Yes! God’s plan is to bring the Gospel to the world through local churches. The
Bible refers to both the universal church and local church with the word
ekklesia; however, ekklesia is predominately used to refer to the local church
– the church at Corinth, the church at Ephesus, the church at Harvest
Fellowship. Today, many Christians have been influenced by Western
individualism where they don’t see themselves as a part of a local family; they
mainly focus on their loose affiliation with the universal church. 

Church membership is when individual
Christians covenant with a local church, a local body of believers. What is a
covenant? A covenant is a binding, relational agreement between two
parties, in this case, the individual believer and the body of believers in a
local church. We commit to each other as a family. In many ways, we
surrender our autonomy. A covenant is not a club. We don’t shop around to
find out which church will best meet my needs and if it stops fulfilling me, I
just move on. God calls each of us to a local representation of His body – the
church is the body of Christ.

A. We submit to the leadership of the local church: Heb 13:7 and 17 states:
Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you…. Obey your
leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those
who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with
grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.