Common law membership

Our old church was smaller then our current church and everyone knew who the members were, everyone made it a point to be that acquainted with everyone else, it's the only way you know who your visitors are.

 

So if the church records are lost, and no one has a distinct memory of the exact meeting decades ago when you were voted in as a member, you could still be a member of the church?

Why?

Just because you say you became a member, have done what a member does for so long, and so many others know you to be a member? Is that really enough?

 

Is that what I said? No it isn't.
So you mean to tell me you have no idea who the members of your church are? This is how little you know about the people in your church that you have no idea whose a member there? This is all the involvement in the lives of the members of your church that you have that you have no idea whose a member there? This is all the involvement you have with your church that you have no idea whose a member there?
I guess we're just a closer knit bunch of christians then most are I supose. Because we know each other.

 

Of course I have a very good idea of who the members of my church are. Some I can remember voting on, others were members before I was even born. For the latter, I know they are members by reputation: I have never personally inspected the church minutes from decades ago, but I know by their and others' words and and actions that they are indeed members.:thumbs:

 

How about this:
Reformed Baptist Church Constitution http://ncbf.net/

 

Looks like a matter of semantics to me. They have no formal membership, but they have informal members, and actual requirements to meet before one can be an "informal" member.

Sorta like the story I heard about Abe Lincoln, who asked someone, if a cow has four legs, and you designate the tail as a leg, how many legs does it now have.

"Five."

"No, you still have four," Lincoln said. "Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it so."

I wonder if that church has a list of its informal members.

 

there you go, proves my point

 

I did say the activemembership was 150. (which I specified because I knew your church was much larger) If you had only 150 woudn't you know who was who?

 

You're point is that the essence of membership rests in a legislative decree. His point is that membership rests in the heart.

 

nope sorry, my point was, smaller churches, like the 150 active membership know each other and know whose a member and whose not. That was my pont.

 

Yes, and by a member you mean one that was voted on and who is on the role. The others are attempting to tell you that membership is something other than a role, and that members would be known by their hearts if a fire destroyed the church documents.

 

no it was said if you didn't have the documents you wouldn't know your members. I said we'd know ours.

 

How do you fellowship people who aren't members?

By the way, anybody seen Paul Wassona lately?

 

Many believed and were added to the church... Sounds like two events.

 

In this area I know of no Baptist church that screens potential members. A person can come on noting more then a statement of faith and be accepted. While there may be some that offer a new member class I don't know of any in the area (100 mile radius) that requires it for membership.