Articles of religion

How I’d change them

 

It is time to “fish or cut bait.”  I’ve written for weeks about membership in general terms but I’ve suggested nothing very specific nor stated the actual changes I’d make in my own denomination’s “membership standards.”  My readers have been grateful for the insights but have been nagging me by saying in their emails the familiar, “So, what do you think?” They expect me to suggest how I would change membership standards in my own denomination if I were in charge.  So, if you are not a Wesleyan (and most of my reader aren’t) go read something else, this is for readers in my own denomination, The Wesleyan Church.  Here is what I’d do if I were in charge.

 

First I should point out I am not in charge.  I hold no denominational office, serve on no denominational committees and won’t be voting on most of what I am about to suggest.  In short I have little vested interest and gain or lose little whatever my denomination does.  I am a retired denominational leader who has full confidence in the church to decide these matters without advice from me or anyone else.  Yet I have raised the issue and my readers are right to “call” and insist I state my preferred position since I have opinions about just about everything else, why not this? 

 

So, given this disclaimer here goes.  I’m not out to convince you of anything, or to get into an argument with you.  I just hope I can get you to do what I’m about to do—go on record with some ideas.  If you don’t like my solutions, fine—write your own then advocate for them in the marketplace of ideas where these decisions will be made.  If my solutions get you to think things through I’ve accomplished my goal—getting you to think.

My denomination has three[1] primary sections related to membership:

 

·        Articles of Religion (21 mostly doctrinal statements based on the old Methodist and Anglican teaching with an American holiness “spin.”)

 

·        Membership Commitments (mostly lifestyle behaviors “Covenant Members” commit to live by)

 

·        Special Directions (Admonitions to members but not commitments—what our church teaches its members and our collective admonitions to ourselves—“what to expect to hear” at our churches but less than “promises” members make.)

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