06. Rethinking Formal Church Membership

Welcome to episode 6 of the UnSunday Show! This is a bonus episode, published outside of my normal Thursday posts. If you like what's going on here, please share it with a friend. In this episode, I talk about formal church membership. Formal church membership is an accountability contract the institution will require you to sign in order to have leverage over you as motivation to keep supporting the institution. That's not a description you'll see on any church website, but it cuts to the chase and it's true. Make no mistake, what you're signing is an accountability contract designed to keep you in conformity with the institution's established requirements using rewards for compliance and punishments for failure to comply.

There are usually 3 areas covered in most formal church membership contracts that are there in order to secure conformity to the established rules of the group. They are:

Money and Personal Resources
Power, Authority, and Accountability
The Threat of Excommunication For Failure to Comply

This episode is a re-post of one of my Ekklesia podcasts from about a year and a half ago. I'm reposting it here because it says everything I wanted to say in this episode, so why re-invent the wheel? There are a couple of small things in it that I would reword today, but those aren't show-stoppers. I also present some foundational thoughts on how we've brought Old Covenant imagery into the New Covenant ekklesia (church) and how detrimental that is to both our view of God and the church.

Enjoy!

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