Membership and Church Deserters

About 5 years ago, I got a call from the First Presbyterian Church in our town, informing me that I was on the inactive list, and wanted to know if I wanted to go back on the active list. I joined that church in 1977, and was a member until early 1978 when I joined East Baptist Church. I say this to give an example of how little some churches police their rolls. Part of the problem in this case is I do not believe our church informs other denominations of membership. It was part my fault for not informing them.

 

Tom, I understand your concerns, and in some cases I would agree. What our church secretary was doing was on an informal basis, not at the direction of the church. In the majority of cases, the inactive members had already made a decision to leave, but we had not been informed.

I understand the potential for problems if you have a large number of inactive members. However, there are more pressing real problems to be dealt with at the moment both inside and outside of the congregation. Potential problems will have to wait.

Tim Reynolds

 

Tim, thanks for the clarification. In the absence of a church policy, your church secretary probably didn't want to go further than she should.

And, I agree that having a bunch of inactive members is not a pressing problem. But the fact that it's not pressing usually means it gets ignored for years. I've seen it come back to bite a church when a controversial issue comes up and folks start wooing those inactive members to their side. So the answer is to have a policy. And if you have the policy, then it ought to be observed.

Whatever a church does, its aim is not to punish, but to be redemptive. The goal is to reclaim those folks, not just to stick them in some pigeonhole and ignore them.