The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum I'm considering joining my church, but ...

Hi Kyle,

Well, there wasn't much development on this front for several months, but I've been discussing church membership with my pastor again the past month in anticipiation of joining the church in the spring (the church has a number of set times of the year when new members can join). Unfortunately, I don't know whether or not I will be able to join or not. This week the pastor asked me to postpone my joining to give him more time to consider my response to the church's requests for members. I would say there is a 50% chance I will not be allowed to join. At the same time, after our recent discussions, I'm praying about whether or not I should withdraw my request for membership. It's been a very discouraging recently.

The points of contention are not the formal membership vows themselves, which I can make without reservation, but once again center around the additional "requests" for members. Even though they aren't required and I was told it was ok for those who couldn't make them, it seems that that's not really the case.

The main additional requests are

a. Please make a proactive effort to participate in church service(s?) and meetings.
b. Please endeavor to tithe 10 percent.
c. Please endeavor to live a pure Christian lifestyle.
e. Pleae participate in service (I assume this is acts of service not the morning/evening church service)
e. Please avoid idolatry.
f. Please construct a Christian home (marry a fellow Christian if you get married)
g. Please abide by the church rules.
h. Please participate as a member of the believer's general meeting (I think this has something to do with voting about some issues that may arise).
i. Please do not drink/smoke (since we should strive for a pure life, have a good testimony for others, and be considerate of weaker brothers/sisters).

The main points I could not agree to were (b) tithing and (i) drinking/smoking. I said I could conditionally agree to (g) provided the rules were Biblical since (g) by istelf is extremely vague. I was surpised to see (e) at first, although it is entirely appropriate, but actually since Japan is mostly Buddhist/Shinto this can be a big problem here.

My response concerning drinking/smoking was that I would promise to always strive to use these things appropriately and Biblically and when in situations where a weaker brother could be affected, to refrain. To be honest, I think the two reasons for not drinking/smoking - for living a pure life and having a good testimony - are very flawed as it carries the implication that if one does drink/smoke (in an appropriate manner) then your life is not as pure as one who doesn't and your testimony is not as good as one who doesn't. Actually I don't smoke and have no intention of ever starting, but I think to promise not to would indicate that I believe that "Good Christians don't smoke", so I could not promise even in the case of smoking.

As for tithing, I said I did not believe that tithing was still binding under the new covenant, but that I could promise to always strive to give generously and at those times when I wasn't to pray that God would give me a more generous heart.

To be honest, after the recent discussions, I'm now having 2nd thoughts about a couple of the others. There seems to be so much emphasis on them, that I'm afraid that what once were things I was doing freely and joyfully could become things done grudgingly. Of course, I always pray and hope that God would give me heart to joyfully attend church each week and heart to joyfully serve the church and a heart to give generously, etc.

Anyway, I'm praying about this issue. I realize that part of the problem is that my heart is hard. Joining a church does require coming under the authority of the church leadership and as Christian's we should humble ourselves and submit to those God has placed in authority above us. But, at the same time, there are some areas that as Christians we should keep ourselves free of rules where the Bible does not bind us. The question is always which are those areas. When applied to the some of the requests from my church, I've gone back and forth about whether those are areas I should submit to the request or keep myself free of the rule.

Well, that about wraps up the recent news on the search for church membership.

John