Foundations | Essential Practices of a Growing Christian Life | Session 7
In the first two parts of our Foundations study on Church Involvement, we looked at what the church is and why believers should intentionally belong to a local church. But membership is more than having your name on a church roll. Once we belong, we have responsibilities toward one another.
So what does it actually look like to be a good church member?
Scripture repeatedly points us toward relationships. We are called to love one another, encourage one another, and pursue one another spiritually. These responsibilities require more than occasional attendance. They require us to be present and actively involved in the lives of other believers.
Loving One Another
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus gave His disciples a command that would characterize their lives together after His earthly ministry was complete.
“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” — John 13:34–35
Loving one another would be one of the defining characteristics of Jesus’ followers. It would strengthen the church as believers carried out Christ’s mission, but it would also serve as an outward witness to the world. 1 John 4:11 reinforces this responsibility: “Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.”
But biblical love is more than a feeling. Scripture shows us several practical ways that love should be expressed within the church.
Love Through Sacrifice
Jesus said in John 15:12–13, “Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.”
Sacrificial love means being willing to set aside our own preferences and interests for the good of someone else. Philippians 2:3–4 tells us not to act from selfish ambition or conceit, but to consider others as more important than ourselves and look out for their interests.
A healthy church is filled with people asking not simply, What do I want? but How can I put the needs of someone else ahead of my own?
Love Through Patience
Any time people live in close community, patience will be necessary.
Ephesians 4:1–3 calls believers to walk with humility, gentleness, and patience, “bearing with one another in love” while diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit.
Likewise, 1 Peter 3:8–9 calls believers to unity, sympathy, brotherly love, compassion, and humility—even when someone has wronged us.
Being part of a church family means being surrounded by imperfect people. Biblical love patiently extends grace as we grow together.
Love Through Service
Galatians 5:13 tells us, “Through love serve one another.”
Love doesn’t merely notice a need; it responds to it. James 2:14–17 challenges a faith that sees a brother or sister in need, offers kind words, but does nothing to help.
Serving one another is one of the tangible ways we demonstrate genuine Christian love. God has placed us within a church family not simply to receive ministry, but also to minister to others.
Love Through Fellowship
Christian fellowship goes deeper than casual conversation.
In Romans 12:10–13, Paul tells believers to “love one another deeply as brothers and sisters,” outdo one another in showing honor, share with the saints in their needs, and pursue hospitality.
1 Peter 4:8–11 similarly connects love with hospitality and using our gifts to serve one another.
Church isn’t meant to be a room full of strangers who happen to worship at the same time. God calls us into meaningful relationships where we know, love, serve, and care for one another.
Encouraging One Another
Another major responsibility of church membership is encouragement.
Hebrews 10:24–25 says:
“And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”
Notice how intentional this command is. “Let us consider” means we should pay attention to and think about one another.
We should actually consider how we might stir someone else toward love and good works.
How do we do that?
Hebrews gives us two practical answers: we gather together regularly, and we encourage one another regularly.
That means gathering with the church isn’t only about what we receive. Our presence can benefit someone else. Someone may need our encouragement, our prayer, our service, or simply the reminder that they aren’t walking through life alone.
And Scripture says this responsibility should increase as we see “the day approaching”—looking forward to the day of the Lord and Christ’s return.
Saving One Another
Church members also have a responsibility to pursue one another when someone begins to wander spiritually.
James 5:19–20 describes someone wandering from the truth and another believer turning that person back. James says that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way “will save his life from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
Matthew 18:15–17 similarly gives instructions for lovingly confronting a brother or sister caught in sin.
This isn’t about policing one another’s lives. It is about loving people enough to pursue them.
Biblical church membership means we aren’t anonymous. We are known, and we allow other believers to care about the direction of our lives.
Show Up. Serve. Support. Share.
Much of what it means to be a faithful church member can be summarized in four simple actions:
Show up. Serve. Support financially. Share with others.
We show up because relationships require presence.
We serve because love acts for the good of others.
We financially support the work God has called His church to do.
And we share Christ with others because the mission of the church extends beyond ourselves.
Church membership isn’t a spectator activity. Every member has an opportunity and responsibility to participate in the life and mission of the church.
How Do We Organize to Be Good Church Members?
If Christians are supposed to know, love, encourage, serve, and care for one another, there is a practical challenge: How do we accomplish that in a larger church?
One of the primary ways we organize ourselves to do that at First Baptist Lafayette is through Sunday School.
Sunday School organizes the church into smaller groups based loosely on age and life situations so that meaningful relationships and ministry can happen.
We see principles for gathering and teaching in passages such as Nehemiah 8:1–8, where God’s people assembled to hear and understand His Word, and Acts 2:46, where the early believers gathered both corporately and from house to house.
What Does Sunday School Do?
Our Sunday School ministry has four primary purposes:
Reach. Small groups give us an opportunity to reach, welcome, witness to, and enroll new people.
Teach. Sunday School provides consistent Bible teaching in a smaller group through a curriculum.
Minister. It creates an environment where church members can actually practice the “one another” commands of Scripture by knowing people’s needs and caring for them.
Multiply. Healthy groups should eventually help create new groups so that more people can be reached, taught, and cared for.
Sunday School isn’t simply another Bible study to attend. It is one of the primary ways our church organizes itself to do life and ministry together.
What Can I Expect From Sunday School?
A healthy Sunday School class should provide four important things:
Commitment — a small group dedicated to meaningful relationships.
Community — a small group dedicated to meaningful fellowship.
Care — a small group dedicated to meaningful encouragement.
Challenge — a small group dedicated to meaningful discipleship.
A typical class intentionally makes room for each of these priorities, with time devoted to fellowship, announcements, outreach, prayer and ministry, and approximately 35 minutes of Bible study.
The goal isn’t simply to learn more information. The goal is to create a community where God’s Word shapes our lives and believers help one another follow Jesus.
Don’t Just Attend—Get Connected
If you aren’t currently connected to a Sunday School class, consider taking that next step.
When you become part of a class, your name goes onto that group’s ministry list. You become someone they can intentionally reach out to, encourage, pray for, and care for. And you gain opportunities to do the same for others.
Church membership means more than occupying a seat during worship. We need relationships where we can love one another, encourage one another, serve one another, and help one another remain faithful to Christ.
That’s why Sunday School matters.
And as Bro. James challenged us in this week’s Foundations teaching:
If you only have one hour a week to go to church, go to Sunday School.
