From: Darrell128 Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 19:16:16 EDT Subject: NR 98021: CRC Synod to Consider Inactive Membership Category Based on RCA Procedures NR #1998-021: Christian Reformed Synod to Consider "Inactive Membership Category" Based on Reformed Church in America Procedures Should the Christian Reformed Church have an "inactive membership" category to classify professing members of local churches "who for one year have not made faithful use of the means of grace, especially the hearing of the Word and the Lord's Supper" or who "have a relationship to the congregation which has ceased for one year?" Classis Atlantic Northeast and CRC General Secretary Dr. David Engelhard both think so. In an overture drawing extensively from the procedures of the Reformed Church in America, the denomination from which the CRC seceded in 1857, Classis Atlantic Northeast argues that "inactive members are a reality in virtually every church, but the churches are dealing with the reporting of "inactive' members in a variety of ways." According to the classis, "establishing this new category will encourage consistency in how our churches report these members. This consistency will assist in accurate year to year comparisons, and increase our ability to exercise mutual accountability." While Engelhard and Vis both said the proposed adoption of the Reformed Church in America "inactive member" definition would help standardize membership reporting, the chairman of the overtures and judicial business committee in the RCA's largest regional synod noted that the RCA definitions create their own ambiguities and result in frequent requests to him and others for advice on how to interpret the church order. "I make use of the list because it is something that is part of our system, but it isn't a system that I would recommend to anyone," said Rev. Pat Shetler, overtures and judicial business chairman of the Regional Synod of the Great Lakes. "It just delays the action of elders in working with people. I think there's some good use of it, such as when people move out of town being kept on the rolls, but you don't need a special category for that." NR 1998-021: For Immediate Release Christian Reformed Synod to Consider "Inactive Membership Category" Based on Reformed Church in America Procedures by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (April 15, 1998) URNS -- Should the Christian Reformed Church have an "inactive membership" category to classify professing members of local churches "who for one year have not made faithful use of the means of grace, especially the hearing of the Word and the Lord's Supper" or who "have a relationship to the congregation which has ceased for one year?" Classis Atlantic Northeast and CRC General Secretary Dr. David Engelhard both think so. In an overture drawing extensively from the procedures of the Reformed Church in America, the denomination from which the CRC seceded in 1857, Classis Atlantic Northeast argues that "inactive members are a reality in virtually every church, but the churches are dealing with the reporting of "inactive' members in a variety of ways." According to the classis, "establishing this new category will encourage consistency in how our churches report these members. This consistency will assist in accurate year to year comparisons, and increase our ability to exercise mutual accountability." One complicating factor in the Christian Reformed situation is that each church is billed over $249.90 per professing member by the denomination for its ministries, and classes generally add additional per-member amounts for the churches within their region. Citing a study conducted by a Calvin Seminary student, Classis Atlantic Northeast noted that "additions and declines from year to year did not add up for many churches, which is probably at least in part due to the matter of inactive member reporting and the fact that churches have to pay ministry shares based on the number of confessing members over the age of eighteen they report." "In fact, some churches have been called and have explicitly stated that they remove inactive members from the numbers they report to the Yearbook in order to avoid paying ministry share for people who are no longer present in the ministry of the congregation," noted the overture. As a result of the inconsistency, Classis Atlantic Northeast argued that "regardless of how many churches are thus under-reporting their membership, the fact that it is being done creates a number of problems," including different standards for ministry share contributions and pension assessments, that "Accurate and meaningful tracking of the denomination's impact in reaching and serving God's people cannot be done," and that "mutual accountability is damaged" because "we cannot encourage one another to "be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood' (Acts 20:28, NIV) when we do not have any way of knowing how many of the sheep may be straying from the fold." Overture author Rev. Bill Vis of Pleasant Street CRC in Whitinsville, Mass., acknowledged the financial questions but said he hoped debate on the inactive membership overture wouldn't focus on financial issues. "If we can simply make members disappear it becomes easy to cease dealing with them as elders; there is no cost, there's no public awareness," said Vis. "A significant number of churches, whatever the percentage, are not reporting inactive members so a church visitor coming in cannot even inquire as to what the council is doing to encourage these members because nobody outside the council knows they exist." Vis, who has served nine years as a classical church visitor in Classis Atlantic Northeast and Classis Florida, estimated that half of the denomination's congregations are under-reporting membership statistics -- a suspicion confirmed by his request to his own classis, where in a show of hands, slightly over half of the churches were not reporting all members to the denominational yearbook. Vis said that in his experience, ten to fifteen percent of the membership rolls of a typical Christian Reformed congregation would be classified as "inactive members" by the definition used in his overture. "I have no doubt that the Christian Reformed Church is significantly larger than the numbers being actively reported," said Vis. "It also seems to me that the real number to work with is the active number; if people want to play around with the larger number I'd say let them go ahead and do it." According to Vis, Classis Atlantic Northeast delegates largely supported the overture and the only delegate expressing concerns didn't oppose its adoption by synod. "The pastor strongly supported the need for the overture, but he expressed the sense, with which I agree by the way, that the fact this overture is needed is a sign of the reality that the CRC has lost a certain high commitment that was more common in the days when it was an ethnic covenant community," said Vis. "I think we need this overture, but I think it is a sign that the strong loyalty that used to mark the membership is no longer there," Vis said. Vis' supporters included the administrative head of the Christian Reformed Church, who noted that he would have submitted a similar proposal if Vis hadn't done so. "I am not happy with the term inactive membership in the church, but the fact is such people exist," said Engelhard. "The interesting thing is Bill Vis and I had the same idea about the same day, we happened to talk to each other about it. I brought a similar proposal to the board, and the board judged, I think best, that since it was coming from a classis it should be left there." Engelhard said the inactive membership overture would be among the more closely-watched items by his office at synod. "I will watch it very closely and with great interest," said Engelhard. "I think it's helpful to give us a more honest appraisal of the people our churches have under their spiritual care, rather than congregations simply not reporting on some of their membership because they know that if they do, they now have to pay ministry share on them." While Engelhard and Vis both said the proposed adoption of the Reformed Church in America "inactive member" definition would help standardize membership reporting, the chairman of the overtures and judicial business committee in the RCA's largest regional synod noted that the RCA definitions create their own ambiguities and result in frequent requests to him and others for advice on how to interpret the church order. "I make use of the list because it is something that is part of our system, but it isn't a system that I would recommend to anyone," said Rev. Pat Shetler, overtures and judicial business chairman of the Regional Synod of the Great Lakes. "It just delays the action of elders in working with people. I think there's some good use of it, such as when people move out of town being kept on the rolls, but you don't need a special category for that." "A lot of people ask advice as to how to apply this, and we say use your own common sense," said Shetler. "Some read it to say if you attend once a year you're okay, others say if you attend the Lord's Supper once per year you're okay. The idea is to let the elders use their own common sense as it applies to their own situation." Common examples of confusion, according to Shetler, focus on how to classify nursing home residents and others who cannot attend church services. Some congregations report over half of their members as "inactive," and some classes half almost two-thirds of their members on inactive status. "You can see some abuses, all you have to do is look through the orange book and see examples of it," said Shetler. "In the RCA we tie assessments to the active member list, so you get church treasurers saying, "Let's prune the rolls as much as we can.' That isn't a good idea to tie assessments to the active membership list, and I would hope that isn't one of the reasons the CRC would go to that." "The practice I think differs from Reformed church to Reformed church as to how they interpret what the minimum standards of membership are; I don't think there's been done anything formally at the General Synod level where they've asked for a concrete definition of what an inactive member is," said Shetler. "One thing in terms of RCA membership is we have 310,000 members, but if you subtract the 43,000 that are currently on the inactive membership list, you really have 270,000 members." Despite the administrative problems, Shetler said the biggest problem with "inactive membership" is the lack of biblical support for the concept. "There is no such thing as an inactive member, that's an oxymoron, there is a lack of biblical qualification for this," said Shetler. "I think it really comes down to the question of how much the church is going to practice ecclesiastical discipline, and secondly, is the time of the elders best spent trying to renew inactive members or best spent trying to bring new members into the church of Jesus Christ," said Shetler. "My practical experience in the ministry is churches are going to be better blessed being evangelistic in their outlook rather than trying to bring back members who have already expressed their lack of interest in that particular church by walking out the door, when we know the recovery rates are going to be dramatically low." The Atlantic Northeast overture addresses some of the problems Shetler said exist in the RCA, and specifically notes that military service and residence in a nursing home do not lead to placement on the inactive list. The RCA does have church discipline procedures to process admonition, rebuke, suspension, and excommunication, but also allows inactive members to be simply struck from the membership rolls by vote of the elders after a year of inactive membership; the proposed CRC process would require existing church order procedures to be used for any inactive member removals. Vis said one benefit of inactive membership lists would be to prevent large numbers of inactive members from being lost to reporting or pastoral care by the local church elders. "If the number begins to exceed fifteen percent I would rather have that data on the table so we can encourage one another in this regard rather than have it hidden," said Vis. Cross-References to Related Articles: [No related articles on file] Contact List: Dr. David Engelhard, General Secretary, Christian Reformed Church in North America 2850 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49560 O: (616) 246-0744 * H: (616) 243-2418 * FAX: (616) 246-0834 * E-Mail: engelhad@crcna.org Rev. Patrick Shetler, Pastor, First Reformed Church 271 E. State Rd., PO Box 365, Grant, MI 49327 O: (616) 834-8668 * H: (616) 834-7246 * E-Mail: grantreformedchurch@worldnet.att.net Rev. William Vis, Pastor, Pleasant Street Christian Reformed Church 25 Cross St., Whitinsville, MA 01588 O: (508) 234-2399 * H: (508) 234-7756 * E-Mail: billvis@kersur.net ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive98: nr98-021.txt (reformatted 5-6-98) .