Church Membership Updates?

You're right. The people and pastor of the church have a responsibility to care for one another. That includes showing concern when someone is out of a service.

Putting someone out of membership should only be the action taken when it is certain an individual is choosing to not attend services and when all other avenues have been exhausted.

Putting someone out of membership, by the way, is not the same as using church discipline.

 

What if they have moved to the city and have never returned and you don't know their address?

 

My goodness, do you know so little about your church members that you can't ask a SS member or neighbor for an address?

See, this is how I see the problem: Christians are much to loosely bound to each other nowdays. Everyone thinks that someone else is taking care of problems, talking to new members, visiting those who missed service, but no one is really DOING these things. Communication today is easy, but folks just don't take the time.

If someone moved to the city, then someone else knows where they've gone. Moving doesn't happen overnight. It takes planning and it's usually an exciting happening and they've told someone. That "someone" is simply unaware that you need the information.

We as churches need to do a better job of looking after those folks we've accepted as brothers and sisters.

 

Then they have essentially withdrawn their membership I would say.

I'll second menageriekeeper's comments.

The Christian church used to be, and in some places still is, a close family unit. Could your mother move to the city and your not know?

 

Be nice if it was a perfect world wouldn't it and mnw my mother passed away on June 12th 1995.

 

Sorry Brother Bob, just was looking for a family member as an example...

 

NP

 

Ever known a person who was discipled or being discipled who skips church on a regular basis? That is a very good reason to constantly keep in touch with people on a personal level. Every church I pastored and Sunday School I taught I had people assigned to keep account of people each week and during the week. I took that very seriously. In one church I pastored was an elderly lady who did not show up one Sunday and someone went to check on her and found she had fallen and could not get up. We got her medical attention. It was quite a testimony to her non-believing children and neighbors that someone from the church would care enough to check on her regularly.

I am a firm believer that we should teach the young people to appreciate the elderly and care for them. When I noticed that the lady was unable to clean her home very well I asked the most meticulous lady in the church if she could get together a team of people to help that lady. They did and came to church on Sunday thanking me for the opportunity. Out of that came a team of ladies who started a ministry of caring for the elderly. Some of those ladies were in their 80s and 20s. When people care enough to care for those who cannot, it gives a dimension to the church that you cannot build any other way.

 

gb93433;
I find that a very good way to Pastor a church. I personally do not choose to start removing names from our list for I live in a place where almost everyone is family or at least have grown up together and as I stated before, if they still lived around here and was bringing the church down with their actions I would deal with it but they are never mentioned in no way whatsoever and in no way harming the church so I choose to let it be.

Blessings
BBob

 

I guess I have a hard time with this. According to the majority on this board Baptist can drink beer, smoke, listen to rock music and now not even come to the services and God will still bless them? I DON'T THINK SO! We have gotten WAYYYYYYY off track. If a person claims to be a Christian they will want to be in church! If that person has no desire to be in the services...that tells me something. What is the first thing a new born baby wants to do? EAT! Same thing for a Christian. Anybody that only comes to church 3 or 4 times a year is a very sick christian. I don't care how nice they are or how good a job they have or how old they are. A Christian HAS a desire to be in church! Any member that misses 6 months of services should have NO right to vote. Any member that misses a year of services in our church is OUT OF THERE! Thank You

 

Nicholas25 said:

Nicholas, this raises the question, why do you enjoy attending church and about 70% of the members on the roll (at my church, anyway) do not? What's the difference?

Another question is, why should we have to visit chronic absentees over and over again to beg them to come to church? Or, why do they have to be begged in the first place? Believers shouldn't have to be begged.

One of our deacons--I think it was Saturneptune--contacted one of those long-time absentees, and was told basically that they weren't coming back, but still wanted their name on the roll. (Saturneptune, if I haven't told this right, please set the record straight).

As I see it, we're discussing how do deal with a problem at the back door, when we need to do a better job at the front door. Remember, somebody baptized these folks and admitted them to membership in the first place.

In most Baptist churches, it's easy to get in and almost impossible to get out. It should be the opposite.