In the teaching series Unstoppable, Craig Groeschel made an announcement from the stage that their church would no longer have "church members." They basically stated they would be "killing them off." No, not literally.
"We're killing church members. Not like killing them dead, although there've been members I've wanted to kill in the past, but we are just killing membership, you know. It's it's going away, and the reason is because for years and years we've done it, and we just did it because other people did it and in my mind, it always kind of bothered me some because I thought, 'Well, if you are a believer, you're already a member of the family of God, but you still join a church because that's what you do,' and so we just said, 'Well, we're not going to do just what everyone's done before because, instead of joining a church, we hope that you'll see yourself as joining a movement. And instead of joining and being a member of a church like you would a country club or something, instead, we hope that you will see yourself, not as a member, but as a partner, as someone who is called by God, set apart by God, to partner with other believers to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ."
"God doesn't call the prepared. He prepares the called." (from the same series) (read Ephesians 4:11-12)
(graphic: courtesy of Catalyst)
Labels: Church, Communicating, Culture, Issues, Leadership, Youth Pastors
This is dead on. While my Baptist roots says that we have to have something in place, I am a big fan of the idea of a partner instead of a member. Just the terminology change alone goes from taking and what can you do for me to how can I be a part of the mission and what can I contribute. American Express really ruined membership with their "membership has it's privileges" stuff...
@ Nic - Agreed. Thanks for your comment.
Mosaic in LA does the same thing - they are called "staff". I think it's a pretty cool idea - love the movement and action idea behind it.
I get what he's saying, and while a part of me likes it, there is also a part that is nervous about removing the idea of formally joining a church because of what that says about your commitment to community. I know "covenant memberships" are somewhat trendy right now (ironic since they themselves are nothing new in church history) but I do think there is some biblical weight behind local church membership; not in a "membership has privileges" sense, but in a membership means you are knowingly entering into spiritual submission to the authority of the church and a community of love and accountability. That's not to say lifechurch isn't doing that and just using different verbage-just my thoughts