Members Together: How One Church Is Growing in Commitment to One Another

Membership Is More Than Just Benefits

Many people buy memberships to warehouse clubs entitling them to certain benefits. Church membership, however, is more involved than paying a membership fee and expecting better bulk prices. One resource is challenging those at Redeemer Bible Church in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya to think deeply about what it means to be a healthy church member. Through the Crossway Equip program, the church received copies of the book Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus by Jonathan Leeman.

Over the course of a year, Pastor Seth Diang’a and the elders of Redeemer Bible Church used Church Membership to lead monthly life groups to help strengthen the church community in their commitment to the church and to one another. Pastor Seth has a holistic aim for each person who reads the book. He says, “Our goal as elders is a desire to help them grow to be healthy members in our particular church, not just for our sake only though. Knowing that the Lord transitions people, our desire is whenever they transition, they will be healthy members wherever the Lord will lead them.”

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Serving One Another as Members of Christ’s Body

One result of studying the book in community groups is the immediate opportunities to apply in real time what the group is learning. It is tempting for many in churches around the globe to think of churches as a place to be served rather than to serve. Pastor Seth sees his role as pastor and elder as “equipping our members, and it’s the members who actually carry out the work of ministry.” This reality is played out as members of the small groups grow in their care for one another with opportunities to serve one another.

As the groups meet to discuss the book in various homes, members minister to one another by using their various giftings to care for each other. Pastor Seth describes the impact this way:

Walking through Church Membership helps us to not just cement our belonging as members, but also reminds us of the various tasks of believers. The Lord has called us to use our various gifts to build and grow the church and the body. So it’s been very impactful. I can say that the Lord has been using those conversations to spur a love among one another and service to each other in the various ways that we are able. One of the ways in which we serve specifically is, as we do these meetings every month, we are hosted by a member. So each host serves through hospitality . . . We share a meal together, we share laughter together, and we encourage one another through God’s Word.

Growth in God’s Word and Church Membership

Growing in God’s Word has been a particular focus for Pastor Seth. He says, “We receive a lot of our members coming from unhealthy church backgrounds just kind of seeking the truth.” However, as they get more involved and plugged into the church, he witnesses that people love their Bibles more: “Because now when they come where the Bible is faithfully taught, [they] want to also go back and read their Bible. And so as they do that, the Lord in his grace and mercy continues to cement these truths, and continues to undo the things that they have been accustomed to in other places.” Many are coming from Roman Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist, and Pentecostal backgrounds. It is important to ground the congregation in the true gospel of Jesus Christ as found in God’s Word.

Pastor Seth appreciates that Leeman in Church Membership, “is not just talking from out of the blue. He’s actually pointing us to Scripture. And so that helps us to not only see what he’s saying in the book, but also to go back to Scripture and match whatever conversation is going on . . . We have had healthy conversations around these particular subjects, encouraging one another and reminding one another of the task that we have been called to do.” The community groups are growing in God’s Word while also growing as church members with one another. He wants to move people beyond assuming that mere attendance equals membership. His desire is to see members plugged into the body in such a way that they grow to look more and more like Christ through accountability in the body of Christ. He says, “If I am just a regular attendee, there are privileges that I am not privy to, but if I become a member, then now the accountability, the one-anothering, is made even more authentic and organic.”

By the grace of God and through the generosity of donors, Crossway is grateful for the opportunity to bless this congregation. Pastor Seth expresses, “It’s been a joy to be able to use the resources to continue to supplement our ministry here but also to continue to grow our people in the likeness of Christ. So as a church, we are grateful, and personally, I am grateful that we've gotten to partner in this manner. Crossway is miles away but yet ministers to us and reaches us in this way. We thank the Lord for such an opportunity.”

Please pray that those in churches like Redeemer Bible Church would grow more and more into the image of Christ as they grow together as members of Christ’s body.

Please pray that projects like these would continue to touch congregations near and far to see people renewed and transformed for God’s glory.