Members One Of Another Podcast Episode

This is Breaking Bread, the podcast brought to you by Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services. Arlan Miller, welcome to the podcast today. Matt, it’s good to be here again. And I am Matt Kaufman. Arlan, I am really excited to share with you that last night I made myself an official member of the ISU beekeeping association. 

No way. Did you really? 15 bucks. And now I’m in. You’re into the beekeeping association of ISU. That’s right. Good for you. That’s right. So, I can go to meetings, and I can get specific teaching on beekeeping. And it gives me a little bit throughout the year, some teaching points, and I’ll be able to hear some experts on the topic. 

I’m thrilled with that. And all this for only $15? And no other responsibilities? No other responsibilities. Now that raises a good point. Sure. Because the question that I’d like to pick your brain about and have a dialogue about is this concept of membership. We’re members of a lot of things. 

A person can be a member of a political party. You can be a member of that. You can be a member of a working labor union. We can be a member of the NRA or any of these types of members. Has the term membership been a bit perverted over time and now we apply membership in churches and churches against a false backdrop? Does that make sense? It does. Matt, if you would go back to the 1828 Noah Webster dictionary, the first definition of membership talks about the limb of a body like a leg or an arm or an ear, very similar to the definition that Paul uses in first Corinthians 12, when he talks about the membership of the body. 

But then when you look at dictionary.com, a more modern type of interpretation. The first definition is about being part of a society or a party or a community and that’s my beekeeping. Exactly. Perfect, spot on. You see a change in the definition of membership over time. I think if I went through a list of members, what have I been a member of? 

And I think of high school clubs and this, that, and the other thing. I think it’s going to fit that dictionary.com. You probably think an association, a community group that you become a member of. That’s how I think. And when I say I’m also a member of the Bloomington Apostolic Christian Church, if I’m not careful, I might adopt some of that same thinking and that would be wrong. 

Exactly. If we’re not careful, that’s going to bleed into how we view ourselves as part of a church body. Now if we go to the Scriptures, I think one of the classic verses that speaks to membership is Romans 12. Romans 12:5 says, so we being many members yet one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. 

That’s that old definition that you mentioned of Webster, isn’t it? It is. If you go into the Greek and look in the Vines or the Strongs, you’re going to get language like this that says it’s not only vital unity in harmony and operation but in diversity, and all of this is essential for effectiveness. 

And I think of the image of the Trinity where you have three different parts that each play a specific function within that unity of the Trinity. That’s the language that I think Paul is bringing out there in Romans. Unity and diversity. And that unity then would be, I think of the body, the hand is a member of the foot, which is a member of the belly, which is a member of the shoulder and all for the purpose, for the unity of the head, right? 

So, the head is able to behave in a unit, a unified manner, and accomplish tasks through the diversity of its members. Does that make sense? Right. I’m thinking about that correctly. Yeah. And again, as I said, that’s the first Corinthians 12 language that Paul uses where each part plays a role. Each part plays a function. 

And when you remove one of those parts or remove one of those functions, it’s not the same. There’s something that’s lost. I think we’re going to learn a lot about what church membership means by looking at perhaps our contemporary use of membership. I’m drawing some distinctions. So, Arlan, now speak to what are some of the pitfalls then of having a contemporary view of membership like my beekeeping association? 

I think what you can start to do, Matt, is you can start to think, okay well, we all show up at the same time on a Sunday morning. We all show up at the same time on a Wednesday night. You know, that’s what the membership is asking me to do. I show up as opposed to the mindset of thinking, I have a role to play within this body. 

I have been given that role and I’m going to show up and play that role by God’s grace and by his design. Ouch. Right. The beekeeping association has really nothing to value from me. In fact, that is my most substantial contribution to the whole club. Otherwise, I bring no value to it. And so that’s one indicator that perhaps I’m using membership erroneously. 

If that is the mindset of how we approach church, then I would say we’ve gotten off the definition as purely intended there in the Romans verse. And that actually, Matt, is very exciting to me. It gives great purpose, because then you start to ask yourself the questions, okay, well God has created me a certain way. 

He has gifted me with certain gifts. He has given me passions and talents and experiences and molded and shaped me for a purpose. It says again in 1 Corinthians 12 that he has placed the members in the body as it has pleased him so therefore, when I go to church, what’s my role, God? What am I going to do? 

Maybe this person needs to be talked to, or maybe I can help with this ministry, or maybe I can encourage in this way or something, but there is going to be something for me to do. And I believe in that Corinthians passage that you mentioned, not only as it pleased God, but also for the benefit of the other, I think is another key importance. 

And so, one litmus test is if I withdraw myself from the beekeeping association. I really go unnoticed. And if that happens also in the church, perhaps we’re having the wrong view of membership. Let’s think about members of my family. I’ve got five children that are members of my family. 

My wife is a member of my family. And if any of those were gone. My family would be drastically different, right? They all bring a different value, a different purpose, and a different advantage. And that is the Kauffman family. When people think of the Kauffman family, they think of the seven members. 

They don’t just think of one individual standing out on their own. Yeah. And I think that’s a great example and a key one to keep in mind. And so the encouragement that I have as I think about this term and as I’ve focused on it is to really be purposeful about my role within the body. 

If I show up and don’t have any intention of doing anything but just that, just showing up, I have missed the opportunity that God has created. From that union, Arlan, let’s put our finger on, I think a difficult concept, especially whenever our definitions of words have been challenged. And we’ve done that pretty directly here today with the term membership. 

And we’ve said membership very much is diverse, right? And so now, and you’ve already tossed these terms around unity and diversity. And I think sometimes there’s some confusion here. We’re not downplaying unity at all, are we? No, not at all. So where is that unity then found? We are elevating that unity because the unity is found in Christ. 

The unity found in the head. Again, that language of the Trinity or the language of 1 Corinthians 12, where there is a unity where the members all play a specific function and role for the head. And the head of the church is Christ. As you were just sharing painting that picture, Arlan, this is the picture that was forming in my head that I would like to assert. 

And that is, we can have a view of ourselves like a one piece of straw in a broom just like the rest and the master is able to use the broom to his purposes. And we think we are a member, one of a thousand in this broom head. But that’s not the picture of membership as we see it defined in the Scripture as well as in is in the Webster’s dictionary. 

We are more like a member of a body whereby if we are absent, the body is going to suffer for it, and the mind, which is Christ, is able to work through its many members to fulfill his purposes. Is that a reasonable picture? It’s a good picture, and it’s a good analogy, and it also brings to my mind one of the large pitfalls that we can fall into then. 

Because diversity or differences will lead us towards comparison. If we’re not careful, then we will start to compare ourselves among ourselves and say, well, that person is of more value, or maybe I’m of more value than that person. Both ways, both lines of thinking, which the Scripture clearly teaches are wrong. 

It’s a challenge that we face in the diversity of the body. I think some of that is even interwoven into our culture and in particular our American culture. All men are created equal, and we take this concept of equality, and we apply it in so many ways now. We don’t have gender differences in our culture, right? 

But there is a beautiful inequality in our culture, if I might say that. I know that sounds wrong to say, but there is a beauty in inequality and allow me to make the point through a family. There’s only one father in the family. I am the father. My wife is the mother, and my children have their places, but we aren’t all equal in a sense of what we do. We are all equal in God’s eyes and our value is equal, but our function may not be. 

Our function is very different by design. So, as we talk about comparing one another when we compare, we should be thinking about our identity in Christ and that holds up the comparison. No one person is more or less loved, more or less valued in the eyes of God. And they’re standing with God, but we have different roles. 

And frankly, Matt, that’s very exciting. And that’s very freeing. And that’s very liberating that we are called to be who we are, to play the role that God has designed us to be. By doing so brings greater glory to him. Arlan, this has been, I think, a very enlightening and challenging conversation with me viewing my membership in the Bee Association very differently, but more importantly membership in my own local body in the church. 

To just recognize that, hey, the term membership has been perverted over time and we use it largely in a way that it was never intended to be. And by redeeming that original definition, as the Scriptures have used them, membership actually adds so much more meaning and blessing and excitement to being a member of the body of Christ. 

And I think that provides a great deal of help and hope for certainly myself and for our listeners. I hope that you have benefited from this conversation and can reflect upon your great and high value in the eyes of God, but also in the larger function of his body.