Going Public: Why Baptism Is Required for Church Membership

by Bobby Jamieson

Publisher:

B&H

, 2015

Overview

Does everyone who joins a local church need to be baptized? What should churches that practice believer's baptism do about those who were “baptized” as infants? This is a live question for many churches today, and it raises a host of other crucial questions: What is the meaning and function of baptism? Does baptism have any inherent relationship to the local church? How do baptism and the Lord’s Supper fit together? What exactly is “church membership”?

To answer the question of whether baptism is required for church membership, Going Public seeks to rebuild ecclesiological foundations, digging deep into the Bible’s teaching on baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership. Bobby Jamieson describes how baptism and the Lord’s Supper transform a scattered group of Christians into a gathered local church. It traces the trajectory of a church’s birth, how gospel people form a gospel polity.

Baptism is where faith goes public. It is the initiating oath-sign of the new covenant. It is the passport of Christ’s kingdom and a kingdom citizen’s swearing-in. The Lord’s Supper is the renewing oath-sign of the new covenant, a corporate act of fellowship with Christ that binds the church into one body. Baptism confers church membership and the Lord’s Supper confirms it. Baptism confers membership; the Lord’s Supper renews it. So baptism is required for church membership like vows are required for marriage.

After building and summarizing this positive theological case for why baptism is required for church membership, the book answers objections, poses challenges to the open membership view, and applies this theological vision to the local church’s practice of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership.

Why is baptism required for church membership? Because church membership is a public affirmation of someone’s public profession of faith in Christ, and Jesus has appointed baptism as the means by which his followers publicly profess their faith in him. Why does this question matter? Because removing baptism from membership erases the line Jesus himself has drawn between the church and the world.

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Key Features

• Aims toward the conclusion that churches should require prospective members to be baptized in order to join
• Approaches baptism and the Lord's Supper as effective signs of church membership
• Serves as an argument from front to back in that it seeks to prove its position and disprove the views that argue against it

Contents

Top Highlights

“In the end the open membership position rests on one primary, powerful argument: that local churches should not exclude from membership anyone whom they regard as genuine brothers or sisters in Christ.” (Pages 15–16)

“In this chapter I will argue that baptism is the initiating oath-sign of the new covenant, and this makes baptism necessary for church membership.” (Page 56)

“I hope it’s even clearer now why I’ve given a whole book to this subject. For one, simple proof texting won’t settle the issue either way. Churches have no explicit biblical command to admit only baptized persons to membership; yet all Christians are commanded to be baptized, and the New Testament Epistles address all church members as having been baptized (e.g., Rom 6:1–4; Gal 3:27).” (Page 18)

“A second, closely related issue is the theological relationship—or better, interrelationship—between baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership.” (Page 17)

“Baptism binds one to many, and the Lord’s Supper makes many one.” (Page 17)

Praise for Going Public

“I am glad to commend Bobby Jamieson’s work, Going Public: Why Baptism IsRequired for Church Membership. I know of no other work that so thoroughly considers the ecclesiological, theological, and biblical issues that connect baptism to church membership and participation in the Lord’s Supper and does so in a clear, readable, and irenic manner. It is not that I agree with all the answers he gives; we differ on a number of points. But he is raising the right questions, and they are questions few others are raising. I hope it receives a wide readership and sparks a lot of constructive discussions.”

John Hammett, Professor of Systematic Theology and Associate Dean of Theological Studies, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: Going Public: Why Baptism Is Required for Church Membership
• Author: Bobby Jamieson
• Publisher: B&H
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Baptism and church membership; Baptism; Religion › Christian theology--Soteriology
• ISBNs: 9781430075097, 9781433686214, 9781433686207, 143368621X, 1433686201, 1430075090
• Resource ID: LLS:9781433686214
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-06T20:43:05Z

About Bobby Jamieson

Bobby Jamieson is a Ph.D. student in New Testament at the University of Cambridge. He previously served as assistant editor for 9Marks and is the author, most recently, of Going Public: Why Baptism Is Required for Church Membership (B&H, 2015).