Guests: Nick Gutwein, Frank Sauder, John Wiegand

Part 1 Notes

Questions/comments posed:

• There are too many strings attached to being a member.
• Why can’t I just be a follower of Jesus?

In the Bible, baptism was typically done by local church, not an individual or parachurch organization.

• Exception explained: Phillip and Ethiopian eunuch.

We tend to view membership in worldly terms (i.e., member of a club or association).

Correct view of member is defined biblically – I Cor. 12
“They (Corinthians) were baptized into the Body at the Church of Corinth. And we are baptized into this body…”
“And we can only have Christ as our head if we are willing to be tied together as a body”.
“To not be tied into a body is to be dismembered”. Seemed strong language at first, but it is biblically accurate.
“Life as a Lone Ranger Christian is a contradiction to being a Christian”.