This is our church and we're doing a renovation. You know, churches are counting the cost of building this year because industry says that new church builds are around three to five hundred dollars a square foot, and renovation cost is even harder to guess once you open up the walls. You know, joining a church is free, obviously, but renovating it is expensive, and that illustrates the difference between salvation and discipleship. As Jesus said, eternal life is a free gift in Romans 6:23, but he used a building project as a metaphor for the cost of discipleship, something different. In Luke 14:28 he said, For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it? You see, your salvation is a free gift you just can't lose, but your discipleship, a kind of life renovation, is going to cost you quite a bit. So if you already have your free salvation by believing in Jesus, it's time to pick up that hammer and start your work.

Joining is free. The rebuild isn't. Same split as salvation and discipleship. One is a gift. The other is work. That's the whole argument of Salvation and Discipleship.