Our church was once a viper pit. Members gathered in Christ’s name, but little else distinguished them as Christians. They devoured one another during disagreements. Emotionalism, political preoccupation, diluted doctrinal affirmations, and lack of discipleship left the flock spiritually anemic. The congregation withered, leaving only a few faithful members.

One of the clearest causes of our church’s near-death experience was unregenerate church membership. Joining our church was as easy as walking an aisle, praying a prayer, and asking for admittance. The pastor would introduce the candidate to the congregation and call for an “amen” to welcome him or her into the fold. While easy entrance into membership appeared loving, in reality it opposed love.

Today, we practice regenerate church membership. In other words, we aim to welcome only true, born-again believers into the fold. Jesus taught that being born again — being regenerated — is essential to entering God’s kingdom (John 3:1–5). New Testament letters addressed congregations of new creations in Christ who were set apart from sin and striving to obey God (1 John 3:1–10; Ephesians 2:4–5; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 3:5). Regenerate church membership, then, isn’t a VIP list of elite super-Christians. It’s a faithful list of true Christians.

“Regenerate church membership isn’t a VIP list of elite super-Christians. It’s a faithful list of true Christians.”

Though churches lack the omniscience to guard membership perfectly, we still aim for the names on the membership rolls to reflect the names in the Lamb’s book of life.

Is Church Membership Biblical?

Before considering the why and how of regenerate church membership, however, some may wonder whether our churches should practice church membership at all.

By church membership, I am referring a formal process of identifying and integrating believers who have voluntarily committed to follow Jesus together. The steps of church membership usually include examining a prospective member’s testimony, assuring his or her doctrinal orthodoxy, and making sure everyone agrees on the biblical expectations for following Jesus together.

I used to think formal church membership was unbiblical. In fact, the first church I pastored was intentionally inaugurated without membership. We viewed membership as extrabiblical, legalistic, and a threat to organic fellowship. But over time, our assumption proved to be misguided. We often struggled to know who “we” were. Leaders’ God-given authority was limited by attenders’ anemic affiliation. People were easily overlooked and neglected. Church discipline was confusing and, at times, counterproductive. In the end, we learned that biblical love required deliberate definition.

The New Testament provides a vision for the centrality of the local church in a believer’s life. Followers of Jesus are assumed to know one another, hold each other accountable, and submit to qualified local leaders who will give an account of them to God (Hebrews 13:17). Local churches keep lists of members who need care (1 Timothy 5:9–12), bear responsibility to address hypocrisy (1 Corinthians 5:1–13), and consider one another when partaking of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:18–34).

Churches don’t have to call their approach to these practices church membership, but it’s nearly impossible to argue that the concept itself is unbiblical. All over the New Testament, we find this intentional, committed, accountable love that affirms and encourages one another’s devotion to Jesus in a local congregation.

Why Pursue Regenerate Membership?

Sadly, many churches coddle and comfort people in their sin rather than calling them to repent and conform to Christ. This low standard for membership dims the church’s radiance and offers false advertisements about God. And Jesus takes these sins very seriously.

When Jesus walked among the seven churches in Revelation 2–3, he was moved by what was happening among them. He applauded their obedience (Revelation 2:2–3, 13, 19, 24; 3:4) and was appalled by their abominations (Revelation 2:4, 14, 20; 3:2). He encouraged good works to continue (Revelation 2:10; 3:5) and warned against allowing sin to abide (Revelation 3:3, 18–20).

Jesus still walks among churches today, calling us to obey him in everything, including how we approach church membership. In light of this, consider four motivations for pursuing regenerate church membership.

1. Regenerate membership pleases God.

Churches filled with unbelieving members will be marked by worldliness that serves selfish desires. Churches filled with believers, however, will be marked by loving obedience (John 14:15), a burden to evangelize the lost (Acts 13:1–3), concern for the spiritual welfare of fellow members (Hebrews 3:12–14; 10:24–25), a desire to restore wayward sheep (James 5:19–20), and a will to remove hypocrites who blaspheme God’s holy name (Matthew 18:15–18). All of these qualities are pleasing to God, and only regenerate members will be devoted to them.

2. Regenerate membership protects doctrine.

Unregenerate members will endeavor to lower the dimmer switch on doctrinal clarity to keep the light of conviction from exposing their evil. Or, on the other side, some unregenerate members may emphasize tertiary doctrines in quarrelsome, divisive ways. Regenerate members, however, have the Spirit of God, who empowers godly conviction, doctrinal clarity, and the resolve to remain faithful to Jesus. They will aim to uphold sound teaching with wisdom, charity, humility, and courage.

3. Regenerate membership promotes the gospel.

Unregenerate people have disregarded the call of the gospel. Though they may affirm it with their mouths, they deny it with their lives (2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16). Those who resist the gospel will certainly not be committed to relaying the gospel. They will keep silent — and perhaps try to redirect the mission of the church solely toward social projects. Regenerate members, however, love the gospel that set them free and ensure that the church’s time, talents, and treasures remain devoted to obeying Jesus’s Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20).

4. Regenerate membership produces joy.

Sorrow accompanies those who abide in sin. Unbelieving church members will be forced to find happiness in the fleeting experiences of friendship, accomplishments, sentimentality, or other empty wells. But believing members draw from a well of joy that never runs dry. A holy congregation will be a happy congregation. The Spirit who indwells her will produce joy (Galatians 5:22) that empowers joy-giving obedience (John 15:11), enlivens heavenly celebration in conversion (Luke 15:7, 10), and longs for the day when her joy will be complete in glory (Matthew 25:21).

How Can We Pursue Regenerate Membership?

Well-intentioned churches that minimize requirements for membership work against the very aim they seek to accomplish. Desiring to show Christ’s love, they often end up distorting it by affirming unbelievers in their rebellion. Healthy churches creatively cultivate an evangelistic culture that invites unbelievers to observe the love of Christ while taking care not to blur the lines about who is and is not right with God.

“Church membership is not for perfect people, but it is for repentant people.”

So how might we wisely pursue regenerate church membership? Consider seven ways to create clear distinctions that magnify the love of Christ, lead unbelievers to salvation, and grow believers into spiritual maturity.

1. Receive members carefully.

Develop a process that welcomes all people to engage with the gospel, yet carefully guards entrance into membership. Membership classes provide opportunities to instruct potential members in what the church believes (doctrine) and how it intends to live together (community). Classes that highlight the gospel, biblical expectations for the Christian life, accountability, and discipline will point unbelievers to Christ while encouraging believers to join your church.

2. Require clear testimonies.

Meeting with a pastor is the next crucial step. This meeting provides pastors an opportunity to discuss any questions about the church’s beliefs, hear the applicant’s testimony, and ensure he or she can articulate the gospel clearly, thus helping the pastor discern whether this person is indeed a believer who affirms biblical doctrine and is eager to submit to the accountability of the church body.

3. Require holy living.

Church membership is not for perfect people, but it is for repentant people. If someone professes to know Christ yet does not display contrition over sin, continual repentance, peaceful departures from former churches, charitable representations of other Christians, and growing delight in Jesus, questions may be raised about his or her conversion. Careful membership processes will be slow enough to ensure someone is walking in holiness. True biblical love takes time to see if professing Christians are honoring Jesus with their lives.

4. Baptize true believers.

Christians publicly profess faith in Christ through baptism. This ordinance is one of the first and most basic acts of obedience to Jesus (Matthew 28:19–20). Historically, many Christians have also treated baptism as the entrance into the life of the local church. Churches ought to be eager to baptize believers, but prudent churches will baptize only those with a credible profession of Christian faith.

5. Honor the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus is clear that not everyone will partake in the marriage supper of the Lamb. Neither should everyone be invited to partake in the Lord’s Supper. Over the years, our church has had several people come to Christ because of our instruction that unbelievers and unrepentant professors refrain from partaking with us. The warning can feel inhospitable, but then we remember that this is the Lord’s Supper, not ours. He supplies the guest list. Those who are unbelieving and unrepentant are excluded, though he desires them to repent and dine with him (Isaiah 25:6–9).

6. Practice church discipline.

At times, even the most careful churches will admit into membership professing believers who prove to be unbelievers in the long haul. This typically becomes evident when those people live in unrepentant sin. Few things grieve God like religious hypocrisy, so faithful churches follow Jesus’s instructions to remove unrepentant sinners from the church’s fellowship if they refuse to be reconciled to God and fellow believers (Matthew 18:15–18). This process requires much wisdom and courage. If we are unwilling to remove hypocrites, Jesus threatens to remove himself from the church (Revelation 2:5).

7. Keep honest membership lists.

As a church matures in its thinking about regenerate church membership, its pastors will labor to keep an honest list of members. Our church’s membership roll used to include hundreds of people who had moved away, walked away from the faith, or died. The numbers were impressive, but they blurred the truth about our truly regenerate members.

Meaningful membership is more than a mere administrative task. It is an act of love that calls sinners to be born again and the church to protect its witness to a lost and dying world so that all peoples can experience the everlasting joy of delighting in God.

In 2007, 14-year-old Yeonmi Park crossed a frozen river and three mountains in a desperate attempt to leave North Korea. Eventually, after suffering dreadful abuse in China, she made it safely to South Korea. In 2014, she received the opportunity to study in America, where she would be able to pursue an education in the “land of the free.”

Yeonmi entered a program at Columbia University. Founded in 1754, the school’s motto reads, “In Thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:9). The first universities were established on the basis that God’s creation is an objective reality that can be studied. Humans created in God’s image have the capacity to investigate and reason. The truth that ultimately comes from God is the only solid protection for freedom of thought, conscience, and belief. Earthly authorities can’t tell us what to believe and think (Mark 12:17). Sadly, Yeonmi’s experience didn’t remotely resemble the school’s founding vision.

Having escaped the tyrannical regime of North Korea, where criticism of “Dear Leader” can land you (and your family) in a concentration camp, she never anticipated the thought control she’d find at this elite American university. Her professors insisted that history and culture had to be seen through the lens of patriarchal, racist, heterosexist oppression. Belief in absolute truth and morality was regarded as dangerous and wrong. Transgression of the dominant orthodoxies resulted in social ostracism or lower grades. If she was to achieve the degree she wanted, she would have had to self-censor all she said and wrote.

The land of the free was not as free as she had anticipated. What was going on?

‘No Universal Truth’

By the end of the nineteenth century, increased acceptance of evolutionary theory had contributed to a widespread naturalistic worldview: “There is no Creator God, and there won’t be a judgment.”

Without a transcendent authority, who or what is left to judge between competing claims to truth? Radical doubt has now taken root in nearly all the major institutions of the West. Objective truth is challenged. What counts is the perception or “lived experience” of each individual, particularly those deemed to have suffered oppression. The new inquisition insists that the feelings of any perceived “victim” must never, ever, be hurt. It’s viewed as hateful to question their claims. And that means that an increasing number of academics have been “cancelled.”

Kathleen Stock, a professor at Sussex University, England, was effectively hounded out of her position in 2021 for affirming the biological reality that women are women:

The problems all started when I began making such controversial statements as: “there are only two sexes” and “it’s wrong to put male rapists in women’s prisons.” . . . It has been all too much for certain colleagues. My critics have produced an apparently unstoppable narrative, according to which I’m a bigot and a terrible danger to trans students. . . . Eventually any hopes I could lead a relatively normal life on campus were definitively extinguished.

End of Free Speech

In The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray (who is himself gay and an atheist) describes this worldview, which insists that society is made up of different hierarchies. If you don’t accept the claims of anyone in a “victim” group, you may be condemned as bigoted, sexist, racist, homophobic, or transphobic. This signals the end of free speech, as people become anxious about stumbling over hidden trip wires. One ill-judged comment could make someone a social pariah.

“When you repeat lies, it destroys your integrity. Eventually you may come to believe them.”

Many go along with this madness because they’re scared to speak out, but it’s demeaning and soul-destroying to go along with claims you don’t believe to be true. Abigail Shrier, the author of Irreversible Damage, was invited to speak at Princeton in 2021. An investigative journalist, Shrier has documented the social contagion leading large numbers of teen girls into gender transition — and the regret that often followed, sometimes after irreversible damage had already been done. The invitation caused a furor. She had to speak in a venue with limited capacity away from the campus. Shrier took the opportunity to urge the students not to tell lies, to speak the truth openly, to refuse to be “bought” with flattery and to “keep their integrity.”

Sadly, too many university students churn out what they know their professors want them to say, even when they know it’s patently untrue. They “put truth on hold.” It’s too costly to challenge the current orthodoxies. But when you repeat lies, it destroys your integrity. Eventually you may come to believe them.

When Truth Retreats

The late Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984) observed that whenever truth retreats, tyranny advances. The Creator God will hold all, including all rulers, to account (Romans 13:1–3). He has placed his moral law on the hearts of all (Romans 1:18–21). The blessings of freedom are found within the framework of order (Deuteronomy 30:19–20). The Lord Jesus is the ruler of kings on earth (Revelation 1:5).

When you deny that there is a God, and deny any transcendent truth or absolute morality, you are left with unfettered human freedom. That quickly degenerates into anarchy. And then, out of fear, people may respond by submitting to an all-powerful state. Totalitarianism arises when you look to human reason alone to create utopia. We need only look back at the twentieth century to see the price tag in blood and suffering.

“If the retreat of truth leads to tyranny, the reverse must be true as well. The advance of truth will turn back tyranny.”

But if the retreat of truth leads to tyranny, the reverse must be true as well. The advance of truth will turn back tyranny.

Only Firm Basis for Dignity

The biblical worldview is the only firm basis for human dignity. Every person has value because each one has been created in the image of God. The biblical worldview is the only solid foundation for real freedom: no government, academic institution, or employer has the authority to tell us what to think. We will each answer to God.

History has shown that when the gospel has influenced a society, freedoms have been extended to more people. Far from limiting human endeavor, Christians were the first champions of universal education, the founders of the first universities, and the pioneers of modern science and medicine.

We are living in times that have been poisoned with lies. We have an opportunity to hold out truth. If we learn to fear the Lord, we won’t need to fear anyone or anything else. As we grow in love for God and his word (Psalm 119:97; John 14:15), and as we daily sing joyful praises (Psalm 92:2), our courage will be renewed. We’ll love others, even those who hate what we believe, speaking truth with grace (1 Peter 3:8, 14–16), serving humbly, and showing by deed as well as word that our God is a God of compassion and grace (Matthew 5:44; Isaiah 58:6–8).

God calls us to stand for truth and seek to rescue those imprisoned by deceit. In John 8:32, our Lord Jesus Christ promises to all who come to him: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Wait a minute. That can’t be right, can it?

If you’ve taught the Bible a few times, you’ve had one of these moments. The construction of a biblical sentence just doesn’t look right. More often than not, you find that your concern was unwarranted or could be explained. But for me, one of these moments changed everything.

I had only been pastoring for about five years. We were preaching through the book of Colossians, and it was the second week in the series when I read this in my study:

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love of that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5)

I thought to myself, “No, no, this translation must be off. Paul wouldn’t ground his thanks in the hope laid up for the church in heaven, would he? He must mean to say that he thanks God for their love for all the saints, and their hope in heaven, because of their faith in Christ Jesus.” Nope. Paul wrote it just as both he and the Spirit of God intended. It changed my life. Paul was grounding their love and his thanksgiving in the Colossian church’s hope in heaven. Heaven was (and is) that foundational. That important.

I met with a young college student later that afternoon and asked if he ever really hoped in heaven. Later, I asked some other guys I was discipling, and a couple days after, some pastors I was meeting. For the next four days, I asked more than twelve Christians if they hoped in heaven. One of them said that he did hope in heaven from time to time; the rest said they hardly ever thought about it. They immediately recognized the problem without me even bringing it to their attention.

I began to see the massive blind spot in my preaching, discipling, evangelizing, counseling, and praying. I’m still learning not to miss it.

Our Common Hope

Fast forward four years, when my church graciously gave me and my family a sabbatical. I took the two and a half months to study the hope of heaven. Not heaven itself, but the Bible’s use of the hope of heaven.

Monday to Friday, I would pray and study from about nine in the morning until noon. The most important work I did was to read a handful of chapters from the New Testament every day. I’d circle every verse where I saw the author counseling the hope of heaven. No conclusions were made; I’d just circle the verse, and at the end, handwrite that verse in a journal.

When I finished, I found an astonishing 387 verses that used the hope of heaven the same way Paul did in Colossians. Out of 7,957 verses in the New Testament, almost 5 percent counsel the hope of heaven. For perspective, there are some 150–160 verses on hell, and some 30–40 verses about marriage. So, even if I’m half right, the hope of heaven is far more common than we might have thought.

Heaven for All of Life

Think of the Beatitudes. Most of them motivate present behavior in view of some future reward. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

Or think about Paul’s conclusion to the Corinthians. After all his teaching, exhorting, and correcting, he lands the plane on the final resurrection, and only then does he say, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). The future resurrection provided confidence for their work.

The models of faith in Hebrews 11 instruct us because they were “looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:26). Peter counsels suffering Christians that they could rejoice because God was guarding their inheritance in heaven (1 Peter 1:4–5). James commended patience without grumbling by reminding his readers that the coming of their Lord was at hand (James 5:7–9). Then we have Revelation, which ends the entire canon of Scripture with those beautifully haunting words: “‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

Saved in this Hope

None of these examples struck me more than when I came to Romans 8. I was basking in the sun of Naples, Florida, in February. It was in the upper 70s, and I was going to the beach later that afternoon. Heaven already seemed to be breaking in when I read,

We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. (Romans 8:22–24)

It was a similar moment to my time in Colossians 1. I circled the verses, but I couldn’t help lingering over the implications of those words. I had read that passage many times, but this was the first time I saw that the hope of our salvation looks not only back to the cross, but also forward to the day we will worship a resurrected Savior in resurrected bodies on a resurrected earth.

“The hope of our salvation looks not only back to the cross, but also forward.”

According to these verses, we evangelize by pointing people’s gaze to the restoration of all things as well to the cross. Yet few of us regularly preach, sing, pray, or evangelize about heaven.

Losing the North Star

Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven, documents that John Calvin, Reinhold Niebuhr, William Shedd, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Louis Berkhof said little about heaven even in some of their most monumental theological writings (8).

Alcorn shares a quote from A.J. Conyers that I’ve never gotten over:

Even to one without religious commitment and theological convictions, it should be an unsettling thought that this world is attempting to chart its way through some of the most perilous waters in history, having now decided to ignore what was for nearly two millennia its fixed point of reference — its North Star. The certainty of judgement [and] the longing for heaven. (9)

Lord, have mercy. If you are still in doubt, go and ask your fellow church members how much the hope of heaven informs their daily lives as Christians.

Matthew Westerholm studied the difference between songs used in American churches from 2000–2015 and those used from 1737–1960. His conclusion? “Among many similarities, one difference was striking: the topic of heaven, which once was frequently and richly sung about, has now all but disappeared.”

“We’ve been working so hard to make this world home, just as it is. But we are sojourners.”

Something so central to the New Testament’s counsel and the renewed imagination lives faintly in the consciences of many Christians. Perhaps this might explain why so many are so anxious: we’ve placed in the periphery something meant to be central. We’ve been working so hard to make this world home, just as it is. But we are sojourners. This isn’t home — at least not as it is right now. Not yet.

We’ll Be Home Soon

As we wait for our true home, beloved, call to mind the great treasure of heaven. Jesus says that the pure in heart shall see God (Matthew 5:8). We are told by John that “we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2) — not as he was but as he is. It will be the same Jesus that suffered and bled, but we will see him in the effulgence of his infinite glory.

Gone will be the veil that led him to hunger, thirst, suffer, and moan, while rejected by men. Present will be the Jesus who, through those sufferings, has triumphed and taken on a new body dripping with kingly power, beauty, and love. This is the Jesus awaiting us in the splendor of his kingdom. This is the Jesus to whom we say with all the saints of old, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:21). His presence will be our home — heaven on earth.

Brothers and sisters, regularly draw your attention to this heaven. Pray heaven. Preach heaven. Sing heaven. Counsel heaven. Make heaven so much a part of your local church’s culture that on the brightest day or the darkest night you can say together with confidence, “Jesus is coming, and he will make this right. Once and for all.” Drink it in: He’s coming, as sure as that sky that you look upon now. And when he comes, justice and everlasting joy will come with him.

Join me in prayerfully redirecting our lives and ministries to that great North Star. We’ll be home soon enough. Oh, the joy.