church membership

will willimon writes:

Congregations and clergy seemingly have often misconstrued or misunderstood the closing scene in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus meets the disciples on a mountain and charges them with the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Somehow it seems we have heard Jesus say, “Go therefore, and make members . . .”

It is long past the time to shift the dominant church paradigm from being cultures of membership to cultures of discipleship. The point of the church is not membership. The church does not have clients, members, or consumers of goods and services. The point is discipleship.