Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 08:24:54 -0400 From: Darrell Todd Maurina Reply-To: Darrell128@aol.com Organization: Christian Renewal/United Reformed News Service Subject: NR 98061: Inactive Membership Categories Approved for CRC NR #1998-061: Inactive Membership Categories Approved for CRC Deciding that the grounds of a Classis Atlantic Northeast overture drawing extensively from the procedures of the Reformed Church in America are "convincing" and that "the need for the new categories in the church membership is real," the Christian Reformed synod voted to establish an "inactive membership" category. The new category will be used for 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." NR #1998-061: For Immediate Release Inactive Membership Categories Approved for CRC by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. (June 17, 1998) URNS -- Deciding that the grounds of a Classis Atlantic Northeast overture drawing extensively from the procedures of the Reformed Church in America are "convincing" and that "the need for the new categories in the church membership is real," the Christian Reformed synod voted to establish an "inactive membership" category. The new category will be used for 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 argued 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. The new category of will allow churches to report the inactive members without being held responsible for paying denominational ministry shares on those members. 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. Synodical delegates approved the overture without much discussion, but even its advocates weren't enthusiastic. "I do think we need to look again at discipline in the church," said one Classis Kalamazoo delegate. "It's not a very long-term solution, but it is a solution until we get a long-term policy." No statistics exist to reliably predict how many of the CRC's 279,000 members will be reclassified as "inactive" once the new category becomes available next year. In the RCA, one-sixth of the denomination's 311,000 members -- 42,000 -- are classified as "inactive." Those inactive members aren't evenly distributed, however; some east coast classes such as the Classis of Schoharie in upstate New York report as many as 40% of their members as inactive, while some of the more conservative Canadian and midwestern RCA classes report an inactive rate of five percent or less. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1998-021: CRC Synod to Consider Inactive Membership Category 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. 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: nr98-061.txt .