Jump directly to the Content

Rick Warren on Radical Membership

Are you unknowingly encouraging your attenders to commit "spiritual adultery"?

Does your church emphasize, encourage, and value membership? In many places the notion of church membership has fallen out of favor. Rick Warren thinks that is a "serious mistake."

Speaking this morning at the Radicalis conference at Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick challenged pastors to rediscover the importance of commitment to a local church through radical membership. "Membership is a word that has been perverted and abused," said Warren. "It's not putting your name on a roll. It's not about knowing the insider lingo. That's not what membership is all about."

Using Scripture to show the importance of commitment to a local congregation, Warren said membership was about being "a member in the Body of Christ." And therefore membership is "organic not organizational."

Warren shot down the notion that membership isn't important as long as people attend the church. "The difference between an attender and a member is the difference between living together and getting married. A lot of people ...

April
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

From the Magazine
Fractured Are the Peacemakers
Fractured Are the Peacemakers
A Christian reconciliation group in Israel and Palestine warned that war would come. Now the war threatens their relevance.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close