Three Hallmarks of a Biblical Church Member

by Tom Pennington

Are you a biblical church member? The New Testament teaches that Christians are the body of Christ with certain responsibilities and duties to perform in the church. Christians also belong to a family, with obligations to every brother and sister in Christ. For these reasons, every member is required to engage in the church in the way the Bible explicitly prescribes.
In Three Hallmarks of a Biblical Church Member , Tom Pennington identifies from Scripture three nonnegotiable hallmarks that every Christian must pursue to be a biblical church member. Tom challenges believers to assess their own involvement in Christ's church to determine if they are truly biblical members-not only for the health of the church, but for the glory of the One who gave His life for the church, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Genres: Ecclesiology, Christian Living

96 pages, Paperback

Published November 11, 2022

Reviews

[Jaidyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderfully clear and helpful book on what it means to be a biblical church member Concise, easy to read, powerfully packed with truth and practical! It is a scripture saturated, convicting, compelling call to be involved in your local church! I was definitely spurred on by reading this book! The book presents three hallmarks (standards of excellence) that should characterize a biblical church member- worship God, serve the body of Christ, and participate in fellowship of the church!
Takeaways:

Worship
Worship is seeing and savoring the worthiness of God and responding as He deserves (I love this definition!)
Worship isn’t an emotion that you stir up in yourself. It is an outpouring of our hearts in response to a realization of who God is. Emotion is involved in worship but Emotion in itself isn’t worship. (This was a good point because so often modern worship is defined and characterized by emotion, rather than built on a correct knowledge of God)
Worship is the greatest priority for the Christian life.
Corporate worship is worshipping in the context of the church, united with other believers- Jesus held corporate worship as a priority and so did the local church- we need to as well!
The book also gave a really helpful explanation of why we worship on Sunday which I found helpful!
Christians began to worship on Sunday first when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them on Sunday- they worshiped
1 Cor. 16:1-2 “on the first day of the week”
Col. 2:16-17 - the sabbath is gone
Rev. 1:9-10 - The lords day = Sunday
The book also clearly laid out why only the activities explicitly prescribed are acceptable in worship and what those are.
Unprescribed forms of worship obscure the glory of God and quickly fall into idolatry
For worship to be authentic and acceptable, we must worship in spirit and truth
You must make a conscious decision to worship snd then make ongoing effort to worship- it must be from the heart
God isn’t satisfied if your body shows up- he’s only pleased is your mind, soul snd heart are completely engaged in worshipping him!
When we sing we are expressing what we know to be true of God and his word to each other and God.

Service
True greatness in his kingdom is defined by serving others and giving yourself as a slave to others
We received a “gift of grace” a “manifestation of the spirit” for the good and functioning of the church! It is the primary channel through which you minister to Christ and his people. We are not owners of our giftedness; we are merely stewards
The book gave a helpful breakdown of the spiritual gifts and why not all of them are around today
Two categories
1. Temporary sign gifts for the apostolic era
For revelation and confirmation
2. Permanent edifying gifts
The speaking amd serving gifts
Failure to minister to those in the church is to demonstrate a lack of love for Jesus

Fellowship
Fellowship is sharing our lives with one another because of the relationship we have in fellowship of the gospel
We share a common worship, share a common life, engage in mutual care, and mutual edification
When you go to church you are there to stimulate others to love and good deeds
The New Testament knows nothing of a genuine believer who is unattached to and uninvolved so h a local body of believers

[Mario Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Would be a good book to go through for church membership. Very easy to read book. The three hallmarks are 1. Participating in Corporate Worship by way of the RPoW, 2. Serving by way of the Gifts of Edification 3. Fellowship by way of Union with Christ and one another.

[James Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine little booklet on the responsibilities of church members in a local church. As one is considering their duties as being part of a church body, this is a good book to read to be refreshed on what the Bible says on such matters. Pennington spends the bulk of his time in this book talking about the three requirements being "corporate worship", "service" and "fellowship". This book is soaked in the Scripture and I would agree that pursuit of all three of these things in active and faithful obedience to Christ are essential to being a healthy Christian. My one quibble with this book (and I believe it to be a minor one as I don't think this is Pennington's focus) is that this book almost leans too heavily on the "works" side of the gospel. I know he does not mean it as such, but statements like "These are the three primary hallmarks that identify a genuine New Testament church member. They are at the heart of what it means to be a biblical member of Christ's church," while not explicitly wrong, focus more on what we ought do as Christians instead of first focusing on the work of Christ on the cross and subsequently the work of the Spirit in regenerating us and bringing us into the church under the headship of Christ. Again, I know Pennington would heartily affirm the truths of the gospel and that we are saved through Christ alone (not through works), but wanted to point out the only thing that irked me a bit in this one. But other than that! This book does talk much about how we as Christians should be acting, behaving, and serving in the local church and I am grateful for this corrective to any who view church membership or involvement as a passive, consumerist affair (as is only too common in the Western world). To any thinking about what we are called to as members of a local church, this book is a fine starting point.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful and practical