Moved Membership

[SamSimple]

Many years ago my membership was moved without my knowledge or permission.

It was many years ago, now, but I had taken a three-month temporary job in Kansas in the vicinity of an Adventist relative (1st cousin) and was residing, temporarily with her, using her guest bedroom at her invitation. (I have worked temporary jobs all my life; it was nothing new to family and friends.)  Unbeknownst to me she 'decided' I would keep the job permanently and live with her (she's a mite strong-willed... 😉).

One Sabbath when I was visiting a different Adventist church in the area, she told her pastor that I wanted my membership moved from a conference in a Mid-west union to her church. I did not know this took place until I went back home to the mid-west the following spring (five months later) after a second temp job.

I tried to get the membership back to the church it was in before but when it was sent for the Kansas church knew nothing about it. When I called the church clerk she never heard the name.  She said she'd been clerk for 35 years.  I called the conference offices of both the original and receiving conferences. The original conference said they sent it to Kansas conf. Kansas conf said they never received it. The relative said she was there for the first and the second reading of the membership transfer.

Is there a way to get my membership back?

I asked locally. They say only through Bible-studies and re-baptism and there will be a probationary period too before the re-membership is permanent. They claim they don't allow former members to join on profession of faith as they do other Christian denominations.

[Gregory Matthews]

The Seventh-day Adventist Church does allow former members and also current members to join on Profession of Faith.

Sometimes memberships get lost due to no fault on the part of the member.  Profession of Faith is the easiest way to correct that error.

The SDA Church does not have a "probationary period" as you have stated it above.

It looks to me like an individual congregation has set up individual rules that are not part of the official  rules of the SDA denomination.  

Do you have another local SDA congregation that you can attend?

 

 

[phkrause]

Wow that's crazy!! Sorry to hear that, hope you get this settled soon!!

[SamSimple]

Quote

The Seventh-day Adventist Church does allow former members and also current members to join on Profession of Faith.

Sometimes memberships get lost due to no fault on the part of the member.  Profession of Faith is the easiest way to correct that error.

The SDA Church does not have a "probationary period" as you have stated it above.

It looks to me like an individual congregation has set up individual rules that are not part of the official  rules of the SDA denomination.

Thanks for your input.

These rules, I was told, was standard Adventist protocol, even though not in the manual.  I relocated to and have been in this conference for over 20 years and the response to this question has been the same each time I have asked.

Churches here are few and far between.  And at different times, I have attended 3 of the churches regularly.  Closest church to me is 43 miles, I attended that one for two years. 2nd closest is 78 miles, I went to that church for three years. The farthest one was over 100 miles where I remained for two years before the gas prices got to me. All have the same policy as I stated in my original post. None are in the same district.

[Gregory Matthews]

I wish that I had a good answer for you.  But, I do not.  The reality is that individual congregations often do what they want to do and there is no good check on their ability to do what they want to do.

I will give a personal example:  At this time I was active in SDA ministry with credentials from the General Conference.  My wife and I decided to transfer our membership to another congregation that we had been attending for some time.  The congregation where we had our membership refused of grant a transfer.  They granted the transfer only after they were informed that on a specific Sabbath we would be accepted into membership by Profession of Faith..

[phkrause]

On 11/3/2023 at 5:16 PM, Gregory Matthews said:

I wish that I had a good answer for you.  But, I do not.  The reality is that individual congregations often do what they want to do and there is no good check on their ability to do what they want to do.

I will give a personal example:  At this time I was active in SDA ministry with credentials from the General Conference.  My wife and I decided to transfer our membership to another congregation that we had been attending for some time.  The congregation where we had our membership refused of grant a transfer.  They granted the transfer only after they were informed that on a specific Sabbath we would be accepted into membership by Profession of Faith..

That seems pretty crazy for churches to do!! Why would they not that?? It's not like your leaving the church to go to a different denomination, just going to a church that's near where you now live!! Is it that they don't want to give up the T&O or maybe even loose the membership amount so that they can get more money from the conference office or even the general conference office?? Pretty sad that churches would do that!!