What makes a church 'member'?
The 'boring' parts of congregational life are the key to the future
The other day at the church where I serve - the amazing St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Salisbury, NC - a former member came to church to find her son’s baptism record.
He’s an adult now - and very interested in joining a church where he lives out west - and he needed proof of baptism. He’d long ago lost track of his baptismal certificate.
Well, we hauled out the ‘red books’ - every Episcopal Church (and I’m sure many others) has a log book going back decades (sometimes centuries!), with each service dutifully recorded. We found his record - but it turns out he needs an actual certificate. The church doesn’t keep copies of those. But we managed to produce an ‘affidavit’ certificate, certifying that we have seen the logs, and we are assured he was indeed baptized at St. Paul’s on that date.
While I love the old books and the historic records, this really got me thinking…
It shouldn’t be this hard to track church membership.
And not just baptismal and other records, either.
Do you know who the members of your church are? That seems like such a simple question. And yet…
In the Episcopal Church, where I serve, there’s a technical definition of ‘Member’ - an adult, confirmed, communicant in good standing.
Even with this much detail, it’s still a matter of debate what ‘communicant’ and ‘good standing’ mean… (communicant = ‘receives communion once a week? Once a month? Quarterly?) Does ‘good standing’ mean they give to the church? That they’re not ‘notorious sinners’? Something else?
Do we know for sure how many of our members are ‘Members’? What about those who’ve been leaders in our community for years, but they’ve never actually been confirmed? Or baptized? What about those who are diligent in their service and giving, but they’re not sure what they believe?
’Membership’ can mean a lot of things, and especially in today’s church, it’s worth knowing them.
Membership is a key to open an ongoing conversation about where the people in our pews are in their relationship with God and their spiritual journey.
How often do we look out on our congregation and basically have to guess what’s going on with them theologically? Where they’re struggling with their relationship with God, and where they’re thriving? What questions they have that they’re afraid to ask? How to help them engage in deeper connection with their faith, and with one another?
In today’s world, Membership is also a key to connecting with those who may never walk into the doors of our church.
You may have hundreds - thousands! - of people watch your services online or take part in virtual prayer (which is awesome!). But do you know them? Do you have a way to connect? A way to be in conversation, and gather intentionally - in person or online?
Creating Membership categories and pathways (and using them!) literally creates the structure around which we can build new ways to communicate, organize, and gather people in faith community.
It also creates ways we can keep track of individual participation in faith community - and keep true statistics on the community in general. This is invaluable when we ask the question: ‘who are we reaching with Good News? And how?’
I like to say that member management is the ‘non-sexy’ part of ministry! It can feel boring, hard, and not as important as actual worship, prayer, service, discipleship. There’s definitely some truth to that.
And yet ….
Having a way to keep track of those we are in relationship helps us to build community, and to walk with others on their spiritual journeys. And it can help us build the history of our congregations and all those who have walked before us.
Today’s technology makes all of this so much easier and more accessible, even to the less than tech-savvy. I can definitely imagine a church where our former member could look up his baptismal records himself - or send a quick message to the church where they could have them handy and get them to him easily.
When I think about how church is changing into the future, I think a lot about how it’s going to be structured. And how it starts with how we know each other - who are membership is.
It’s a small - but incredibly important - step for congregational renewal and growth.
And of course I can help you! Here’s my schedule. Let’s talk about the ‘boring’ parts of ministry!