Baptism and membership (2 of 2)

Guests: Nick Gutwein, Frank Sauder, John Wiegand

Notes:
• “Baptism is entrance into the Christian community”.
• “It’s that working together that gives God glory. That collective working together with Christ as head, that gives all honor and glory to Christ”.
• John 13:34-35 loving one another requires us living in community with one another.
• Connection between the “practical” body and the “broader” body.
• The “body” cannot be just the broader body of believers through all ages; the bride of Christ.
• The practical, living out (loving one another) requires a local body.
• Independence contradicts the concept of the body. We are dependent on God and interdependent on each other.
• Our culture primes our thinking to understandings that are contrary to the Biblical body.
• “Causes us to lose sight of how God designed us to function together”.
• Challenges to interdependence with one another:
• When members around us are imperfect Christians.
• When interdependency loop is not affirming or reinforcing.
• Recognizing our dependency on Christ draws us back together.
• Living life in community forces us into situations of exercising instructions on forbearance, forgiveness, love & esteem.

Membership is individually helpful:
• Accountability
• Forces me to consider my relationship with Jesus (molds and shapes me to be like Jesus).
• “What is good for me, is good for us”.
• The local body is where we begin to understand what unity is, who Jesus is.
• For church leadership, it’s hard to shepherd sheep that are not there.
• The local body is a benefit to our unbelieving communities when they see the love of Christ shared among the members.
• The unbelieving community is hindered from coming to Christ when they don’t see the local church connected to the head (Christ).
• The local church is where we live into our calling, 24/7, instead of it being a performance.