Why join in formal membership? In the New Testament we see new converts being “added to their number” (Acts 2:47), implying a known body of believers in a local. Individuals could either live in communing fellowship with a local church or, due to unrepentant or egregious sin, be removed from communing fellowship (1 Cor 5:13). Furthermore, elders were charged to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you” (1 Pet 5:2), implying a knowledge of the individual makeup of their local flock/congregation. Likewise, the pattern set down by the Lord Jesus for how believers are to deal with sinning brothers or sisters has as its final step the charge “tell it to the church” (Matt 18:17), implying a gathered group of individuals belonging together and to the offending party. For these reasons and more we believe that while the modern parameters of church membership are not clearly commanded in the New Testament, the functions of church membership are. So we commit one-to-another in formal church membership as an effort to cultivate whole-hearted obedience to Christ’s vision for how the local church is to “build itself up in love” (Eph 4:16).