As the unfolding events of 2020 have seemingly brought every human institution to its knees, the American church is in an unprecedented time in its short history. Church attendance, without a doubt, is the lowest it’s been in recent history. No doubt 2020 has been a challenging time for local church leadership. Unprecedented decisions have had to be made. In the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, as government guidelines were mandated, the majority of churches complied and adapted for the safety of the flock by holding online services. Hopefully, some data will be out soon, but it seems that many churches are still primarily online five months later. Some churches adapted by holding drive-in services held in parking lots. Sunday schools, small groups, and other discipleship groups have either gone to Zoom meetings, or other platforms, or have not met at all. Essentially, church attendance and church involvement has declined drastically.
Two things that I want to submit to you all is that this year has reinforced the essential need for biblical church membership and biblical headship. This is a call that the local church must be calling and answering at all times, not just in moments of crisis.
Here are just a few reasons, and certainly not exhaustive, for why I think that the call to biblical local church membership and headship is essential, at all times, but certainly within our current context of 2020.
Biblical Local Church Membership
First, let’s start with a brief but helpful definition of a biblical local church. A biblical local church is a church that devotes themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the braking of bread and prayers; all who belive join together, attending church, and praising God. With church attendance and involvement declining, membership will likely decline and if membership declines, many churches will eventually be forced to shut its doors. Sound biblical local churches need to be in place and ready to minister to those that will carry on in the faith. In challenging times like these, biblical local church membership is essential to shepherding the flock as God has ordained.
Biblical Headship
For the sake of clarity and because this topic can be a hot button topic, a clearly defined role of biblical headship would be most helpful. “… [U]nderstand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God’ (I Cor. 11:3) (Col. 1:18). In a time where regular local church worship and discipleship has been restricted, it is the responsibility of the male headship to disciple his family.