1. Free As Sons
   
2. Does "Go Ye" Mean "Go Me?"
   
3. Are We Really Born Again?
   
4. The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel
   
5. Silence Says Something
   
6. Body Language
   
7. Repentance Before Faith
   
8. I Wonder
   
9. Can I Know?
   
10. Ultimate Logical Conclusions
    
11. Errors in Peter's Sermon
    
12. Did Timothy Need Admonition?
    
13. Jesus' Youth Sermon For Adults
    
14. Why Didn't Paul Reform?
    
15. Christmas
    
16. Let The Unmarried Marry
    
17. A Dialect of Division
    
18. Our Traditions
    
19. Adding Our Safeguards
    
20. According To The Pattern
    
21. A Creed In The Deed
    
22. Samuel Did Not Know The Lord!
    
23. Response From Our Readers
    
24. Cries Of A Troubled Church
    
25. Sharing Without Fellowship
    
26. I Joined A Church
    
27. Open Membership
    
28. Another Last Will And Testament
    
29. Sad Thoughts About Church Growth
    
30. My Four Retirement Homes
    
31. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

OPEN MEMBERSHIP

It is such a turn­off expression that just to mention open membership brings an immediate adverse reaction from most of us in the Church of Christ. Few of us like the idea of closed membership, however. So, just where may we stand on the matter? Where is consistency?

Since the Scriptures do not speak of church membership-either open, closed, local, or universal-is this really a Scriptural matter? It seems not to have been the problem in the early church as we have made it.

Our first observation is so simple and universally agreed upon that it would seem that no problem could exist: Since the Lord adds the saved to the church without asking our approval or disapproval, it leaves no decision for us to make about it!

We tend to think in congregational and sectarian terms. We insist on placing membership in a congregation, which actually means that one applies for membership and is accepted or rejected by the group, judging by its sectarian slant. This, too, is a non­scriptural term, and a procedure of more recent origin among us. I never heard of placing membership until I went away to college. In our rural setting, disciples either assembled together, or they didn't assemble, and those who assembled were the church, with no question being raised as to whether it was open or closed membership. I never knew of a withdrawal of fellowship until after I began preaching.

The oneness of the body goes far beyond the matter of whether we who assemble in one place have compatible doctrinal and practical interpretations. There is one universal body whose parts are individual members. All who are in Christ are in it by the Lord's own choosing and action. The communion is a constant reminder and demonstration of the oneness of the body. Each participant is obliged to examine himself rather than his brother who shares in it. Those who judge and reject others fail to discern the oneness of that body; so, they eat and drink condemnation while participating in the very communion which symbolized the justification through Jesus' atonement.

Since I am to judge myself instead of my brother, 1 must accept him as my equal before the Lord on his own profession, just as others accept me and my participation on my own profession.

Suppose that this brother with whom you participate happens to be in error-as though anyone can be free of error; how does that affect you? His error is not your responsibility, for he is accountable to God who added him and God will handle the matter (Romans 14). You are not accountable for his sins, else how could you commune in fellowship with anyone? In any assembly, those who have fellowship in the Lord's Supper are of varying convictions and varying degrees of moral integrity. Yet, they cannot violate your conscience; only you can do that. You sin when you judge your fellow­disciple, however, and that should violate your conscience. This is a deadly epidemic which sweeps over us each Sunday morning as we reject others, continue to be sectarian in attitude, and maintain division while eating and drinking exclusive of other disciples. In our minds, this spiritual disease shrinks the oneness of the body to our exclusive group.

In the Corinthian church with its segregating, party spirit, Paul very pointedly demanded that they let each person judge himself (I Cor. 11:28). Each person decided on his own fellowship. It has become more characteristic of us today to follow the example of Diotrophes who "refuses himself to welcome the brethren, and also stops those who want to welcome them and puts them out of the church" (3 John 10). Those who assemble for the communion are the church rather than the church being a roll of those judged favorably by the congregational judges. The assembly in communion-sharing, fellowship, mutual participation-is the one body (I Cor. 10:16f; 11:17­34).

The Lord's way is not only ideal, but it is practical for us common, imperfect, misunderstanding human beings. It is not for angels. We must overcome our judgmental, sectarian, exlusivistic spirit so we can be at ease in accepting others. We must see that we can share with others without condoning what we consider as their sins, without approving what we consider as their doctrinal errors, and without participating in what they may be doing that is contrary to our scruples. We must accept each other as we are and where we are, and become mutually strengthening to each other.

Any group of people joining in organized activity must have some general understanding of its identity, purpose, and operation. We have avoided written rules of operation, generally, in our congregations, but we have them anyway, very definitely. There must be some understanding as to our beliefs, our aims, how business is to be conducted, how leadership is to be selected, how the program is to be carried on, who can teach, etc. Each group of disciples meeting together may rightly agree on those things, write them out, and follow them. Such a procedure becomes wrong only when the group declares its course to be the only acceptable course and refuses to accept others who do not follow its course. To any who may disagree, they may counsel: "If you feel that you cannot be free to participate according to our purpose, plans, and procedures, we encourage you to serve with some other group which conforms to your scruples. We will not love you less for it; we will continue to respect you as a brother, and we will cooperate with you wholeheartedly in promoting the cause of our Lord."

By such an approach, each can be allowed to serve according to his own convictions without imposing his on others or being imposed upon by others. Conformity within each congregation would be voluntary so that the scruples of no one would be imposed on others. Such an arrangement would not grow out of sectarian exclusivism, but out of mutual love, respect, and desire for harmony. This irenic spirit would go far in breaking down the feelings of alienation.

The meeting in separate groups is not what makes disciples sectarian. Sectarianism is a judgmental, rejecting attitude. Such an attitude can prevail among parties within a congregation; yet, an accepting, loving attitude can prevail between groups that meet separately. Once we can admit that our particular segment of disciples is not the one, true church to the exclusion of all others, we will not feel compelled to set ourselves against all others. We can then serve, and let others serve, without trying to bind divisive scruples on everyone else. Then we can have unity of mind and purpose without forcing issues. These groups must work in harmony and without competing. Their fellowship is in Christ, and, being in Christ, they must be in fellowship with all others who are in Christ.

I am not ignoring the exception to the rule-that some persons are to be delivered to Satan. He who renounces and denies the faith cannot be in fellowship. The flagrantly immoral person cannot be tolerated in his impenitence. The one who is divisive, trying to bind his scruples on all others, is not in communion with the one body. None of these is the sincere, but weak, stumbling, misguided brother, however.

Ideally, all disciples would be in total conformity in belief, judgment, and practice, serving in identical congregations, but that has never been and has little prospect of ever being. There is always a gap between the ideal and the practical. In practice, we must always make allowance for the lack of uniformity of conviction and practice, and continue to esteem differing ones who profess Christ as beloved brothers in the Lord.

You may decry this as "open membership" in its most disparaging sense, but I prefer to look upon it as the nonjudgmental acceptance that we are called upon to give to all who trust that the Lord has added them to his one body.