Over the last few days i have been cramming for my Ministry of Pastor competence assessment.
Actually, it has been really helpful in reminding me what the church stands for, why the Uniting Church holds certain beliefs and why it behaves the way it does.
One thing that stood out, in light of some thinking I've been doing about people leaving church, was the weight the Basis of Union puts on church membership.
Personally, I've never made a massive deal about it, nor have i generally had it stressed to me.
Sure, you should be a committed member of a church, but (unless you want to take part in the decision making processes of the church) it hasn't been high on the agendas that i push.
In fact, i haven't even transferred my membership to my new church, nor have i looked into how i would make it happen. I don't know if i just start telling people, or there are papers to be processed and forms to be stamped.
But, a few people, when they have left the current church I'm at have sent resignation letters. Not just letters to the various teams that they were on, but a quite formal letter to the Church Council.
I'm not sure i would.
If i was hurt enough to leave a church, i probably wouldn't go to the effort to type up a diatribe, no matter how constructive my comments may be. Alternately, if i was departing on fond terms, i would say by farewells in person.
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