Radicalis 2010, Part 3

In part three of my use of Rick Warren's words, I hope to give you what I understood about radical membership.

Radical Membership

so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:5 (NIV)

The church has been been designing membership classes for centuries. Why? Membership has value and needs to be communicated in a way to help people build a sense of belonging. Belonging helps to ripen belief in the gospel and aids in helping people see what they are becoming (Christlike - Romans 8:29).

Rick says that a strong membership class will grow a strong church. Why? It will communicate the vision, values, and strategies of the church body. People are never on board until they know the who, what, when, where, and why. People want to see themselves painted into the picture of the church's strategies before they attempt to belong. When people see a clear vision and how they are a part of that vision, they buy into it and make it their own (a little John Maxwell lesson).

In the first church I pastored, I did what Saddleback did. I created a membership covenant. What is that? It is a commitment to follow scripture (every piece was biblically founded) as it relates to our Christian life and church life. I was told that that was too much to expect. Yep, following Scripture was too much to expect of new members. That is why we have weak churches today. We let members follow Scripture willy-nilly, and the vision of the church never takes off.

Big visions take big commitments:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16 (NIV)

Now this conference was a very good conference. The only draw back was that Rick had a lot to say and did not get finished with all his notes in a couple of sessions. This was one of them. I found a post that filled in the rest of the notes but I do not know if they are correct. I am just going to post this anyway:

Radical membership gets people involved in small groups. Small groups are as old (if not older) than the church. Acts 2 records the use of house groups as well as Romans 16:5. Home groups can be very effective in that they are relational, flexible, expandable, and economical. The strength of small groups is seen in whether they reproduce new groups or not. A healthy small group reproduces into many new groups over its lifetime. For practical purposes any small group that reaches over 8 to 10 people should agree to produce a new group.

But what can the Bible tell us about healthy small groups:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)

According to this, small groups studied the Bible together. They met in fellowship and ate together. They shared communion together (the act of believers). They helped each other in practical ways. They worshiped together. Finally, they invited others to church.

Acts 2 is a very good place to start if you are looking to develop small groups in your church or if you were looking for a reason from the Bible to be involved in small groups. The membership numbers of the fledgling church increased daily. The initial "altar call" led to over 3000 men accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. They needed a practical and available tool to minister to a rapidly growing church body. Small groups provided that tool.

Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts and comments. I look forward to sharing some more with you. If you have anything to add, please do so. Also, feel free to let me know if you think of ways to improve your reading experience here.

If you can, share this with others. Thanks Rick and thanks to you for reading.