it has come to my attention in the past few weeks that we in the wesleyan church are possibly in a bigger crisis then i thought. it has a lot to do with the idea of drinking and membership. before i go further let me tell you a story of some of the things that have gone on at pulaski wesleyan in the last 6 months or so.
we have 11 adult groups that meat in homes weekly to discuss sermons, have bible studies and create community, which we call mini-church. during one of the minichurchs membership was discussed and some in the group found out that the wesleyan stance on drinking.
one of these couples left the church over the idea. another couple decided to continue attending but at least for now not consider being a member. we like many other churches have tons of people within the church that partakes in the occasional beer or glass of wine. which i have no problem with.
we also have a couple in the church. the husband a covenant member and the wife a community member. reasons of which you might be able to figure out. not that the wife is a lush or that she even drinks, but she does want to necessarily feel covicted about the concept of having a drink.
i do not want to address the idea of member being able to drink. what i want to address is the concept of why do we have the covenant and community member. the couple that left the church did not leave the church because we say to be a member you must give up drinking. they had a problem with the idea of being second class members. what is the purpose for community membership. you still cannot vote or be involved on the board.
so what happens with all those in the church that do have an occasional beer?
more to be posted on this idea later. what do you think?
2 comments:
I think it is a great topic...but definitely a hard one! Stephen and I have talked about this a lot. We have people in our church that have refused membership because of the drinking issue. And you are right...what is the point of a community member??
I think that as drinking has become more of a social thing, not as a "let's party and get drunk" thing, this is causing a lot of responsible, great Christian people to have a hard time with this if they are learning what Wesleyans believe.
I see the importance of having standards for membership (not just drinking) - and I think any church would agree with that...each denomination just seems to differ on what that is of course. So either you agree to live by those standards and become a member, or you don't. But like you said, why have community members??
This was also an issue in my home church in Michigan...pastoral vote came up and he wanted the community members to be able to vote...and I guess if the board votes to allow that and/or the members vote to allow that, it is OK. Of course I am getting this all second hand, but it seems like maybe there is more to community membership that we realize.
Good thoughts...
Michelle
Community members have the power to vote on just about everything but the Board and the pastor. maybe a few other things but I am not sure. Simply put they are limited to "middle managment."
I think that Steve and Michelle are right in that the covenant members can extend the right to vote to community members but that dillutes the issue of membership even more. "Why be a covenant member when I can convince the church to extend most of the rights to me anyway?"
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