Does church membership matter? Yes.

The principle of church membership is biblical, while the practical application of church membership is cultural.

1. In Acts and the epistles we see the apostles establishing distinct churches in different cities. They related to the church of Jerusalem and sought its advice, but were not ruled by Jerusalem.
2. There are 23 distinct churches discussed in the New Testament in various cities.
3. The apostles and church leaders assumed that each church was an organized organism, and they addressed the Christians in those churches as a group, as members, not as individuals.
4. The responsibility and standard of participation in these churches was high – much higher than the membership requirements of most present day churches. At least 18 “one another” commands can be found in the New Testament, whereby groups of Christians are directed to function as a body.
5. These churches, as with the church in Jerusalem, had the characteristics of an organized organism with members – an entrance process, weekly activity, a group spirit, group discipline for behavior, leadership selection process, standards for preventing membership in the group, organization, autonomous outreach as a group, and conflict resolution procedure.

entrance into family membership came through salvation repentance and baptism. (Acts 2)

activity of membership included daily fellowship, study and care of other members. (Acts 2)

spirit of membership was one of unified focus and love. (Acts 4)

discipline of membership came when God’s holiness was ignored by a member, and was carried out by church leaders to warn other members (Acts 5, 1 Corinthians 5)

leadership of membership was confirmed by the members and apostles recognizing and choosing spiritually wise men to lead the group in serving (Acts 6, 1 Timothy 3)

prevention of membership came from church leaders if they felt a person was not a true disciple of Jesus (Acts 9)

organization of membership was evident from the clear distinction between different church bodies in each town, not a general membership in a corporate body led by Jerusalem (Acts 11)

outreach of membership and their missionaries was carried out from individual churches, and reports of the ministry were made back to the sending church (Acts 13, 14)

conflicts of membership were handled by sending a representative of the church to Jerusalem church for advice (Acts 15, 1 Corinthians 1:10-11)

I think some type of membership structure can be used as a teaching method to help people follow Christ.

You may choose formal membership in your church or not. The real issue is to make your flock feel and behave like a family, not a roster of consumers in an organization.

After all, our mission is to make Christ-followers, not church members.