So here I am, thinking about a whacky idea (or is it???), and I figure that I should get some feedback from you.
Here is the idea: what if church membership had to be renewed every year?
I grew up in a tradition that tied church membership to salvation.
You did not just commit yourself to Jesus, you also committed yourself to a specific church/denomination.
And to borrow the phrase, ‘once saved, always saved’, it was pretty much ‘once a member, always a member’.
Every church I have served in gave me this huge membership list when I first arrived, filled with names of people who no longer participated, no longer attended.
And in some cases, those names would stay, and year after year we would mull over them and spend our time thinking about how to get them back.
Our tradition also practiced church discipline, and in the early days people would be taken through steps of discipline, until they were finally excommunicated.
It rarely ever happened, at least in my memory.

I still believe discipline is necessary, its a natural part of discipleship.
By discipline I mean positive, relationship based support and accountability.
But it seems to me that discipline is for those who are there, not for those who are not.
If someone walks away, do we spend the rest of our days running after them?
Or do we just accept their decision with sadness and carry on (like Jesus did with the rich young ruler).

Which brings me to renewable membership.
What if every year we reaffirm our commitment to Jesus, to His mission, and to the particular church to which He has called us.
Each church can decide what that commitment involves, and each disciple can decide what church they will commit to.
And those that don’t, don’t.
And they are no longer considered church members.
Actually, I prefer the word partners, over ‘members’.
A partner is someone who is actually involved.
Maybe that’s what a member is too, but I’ve been in circles for too long that spoke of inactive members, so the word has lost its original punch.
Inactive members, what’s with that?
That’s like saying non-burning fire… its a non sequitur, it makes no sense.
An inactive member is a non-member, isn’t it?

Anyway, the annual renewal could be a really cool time in the life of the church, a time to celebrate the past year and to renew our commitment to the mission and vision.
I am imagining some kind of ceremony, which include spoken and written commitments and pledges.
It would be a good time to do new membership partnership classes, to teach people about stewardship of spiritual and material gifts, and to have people pledge their financial support for the coming year.
It would be a good time to have ministry fairs, where the different ministries and small groups can encourage people to pick which area they will participate in the coming year.

Enough of my rant, what do you think?