Church Membership

Rev. J.A.Scarrow, Trowel and Sword Dec. 1955

Preamble: Reverend J. A. Scarrow resigned from the Presbyterian Church because of a difference with the Auckland Presbytery over the family of a church elder winning an art union lottery prize. It was believed Mr. Scarrow advocated the disciplining of the elder by the Paris Session. The Presbytery, while taking a strong ethical stand on gambling, felt an individual’s actions should be governed by his conscience. A small group of people followed Rev. Scarrow out of the Presbyterian church and they started the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Bucklands Beach, which continued to faithfully meet together to learn from God’s word and serve the people of East Auckland, in New Zealand. Rev Scarrow was a regular contributor to early editions of Trowel & Sword.

Today we have an article which raises fascinating questions with even more fascinating answers or solutions. However, with the distance of 70 years do the answers smack of legalism or are we discomforted by our laxness? Do some of the solutions lack the imagination of a spirit filled vision for the church? The sense of church and kingdom comes through clearly. Does the church have a clear Kingdom vision today? Once again, read,  reflect and please respond. (Pieter)

Church Membership

“If every church member was just like me, what kind of a church would my church be?”

Would it be worldly or spiritual?

Let us look at the requirements of church membership so that we may hold ourselves up to certain principles of doctrine and practice.

On the one hand, the session is responsible for receiving members from the world or from amongst our youth who are asking a welcome to the Lord’s Table. So eager is the church to gain members that she is tempted to be silent when a plain word would,  in the long run,  be most  beneficial to her members who are her very life through God’s Spirit in their hearts.

Should the session ask people pointedly if they intend to  practise consistently church attendance,  or do they think they can come only when it suits their convenience? Strength and weakness show up very clearly just at this point. The stronger manage often at considerable cost, to be present with their families every Sunday, at least once, and in many cases twice. The weaker have good intentions, may be, but the most trifling excuse hinders regular attendance.

Worldly visitors arrive or are expected for dinner; or perhaps one does not feel very well, and it would be an effort to get ready and attend. All should be reminded of God’s Word through Isaiah 58 :13,14 “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

When so many in this land use the Lord’s Day to do their own work and pleasure, how delightful it is to know families who plan on Saturdays to finish all work that might be a temptation on Sunday. The mowing of lawns can be done before Sunday of left until Monday. So can the cleaning of shoes and many small duties that crowd in on a Sunday morning when there is so much to attend to especially for busy mothers bringing their children of (sic) church. That mad rush at the last minute which spoils the peaceful atmosphere of Divine Worship and the disturbance of coming in late could quite easily be avoided by rising from bed a few minutes earlier and preparing to be ready in good time. How inspired and inspiring the minister would be in the atmosphere of a quietly waiting prayerful congregation ready for God’s Word.

Does the session ever ask the prospective member if he really intends to practise Christian stewardship, or does he intend to rob God? Prov. 3: 9 “Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase” and Mal. 3 “Bring all the tithes”. “Ye have robbed me in tithes and offerings.” In the New Testament times many gave to God in response to His grace, all they possessed “Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own”. All possessions were held in trust for the Lord. When our Lord says, “Go ye to all the world with the Gospel,” some say “No, I’ll stay at home and send someone else to be my proxy, and I’ll give £.1.-.- a year for his support.” If such a one went himself, he would sell all that he has to go, but when another goes, he is content to live in luxury while he gives a trifle if it doesn’t touch his pocket.  “Bring ye all the tithes.” Stop robbing God. Only then can there be blessing upon the church.

When a man becomes a member of the church, do the session talk plainly with him, telling him that he will  be a strength only if he conscientiously and sacrificially faces the issue between the  interests of the Kingdom of Christ and his own private plans and ambitions, so as to really put first the Kingdom? Is he willing, even at financial loss, to keep himself and family where he can attend and support the church? Should not the session tighten up the loose nuts of church life with a little discipline and speak first to members who are indifferent to many things that hinder the Kingdom?  Until there is discipline in such matters, no expansion or any real fruit will be enjoyed by the church. Chinese mothers have been heard to threaten naughty children by saying that if they don’t obey, they will cut off their ears; but the children know that no child’s ears ever have been cut off, so they continue in their naughtiness unperturbed.

When a man runs off with another man’s wife the session does something about it, but in ordinary and very common cases of flagrantly broken vows and professions, nothing is ever done about it and everyone knows that nothing will ever be done about it.

Rev. J.A. Scarrow