Conversion, Church Membership ... a different view

                                                                                                           Vol. XX, No. 4, April 2007

The remedy [for unregenerate church membership] consists of two things: First, to exclude unworthy members. Second, to be careful, hereafter, to admit none who are not worthy. Neither of these tasks is easy, but the first is Herculean. We have been so careless in the reception of members – so anxious to increase in numbers without regard to quality, that the moral tone of many of our churches is utterly debased, and there is not religious power enough to throw off the unworthy load. We are reaping the harvest sown by the folly of our predecessors. We must be careful not to transmit such an inheritance to those who come after us. When the “success” of a pastor is estimated by the number excluded during his administration, rather than by the number baptized, a new and better era will have dawned. What we need is to unload.

[Henry Tucker, editor Christian Index and Southwestern Baptist, 1880, as quoted in Tom Nettles, Ready for Reformation?, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, 2005, pp. 62-3.]