INTERVIEW WITH DR. LAYTON FRIESEN

Layton points out that it’s not just Anabaptists—that there is near universal consensus that when you are baptized you join the church in a visible, local sense. If they so clearly belong together, why is there pushback?
This is the wrong time of history to loosen the connection between baptism and membership Layton says—it creates spiritual loneliness in a time when people are already lonely. How would you define spiritual loneliness? Is it something you have felt? Do you sense that others around you might be spiritually lonely?
Layton, like most of the guests today, links formal membership to full engagement in the life of the church. In your own church experience (or that of your family and friends), was there a noticeable difference in how connected you were to others in the body, and in your spiritual growth, before and after you became a member? In other words, are these closely linked in practice? When someone is accepted as a member, does connection and spiritual growth automatically follow in a way they wouldn’t without having been accepted formally?
Although Layton believes that baptism and membership belong together, he urges us to examine our membership requirements to ensure they line up with the New Testament? In Anabaptist churches, becoming a member often includes agreement with distinctives of our theological tradition? Do you think these requirements are appropriate and right, or do they go beyond the New Testament and need to be rethought?

Does baptism without membership create spiritual loneliness?