Membership is a bureaucratic structure that is in some respects essential and in some respects useful. There are also pitfalls to be avoided.

Essential:
Every member should be CRB checked to ensure they have no undisclosed criminal history. Complete disclosure of any abusive, fraudulent or violent history is important. Especially where crimes have taken place against weaker members of society.

Important:
Maintain general unity of doctrine in order to keep presenting the most credible gospel to the world. Promote our best understanding of the gospel whilst keeping errant christian practices at bay. One will always find differences between the theologies of, say, Andy Boakye and John Oakes but these serve the great mystery of Christ an do little to sunder us. There are issues that can drive us asunder however and if the church expands rapidly again (God willing) we must be on our guard against false doctrine.

Useful:
Dating and social visits from other christians. When providing lodging for visiting christians, one can be certain that they carry a reference – of sorts – and their quality of character has been vetted through their understanding of scripture. The same holds true for dating.

Pitfalls:
This must be remembered: All members are christians, but not all christians are members. Membership status must not be used to label people or judge if somebody is saved. The application of “unbeliever” in 2 Cor 6 meaning anybody not a member of the icoc has been grossly misused in the past and a mindset of this still remains.

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