"Placing Membership"
The heading of this article is a misnomer, but it is a term used by many in the church today. We hear gospel preachers using this phrase, and it is employed by many sending in reports to religious papers. Brethren, this sectarian phrase, "placing membership," is the language of Ashdod.
The Bible no where infers the idea of "placing membership." Why? Because one cannot "place membership" in the Lord's church. Membership in the Lord's church is the result of the New Birth. (John 3:5.) When one obeys the gospel of Christ, he receives "remission of sins," and the Lord "adds him to the church." (Acts 2:37-47.)
When one is born into the "Family of God," which is the church, he is a member of the "one body," and wherever he goes he is still a member of the "one body." In 1 Corinthians 12:20, Paul says: "But now they are many members, but one body," and in verse 12, he says: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ."
If I am a member of the "one body," the church, and move into another community where a congregation of the "one body" is meeting, how then can I "place my membership," when I am already a member of the church? Brethren, you just don't "place membership" in the Lord's church.
It is the proper and scriptural thing to do, when one moves into a new community to "join oneself to the disciples" (Acts 9:26) or to identify oneself, or to make it known that we are members of the Lord's church and will worship and work in that congregation of the Lord's vineyard.
Another sectarian term has been picked up by some, which we often hear, and that is: "Our church," or "my church." This phrase is often used when inviting people to attend the services. It usually goes like this, "Won't you go with me to my church," or "We would like to have you visit our church sometime." Brethren, it is not "my church," or "our church," it is the Lord's church. In fact we don't go to church, the church comes together to worship. Let us drop all these sectarian phrases and speak that which befits sound doctrine (Tit. 2:1), or as Paul says in Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear." Brethren, think on these things, and let us speak in Bible terms as Peter admonished in 1 Peter 4:11.