When Membership Becomes a Weapon

In communities where churches abound and consumer Christianity thrives, membership can become a weapon instead of a witness. Some members treat church affiliation like social leverage rather than spiritual stewardship. They join to gain influence, preserve tradition, or control leadership rather than to serve the Savior.

Pastors and leaders can exhaust themselves trying to keep the congregation together instead of fulfilling the Great Commission. There is a great danger in over-churched communities of leading by accommodation rather than conviction.

As Paul warned the Corinthian church, “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (1 Corinthians 3:3). When carnal motives rule membership, spiritual health decays, and leadership becomes embattled instead of empowered.

Warren Wiersbe once wrote, “The local church is not a performing arts center for spectators; it is a training ground for soldiers.” When pastors, leaders, and members forget this, they trade ministry for manipulation.

Wise leaders must learn to discern when a member begins to weaponize their membership. These are several tactics I have witnessed over the years and have had to learn how to respond to graciously and courageously at the same time.

I. Threatening to Leave

Tactic: “If you change this, I’ll find another church.”

A Biblical Response: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” (John 6:66).

Jesus didn’t adjust His message to appease deserters; He preached truth regardless of who stayed. God has never called spiritual leaders to a ministry of appeasement.

Leadership Application: Leaders must never be held hostage by those who idolize preference over principle. Be willing to let God add to the church and to take away. When a leader begins appeasing people to keep them, the spiritual health of the church is in critical condition. Be willing to fill the pulpit and allow God to fill the church in His time with His people. Leaders held hostage by the “success syndrome” of numbers will quickly capitulate and compromise the truth to maintain members. Remember, it is God’s church, and He knows what is best for His body.

There will always be another church willing to accommodate carnality. Do not fight to hold onto a member who will quickly leave if they are not in control. It is exhausting and counter-productive to the work of God.

“A church that trims the truth to keep a crowd will soon have nothing worth keeping.” - Vance Havner

II. Withholding Giving

Tactic: Using finances as leverage to pressure leadership decisions.

Biblical Response: “But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” (Acts 8:20).

Leadership Application: God’s work is not funded by fear but faith. Faithful pastors lead knowing that obedience attracts God’s provision.

I was challenged early on in my ministry at the church I pastor when a prominent member, who is now a former member, took me to lunch and used this very tactic to pressure me. Within a month, he had left the church and taken his friends with him. It was in this dark season that I learned God can fund His church better than a manipulative member.

“God’s church is never in financial trouble when it’s in spiritual order.”  - Adrian Rogers

III. Rallying Factions

Tactic: Creating inner circles or gossip networks to resist change or undermine vision.

Biblical Response: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” (Romans 16:17)

Leadership Application: Division is often disguised as concern. Shepherds must lovingly and boldly discern divisive behavior and confront it biblically. Many good people can get swept up in an emotional frenzy when their church begins making changes to accommodate growth or become more spiritually healthy. A wise pastor must discern the difference between those who are getting caught up and those who are stirring it up.

Be patient and coach those caught up in negativity. Be proactive and confront those who are stirring up the negativity.

“The moment loyalty to a person outweighs loyalty to the truth, idolatry has begun.” - A. W. Tozer

IV. Idolizing Tradition

Tactic: Equating personal nostalgia with biblical necessity. “We’ve always done it this way.”

Biblical Response: “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition.” (Mark 7:13).

Leadership Application: Tradition is valuable when it preserves truth, not when it prevents obedience. A sure sign of an off-mission church is when there are arguments and division over unproductive and ineffective traditions. Lead in a way that makes change part of the DNA of church culture. A stagnant church is the result of stagnant leadership.

The Holy Spirit is pictured as wind and water in the New Testament. Neither of these elements is stagnant; they are constantly moving! A Spirit-filled and led church should continually innovate and make gospel advances; if not, nostalgia and inflexibility will set in and begin to gnaw away at the spiritual life of the church.

“The seven last words of the church are: We never did it that way before. - Dr. R. G. Lee

V. Resisting Accountability

Tactic: Claiming “I’m a member, not your subject,” when confronted about sin or discipline.

Biblical Response: “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls.”(Hebrews 13:17)

Leadership Application: True membership is not about status but submission to spiritual accountability for the sake of the soul. If a member demonstrates a fundamental resistance to spiritual accountability through the Word of God, trouble is on the horizon in the church. Membership is not only about accommodation, but it is also about accountability. Leaders who refuse to hold members accountable will soon experience the painful reality of a carnal church being led and influenced by carnal members.

Spiritual accountability is the sacred commitment of a church family, pastors and members alike, to speak truth, pursue holiness, and walk together in obedience so that no one drifts alone and no leader stands unguarded.

“You cannot be under the authority of Christ without being under the authority of His church.” - John MacArthur

VI. Demanding a Platform Instead of Service

Tactic: Equating visibility with value is the mindset that says, “If I cannot lead, I will leave.”

Biblical Response: “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”(Luke 14:11)

Leadership Application: Kingdom greatness is measured by servanthood, not spotlight. If a member demands a place of leadership, a public forum, or unlimited access and influence in the church structure, RUN! Leaders must not empower members who insist on positions that promote their egos and agendas.

Many leaders have suffered at the hands of their own unwise trusting and empowering of members who had no agenda but their own. Do not promote someone to keep them in the membership. This is a recipe for big problems and a roadblock to spiritual membership stepping up into places of authentic service.

“The towel, not the title, is the true symbol of leadership.” - Charles Swindoll

VII. Undermining Leadership Decisions

Tactic: Quietly sowing doubt or questioning direction after decisions are prayerfully made.

Biblical Response: “Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.” (1 Timothy 5:19)

Leadership Application: Protect the office of spiritual leadership by maintaining biblical order and calling sin by its name: rebellion. Constant negativity, criticism, and faction-rallying are counterproductive in God’s church. God raises leaders to protect the church from this type of behavior.

Many leaders refuse to confront these issues and say spiritual-sounding things like: “I am going to pray that God will handle them.” The reality is that God has a plan to handle them: YOU! You have been given leadership, and whatever you tolerate, you are promoting. Leaders must not cower but must charge forward in faith.

“You cannot follow Christ while constantly questioning those He has called to lead.” - Oswald Chambers

Reclaiming Biblical Membership

Church membership was never meant to be a weapon of control; it’s a covenant of commitment. Paul said, “For we are labourers together with God.” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Members and leaders labor together, not in competition.

When pastors courageously shepherd and members humbly serve, the church thrives under the headship of Christ.

Vance Havner said, “When the church is run by carnality instead of commanded by Christ, confusion is inevitable.”

Pastor, stay faithful. Lead with conviction, clarity, and compassion! God never intended His church to be managed by manipulators, but to be mobilized by the Master to fulfill the Great Commission.