Dear BPCWA worshipper, Last week, I explained why interviews are required before acceptance into membership. We welcome all to worship with us. Every church has worshippers who are members and non-members at any instance of time. Some are students who are just passing through, for example. Worshippers typically stay in a church because they have found the teaching sound and wish to remain and grow there. There may be some aspects that they are coming to terms with and are still learning about, but they are generally not disagreeable with the church’s doctrines and practices. Since they don’t go against the church’s efforts and directions nor spread dissent, we have extended our welcome to many such ones to worship and grow with us. However, we are not encouraging people not to take up church membership. We do believe that being a member of a local church is a biblical concept in the Bible. Some of you may wonder why we are not like some churches that are not so stringent and are willing to take in anyone as members. Why is BPCWA more guarded about membership? Why isn’t BPCWA laxer with membership intakes, since it’ll bump up our numbers and encourage people to remain with us? This week, I would like to explain more about membership in BPCWA and what it means to both parties.

The role of a local church. The church is a lofty topic worthy of our understanding because Christ died for the Church, which is His Bride. By God’s design, it also plays a critical part in the believer’s life (Heb 10:25). In the context of this pastoral, I am referring to a situation where God, in His providence, has established and preserved a faithful local church in the place where you are residing and can attend. I want to state outright that, contrary to unfair allegations that some have made against BPCWA, I certainly do not believe that BPCWA is the only sound church in the world, but it is a fact that there are churches that “are more or less pure” (Westminster Confession of Faith, XXV:IV) in the doctrines and practices. Following the New Testament period, we are in the church age where local churches are God’s witness of the true religion. It is “unto this catholic visible Church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints” (WCF, XXV:III). In practicing this, BPCWA is a visible local church that seeks to obey God in our worship of Him and perfect His saints in the best way we can. This means how we do things will follow the biblical doctrines we embrace (WCF, XXV:IV). In obedience to this, we try our best to apply Biblical doctrines to everything in the church – our evangelism outreaches, what is taught, how the church is run, how decisions are made, what Christian living ought to be like, and more. We strive to be as pure as we can in obeying Scriptures in our faith and practices. This is the role of the local church. To reiterate again, we do not insist that we are the only sound church. Neither are we interested in comparing with other churches. We are only interested in obeying God’s expectations and standards in His Word. And by doing so, some may feel we are being proud when they disagree with the standards we choose to teach and live by. We cannot help how people choose to think about our desire for the purity of God’s church. We will not lower God’s standards to avoid people thinking that we are proud because we insist on certain standards, if the standards are according to God’s preceptive will. There are sheep of God who desire to have a sound church that practices what is in Scriptures. BPCWA must seek to be that sound church for such sheep which Christ died for to make them holy. The local church cannot fail Christ’s sheep. Most importantly, we cannot fail Christ who expects His Bride to be pure.

Membership in the church. The church is a spiritual entity with a spiritual purpose, though it functions in a society and country. As is also reflected in WCF, among the many roles of the church is the perfecting of saints. To do this, there are 2 parties involved – the church and the Christian. One who worships in the church and wants to be perfected by the Word joins as a member to put themself under the authority and oversight of the church. Since the church will exercise this duty according to its beliefs of the faith, the Christian taking up membership wants to be perfected according to the same set of beliefs. For example, doctrines like Biblical separation, total abstinence, and the perfect preservation of Scriptures may not be held to by other churches. The mutual accountability to our convictions is formalised in the covenantal membership vows the Christian takes when joining as a member. We certainly see signing contracts in the world as a serious matter. We must see joining as members in the church as more than just a signature on a form. The church then (as we signal by requesting members to stand to welcome and help the new member on their spiritual journey) formally takes on its role toward that individual when they receive the Christian as a member. There is a firm and formal commitment with mutual duties expected from both parties.

God willing, I will cover more about this mutuality of duties between the church and the member in next week’s pastoral.

“But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Tim 3:15)

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor