The Church Roll and Body Parts

[532 words] In our ongoing efforts to be the church, the body of Christ, I can’t help but wonder if many folks are missing some vital points. We rightly preach baptism for remission of sins (Acts 2:38). We rightly teach that it is God who adds us to his church (Acts 2:47), and ultimately, he is the one who truly “knows those who are his” (2 Timothy 2:19). I think we also rightly teach that it is appropriate for a person to make it known that he or she wants to “join” (place membership with) a local congregation (Acts 9:26). We thus rightly teach that the “church” is universal, yet there are “local churches” (Matthew 16:16; Acts 20:17: 1 Corinthians 1:1,2). Most, if not all congregations keep a “roll” of some sort, composed of names and addresses of Christians and their families and who regularly attend worship and Bible study…