When people hear the word “membership,” they think about being part of a gym or a wholesale club. Membership is often thought of to come with privileges, perks, and benefits. Members are served. Is this what it means to be a member of a Christian church? Paul explains the metaphor of the Church as being a body with many members with Christ as the head (1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12). At the heart of this is love (1 Corinthians 13). Forgiven by the love of God through the love Jesus has for us to win us forgiveness, we can love God and others. “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” He has placed us all in the Church with different gifts. In this series we look to build a strong healthy Church by asking the question “What does it mean to be a church member?”
Week 3 – The body of Christ is blessed with diversity. Each of us have different gifts, talents, and preferences. When you get a group of 10 people together you may have 10 different opinions. What happens when you group 700 together? How can you have unity and peace among so many Christians? If each is only concerned about getting their way and having their preferences met, peace, harmony and working together will be impossible. Through Jesus and His humility, we can see how we can put others first.

There is the type of fan who follows his team if they make the playoffs. Then there is the type of fan who, regardless of his team’s record, watches every game and knows the stats for every player. There are different types of followers: the half-hearted versus the committed. Jesus is uninterested in followers who pay attention to his Word and will only when their other pursuits provide the time. Jesus wants followers who are all in . . . who love him above all things . . . who would be willing to leave everything else behind if that were what it would take to be with him. We simply do not have it inside us to produce that level of commitment. But in the gospel, we see how Jesus went all in for our salvation. As we witness the way Jesus made our eternal happiness the focus of his undivided attention, the Spirit creates within us the very commitment that Christ seeks.

Rethinking Religion: Rethinking the Worth of Worship. Person A never attends worship. He can’t see the point. Person B attends every week out of a slavish sense of obligation. Her mind wanders during the services, for she views the activities of worship merely as tasks for her to complete. Who is worse off? Rather than debating the point, let us just admit neither understand the true worth of worship. And that is exactly what Satan wants.
Many think worship is about what we do for God. It is the other way around. As we gather around Word and sacrament, the Spirit moves us to love and trust in God above all things. Moved by the cross of Christ, we bow down before our God. We commune with Him. And that’s exactly what God wants.