting of the interview with a candidate for church membership, and in many cases that will also involve a candidate for the ordinance of baptism. And in taking up the subject, we shall do so under four headings. As I explained to the men earlier, since this lecture was prepared from scratch yesterday afternoon and in the early hours of the morning, I simply did not have time to dictate an outline and get it in to Anne, so you'll have to push your pen and do your own work this morning. But the four headings will be these.
The steps leading to a membership interview. Secondly, the fundamental concerns, undergirding a membership interview. Thirdly, some directives for conducting the membership interview. And fourthly, the sequel to the membership interview.
Steps Leading to a Membership Interview: Generic Efforts
First of all, then, the steps leading to a membership interview. And I've gathered what I desire to say under two subheadings, the generic steps and the specific steps. Number one, the generic. And here I have but two very simple, obvious words of exhortation.
First of all, under the generic steps leading to a membership interview, seek to create a climate which emphasizes the necessity and importance of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ. Seek to create a climate which emphasizes the necessity and importance of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ.
In the overall emphases of your ministry, there ought to be given due emphasis to the fact that according to the New Testament, there is no such thing as an unchurched Christian. The creature simply does not exist in the pages of the New Testament. In our own case, here in our own assembly, the monthly announcement given every first Lord's Day regarding our communion practice helps to create such a climate. When we make the announcement that we expect the members of this assembly to be present at the table,
if people are visiting with us who are members in good standing of an evangelical church and are not under its corrective, disciplined, we welcome them to the Lord's table. But if people are not Christians or they believe themselves to be Christians but have not identified with a visible assembly of Christ's Church, we invite them to remain but not to participate. What is that doing every single month but underscoring the necessity and the importance of church membership for any who may be sitting among us? Also, in prayer, whenever it is legitimate to make applications with reference
to the biblical teaching on the importance, the necessity of church membership, you should not be reluctant to do so for fear that someone will say, well, you're simply trying to promote your own image as a successful minister. Whatever meaning men may place upon your biblically-based urges, that's their problem. You must be faithful to this aspect of the counsel of God, and furthermore, occasionally you ought to preach on this subject. Years ago, in the beginning of our life together,
I went to the scriptures and sought to cull out of them the evidences for a discernible, recognizable, formal church membership in the apostolic church. And I did. And I did. And I did.
And I did. And I did. And I did. And I did.
And I did. And I did. And I did. And I did.
And I did. And I did. And I did. And I did.
And I did. And it may be well for you to lay out those exegetical materials for your people, since there are such loose views regarding the whole subject of the church. So, under steps leading to a membership interview, there is this generic effort that you can make in creating a climate which emphasizes the necessity and importance of membership in the church. And then the second, generic exhortation is seek to create a relationship of warmth and accessibility with those who have begun to attend the church regularly.
Seek to create a relationship of warmth and accessibility with those who have begun to attend the church regularly. If your greeting of them at the door is not a mere formality, but an effort to get them to know them, I find a little technique that, through the years, has helped. It's evident you're a visitor. It's good to have you among us.
Did you come at the invitation of one of our members? Are you a relative of one of them? No. I just happened to come.
Well, it's good to have you. Please sign the guestbook so we have a record of your visit. And off that guestbook, the names are taken and the letter is sent to them, acknowledging their presence, so that the immediate impression is that those in leadership are people who are accessible. Others will inquire of you after a while.
If they're coming and they show an interest, they'll say, I really like what I see here. What does one have to do to become a member? With others, you'll have to take the initiative. And you've seen them come for a period of time.
But because you have sought to create a relationship of warmth and accessibility, they will not be shocked. Or feel set upon, if in the course and in the climate of that accessibility and warmth, you should say to them, it's evident that you must appreciate the ministry here. We notice that you've not only been attending regularly Sunday morning, Sunday night, but we've seen you at prayer meeting. Are you considering casting in your lot with us?
Do you see some things that cause concern that you have not yet inquired about church membership? There is nothing wrong. There is nothing wrong with you taking the initiative to inquire in such cases. Now, to do that after the second week will both set people off, wondering if your only concern is to swell the roles of the church.
And it also would be unwise to do so when people have been among you for such a relatively short length of time. So in this matter of steps leading to a membership interview, under the generic step, you're looking for a placing for consultation. оп, I have the full list of steps. I have those two words of exhortation.
Seek to create a climate which emphasizes the necessity importance of membership in the church of Christ. Seek to create a relationship of warmth and accessibility with those who've begun to attend regularly. But now, the specific. What specific steps should you take leading to a membership interview?
Steps Leading to a Membership Interview: Specific Methods
Well, you may wish to make up. packet of materials to be given to any who inquire about membership. We used to have a membership class, but there were periods when there were so many coming in at clumps that it was taking so much time, and then when we had a period when there weren't a clump, it was difficult and a bit awkward to just meet with one or two people and to have a special time with them, and that's when we went to this matter of making up a membership packet, which contains some of the basic things that people ought to be aware of prior to making formal application for church membership.
Now, what we have included in our packet are the following items. Our church constitution, our confession of faith, and an excellent little booklet by Errol Hulse, Baptism. And we include just this little flyer on Trinity Baptist Church, which tells something about our ministries, and then three tapes. One of the tapes is the responsibilities of church members one to another.
Another tape, I forgot the title of it. Bill had none in his packet, but it deals with the whole matter again of the response. Yeah, this is the responsibility of church members one to another. The other is mutual expectations.
What you have a right to expect of a biblical church, what a biblical church has a right to expect of you, and then that they might know something of where the church is coming from, the history, message, and ministry of Trinity Baptist Church, so that someone who is interested in membership gets a little overview of who we are, how we got to be what we are, what are our distinguishing characteristics as a church. Now, whatever you choose to do, and in church history, you know all the way back in the post-apostolic church with the practice of the catechumens,
there has been a concern that the church would not bring into its ranks those who were ignorant of the fundamental issues essential to becoming responsible church membership. So as to the specific steps leading to a membership interview, some method, some scheme of bringing prospective, interested people into the orbit of instruction concerning the nature and responsibilities of church membership is essential. Some instruction concerning the basic doctrines and polity of your church is essential.
And in the case of those who are contemplating baptism, some biblical instruction, some doctrine concerning the significance, the duty, the symbolism of Christian baptism, then make it clear that if the things reflected in those materials, however you convey them, is what they desire, that they should then take the step of formally applying for membership. In our case, we encourage them when we give them the membership packet, when you've gone through these materials, and absorbed them, and are conversant with them, and you still have a desire to inquire into membership,
contact one of our elders, and generally we specify which one. If they don't know him by name, we point to him, describe him. He keeps the appointments for membership interviews. Other churches have a form that's included in their packet that people fill in in place in the offering plate.
These are matters all of which come under that, that beautiful statement in our confession, chapter one and paragraph six concerning scripture. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith in life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture. However, there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and the government, and the government of the church common to human actions in societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence
according to the general rules of the word, which are always to be observed. So whatever is the specific channel that you use to move from this exposure to the nuts and bolts of what the church is about, what the responsibilities of church membership are mutually, the members one to another, the members to the church itself and to its oversight, have some way for the person to make a natural crossover from an interested inquirer into the subject of church membership
to a formal applicant for membership in the church. And I believe the, particular way we do it is a matter of liberty and of judgment, and you may even change along the way. For example, one of the decisions we came to in our recent elders retreat is we believe the time has come for us now to go back to a formal pre-membership class, which will be mandated and probably will be held twice a year for a period of at least 13 to 15 weeks. So when anyone inquires about membership, we'll say we're having a spring and a fall class for all those interested
in membership. It'll be held during the time of the adult class so that we'll see if they are serious about making that adult class part of their commitment to the church. This would be a good test, you see, and get them out. And then that course will be taught for so many weeks in the spring and in the fall. Anyone interested in membership will come to that pre-membership class
and we'll see what happens. And that will handle some of these very materials that have been given by tape, but in the living interaction, we will get a feel for where people are coming from much sooner. And then we'll know as we think of the subsequent membership interview what areas with what particular people we may need especially to be aware of, to be sensitive to, to press, to expand, to amplify, etc. So God willing, we plan to do that.
To implement such a thing, we're having an all-day elders meeting second or third Saturday in May to follow up on our elders retreat decision at which time we hope to lock into place and assign to the various elders their part in this class. Different ones of us will teach in it so that people get an exposure to a number of their elders even before they enter into a formal commitment seeking membership. So these things I share with you under that first heading of steps leading to a membership interview,
Fundamental Concerns Undergirding the Membership Interview
the generic and the specific. Now the most important thing I have to say to you today is probably under this second heading. And if you had your thinking cap on at any point or if you have it on, please put it on at this point. The fundamental concerns undergirding the membership interview. Before we come to that,
to the actual conducting of the interview we've got to think through a theology of the interview what are the concerns which underlie the interview one two three four five yes that ought at every point to be pumping their influence and spiritual perspectives and energy into the interview and from which the interview will be drawing as it were its light and its sustenance so I'm concerned now to address this issue of the fundamental concerns undergirding the membership interview
and as I've reflected upon this and late last night quarter to 11 at the end of our elders meeting I bounced these off pastor Nichols in terms of his greater preoccupation and labors in the area of ecclesiology and they washed well with him so I feel some measure of confidence that though this may not be exhausted at least these are the basic issues that ought to undergird the membership interview number one the desire to attain and maintain the desire to attain and maintain
the the К Andsem Membership only Now you men know from your Ecclesiology And I hope even more so from your from your own independent study of the Bible, that the church is described in the New Testament
only in terms of the company of those who have experienced the application of redemption. They are described as those who are in Christ, they are described as the saints, as the called, as the sanctified, etc., etc. Now, the apostles were not so naive as to think that hypocrites were not present in the church, that temporary believers were not present in the church.
But these were anomalies, these were abnormalities. But the church is described in terms of what it ought to be, namely, a company of those who have experienced the application of the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. And while we fully acknowledge that temporary believers may be admitted, 1 John 2.19, they went out from us, but they were not of us.
They went out that it might be made manifested that they were not of us. While they were among us, they were clever hypocrites. When they went out, they showed their true colors. But while they were among us, they bore the marks of saved people and were treated accordingly.
I'm familiar, you are. Acts chapter 5, we had the two hypocrites, Ananias and Sapphira. Acts chapter 8, Simon Magus. But God eventually unmasked them.
But these are the exceptions, the abnormalities, which occur in spite of our best efforts. However, they never constitute a reason for sloppy use of the keys of admission to the visible church of Christ.
Never. Any more than the realization that you will never be sinfully perfect is the occasion for you to be sloppy in your pursuit of holiness.
What is true individually is true corporately.
And so undergirding the membership interview is our commitment as overseers with peculiar responsibilities, in guiding the church in the exercise of the keys of admission to the visible church. There is this desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a saved membership only. Once you and the other officers and then the church lose this vision and passionate concern to be good stewards of the keys of admission, and exclusion, the door is wide open to formalism,
deadness, carnality, and eventually for a church becoming a synagogue of Satan.
Fundamental Concerns: Fully Participating Membership
So undergirding the membership interview and what makes it so crucial is the desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a saved membership only. But then secondly, undergirding it is the desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a saved membership only. The desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a fully participating membership only. The desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a fully participating membership only.
And by that terminology, I'm only seeking to describe or to express what is described in Acts 2, 40 through 42. And with that, with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Then they that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them in that day about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship in the breaking of bread and the prayers. Those that were added, they all, they all continued
in the full participation of the life and ministry of the church. Now in our day, here in our own country, and it is true in Great Britain and in other places, there is a widespread acceptance of a two or three level concept of participation in the life of the church. Level one is regular Sunday morning, attendance. Level two, Sunday morning, Sunday night.
Level three, Sunday morning, Sunday night, plus Sunday school and prayer meeting.
But there is nothing in the New Testament to indicate that that is an acceptable, let alone a desirable distinction.
And undergirding the membership interview ought to be our desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a fully, fully, participating membership only.
When the church is described as body, the assumption is that all who are members of the body think and act as one organism. Likewise, when the church is conceived of as family, it is assumed that when the family gathers to eat, all will be present to feed. When the family gathers to be instructed, all will be present for the instruction delivered by those appointed to perform that task. And if you do not have a deep concern to have a fully participating membership only,
one of the first areas it will show itself is in sloppy practices in conjunction with the keys of admission to the visible church of Christ. If your ego can be fed by seeing the church as a whole, by seeing the Sunday morning service grow from 50 to 150 in two years, even though the Sunday night service only grows from 40 to 50, and the prayer meeting stays static, if your ego can be satisfied with that, you'll have a sloppy use of the keys.
But if you've got a commitment that the church will be what her Lord intends it should be, those incorporated into a body in which the church is, those incorporated into a body in which the church is, those incorporated into a body in which the church is, in which, unless the head of the church providentially hinders members of that body, when the body gathers, the whole body is there. When the family gathers, the whole family is there. And therefore, undergirding the membership interview must be this desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a fully participating membership only. And there's, there's a clear indication that when the early church,
at least the church, church as whoever was envisioned in the epistle to the Hebrews began to move from that, it was not accepted as something we just live with, but rather an exhortation was given. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking our own assembly, together as the custom of some is. Under the eyes of living apostles, people began to set up a two, three tiered concept of church membership and it was soundly and directly addressed
as unacceptable. Then thirdly, undergirding the membership interview is this concern, the desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a doctrinally united membership only. The desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a doctrinally united membership only.
Fundamental Concerns: Doctrinally United and Submissive Membership
And here we could turn to many passages, but I remind you of one that many of you heard preached several weeks ago by Pastor Nichols on a Sunday evening as the apostle, gives his appeal to unity and to the maintenance of the unity of the spirit in Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 3. He says, undergirding that unity of the spirit is this, there is, verse 4, one body, one spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith. That is one body of revealed truth. Which you have embraced,
to which you subscribe, and which forms a major strand in your spiritual unity. It is your commitment to the one faith. Likewise, in 1 Corinthians 1, in verse 10, as the apostle addresses the subject of division in the church at Corinth, he's clear, or he's careful to underscore with clarity that, that at the root of unity is that there be doctrinal commitment to the same body of truth. 1 Corinthians 1, 10.
I beseech you, brethren, through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be a unified confession, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. So it is affinity, of mind and judgment, leading to confessional harmony, not confessional diversity, that lies at the root of true and vital spiritual unity. So a great concern which must undergird the membership interview is to discern if there is a present understanding and disposition
which will foster such doctrinal unity. We are not demanding, as we'll see later on when we get into the mechanics, that someone actually be in the graduate school of theological understanding, but certainly if they hold to any tenet which is contrary to the one faith that we embrace, and they manifest something less than a teachable spirit, by opening the doors to them, we are inviting disunity in the front door, of the church. So undergirding the interview is this third concern. Now the fourth concern is what I've called the desire to attain
and maintain the biblical standard of a submissive membership only. The desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a submissive membership only. Now the word is clear that the church is under the supreme headship of Christ alone. He is its ultimate and only supreme head and lawgiver.
But in the language of John Brown, it is equally clear that Christ, the supreme lawgiver, has ordained to govern his church through inferior magistrates called elders, bishops, pastors, overseers, who are recognized by the people and set over them in the Lord to rule and to govern them according to the standard of scripture. Therefore, when we turn to such passages as Hebrews 13, 17 and 1 Thessalonians 5, 12, the assumption is that a rule and a government is in place. It is known
who bears that rule and so submission to that rule is mandated upon all the people of God in that assembly. Hebrews 13, 17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit for they watch for your souls. That is not a reference to Christ. It is a reference to fellow sinners.
Fellow sinners but who have been put in the position of spiritual rule. 1 Thessalonians 5, 12. Know them that are over you in the Lord and labor among you and esteem and admonish you and esteem them highly in love for their work's sake. The assumption is they could identify them that they knew there were some that were over them and admonish them from a position of spiritual authority.
So the rule is in place. It is both identifiable, by those under it and it is assertive in the exercise of its responsibility. Any brought in who are unwilling to be governed and who resent biblical standards being enforced upon the people of God are going to cause trouble from the outset.
So one of the purposes of the membership interview is to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a submissive membership only. And then the fifth concern is the desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a baptized adult membership only. The desire to attain and maintain the biblical standard of a baptized adult membership only.
Fundamental Concerns: Baptized Adult Membership
And let me spend just a moment addressing what I mean by that. That Christ has established an order in which baptism precedes incorporation into the visible church is clearly taught in a number of passages in the Great Commission make disciples of all the nations baptizing them teaching them all things whatsoever I have commanded. And in the outworking of that we see in that specimen passage on the day of Pentecost that this was the order there was proclamation, conviction saving response baptism, incorporation into the church. They that were baptized
were added unto them in that day. And then of course the clear text in Acts chapter 18 verse 8 and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. And then we have the subsequent account of the Apostle remaining there for a year and a half teaching the word of God among them. But now when I say adult membership what do I mean?
I mean that when we study the book of Acts we come to the conviction I believe we should be forced to the conviction. That not only were infants not baptized in contrast to the teaching of our Pado-Baptist brethren and friends but there is no account that children or those who could not be called young adults were baptized either. And the language of the book of Acts is very clear. The first point at which women are explicitly said to be incorporated into the church the word for an adult female is used.
Likewise for adult males and none of the family of words that speak of infants all the way from brephos right up through to pice and paideia etc. None of those words are ever used to describe those who are incorporated into the church. And for those of you who are not here when I taught on this matter I do commend my series on pre-adult membership.
And I believe that the case there is convincing or else I wouldn't have taught it and I didn't teach it on my own but as the mouthpiece of our own eldership after wrestling with this for many years. One of the most subtle ways that the enemy has weakened the church is by causing its overseers to fail to make a distinction between what is necessary for a child to be saved and to regard them as saved and what is right and proper in terms of formal open confession of that work of grace and identification with the visible church of Christ.
And if we don't understand that distinction and we can't make it comfortably before long we will not have churches where we let people in the front door by pedo-baptism but by toddler and pre-teen baptism. And we've opened the door to all kinds of problems that will eventually weaken the church and history has shown what happens when that is so. It's very interesting. There was a fascinating article I've never been able to come across the original book but it was in an old reformation today an article by David Kingdon on the problem of the second generation and what happened among the Anabaptists.
You remember that in that first generation many of them were persecuted not just by the Catholics but by the reformers for their position on the church as a gathered body of believers and baptism only upon confession. Well, what happened is in the second generation people that were brought up in these Christian homes were, in the language of the author routinely baptized around puberty.
Then many of them went through excommunication.
And it was only then when they came to adulthood that they were then received back into the church and were, quote, re-baptized. Because the baptism of fire and persecution, even death stood as a tremendous barrier in the first generation. But then when it became acceptable to be an Anabaptist in those circles there was no longer that barrier and so you had nominalism creeping in in terms of young people who were assumed to be valid candidates for church membership because they could say the right thing the right things, etc. But there was not a work of grace done in them.
Directives for Conducting the Interview: Examination of Grace
They had not come to sufficient maturity to express who and what they really were and tremendous problems followed and they always do. Alright, well those are the concerns that undergird the membership interview. Now then, let me come in the third place to some directives for conducting the membership interview. We've had the steps leading to the membership interview the fundamental concerns undergirding the membership interview.
Now, some directives for conducting the membership interview.
Now, after seeking to create a relaxed and congenial climate with some innocent small talk if necessary then you ought to assure the person because often they feel somewhat intimidated sitting before an august body of elders even if it may be men relatively young compared to some of us who are in our middle age still a citizen of the church. Sitting in that kind of a context can be rather intimidating and you need to do everything to create a relaxed climate and then seek the face of God in prayer and then what do you do? Well, let me give you five directives
and we'll see how much we can take here till we come up on the hour and then we'll take a break. Number one, you must undertake an examination of the applicant's professed standing in a statement. In a state of grace. You must undertake an examination of the applicant's professed standing in a state of grace.
Now, for anyone to be in a state of grace at least two things are absolutely essential. They must have a knowledge of and profess belief in a modicum of truth which is essential to salvation. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God.
How shall they call upon him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? We're all agreed on that. That saving faith has a certain modicum of knowledge which is cognitively embraced and is believed in from the heart.
But then secondly, where there's a work of grace, there will be experience of and evidence of the power of that truth in the person's life.
So there must be knowledge and belief of a modicum of truth and experience and evidence of the power of that truth. Now, I don't think any of us would debate that, would we? That's the bare bones. You can't take away either of those.
Anyone who claims to have experience and evidence of the power of saving grace in a context devoid of the knowledge of fundamental saving truth, no such thing exists. And conversely, a person who says he has knowledge of and belief of saving truth, but who has no experience and evidence of the power of that truth is self-deceived. Therefore, therefore, you must undertake in the interview an examination of the applicant's professed standing in a state of grace. And in doing that, what are you listening for?
You're listening for the indication that they have sufficient understanding of and belief in those truths essential to salvation. And then you're listening for the indications that they've experienced the power and are manifesting the evidences of that truth operative in their lives through the Holy Spirit. And that's why it is crucial that you not put words in their mouths or have a simple, list of questions to which they can answer. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Rather, what you do is something along the lines of what we do. And I don't, again, say this is the only way to do it. But we have found this helpful to say something like this. Now, Sally Jones, it's a delight to have you with us and knowing you've been with us over these past months and seeing your interest in the Word.
We have every reason to believe that you love the truths of the Gospel and the Scriptures. And it's always a delight to us to hear how God has dealt with people in bringing them to Himself and what it is that gives them hope that they are a child of God. And what we'd like you to do is not to go back to your mother's womb and when you were a toddler and all the rest, but give us a little spiritual biography. Tell us what it is that God has brought into your life that has brought you to the place where you believe that you are a child of God.
Include in that, what you presently believe is the ground of your hope that you are a Christian. What it is that makes you believe sitting here today, the wrath of God's been turned away from you and that you're accepted in Christ. Then you stop and you listen very, very carefully. And as the person speaks, what are you listening for?
You're listening for two things. You're listening to see if they have an understanding of and confess belief in those elementary truths, essential to salvation. And you're listening for the indications that they've experienced the power of those things. Now, under those two categories, what are the things you listen for?
You're listening to see if they have some understanding of sin and wrath deservingness. You're listening for indications that they've experienced some degree of Holy Spirit conviction of sin. You're listening to see if they have some perception that the only answer to their wrath deservingness is the work of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, particularly His life of obedience and His substitutionary death, His vicarious sin-bearing upon the cross. You're listening for some indications that the basic truths of sin
and of grace are both understood and believed. Wrath deservingness. Hell deservingness. God's only provision in Christ.
His provision particularly in Christ's life of obedience. Obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. The livingness of the Savior. His willingness to accept sinners who come as they are.
You're listening for those things. But then you're also listening for the indications that coming to the understanding and understanding and belief of these truths that they have become new creatures in Christ. That the dominion of sin has been broken. That the direction of their lives has been changed from self to Christ.
From this present world to the world to come.
You're looking for indications that where they were dead they are now alive unto God with spiritual appetites. That they have some hunger for prayer and for the life of God. And for the reading of the word and the fellowship of the people of God. These are the things you're listening for as they speak.
Now as you do you'll find almost invariably that some people tend to be top heavy on one or the other of these two major categories. You'll have some people that are so enamored with the changes God has wrought that they almost forget to say anything about the great redemptive tap roots of the change. Well I know I'm a Christian because I was a cursing foul-mouthed lecherous drunkard and God was pleased to turn me around and give me a new heart so that I love God and I don't love my booze and I treat my wife and they're really strong on the change that's occurred and you don't despise that.
But you may hear very very little of Christ and His work. Well you don't just throw that all out the window and say the guy's just got an experience but no Savior. Don't do that. What you say is brother it's been marvelous to hear what you've said about the change.
Now if someone who didn't know a thing as we do were to be sitting in this room and they hear all about that change and they were to ask you well so and so John what really lies at the root of all those changes? Was that something the preacher did? You did? What lies behind all those changes?
And you're trying to get into focus his attention upon the work of Christ. You see you're not putting the words in his mouth but you're wisely trying to get him to express what up till now you have every reason to believe is there but he simply not expressed it. But don't ever put words in their mouth. Now there are times when with people who've been shy and who've been poorly instructed I mean we have gone all around all around we've done everything but put the words in their mouth but we wouldn't put the words in their mouth.
And we've just had to tell them at the end of an interview we just feel that your understanding of the basic truths of the gospel is so deficient that we really think it'd be better for you to hold off membership for a bit. And then we've encouraged them by giving them a series of tapes to listen to and to outline them and then come back for another interview. You see rather than run the risk of taking someone into the community of those who are saved by the redemptive work of Christ who may be ignorant of that work maybe they've gone through a religious experience all kinds of religions offer their experiences and we may not doubt they've had a life transforming experience
but it may not be a saving experience of the grace of God. It may be it may not be it may be that their ignorance has simply kept them from giving expression to what is there in seminal form but we can't read hearts. We are to judge of confessions. Now you remember that they were very careful even with the Apostle Paul.
When he went down to join the church at Jerusalem they didn't let him in because they thought at first no, no this guy's profession ain't real. He's just trying to get on the inside get all our names and then haul us off to jail. And it wasn't until Barnabas came down and said hey wait a minute guys he's for real. I've seen and heard what happened back in his own hometown after he entered into Damascus and then went on briefly to Tarsus and the rest and preached boldly in the name of Jesus Christ.
No, this guy is for real. They said okay we'll take him in. I mean they weren't ashamed to shut the door to a man who heard the risen Christ speak to them. They were not careless with the keys.
So you and I need not feel guilty if you hold someone off. It's for the good of their own souls and it's for the good of the maintenance of these things that we've said undergird that membership interview. That's why you must never forget those things and say well the person will be hurt and be offended. Listen, if they've got the real thing they'll be like the unfortunate widow.
They'll come back for 20 membership interviews if they need to. You're not going to keep them out. If they really love God and his word and love his people they'll keep coming back until you're satisfied. So don't be fearful brethren.
It's particularly difficult when you're young and you don't have a lot of experience to rest upon but that's where you need to hitch yourself to your biblical principles and not be budged. So you must undertake an examination of the applicants professed standing in a state of grace and if they're weak on faith content probe there until they express well look, look, look you really are expecting that we expect you to give us some profound field. No, let's put it very simply this way. If you died 10 minutes from now and your spirit was wafted up into the presence of God and God said I'm going to what basis should I let you into my presence what would you tell God?
Oh, obviously I'd tell him only on the basis of what Christ did when he lived a perfect life and died his death on the cross. We said well that's what we've been waiting to hear. Oh, well I just thought that was understood. We said fine but we want to hear it from your own mouth.
If you shall confess Jesus as Lord and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead and often you see what they're they're just assuming that you're assuming that that's a given but you're not. You want to hear it from their own mouths. So you will learn to develop a technique in conjunction with your other elders which will be natural for you. We have found that one helpful to just try to get at the bare bones of the issue.
On the other hand you have some brought up in the Christian home under good preaching and they've got all the terminology and man they will sound like a theologian half glorified and they're just rip it off just like this. Now what you do with them I did this with one of our young ladies because I know she's had struggles with assurance in the past and what I said to her was so and so you've given a very clear account and she did very clear account of the objective truths. I said now in the light of the struggles you've had with assurance what makes you believe that these truths that you've always known have been part of you from your mother's breast are really now yours.
That you're a new creature in Christ. I'm not asking if you can point to the time you'll never know you get to heaven when you were saved but what makes you convinced they're real to you? She said well I think I'd have to say two things. Number one I'm grieved that I'm not more grieved over my sin and secondly I love communion with God.
We all sat there with our mouths open nineteen year old young woman off the cuff. She said well I guess I'd have to say I believe my faith is real because I'm grieved and I'm not more grieved for my sin and I love communion. That's why I read my Bible because I experience communion with God. That's why I can't wait for Sundays because I have communion with God.
That's why I can't wait for prayer meeting. I have communion with God.
We weren't about to argue with that. That sounded like pretty good experimental divinity to us. We were satisfied that her faith was not just a notional faith but it had experience. So in each case it will be different where you need to probe and you've got to keep it fluid.
Otherwise you'll get into the horrible practice of just coming up with an unwritten but very real list of standard questions. You believe that Jesus yes you believe that yes and what you're doing really is just setting up a framework for nominalism. So undertake an examination of the applicant's professed standards in the state of grace in terms of the principles that I've mentioned. Then I'll give this second and then we'll take a break.
Directives for Conducting the Interview: Responsibilities and Liabilities
You must undertake an examination you must undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of ability and determination to fulfill the responsibilities of the candidate's and accept the liabilities of church membership.
You must undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of ability and determination to fulfill the responsibilities and accept the liabilities of church membership.
And this is where we have on many occasions that we try not to get into a rut we actually take the section from our church constitution and we take it and we say conduct required of all members and we have one, two, three, four five, six, seven eight things eight categories attendance at the stated meetings the use of the means of grace public and private family worship observance of the Lord's Day proportionate giving with the tithe as a baseline the whole matter of family life in government the concern for one another refraining from the other
refraining from speaking evil of one another etc. Sometimes I have printed copies of this in large we just hand them to the person and say now as you read through the constitution are you prepared to commit yourself to those responsibilities? Are you in a position to do so? Sometimes we ask people what do you understand your responsibilities to be?
And we check them off. Sometimes they've been able to nail down every one of these things right out of their own minds. It's obvious they did their homework they really studied this section they were coming in intelligently but because we live in a day when the idea of commitment and commitment as duty is so foreign to the whole climate we've really got to press this area. This is the generation if you don't feel like doing it and you do it that's hypocrisy.
Whereas the Bible says if you're supposed to do it and don't feel like do it and do it that's the virtue of principled obedience. So we've got a generation that doesn't know the difference between principled obedience and hypocrisy. And that's what you're dealing with. That's the raw material out of which God's going to quarry sinners to build into His living temple.
So if ever you're careful in the membership interview you better be careful here in seeing if indeed these people have an understanding of and an ability and determination to fulfill their responsibilities as church members. The church is a voluntary society but having the ability of being enlisted and joined it lays upon you mandatory duties not negotiable duties.
You may have an all-volunteer army but once you volunteer and get sworn in then the drill sergeant calls the shots kicks your butt out of bed at 4.30 and from here on in you're in to take orders from somebody else. And people need to understand that and though I say it's antithetical to the whole climate of our age it must be emphasized lovingly sweetly graciously but the bottom line is you must examine them to see if they understand and have the ability and determination to fulfill the responsibilities of church membership. Now sometimes you may be dealing with someone who has limited mental capacity.
We've rejected some people for membership because God simply did not give them sufficient mental powers emotional stability to fulfill the responsibilities. And in the judgment of charity we've said we love you we believe you love the Lord but we would not lay a burden upon you that we don't believe you're able to bear.
You do that with an imbecile you would do that with in other cases and it's a judgment call but we must be very careful that we do not lower the standard of the responsibilities and what are the liabilities? Well the ultimate liability is excommunication with all of its social strictures. Formal discipline for heresy or ungodliness publicly marked as a disorderly person. That was one of the principles that played very very much in our thinking as to why the New Testament is silent about child membership.
You want to subject a child to excommunication? Well there's no two standards of membership. You come in with the privileges you take the liabilities and the liabilities are excommunication the peculiar chastening hand of God upon church members who walk unworthily 1 Corinthians 11 30 for this cause many are weak and sickly among you tremendous liabilities come with the responsibilities and you must undertake to examine the candidates understanding of these responsibilities and liabilities undertake to examine their determination to fulfill the responsibilities and to accept the liabilities. All right we'll break there
and then we'll pick right up at the end of the , C, D, and E and then the sequel to the membership interview will be relatively brief.
Directives for Conducting the Interview: Doctrinal Understanding and Teachableness
All right brethren as we carry on now on the directives for conducting the membership interview I've encouraged you first of all to undertake an examination of the applicant's professed standing in the state of grace. Secondly, to undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of ability and determination to fulfill the responsibilities and acceptance of the liabilities of church membership. Then thirdly, you must undertake an examination of the candidate's present understanding of and disposition of teachableness with respect to your confession of faith and your constitution.
You must undertake an examination of the candidate's present understanding of and disposition of teachableness with respect to your confession of faith and constitution. I commend to you the article by Pastor Bob Martin in the preface or as not an appendix but a preparatory part of Mr. Waldron's book on the a modern exposition of the 1689 confession and the use of creeds very helpful.
We cannot turn back 20 centuries of church history and we must avoid two extremes. On the one hand a latitudinarian attitude that would allow anyone whom we have reason to believe as a child of God admission into the church regardless of their doctrinal quirks and aberrations.
The other extreme is to be overly strict and expect someone to be a confident and accomplished theologian before we ever let them into the school of Christ. Both of those extremes must be avoided.
Now, obviously in our day the danger is not to have too high a standard of confessional and constitutional commitment but to have too low a standard. In preparing for this lecture I re-read sections of this short treatise concerning a true and orderly gospel church by Benjamin Griffith a Welshman who was very influential here in the States in the early Baptist thinking in the Philadelphia Association was a church planter and it's a very interesting treatise we hope to have it reprinted but in the section on church membership admission of
church members their polity was for the elders to call a church meeting and at the church meeting the person proposing that's how an applicant is described is the person proposing he's proposing to the church to see if they will accept him alright when the church has come together and the person proposing being present after prayer to God for direction the minister or pastor of the church is to put several questions to the person proposing number one concerning the ground and reason of his hope 1 Peter 3 15 wherein is to be inquired what is the reason of his hope what experience
he hath of the manifold graces of the Holy Spirit working in him repentance from dead works scripture is given faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ in whom alone is salvation hoped for scripture is given for without there be some good grounds in the judgment of charity that such a one is a new creature the door of admission is not to be opened for that would be abusing the privileges of the house of God therefore all due to the due and regular care is to be taken they didn't stop there secondly what competency of knowledge in the principal doctrines of faith and order such hath acquired 1 Timothy 2 4-6 or whether such persons
be well instructed in the knowledge of God in his glorious attributes in the doctrine of the Trinity or the one God in three persons the persons nature and offices of Christ the nature of the law of original sin of the pollution of man's life of man by reason of sin of his lost and undone estate thereby and of his being a child of wrath by nature of the nature of the redemption wrought by Christ his sufficiency to satisfy divine justice of the reconciliation of sinners to God by the death of his son of our sins being imputed to Christ and his righteousness imputed to us for justification being received by faith alone of the resurrection of Christ's body his ascension into heaven and his resurrection
and of his coming thence the second time to judge the quick and the dead and of the resurrection of the dead bodies of men and of the eternal judgment and of such proposing person's resolution to persevere in the profession of these truths to the end such things are needful to be inquired into by reason that too many in our day do build their conversion upon their convictions and some general notions of the Christian religion when indeed they are utter strangers unto and very ignorant of the great mysteries of the gospel quite an inquiry they make by the church by the church
yet great care is to be taken that the weak be not discouraged for the smoking flax is not to be quenched nor the bruise read to be broken but such ignorant persons are to be taught by gentle instructions and means ought to be used for their furtherance in the knowledge of divine truths and where there are the beginnings of true and saving grace in the heart such will with a spiritual appetite receive the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby and a church ought to be careful not to reject those whom they judge to have the least degree of the work of saving grace wrought in them Romans 14.1 thirdly inquiry is to be made whether such a person's
life and conversation is answerable to such a person's such a profession that he is likely to adorn the gospel with a holy manner of living and then after all of this the question is to be put to the church are you satisfied he's got the real thing and if the church members are not then the person is to be rejected and encouraged to sit under the word until such time as the people of God are satisfied well you see how far we've moved this was the accepted polity of the early Baptist Calvinistic Baptist people churches here in our own country and in this very area of the early colonies so when I say that you must undertake an examination of the candidates
present understanding of and disposition of teachableness with respect to your confession of faith and constitution this is not some bizarre position and while a person may say I've read through the confession there's nothing there that I really disagree with there's much I don't understand then you ask them what is your disposition one of willingness to be taught now if someone says as we recently got a letter of someone inquiring into the academy saying I don't know if you want me I've already inquired into this issue and that issue among them being the Lord's Day Sabbath and I have decided views on the matter and the bottom line was are you willing to take me though frankly I'm not prepared to be taught on some of these areas
Directives for Conducting the Interview: Embracing Elder Oversight
well obviously we'd say no thank you politely graciously but very clearly and firmly so you must seek to undertake an examination of their present understanding and disposition in these critical areas then fourthly you must undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of and willingness to embrace the rule and oversight of the existing elders you must undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding and willingness to embrace the rule and oversight of the existing elders now this is crucial brethren
in any day of the church but particularly in our day one of these days I'm going to preach on what is a growing thesis with me that if man's enmity to God focuses upon the expression of the will of God in his law Romans 8-7 where will a lawless generation most clearly manifest its enmity to God it will manifest it to his law and to his law where it most clearly impinges on his external behavior that's why there's such hatred to the fourth commandment it's a commandment that touches minutes and hours and external activities
you can't rationalize like you can about all the others so that's why there's such hatred to the Sabbath then secondly that's why there's such hatred to parental government and female submission to men the divinely instituted male hierarchy because it is a reflection of God assigning roles and you know who the third big object of this whole climate is those who try to rule in Christ's church now you think about it I've been mulling over that for months and the more I think about it and the more I test it the more I'm confident of my ground not confident enough to preach it yet but confident enough to throw it out before you men now they're
coming into a setting where it is not a democracy one man one vote every man's opinions worth as much as others but coming into a monarchy where King Jesus reigns and where King Jesus administers his reign through inferior magistrates who are given real authority to rule now they have a document by which alone they have right to rule and if they ever seek to rule contrary to that document the subjects are in the name of the true king to resist their rule for them to rule contrary to this document is tyranny
and it is an act of religious obedience to Christ to resist tyranny in the church but in so far as they rule by the word of God Hebrews 13 17 says obey them that have the rule over you and that's the cruncher people are willing to say oh yes I submit to Christ but don't let any man tell me what to do then say obey him who has the supreme rule over you but obey them that have this inferior secondary rule over you and you must ask them what you know of me if you're the only elder what you know of us if your fellow elders are there are you prepared to submit yourselves to us
in the Lord that is are you prepared from the heart to embrace the position the authority which is entrusted to us which we are seeking to exercise for your good and your well-being now what that means is that at the time when you least want it and most need it are you going to let us come to you and say John we see you showing an interest in so and so she's not a church member she's an unproven commodity you really are tampering with your soul to start a romantic interest are you going to resent our budding into your romantic life if we begin to see you slacking off in your regular attendance at prayer meeting we're going to
come and ask you why because we are instituted by Christ to rule in his church and you've said that you're committing yourself to the responsibilities of church membership one of which is commitment to the stated meetings now you're free not to make that commitment but having made it we are not free to be indifferent to your going back on your commitments we are not at liberty to be indifferent now is that what you're prepared for you spell out in a few concrete examples now with single young men and women one area we always spell out is in this whole area of their romances we say now if there's an area where the devil will try to take you aside it's going to be in this area
now we had the shock of our lives with one of our singles recently trying to show that we could not lord it over her conscience but her disposition was so sweet we said now so and so do you believe these men have a right to pick out a husband for you she said oh yes absolutely we said oh no no no wait a minute she said no no she said well what I mean is you men are wiser you're more discerning than I am you could make a much better choice than I could make we said well we appreciate the compliments but no no the head of the church hasn't given us the task of being matchmakers no we would not pick out a husband for you see and I was going to have to assume she'd say no then I was going to but she threw me off I mean she just
answered she said well of course so we have a Trinity Verge version of matchmaker matchmaker find me a match make me a catch etc but the point that we emphasize is look if you begin to show an interest in someone who is not a professed believer or is not a member of this church or of a church of light faith in order so that we can assume that they have come through a biblical screening to be professed disciples of Christ we'll be deeply concerned about that that you would begin to let yourself get romantically involved with an unknown commodity will you welcome
our loving gracious intrusion into that very personal area of your lives we watch for your soul what will be more crucial to the well-being of your soul for years to come than the husband or the wife that you choose and we press that issue and we've had more than one occasion to remind people later on that in an interview they said oh yes I would welcome that easy to say that when the heartstrings are not fluttering for a forbidden object so get specific with them in terms of their situation it's a married man say to him now Henry you're a married man as we get to know you and the way you administer the rule in your home if we see that you're not
disciplining your children as you ought or you're not being sensitive to your wife are you going to resent it if we take the initiative to come to you or are you going to embrace that that's what oversight is that we are there to admonish to encourage to help to rebuke and to do so not just as brothers and friends but in the authority of our office mandated by the Lord Jesus Christ you must undertake and exist the examination of the candidate's understanding of and willingness to embrace the rule and oversight of the existing elders and on that occasion we often will say to people and if you ever see us
doing anything that you have reason to believe is contrary to the word of God please don't be modest come to us and show us what in your judgment is contrary to the word the last thing we want to do is to betray the trust of this office help us if you see us saying anything doing anything suggesting a practice or a policy contrary to the scriptures you will not find us intimidating you will find us welcoming you if you come alright and then the fifth area of directive concerning the membership interview you must undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of and readiness
Directives for Conducting the Interview: Readiness for Baptism
to submit the to the ordinance of baptism where necessary undertake an examination of the candidate's understanding of and readiness to submit to the ordinance of baptism now you'll get into some tacky questions here a person will say well you asked them have you been baptized well I made a profession when I was 13 and I was put under the water but frankly I just am not sure I was really converted then it wasn't until age 50 15 or 17 that I began to see any real changes and they're tossed to and fro and you will just have to work through the principles I don't have time to go into all of them
but just a couple of suggestions here one of the things I will often ask or the other brethren whenever you read in the scriptures in your own devotions when you read that there is an order of believing repenting and being baptized does it trouble you do you find yourself disturbed whenever there's a baptism do you sit there and say I wonder if I've really been scripturally baptized or are you satisfied that what you did at age 13 was not a ruse it wasn't a lark you weren't just doing it because all the kids were according to the light you had then it was done as an act of obedience to Christ with the desire to please Christ and though you have some questions now whether you had the real thing you're not prepared to say you didn't have
the real thing and often that helps and they say no that's where I am we say well we see no need then to repeat the ordinance because any repetition of the ordinance can tend to demean it and you're going to end up people with get an overly sensitive conscience and every time they discover a new truth they want to get baptized again you got people who have been baptized five six times it makes the ordinance ludicrous but if a person says no there's no question in my mind I had nothing real until such and such a time then we say look then your baptism was no more true baptism than if as a kid you sneaked into the communion at age three and took some of the bread and sneaked one of the cups so you're not being re-baptized you're being baptized
and make sure that you emphasize that the same way when people have been sprinkled and done as babies they say well I'm not sure about the matter of being re-baptized they say what do you mean re-baptized you mean baptized whatever that was that wasn't baptism because there was no application of the blessings of salvation to you there was no confessional element there was no and so you must open up this whole matter and seek to instruct the person accordingly see if they have a basic understanding of the significance of the ordinance that it conveys no grace that is symbolic it is declarative and this is why we give the little booklet baptism in church membership because it has a good synopsis of the
biblical teaching alright then very quickly because I do want to leave some time for questions category four we dealt with steps leading to the membership interview the fundamental concerns undergirding the interview I've given you directives for conducting the interview the mechanics now the sequel to the membership interview since the whole church receives and exercises the keys of both inclusion and exclusion it is our understanding that the church must have some input in the opening of the door of membership now it's clear that the church must have how the old baptist regarded the involvement of the church they had the whole church present
The Sequel to the Membership Interview: Church Reception
for the examination and then they took the congregational vote do you believe Mr. so and so manifests sufficient knowledge and testifies to sufficient grace that we can receive him as a brother one who is united to Christ all that do signify by saying I or raising the right hand or winking your left eye whatever they did all opposed same sign uh uh and again I would find it difficult to say that it was wrong to include the whole church it may be inexpedient to do it but I would find it difficult to say that was wrong you know what we do here we announce to the people at least one week preferably two or more weeks before
the next communion service at which time we would receive them into membership your elders have interviewed John Jones for membership or baptism and membership and having heard their account of God's dealings with them we are satisfied that they are in a state of grace if any of you know of any reason why they should not be received at the next communion service please speak to one of your elders and express your concern so what are we doing we're giving the people of God an opportunity to make an assessment based on their varied levels of interaction you ask have they ever come forward and has it ever meant the delay of reception yes on more than one occasion it has and we've been very
thankful for that I will say if I'm making the announcement if there's any reason why your heart cannot go out with the hand of the elder that receives him on behalf of the church come and speak to your elders that the matter might be addressed that way then when we stand at the table and say on behalf of the whole congregation we extend the right hand of fellowship we can do that with some degree of conviction that we have not simply as elders exercised the keys it's rather difficult you see to say and of course consistent Presbyterianism in some circles does indeed leave the keys only in the hands of the office bearers for admission and for dismission
whereas it seems to me Matthew 18 is clear that the keys are given to the whole body of God's people and that they ought to be exercised by the church in the opening of the door as well as in the closing of the door in excommunication then at the appropriate time receive them before the gathered body and as we've wrestled with what is the best time to do this we personally believe and this again is not a matter where we can legislate for others but if the reasons are good then there's nothing wrong with adopting them and that's not simply being a clone of trinity that's recognizing there are principles that convince
your judgment that this is a good expedient without in any way binding your conscience or anyone else's the symbolism of the Lord's table partaking of the one loaf we proclaim that we are one body the circumstances are such that there more than any other time the people of God are free from time pressures and constraints to come and greet their new member of the body Sunday morning people have got little ones that are high hungry and the rest they've been through Sunday school etc there's more time pressure for people after the morning service to get home but Sunday night when you have the core of your membership there and a minimum number of visitors remaining for the
Lord's Supper why then it's a good opportunity then and as some of you know who've observed this often it's a full hour after the communion is over and people are still greeting that new member and they're coming up and saying my name is so and so and at least it's giving the person the sense that the whole body is receiving them into the fellowship so the sequel then to the membership interview there must be some opportunity for the church to express its mind and its conviction however you do it I've explained how we do it don't believe that's the only way and as much as I say that I'll get accused of saying I think their way is the only way well we've got to do it some way please don't fault us for doing it do it some way
we've got to do it some way and if we're going to do it some way we've got to think through the reasons and all I've done is give you the reasons for why we do it our way and if you find them compelling enough to do it that way till you come up with what you feel is a better way fine we'll neither demean you nor exalt you for that element of imitation alright some input from the people of God and then at an appropriate time that gives you the opportunity both in the circumstances and in the surrounding factors for the body to express its reception it appears to me is the most expedient time to do this alright
that's what I prepared to give you and I was able to do that with a little time to spare for questions
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage, likening the church to a building and warning against defective materials, serves as the foundational theological justification for the careful management of church membership.
This passage, describing the early church's steadfast continuation in the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers, is expounded as the biblical standard for a 'fully participating membership.'
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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