It’s Saturday afternoon at a local football field. Excited parents are sitting under pop-ups, pulling water coolers, carrying stadium seats, sending younger kids to the snack bar for the endless supply of candy, Gatorade, gum, and hot dogs. Everyone is trying to ignore the blazing heat as they wait for the teams to take the field. The crowd cheers as the players run out, helmets and pads making little bodies appear much bigger than they are. Confusion begins almost instantly, however, since both teams are wearing solid black. Quarterbacks don’t know who to throw to, neither side knows which way they should be going, and the kids keep running from one coach to another trying to figure out who to listen to. At one point a kid in street clothes just runs out on the field to grab the ball.

In real life, no one is confused about why football teams have uniforms. No one argues that uniforms are divisive, that it’s not necessary to know who’s on your team and who’s not, and that since everyone is a football player anyway they should just all have the same uniform. Listening to one coach is not just as good as listening to a different team’s coach, and it really does matter which direction players are going.

Here at GCV, church membership is like our uniform. Church membership matters because members need to know and be committed to the direction of our specific local church. They need to know who else they are working with and for, who our church leadership is, and what we are all about. Pastors need to know who is a part of their flock and who isn’t, members need to know which pastors they should be under, and both pastors and members need to be caring for and accountable to one another.

Church membership best fits the New Testament description of a church. The church is professing believers who promise together to live under the same doctrinal statement, submit to the same qualified elders, and care for one another with unconditional love. In the end, church membership allows Grace Church to be and to function as a church the way the New Testament envisions it. 

If you’re not wearing a GCV uniform, will you pray about joining us? You can sign up for the next membership class that will thoroughly explain what we believe about church membership, who we are as a church, and how to get plugged in. Come join us!