MESSAGE FROM RICKY

Dear Friends,

I’m often asked by people, “how many church members do we have?” Sometimes it’s asked out of simple curiosity and sometimes it’s asked as a sign of church health. Numbers of church members are important because each number represents a person that is loved by God. Some churches are better at keeping records than others, and so the United Methodist Church asks local congregations to periodically conduct an audit of the church roll.

This June we’ll be sending out letters to every person on our roll asking them to confirm their contact information and update their membership record if there have been any changes. United Methodists also have a few different “categories” of membership, so I thought I would do a quick refresher on that as well.

  • Professing Members- adult full members and students who have been confirmed.
  • Preparatory Members- baptized children who have not yet been confirmed.
  • Affiliate Members- adults who have “affiliated” with our congregation, but hold their primary membership in a congregation located elsewhere. 
  • Constituents- spouses of members or unbaptized children.

No matter your membership status, all people are welcome to worship and participate in the activities of our church! We just want to make sure we’ve got as accurate a roll as we can so that at the end of the summer when someone asks, “How many members do we have?” I can let them know!

Grace and Peace,
Ricky

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