Whether your church implements an explicit directory of members or not, God calls you to the highest devotion to your local church body and its individual members. Implementing a definitive church membership appears to be both biblically sound in light of scripture’s teachings for the church and practically effective to the needs of our people.

If you really think the local church is that bad, that hurtful, and that harmful to the cause of Christ (and some churches truly are), then love the Lord Jesus Christ enough to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Culturally, the office of deacon is often misapplied and mispracticed in churches today. The qualifications to hold the office of deacon convey that this is an office of great significance. The question to be answered is, “What is the role of the deacon?”

In a word, it is the work of local churches to reproduce local churches all over the world. Anything short of that is a compromise.