church membership
Belonging to flock
Church membership is formal affiliation with a local congregation or denomination, typically involving public profession of faith, baptism, or other requirements set by the church.
Members may have voting rights, access to sacraments, or obligations like tithing.
She transferred her church membership when she moved.
The concept varies widely—some traditions track membership rigorously, others barely at all.
- baptismRitual water purification ceremony
- covenantBinding formal pledge
- congregationAssembled group of worshippers
- voting rightsEntitlement to elect officials
- good standingFavorable status or reputation
active member · faith · repentance · fellowship · communion · roster · doctrine · confirmation · bylaws · accountability · belonging · ministry · discipleship · deacons · testimony · elders · pews · stewardship
- affiliationsmember, affiliate, associate, subscriber, patron
- Baptist ChurchSouthern Baptist, First Baptist, adult baptism, baptistry, immersion
- church trendsmegachurches, megachurch, secularization, house churches, deconversion
- colonial faithPilgrims, Puritans, Calvinism, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony
- German ReligionMartin Luther, Lutheranism, Wittenberg, Augsburg Confession, Diet of Worms
- Anglican historyArchbishop of Canterbury, English Reformation, Book of Common Prayer, Henry VIII, Thomas Cranmer
church membershipexcommunication
Formal barring from sacraments
disfellowship · disaffiliation · apostasy · unchurched · spiritual but not religious
church membershipatheism
Rejection of deities
secularism · irreligion · agnosticism · antitheism · secular humanism