I attended an apostate church this morning.

Unfortunately, it was my own.

The pastors of the Takoma Park Church have ceased to follow proper procedure in voting membership transfers. Their procedure has been iffy throughout this structural dispute, but they have now gone to blatantly ignoring the rules set forth in the Manual.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, this is what the Church Manual instructs (p.36), "Application for a letter should be made to the clerk of the church with which the member desires to unite. The clerk then sends the request to the clerk of the church from which the member desires to be transferred. On receiving this, the clerk brings the request to the pastor or to the church elder, who in turn lays the request before the church board. After due consideration the board recommends to the church, favorably or otherwise, concerning the application. The pastor or elder then brings the recommendation to the attention of the church, announcing that this is the first reading. Final action is taken the following week, when the request is again presented and a vote of the church is taken."

I bring this up because there have been first and second readings of membership transfers listed in our bulletin for the last three weeks. None of these names were taken to the church board, or even to the church ministries board. What's even worse, the names that were second readings last week were not actually voted on, nor were the names that were second readings this week! We hold two services at Takoma Park. It had occurred to me that perhaps this essential action had been taken at the one I didn't attend, so I made inquiries. It had not. Such an omission might be attributed to forgetfulness once, but if that was the case it should be fixed the next week. The same thing happening two weeks in a row (with no attempt at correction) makes it obvious that the omission was intentional. (I can only guess that the pastors are embarrassed to call attention to the transfers because there are far more going out than coming in. Of those leaving a substantial majority are going to other local churches, which makes it pretty obvious that the move is the result of being unhappy with this congregation, not geographical relocation.)

This brings me back to the title of this post. The central premise of this blog and the efforts of the Group over these last two years is that the Church Manual is what defines who we are as Seventh-day Adventists. Therefore, when we ignore its instructions we cease to be Seventh-day Adventists. This matter of handling membership transfers is just the latest in a long stream of Manual violations perpetrated by our pastors that have gradually taken the Takoma Park Church further and further away from Adventism, and the "intervention" of the Potomac Conference has accomplished absolutely nothing by way of correcting these problems.

I attended an apostate church this morning. Unfortunately, it was my own.