I'm a co-pastor of a new church plant in Silicon Valley. We are following a relational growth process rather than a big launch, getting ready to move from living room worship to an offsite location. I would like to hear from people who are doing something non-traditional in the way of membership. I'll toss out our current rambling, thoughts on the subject. The concept of relational community was secondary and partly due to a hostile culture.
Persecution has a natural way of clarifying where people stand in belief and commitment.
Today, in our culture, Church is seen as a relational community thing. Many people are members of churches but are not members of the body of Christ. Even in some evangelical settings, membership has more of an organizational basis than a theological basis. As postmoderns, looking to reach postmoderns, we are considering separating the functions and spheres of membership, and perhaps changing the labels as well. If they will - they are in, if they don't they are not.