Introduction
On February 10, 1945, C.S. Lewis read a paper to the Society of St. Alban and St. Sergius entitled “Membership.” The paper was published in Sobornost, no. 31, in June of 1945. It has since been published as the seventh chapter in the book, The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses. Lewis makes several points that are relevant to the topic of church membership. Those points are interpreted and summarized below. The page numbers are in parenthesis and come from the HarperOne 2001 edition of The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses.
Summary of Lewis’s Essay on Church Membership
First, church membership counteracts poisonous privatism and communist collectivism
There are two competing trends in modern society. The first is that religion is entirely a private activity. The second is that collectivism ruthlessly defeats individualism (158f). It is paradoxical and dangerous for religion to be relegated to solitude. The first reason it is dangerous is that while the privatization of religion is promoted, the modern world is a place where you are never alone. “To make Christianity a private affair while banishing all privacy is to relegate it to the rainbow’s end or the Greek calends.” The second reason it is dangerous is that privatization sets up a Christian reaction that plays into the hands of the collectivists. Christians make a mistake by transporting the collectivism of the secular life into their spiritual life (160f). The only safeguard against the competing trends is living the Christian life. Individual Christians faithfully live their lives as individuals. That is, they go to work, fold the laundry, and pray, all without the church present. Yet the individual Christian isn’t practicing individualism. Faithful living has meaning because of membership in the mystical body (163).
Second, members are essentially different and complementary
The organs differ in function—the eyes see and the feet carry the load. They also differ in dignity—which is why you cover the unpresentable parts. The word “member” is improperly used by those outside the church. Members of a political party, for instance, are merely featureless repetitions to be counted and leveraged. Members of a swim club are just units that pay dues. Members of a union are numbers rather than names. They are not members in the sense Paul means (163). A homogeneous class can’t have a membership. But a family can. Grandfather, father, mother, son, oldest son, youngest daughter. These are not interchangeable parts. Each member is a unique organ with different roles and gifts (164). Different fitting parts make up a membership because the many make up the one.
Third, Christians are called to a Body rather than a collective
The difference between the world’s notion of community and the church’s notion is that Christians are called to a Body rather than a collective. A collective is a massing together of people. A church is baptized into Christ’s body. The church is a society that unites creatures to the Creator, mortals with the Immortal, and the redeemed with the Redeemer. This union of Potter and Clay is the defining factor in the role each member plays (166). Collective activities are necessary, as are private ones. Yet, the collective life is lower than the private life and the private life is lower than participation in the Body of Christ (161). Why is the collective and private life lower than church membership? Because neither is a mystical experience.
Fourth, church membership is the maximum fulfillment of your role
Other factors account for a diversity of operations united in the Spirit. There are pastors, elders, and deacons. There are husbands, wives, and children. There are gifts of service, administration, and mercy. This continual interchange of complementary roles is the ministry of Christ to man (167). It’s not that every individual brings value to the body as if God’s job is to recruit talent suitable to fill the openings. Rather, God has made every one of his sheep for a particular role, calling, and vocation. A man is not fully himself until he is united to Christ and receives, through the washing of regeneration, his inherent value (174).
Conclusion
Lewis closes the essay with these words, “Christianity is not, in the long run, concerned either with individuals or communities. Neither the individual nor the community as popular thought understands them can inherit eternal life, neither the natural self, nor the collective mass, but a new creature” (176).
For more resources on church membership:
https://trinityreformedhuntsville.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/why-church-membership
https://gotaminute.podbean.com/e/does-church-membership-matter
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