Affiliation Is About Partnership

Over the years, churches have often spoken about “belonging” to a congregation in terms of member or membership.  We should be reminded that the word membership is of Christian origin with roots in the early church.  However, as generations have come and gone, its intended meaning has been eroded by an ever-evolving culture.  Now more than ever, the term membership is understood by many as a synonym for exclusiveness.  That exclusiveness finds reinforcement when organizations with members require: dues to be paid, qualifications to be met, allegiances demanded, rules to be followed. 

With that said, the church should go back to its roots and reclaim the wonderful imagery membership represents.  The Apostle Paul speaks so eloquently (I Corinthians 12:12-27) about the body and its many members living interdependently with one another.  It remains a vital and rich metaphor we need to experience lived-out within the Christian community.  And yet, another metaphor may speak to us today at an even deeper level when we reflect on what it means to belong to a church.

Implicit in our understanding of membership today is the sense of one being the recipient of a service(s) rendered.  “I’ve paid my monthly dues.  Now, what am I going to get in return?”  What a contradiction this is to the attitude of Christ-likeness we are “called” to embrace as the church!  And yet, it is an attitude that remains entrenched in the hearts of too many.  Being a part of a church is about serving sacrificially, people bonded together in joyful partnership to move forward the Cause of Christ at all costs.  For too long, church membership has been “spectator-driven” and “personal satisfaction-based.” 

Well, Christians do want to be fed.  We want to be nurtured.  And yes, we want to be needed.  We want to be inspired and we want to serve.  We want to be a community.  We want to contribute.  We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.  We want to be a family.  Does our understanding of membership today adequately convey those yearnings?

A while back, we threw out a word:  partnership.  We are excited about this term.  We’re excited because, first of all, we find in the concept of partnership that metaphor which better identifies churched Christians as “people of action” versus that of “passive participants” often implied in our experience/understanding of membership.

With this in mind, we here at CHURCH ON THE JOURNEY, want to call ourselves—first and foremost—partners in the Cause of Christ.  We don’t want to be merely members of this church, but partners in God’s work at JOURNEY.  Call it semantics, but our focus is clear:  God has called us to be a people yoked together, committed to share our time, abilities and resources to the end of proclaiming the love and healing power of Jesus Christ to the world—through spoken word and lifestyle.  It’s as simple as that.  It is as overwhelming as that!  Partnership is a lot to ask.

Yes, we’ll be family and we’ll be interdependent members of Christ’s body.  We’ll embrace all of the meaningful images available to us that speak of love, connectedness and community in Christ.  But here at CHURCH ON THE JOURNEY, we’re not interested in “signing up people for membership.”  We’re interested in covenanting with people in partnership.  

As partners, we will covenant with one another to make a personal investment of our time, talent and financial resources to the church; we will covenant with one another to love, cherish, support and nurture the Body of Christ along with those who have yet to claim Christ; and we will covenant with one another to embrace the common objective of furthering the Cause of Christ throughout the world.

Not long ago, a local business had the stated objective to “make as much money as we can, as fast as we can, for as long as we can.”  Our objective has a similar “ring” to it.  As partners in Christ here at JOURNEY, we’re going to be “pushing the Cause of Christ as hard as we can, as far as we can, as long as we can.” 

Being a partner in Christ is hard work.  But is there a more honorable job than to share the love of Jesus Christ with one another and with the world? 

Here at JOURNEY, we are reminded of the image of “journey” – an image of everyone on the road each and every day. These roads are filled with travelers scurrying down major thoroughfares, while others trudge down the beaten paths and uninhabited trails, one and all making the journey. But this journey is so much more meaningful when you choose to travel with others.

We hope that everyone will join us at a MERGE! session or set aside a time to visit with our minister—we love talking about Journey and what God is doing in our midst!

Remember, we are committed to the journey as much as we are to the destination.  We look forward to traveling with you!