FERGUSON: Membership to us is a kind of official thing, but if you take the word,
it means "being a member," and that is a deeply biblical thing. If we trust in Jesus Christ, we
are members of the body of Christ. And therefore, different churches regard membership in different
ways and bring people into membership in different ways. The officialese is far less important
than the notion, "I really belong here and I am absolutely committed here," because
to turn away from that, to reject it or to deny it is really to repudiate what Christ has brought
you into. He has brought you into His body. So, it is of supreme importance, first of all,
because it's what the Scriptures teach, but, secondly, it's because of what we need.
The idea that an individual is sufficient unto himself or herself to live the Christian life
actually from a biblical point of view is an extraordinary form of arrogance.
When we think of the New Testament's teaching of the extent to which we need one another,
when we think of the fact that every gift the Lord has given to people, He has not given to them
chiefly for themselves. He has given that gift to them for the sake of others. So, if I
separate myself from the church, for whatever reason, I am really saying to the Lord,
"I despise the gifts that You have given and I don't want anything to do with them."
And, I think, as we go through the Scriptures, we could find so
many more reasons why it's important, that, you know, Jesus is our Shepherd and when He calls His
sheep to Himself, inevitably, He's calling them nearer to one another. Another reason is that in
my own view the chief, the central New Testament picture (actually it's more than a picture,
it's a reality), the central New Testament way of thinking about the church is that it's a family.
And to think that I would say, "I don't need my family" just in the ordinary human level,
I think, would be an appalling thing to say. And when we think of what it has cost
God to create this new family, to say that "I don't need to belong to the family of God. I don't
need the friendship. I don't need the ministry," it seems to be almost like spitting in God's face.
So, I think, you find there are so many different lines of teaching in Scripture
coalesce into the church. "Christ loved the church," says Paul, "and gave Himself
for the church." And for me not to love the church that He loved and gave Himself for
is in a sense not to love the Lord Jesus Himself or certainly not to love what He loves.
BINGHAM: I was reflecting on this question recently. Someone was sharing that a friend
of theirs had stopped going to church and had just said, you know, "I can just do church at home. I
can pray at home, read the Bible at home, listen to a sermon at home." And as we were reflecting
on where they used to worship, it seems a sad case that the church lacked so much theology,
they had a very low view of the church itself. And in some sense,
I can almost empathize with them because if the church is as low as they were being taught, then
perhaps they don't even need the church. But it is a misunderstanding of the role of the church.
FERGUSON: Yeah, I mean, I think of if Christians are taught that the really important thing about
their Christian life lies outside of the church or that the church is secondary to
their spiritual growth, you know, in a way the church has put the dagger through its own heart.
And, you know, when I look back on my own Christian life, you know, I am,
I think, what I have been helped to be by the church, my family is. You know, I sometimes
have said to parents, "You know, God never gave to parents all the gifts that are needed to raise one
child for Christ." That's what the whole church is for. It takes a village, it takes a congregation.
And when we realize that, then we begin to see the extraordinary blessings that are released,
not just into our individual lives, but into our family lives,
and if we're parents, into our children's lives in the most wonderful way. It's not an
accident that Jesus said, "I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.