This evening, we plan to receive Leonard and Barbara Waterman into the membership of our church. Why do we have “membership?” It makes us sound like a lodge or a political party, doesn’t it? I hear people say, “I don’t believe in church “membership”. The word isn’t in the Bible. I just want to attend a church with no strings attached.” That sounds logical, and it is true that the word “membership” isn’t in the Bible. However, the concept certainly is. In Acts2, the people who were saved and baptized were “added” (v. 41). Added to what? Added to this new thing in Jerusalem called “the church”. What does it mean that they were “added?” They gathered together, combined their resources, praised the Lord together and “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” As we work through the New Testament, we find churches providing care, comfort, doctrinal protection, observance of the ordinances, accountability, and the opportunity for stewardship and spiritual growth – all to those who had been “added to the church.” You can call it what you want, but the idea of being “added” to the church included all of these items – things that come to the New Testament believer through the vehicle of…membership.