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The Ask NT Writerite Anything podcast.

Hello and welcome once more to the Ask Entryte Anything podcast, the show where we try to answer your questions about the Christian faith, Bible and what it means to live for God.

I'm Mike Bird from Ridley College College and as always, I'm joined by

Tom Wright from Oxford in England. Tom, this week we have got some great questions. We've got

church membership. We've got the nature of worship. We've even got a question on what does

surprise by hope mean in Gaza? These are some

big things to explore. So let's kick off. Let's get straight into it with a question from

Derek Wilson in Dallas. He asked this, our church has a formal membership process. However, I have noticed a trend over the

past few years towards questioning the idea of church membership. Many churches in our part of the

world are moving away from formal membership and focusing on facilitating regular attenders. Does formal church membership stand on solid

biblical grounds? Tom, I can tell you, I've heard the same question as well. I've had people tell

me, what's the Greek word for annual general meeting? Or what's the Greek word for the treasurer's report?

Okay.

And I hear that that's just a lot of extraneous stuff, and we don't need it anymore.

Tom, what are your thoughts on formal church membership?

Yeah, I guess different churches have different kinds of formal membership. Certainly the average

Anglican parish church where I live will have what is called an electoral role, which is a strange

phrase. I never heard it when I was growing up until I was, I think, in my 20s and somebody started

mentioning, are you on the electoral role? And again, I want to say, like your friend,

what's the Greek for electoral role? And I'm thinking, did Paul in Corinth have an electoral role

...