I think it's a great idea, but we need to differentiate between joining a local church as the OP said and joining the Body of Christ. The latter happens once upon conversion, the former may happen dozens of times throughout ones life.
At my church we have a 4 week new members class which takes the place of Bible Study/Sunday school on Sunday mornings after worship. The course goes through the history of our particular local church, the basics of doctrine and theology. It's also a good opportunity for the pastor/elder (whoever is doing the course that time) to see if there is evidence of genuine conversion. (Yes of course you can't know 100% from 4 hours of interaction, but it is better than just taking someones word for it.)
I can't speak for other churches, but our New Members Class is a four-week survey of the Bible and what it says about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, salvation, service, etc., and how our church sees those things defining our ministry to the community and to the world. It isn't a requirement for anything, and is offered after they have asked to join, either as a new believer or as a transfer of letter or statement of faith.
The Apostle Paul would likely disagree with you. Reading any of his epistles reveals a whole list of "do's" as well as "don'ts" for the members of the local churches that he wrote to. A new member's class is simply a way to teach those responsibilities. Most church members live as if they belong to a country club rather than a church.
But if any church chooses not to have one, that's cool by me. But in our church, we will.
Out of curiousity, have you ever read the Didache?
While scripture is our authority, the Didache shows that church membership was not nearly as easy as it is today.
I was once made a member of a church because I showed up three Sundays in a row.
Do you believe somebody should have a Biblical salvation testimony before they can join a church? If so, then you do agree with us that there should be requirements for membership. You just disagree about what those requirements are.
I think the problem comes when it is a requirement for a member.
I would also hesitate to equate "bells and whistles" added my men in modern churches, to things that were penned by the Apostle Paul and later included as God's spoken word.
I don't disagree at all with what Paul says in Scripture. He's speaking to what Christians in the church should be doing. He has not set up a requirement to become a member.
I would imagine that maintaining membership was more difficult than it is today. I just don't think the BIBLICAL case can be made for requirng something like a member's class in order to join the church.
I agree that there is an inherent
BIBLICAL requirement to become part of a fellowship that rests with salvation. But that again centers around what GOD requires before you can be adopted into the family. It DOES NOT open the door for a list of manmade requirements to become a member of a local fellowship.
Sunday School is not a requirement for membership , at least not in any Baptist church that I know of. It is recommended, especially in larger churches as a way of makin the church not so big while surrounding the member with a smaller church family.
We used to have it over several weeks (4 or 6, I can't remember) with shorter sessions.
We'd meet at a different pastor's home each week.
But the problem is families with kids had a hard time making it to all of them.
Schedules are busy and we realized we could work through a lot of the materials in a shorter period of time and allow the small group leader to add additional instruction and teaching when needed for a new member.
All new members are members of a small group before they join so this really helps in testimony and understanding where the person is in their walk with Christ.
So it's a larger team effort than just the new member's class.
Once they join, there is a three weeks class that we recommend they take that's called Essentials of the Christian Life and that will continue some of the teaching that some may put into their new member's class.
:)
Modern day church memberships are usually part of a church constitution that is liable to be filled with man made requirements for the membership, this is true.