This is an excellent article from Old Truth blog site. The modern church is filled with Lone Ranger Christians who often have no intention of ever joining a local in church in any formal way. Their supposed liberty, is desired over service to the body of Christ and submission to scripturally ordained authority. They would have the benefits of hearing the preacher and partaking of the Lord's Supper without commitment to the local church. Church membership is regarded as an unnecessary option. Membership in a local church is something that is taught in scripture and no Christian can be excused for not working to find a church to join and serve in (granted it's not always an easy thing). It is his duty to serve the church and be in submission to those in authority. Church membership is not an outdated tradition for stuffy Christians nor is it an optional practice.
Church membership is a necessary consequence when all the teachings regarding what a local church is and how it is to conduct itself are considered. Indeed a Christian cannot carry out his scriptural responsibilities to the body of Christ without joining himself to a local body of believers. The scripture commands Christians; "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you" (Heb 13:17). Christians are plainly and in no uncertain terms commanded to submit to their spiritual leaders. Such a command can only be properly understood as having context within the local church. We also see that Christians who are engaged in open and unrepentant sin are to be put out of fellowship and removed from the local church. Such a person is to be handed over to Satan maintain the purity of the church and to spurn the offender on to repentance that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus(1Cor 5:5). These circumstances would be quite impossible to obey were the subjects not joined to a local body of believers. Henceforth 'membership' of some form is simply implied by such texts.
In the book of Acts, upon salvation people were joining themselves to the church by identifying with a local body and worshiping corporately and attending to the needs of the saints. Acts 2:47 records; "And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved." The text does not say that the Lord added to the body of Christ those that were being saved, but rather that the Lord added to their (the local church headed by the apostles) number those that were being saved. Christians were identifying themselves officially with a local body of believers. These were no mere visitors simply kicking the tires of a near by church, they were fully committed to the local church and it's work going so far as to sell their property in order to support the saints in need. While joined to that local body such persons were under the discipline of the rulers of that body. Christians who sinned were subject to appropriate censures and those who had need were aided by the local church's benevolence. They were also responsible for electing elders and deacons to carryout the preaching of the Word and the serving of tables. The believers in these congregations were fully committed to all aspects of the life of the church at the local level.
It is indeed a concept unknown in scripture that a Christian would ever maintain an uncommitted relationship with a local church. The scriptures have no knowledge of Lon Ranger Christians. The universal testimony of scripture is such that when sinners are converted they join themselves to a local church in order to worship with the saints of God and contribute to the work of spreading the gospel. The local church is the very place where the intimacy of the body of Christ is nurtured. It is ordained by God that pastors be placed over these congregations to govern them and to equip them that they may be fruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. No Christian who maintains a casual relationship with the church, who will not identify and participate in vital union with other believers can expect to grow in grace or be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ.
