How many members does your church have? Over the years, I have discovered a disconnect between names on the rolls and bodies present. Like the 5,800-member church where an associate pastor confided to me that they could only account for about 3,200 of those people.

I have seen this personally. I once attended a church that claimed 500 resident members and 100 non-resident members, yet 85 to 90 people showed up most Sundays.

I always wondered how one could be a non-resident and claim membership in a church hundreds (or thousands) of miles away. Particularly when that congregation had adopted a constitutional provision whereby anyone who departed from the area agreed to affiliate with another local church of similar background.

Obviously people were ignoring that agreement, instead going along with a time-honored tradition to retain membership in their "home" church. This, no matter how many years had passed nor how far away the person had moved.

I later discovered a financial incentive for keeping them on the rolls: some out-of-staters sent money when they received offering envelopes in the mail.

Regenerate membership

At its annual convention in mid-June, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) adopted a resolution calling for churches to practice regenerate membership, meaning someone who has accepted Christ, been baptized and is active in a local congregation.

In a recent story about the measure, one proponent of the resolution called it the first step toward restoring church discipline.

"It's the next step—actually deciding who will be removed from membership—that will test the SBC's resolve to discipline," observed a reporter for Christianity Today.

Not surprisingly, there was resistance to the idea, even when SBC statistics show that on a given Sunday, only 6.15 million (or 38 percent) of its 16.2 million members attend services.

Quipped one pastor who expressed doubt that the resolution would lead to widespread purging of church rolls, "No one can tell Southern Baptists what to do."

Decentralized bodies like the SBC and multiple evangelical denominations and independent associations rank local church autonomy at the top of their priorities. So, trying to dictate to these congregations could be compared to herding cats.

Nor is determining specific numbers that easy. New SBC President Johnny Hunt pointed out, although his church averages 6,800 in Sunday attendance. Yet, over the course of a month, about 10,000 of its 16,500 members will come to at least one service.

I suspect a church's definition of "regular" attendance and those who show up monthly would vary widely. And, any church trying to pin down people on why they seldom attend must tread carefully because of concerns of offending them or easily slamming the door on future involvement.

Seeing God at work

In a rapidly-changing and fluid social environment, I wonder if moves to enforce church membership will gain much traction.

Surveys have shown that millions are experimenting with house churches or alternative forms of spiritual assembly, including surfing the Net. Such folks have little concern for traditional definitions of church or being in a particular place at a set time every week.

Granted, Hebrews 10:24-25 says we should assemble together regularly. What the Church must grapple with today is defining what that means in the 21st century. Do such forms as e-mail, text messaging and multi-site operations qualify as assembling together?

Given the loose parameters applied to church membership, I can understand the desire to tighten up definitions and weed out people who—for whatever reason—have departed from the body.

Still, I think churches that devote themselves to meaningful service and casting a vision beyond the four walls won't have to worry about counting noses. People will always show up when they see God at work.