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RZehr wrote:When someone is already a member of a similar church, they are not starting on the ground floor. These people are simply transferring their membership from one church to the next. Unlike a new applicant, they don't need to prove anything. Usually their old church will send a membership transfer letter to the new church vouching for this persons sincerity and wishing the Lords blessing on them.

We tried to start "on the ground floor." Our previous church would have written a letter, we asked them to save the ink. There were others who left at the same time to join what I feel is a Bible believing church, but their membership was terminated immediately, no recommendation was going to be forthcoming. We didn't want any different treatment than others who left at the same time, so asked to have our membership terminated as well. This was done with some reluctance.

I don't want to join a church unless the decision that I'm an acceptable candidate for membership comes from their personal observation.

Signtist wrote:

RZehr wrote:When someone is already a member of a similar church, they are not starting on the ground floor. These people are simply transferring their membership from one church to the next. Unlike a new applicant, they don't need to prove anything. Usually their old church will send a membership transfer letter to the new church vouching for this persons sincerity and wishing the Lords blessing on them.

We tried to start "on the ground floor." Our previous church would have written a letter, we asked them to save the ink. There were others who left at the same time to join what I feel is a Bible believing church, but their membership was terminated immediately, no recommendation was going to be forthcoming. We didn't want any different treatment than others who left at the same time, so asked to have our membership terminated as well. This was done with some reluctance.

I don't want to join a church unless the decision that I'm an acceptable candidate for membership comes from their personal observation.

I agree with your point about personal observation. I shouldn't have said that a relocating member doesn't have to prove anything. I was thinking that in comparison with a new believer, there is less to prove or it is easier to prove, if the transfer has a history of living for Christ. In my experience, a transfer usually attends the new church for 6 months to a year or more before they ask, or they are asked to join. This is to get to know and observe each other. By the time membership is tabled, any proving is done and membership transfer is quite straightforward.

I'm curious about your request for termination. In retrospect, would you do that again, or recommend it? It seems odd to me.

RZehr wrote:I'm curious about your request for termination. In retrospect, would you do that again, or recommend it? It seems odd to me.

In any case, this is what the net result would have been since skipping 3 communion services means you're out. We were not planning on joining our new church just yet, and they (previous church's leadership) had a decision to make since the 18 month mark was up. So I helped them make it. Scratch our names off the roll, and we won't ever ask for your stamp of approval when we do join elsewhere. Not sure I have an opinion about doing it this way again. It worked for us. And while no one else knew or cared, I didn't have to feel like we had a special treatment compared to our friends who had membership terminated immediately.

Signtist wrote:

RZehr wrote:I'm curious about your request for termination. In retrospect, would you do that again, or recommend it? It seems odd to me.

In any case, this is what the net result would have been since skipping 3 communion services means you're out. We were not planning on joining our new church just yet, and they (previous church's leadership) had a decision to make since the 18 month mark was up. So I helped them make it. Scratch our names off the roll, and we won't ever ask for your stamp of approval when we do join elsewhere. Not sure I have an opinion about doing it this way again. It worked for us. And while no one else knew or cared, I didn't have to feel like we had a special treatment compared to our friends who had membership terminated immediately.

Oh, I thought by terminated, you meant that you asked to be excommunicated. I thought that your friends were excommunicated, and so you asked to be as well. I'm not sure why I thought that.

RZehr wrote:When someone is already a member of a similar church, they are not starting on the ground floor. These people are simply transferring their membership from one church to the next. Unlike a new applicant, they don't need to prove anything. Usually their old church will send a membership transfer letter to the new church vouching for this persons sincerity and wishing the Lords blessing on them.

Would this happen for the "anabaptist escalator" change?
E.g., would ultra-conservatives or intermediate-conservatives write such letters for a change to moderate- or fundamental-conservative settings?

cmbl wrote:

RZehr wrote:When someone is already a member of a similar church, they are not starting on the ground floor. These people are simply transferring their membership from one church to the next. Unlike a new applicant, they don't need to prove anything. Usually their old church will send a membership transfer letter to the new church vouching for this persons sincerity and wishing the Lords blessing on them.

Would this happen for the "anabaptist escalator" change?
E.g., would ultra-conservatives or intermediate-conservatives write such letters for a change to moderate- or fundamental-conservative settings?

I think there would normally be some conversation and questions with the leaders of the applicants old church.
For example, if someone from NWF or Eastern wanted to join our church (Western Fellowship) well, we already know how NWF & Eastern feel about us. And we know that they will have serious concerns and reservations about the candidates direction. And so the letters we'd receive from them will be graded on a curve.
We don't expect them write a glowing endorsement of the transfer but any specific things mentioned are useful and would be taken seriously.

Since by the time the person applies for membership he will have typically been attending here and living among us for a year, often we would actually be more current with how this person is doing than the old church back east. And often this reality is acknowledged in the church letter.

I think this would be the same if one of our people left for a moderate or fundamental conservative church.
Some of what I'm saying here could be off a little, but I think it is basically the norm. I'm not a preacher so I don't know all the details.