The Body of Christ
I have many fond memories of the church I grew up in. Julie and I even went back to that church to be married. And while I transferred my membership to my college church a number of years ago, I'm still listed as an "associate member", or something of that sort. Basically I still get the mailings.
It was with great sadness, then, that I received a letter today saying that the church council had adopted a definition of membership at their meeting over the summer. In order to be a voting/active member, you must have communed and contributed at least once within the current or previous year. So at the end of this year, if you haven't been to commune and given offering (that was actually attributed to you, not just anonymous cash) since January 2007, they will consider you to have moved on and no longer a member.
Am I wrong to think that it's not a very Christian thing to have to pay to be a member of the church? Not that one shouldn't tithe, I just think it shouldn't be compelled in such a fashion.
It was with great sadness, then, that I received a letter today saying that the church council had adopted a definition of membership at their meeting over the summer. In order to be a voting/active member, you must have communed and contributed at least once within the current or previous year. So at the end of this year, if you haven't been to commune and given offering (that was actually attributed to you, not just anonymous cash) since January 2007, they will consider you to have moved on and no longer a member.
Am I wrong to think that it's not a very Christian thing to have to pay to be a member of the church? Not that one shouldn't tithe, I just think it shouldn't be compelled in such a fashion.