1. Commitment, like marriage.
Of course church membership is not as serious or permanent as Marriage should be, however it still involves making a commitment, formally and in public. It tells the world that this is MY church, and I am bound to it.
2. Accountability, like family.
Attenders only, no matter how "regular" they may be, usually don't (and shouldn't!) have voting rights, so they really have no say in leadership or procedure or etc. Likewise, they have refused to put themselves under the authority of anyone else in the church. Once you join, the accountability goes both ways. Until you join, you are really just a visitor only, no matter how often you attend. You might make friends in the church, which is great, but they aren't family. You might be "fed" spiritually, but you aren't giving anything back or showing that it has really meant anything to you. When you are a family, you look out for each other, as you should!
3. Belonging, like a nationality.
We lived in Germany for 6 years--it's the longest I've lived anywhere as an adult. When I was there, it felt very much like home, yet it never truly was my home. I wasn't german, nor did I ever think I was, not for a moment. I enjoyed living there, had some pride in my local area, even learned a bit of their customs and language, but I was always an outsider, never really one of them. To me this feels very much the same when you are a long-term visitor in a church (which I have also done a couple of times). No matter how much I enjoyed it, and learned that church's unique customs and practices and terms, I never took that step of commitment and trust and full acceptance of joining, so it was never really truly my home. Long term visitors at church, sometimes called "regular attenders," are like the expatriots who live overseas but never change their nationalities. Most expats do this, I think, because they plan on going back to their true home eventually--we certainly did, and have. So Christian, what are you waiting to go back to??
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