Subject: INVITATION |
Bible Note: Dear Brother Hank, I sure hadn't deem you a maverick, sir! :-) The mechanism you are describing from your church certainly falls within the norm for SBC usual practices, as well as the broader practices of Baptists as a whole. Our 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (section VI and VII) speaks to the responsibilities and benefits of membership in the local congregation (church), citing 1 Corinthians 5. In that chapter Paul directs, by implication, that the church is to have a constituency of those who are saved (v11). Furthermore, the church is, indeed, to judge such people (v12). So far as I know, all Baptist churches vote -- that is, the members vote -- to receive new members, prior to receiving their letter from the church to which they previously belonged. The letter is supposed to assure the new church that the prospective member is not currently under discipline. The idea behind the voting was to surface any issues of character, since, in the old days, the folks knew one another from the community. People who have never been a member of a Baptist church come into membership through baptism (2000 BFM, section VII). Of course, as Baptists, we hold to the doctrine of the baptism of believers -- which necessitates another judgment call regarding the salvation of a person. Of course, one of the hallmarks of being a Baptist is that each congregation may determine for itself how to walk out these Scriptural principles. The objective is the purity of the church, because Christ gave Himself for us: "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed... purge the evil person from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:7, 13b ESV) As the BFM says it, "...each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord." Consequently, we are personally and individually responsible for maintaining the purity of the church. Not just in our conscientious voting regarding a new member, or are proper dealing with one under discipline (1 Corinthians 5:11), but in the way we conduct our lives even when we are apart from our brethren. In Him, Doc |