Curious

I don't know about other churches, but all requests for transfer of membership by letter are brought to the congregation at a regular business meeting, voted on and recorded in the minutes.

Sometimes the pastor will write a note about our former member. Most of the time it is to alert the new pastor of the member's gifts and abilities. Sometimes it is to alert the pastor of the former member's inactivity, and express pleasure that that he is back in church.

 

Our church is in a suburb of a large city which sees lots of people come and go throughout the year. Given our size and velocity in membership turnover from people just moving away from the area it would be quite a thing to publish the names. Also, some people don't feel comfortable having their name out there (we don't publish new member names either...but that is primarily because our worship guide is very simple.)

I will say that as we are able we try to do an "exit interview" with folks who have been members and are leaving. We ask some direct questions and give them a forum in which they can respond with enough anonymity that it produces an honest answer. This has helped our ministry greatly.