# Church Attendance of Members



## rbcbob (Feb 20, 2012)

What, if any, consequences are there for members of your church whose attendance is sporadic or even seldom? I would be interested to learn how this is managed in the several different communions represented on the board.


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## GulfCoast Presbyterian (Feb 20, 2012)

After a couple weeks, you get a call from your Deacon assigned to your family to make sure you are OK. After a month or so a visit from RE/TE's to see if things are OK, help needed, issues to be addressed and so forth.


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## rbcbob (Feb 20, 2012)

Thanks Mark. Could such member or members continue with such attendance patterns indefinitely without liability?


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## GulfCoast Presbyterian (Feb 20, 2012)

No. There is a period, and I cannot remember how long, after which non-attendence will essentially deny communion and get a person stricken from the membership rolls.


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## Edward (Feb 20, 2012)

It's probably easier to disappear from a large church than from a small one. But if someone isn't coming, it needs to be screened first for diaconal need, second for disciplinary issues.


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## Scott1 (Feb 20, 2012)

There have been times in the past where Diaconate was responsible to follow-up confidentially if a member missed four Lord's Days in a row. That would be a mercy focus.

Members that leave ordinarily have an exit interview with the Elders, consistent with their vows.

At some point, failing to worship corporately would be a disorderly life pattern, and would be failure of a man in leading his family in that way.

But I'm not sure when that would be, and see great difficulty practically implementing that as a matter of discipline.


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## Jack K (Feb 20, 2012)

It seems to me the tough cases are those situations where folks are contacted and say they're committed to the church, don't have any particular life issues they're going through, want to stay on as members... but only show up once a month or maybe even less often.

Both the church I attend now and the large PCA I used to attend would probably try to disciple such people with an eye toward building up their faith in all areas of life, including regular church attendance. But in most cases and in the absence of other grievous and unrepentant sin, I doubt either church would get so tough with them as to revoke their membership. Both churches would tend to try gentler persuasion.

The question of whether of not that's the best way to disciple a person is, of course, another issue.


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## Rich Koster (Feb 20, 2012)

From the missing member's prospective: I notify the elders/deacons when I'm going to be a no show. I let them know why I'm not going to be there. When I was doing hospice care, I was a no show for 5 weeks, but they were kept up to date.

When I served on the elder board: If a regular/member was missing after 2 weeks, a contact was made. It was to make sure everything was OK. If not the course of action depended on why. If it was a conflict, resolution was the goal. If it was "I'm leaving the church", we would try to find out why. Other issues were also part of the mix, such as travel, shift work etc.. This was a large 5 point/non-confessional congregation where discipline was the last resort and seldom brought up.


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## Pergamum (Feb 20, 2012)

I have only seen/heard of discipline or corrective counseling happen in two cases regarding church attendance, and both cases had negative results:

(1) The first case was when the elder sent a letter of warning to a church member about her failure to attend "all scheduled meetings of the church" and she got mad (she often missed Sunday nights, stating that she didn't want to drive that far at night. Many reformed churches are commuter churches and some folks drive 45 minutes each way to church, making it hard for some on Sunday nights). She responded by stopping any attendance at all, offended that a "warning" came in letter form instead of someone calling her or talking to her face to face. 

(2) My wife and I moved (we moved often for awhile due to the military and due to pre-field training) and were attending a church that was newly forming. We began to attend Sunday night at another fellowship to make sure of our church choice before we committed to membership. The elders asked about this and then stated that once the church formed, we would be expected to attend both morning and night. So, rather than have one foot on two different ships, our choice was made and we went to this other church, which had stronger preaching anyway. 


I know of one church, however, that saw that a large burden was on the congregation due to having 2 services a day (am and pm) when they were largely a commuter church (some people driving almost an hour each way), and so this church responded by holding a morning service, followed by a noon meal and then an early afternoon service, which then allowed church members to get home in the afternoon to rest. This seemed to have positive results.


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## jwithnell (Feb 20, 2012)

Those missing services are taken out and flogged.

Seriously, if we miss even a single service, we get a call, most likely from the assumption that something must be really wrong. 

From another church, I can raise a concern. People should not, in my opinion, simply disappear and be erased from the records. Though I had moved, this happened to me at a time in my life when follow-up might have really made a difference. "So where are you attending now? Are you likely to join ..."


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## Andres (Feb 20, 2012)

From the BCO 2.A.5: 



> When a member, without adequate reason, persists in attending a church of another denomination in preference to his own, or persistently and over an extended period of time, absents himself from the stated services of the church, his name may be erased from the roll according to the following procedures: he shall be earnestly and personally dealt with by the session. If this effort fails, he shall be notified that at a meeting of the session not less than two months later his standing shall be reviewed. The session shall inform him of the time, date, and place of this meeting and invite him to show why his name should not be erased from the roll. If satisfactory reasons are not presented, the session shall erase his name from the roll, record the circumstances in its minutes, and send notification to him.



Of course, the key here would be "_persistently and over an extended period of time_, absents himself from the stated services of the church". 

EDIT: Upon further thought, while the above sentence is imperative to the ultimate decision of erasure, I would amend my words to say the key would be "he shall be earnestly and personally dealt with by the session". I believe several posters above have given good example of what this ranges from.

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Rich Koster said:


> From the missing member's prospective: I notify the elders/deacons when I'm going to be a no show. I let them know why I'm not going to be there.



From a ruling elder's perspective, oh that more members would have this mindset, brother!


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## dudley (Feb 20, 2012)

Our church has a sheet in a leather folder where all people sign the service they attended. There is a folder in every pew. You check if you are a member , or a visitor. If a person is absent for 3 or more weeks one of the pastors or a deacon will make a call to see if all is ok. They will encourage the person or family to try to attend regularly and participate in weekly services. Right now the interim Pastor is doing the Gospel of Mark with weekly themes. He is also covering each week what we as Presbyterians believe. Each week a banner representing the different confessions of the Reformed Protestant church is hung in the sanctuary. The essence of the confession is summarized and explained. 

Also visitors are followed up with a call and an invitation to explore the Presbyterian church at a seekers and joiners class which is conducted 4 times a year. I attend services every week and also an adult Sunday school class. I spend the entire morning at the First Presbyterian church. I may go to the 8AM communion service then attend the adult Sunday school class given by the associate pastor Dave at 9;30 AM and then I usually stay for social socializing with coffee etc in fellowship hall from 11 till when ever. If I don’t make the communion service I then attend the 11 AM service.

We have over 700 members and every seekers and joiners class has at least one Roman catholic attending. We have seen a large number of Roman Catholics becoming Presbyterians , I am one of them.


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