Vance Havner was known for his thought provoking and often times humorous quotes, here's a good example:

I heard of a man who said to the preacher, “I want to sing in your choir.”

The preacher replied, “But you don’t belong here. Where do you have your membership?”

He said, “I don’t belong to any local church. I belong to the invisible church.”

The pastor said, “Then I suggest that you join the invisible choir.”

We held our first church membership class of the year this past Sunday and I thought I'd share with you part of the curriculum we're using. This is an excerpt from Pastor Mark Dever's reasons to become a church member:

Join a church for the sake of non-Christians.
- Church membership helps make the gospel clear to non-Christians by providing a unified witness of what it means to be a Christian.

Join a church for the sake of weaker Christians.
- God is not merely concerned about our own private piety, but also about our care for the other sheep. This is a whole aspect of godliness that privatized Christians ignore. If we don't love God's people, John says, we have reason to question our love for God Himself (1 John 4:8).

Join a church to expose false gospels.
- The best defense is often a good offense. God wants us to band together in love so that we can model Christianity for the world. This is often how we best debunk messages that masquerade as Christianity but are different messages altogether.

Join a church to edify the church.
- Some people refuse to join a local church because they feel they would be slowed down in their spiritual growth if they joined. Perhaps. But maybe God wants such people to join a church to help speed other people up. Membership doesn't stop with M-E.

Join a church for your own spiritual protection.
- We can't always read our own souls perfectly. We can deceive ourselves, and we therefore need other people to help us walk as individual Christians (Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 19:12).

Join a church for your own spiritual assurance.
- In joining a church, we are asking our church family to hold us accountable to live according to what we confess. Membership in a local church is that congregation's public testimony that your life gives continual evidence of regeneration.

Join a Church for the sake of God's name.
- The building up of the church is ultimately GOD'S work. The LORD added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:42, 47).

Join a Church for the sake of God's cause.
- God wants His glory displayed and His gospel spread to all the nations. We can take God's glory and gospel to the nations better if we band together than if we remain alone.