Some of the recent posts about lifetime membership, along with
a blog entry at Under Much Grace, got me to thinking. The doctrine of lifetime membership was taught at Solid Rock back in the 70's, even though there was no formal membership process at the time. There were no application forms, no membership approvals by the leadership, and no official membership roll. Once you started attending regularly, you were regarded as a member, bound by a lifetime commitment of which you were probably unaware until you challenged the leadership about some point of doctrine or practice. At that time, you would learn that you were no longer free either to have a dissenting opinion or to leave at will.
A deacon once told me, "God put you in this church, and only God can take you out." Implied: God will never let you out, except as punishment for some shameful spiritual failing.
And yet, at the time I started attending Solid Rock, I had been an official, approved member of a local Baptist church. No one at Solid Rock suggested that I needed the Baptists' approval to leave them and join Solid Rock.
So what does that imply? That the Baptists were not a legitimate Christian church? (But I know that Solid Rock did recognize other churches, even though they regarded them as inferior.) Or that life membership in a local congregation wasn't a universal Christian truth? (Because if it was, then technically I was never free to attend Solid Rock to begin with.) Logically it had to be one or the other, and yet the contradiction was never addressed. To be honest, it didn't even occur to me that there was a contradiction, so badly had my exposure to GC eroded my critical thinking skills.
