There are several reasons why I believe membership is important:
1. The New Testament never speaks of a type of Christianity that does not include active participation and commitment to the Church.
2. We are to honor the civil laws of our nation as long as they do not contravene the Word of God. Currently we have been instructed that it is unwise for any church to use staff at any level who have not formally agreed to the Statement of Faith and Constitution of the church. (PS: I am facing the same issues as to people I marry. The current Human Rights legislation is this way: If you have an open door it must be open for all). If we allow unrestricted leadership of church ministries we would be facing an HR violation to exclude some and include others. When you become a member you voluntarily become accountable to the church and formally assent to their doctrine and practices. We would find ourselves on thin ice if we had non-members "primarily" leading and making decisions in the church.
3. We are a Baptist Church. We are convinced by Scripture that the local church is to be self-governed and autonomous. That practically means that the membership is the final "human" court of authority. Even elders are servant leaders who serve under the authority of Christ, His Word and the will of the congregation. Logically, then, there must be a process whereby Christians take out formal membership for it is this membership that will select leaders, empower financial budgets and decisions, act as the final arbiter in a case of church discipline and affirm the vision of the church.
4. Without the responsible and voluntary decision of a Christian to align themselves with the local church in a formal way, the question is always vague as to whom the pastor(s) are truly pastoring? Does simply attending a church create a relationship between pastor and believer?
5. God is a God of covenant. All that He does in based on, and worked through His covenantal relationships. Marriage is a picture of this. For a Christian to withhold themselves from formally aligning with the local church in mutual support and care is akin to common-law marriage -- a relationship with no commitment.
6. There is an argument from logic, too. If we do not care about membership; if we do not value it; and if it is non-consequential then why have membership at all? The fact is that for the reasons noted above we do believe it is important to be a member. So to take this one step further, if we, in practice, allow ministries to be lead by non-members then we have dishonored membership and are operating in contradiction to our principles.
Now on a practical level we cannot force membership and if someone chooses not to be a member then we won't usurp their conscience. With that in mind we attempt, as best as we can, to allow non-members to participate in the fullness of church life.
The most common 'push-back' I get by well-meaning people is that this makes us "religious"; or we have succumbed to "human traditions". I have a couple of short responses. One, it is not religious to seek to obey the New Testament (Click HERE if you doubt that). It is not "religious" to obey civil and church authorities (obviously with exceptions when it is immoral.) Thirdly Jesus was very religious. You may wish to read my blog on this topic by clicking HERE.
Back in 2008, I did a series in the Church entitled "God's Blueprint for the Church." You can read the transcripts of that series on our Church Blog. The first transcript had to do with Elders (You can read it by clicking HERE. There were 7 messages in the series.)
Here are 2 books that I'd highly recommend:
1. Stop Dating the Church by Joshua Harris; and
2. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, by Mark Dever
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