"Church Membership" is not a term that is mentioned in the New Testament; it really is just a man-made term. God is not looking for church members. God is looking for "family" members. When God made Adam and Eve, he made a family. Family was his original design. When Adam and Eve sinned, God lost His family. In the fullness of time, God sent Jesus to get His family back.

"But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,"

Galatians 4:4-5, KJV

"For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."

Romans 8:15-16, KJV

"And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

2 Corinthians 6:18, KJV

The church is God’s family. "For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." (Ephesians 3:15, KJV)

When a person is saved, they become a son, an heir of God. The local church is just the place where God’s family meets. So when you become a Christian, you do not become a church member, you become a member of the family of God. This means that the person who sits beside you at church is not a church member, they are a brother or a sister. We are not members of an organization; we are members of a family.

Every Christian needs to belong to a local church family. Being spiritually fed from television is good, but that is only a supplement to your local church. Television cannot replace the local church. I believe that the local church is the backbone of the Kingdom of God. When we are connected as church members, we are more connected to the church building, but when we are connected as church family, we are connected to each other. I love to see church family be tied relationally. The family is built through people getting to know other people.

These days, we tend to always want to built things bigger, stronger, and faster. We have tried to build a bigger, faster, stronger church, but we haven’t done it according to the scriptures. Our ambition cannot replace what God says in his word. In our attempts to make the church bigger, faster, and stronger, we have created a model of church that is different from the family model. I call this the corporate model church.

Corporate model churches are build from a business model. This is the "new and improved" church. These are the churches that are doing things just to get large numbers of people. But large numbers don’t always point to growth. When people grow spiritually, and tell others about Jesus-that’s growth. Any church could build programs that would be outwardly impressive and draw people, but those people would not be coming to make a family connection, they would be coming to be connected to that particular program. The corporate church is always looking for the bigger, faster, stronger method of church growth, usually through some new program. People have learned that if you are progressive, you will draw people. The problem with that is, in the process they are creating what I call "Christian customers." Christian customers walk into a church and ask, "What can you offer me?" You have to do something to keep Christian customers. They are only there for what the church has to offer them.