The Epic, Pt. 73

Pastor DeSilva had claimed since the institution of the altered governance structure that the Group had been inhibiting his ability to minister effectively, and that this was the reason the church had not prospered under the altered structure. The Group couldn’t see how addressing concerns through proper channels could constitute an impediment to ministry, but with the passage of the executive committee’s recommendations the Group decided it was time to step back and see what Pastor DeSilva would do in implementing them and growing the church.

The newly renamed church board didn’t meet in either August or September of 2009. What did happen during those months (or more precisely, between July 25 and September 26, 2009) was a series of illegitimate membership transfers. This subject was touched on briefly in the post, I attended an apostate church this morning, posted August 8, 2009.

Briefly, the proper procedure for membership transfers is for the name to be brought before the church board and approved, then given first and second readings by being printed in the church bulletin on two consecutive weeks, and finally to be voted on by the church on the second week that it appears in the bulletin. This process is gone through first in the congregation that the member is leaving, and then again in the congregation they are joining. The transfer is not considered complete until the receiving congregation notifies the departing congregation that the member has been voted in at the new church. All of this is detailed in the Church Manual.

What happened during these two months was that 18 membership transfers were printed in the bulletin for first and second readings without having been first brought before the church board. Even worse, no vote of the church was taken regarding any of these names. Of those 18, three were transfers in and 15 were transfers out.

The Group was dumbfounded by this blatant disregard for Church Manual procedure, particularly in light of the fact that membership transfers had been brought up during the business meeting on July 19, 2009 as a function of the church board which had been ignored under the altered governance and Pastor DeSilva had specifically stated that improper handling of transfers, “can’t happen any more if we take this vote.”

Finally, a member of the Group, Elder E, confronted Pastor DeSilva about this impropriety during an elders’ meeting, pointing out to Pastor DeSilva the specific portions of the Church Manual pertaining to membership transfers. The justification she was given for the way transfers had been conducted recently was truly fantastic. She was told that it was an oversight on their part—the transfers should not have been put in the bulletin and not voted by the congregation because all transfers were now handled by the General Conference. Supposedly, all the churches do now is the application for transfer. It then goes to the GC and they do the rest. Afterwards, the churches are told that it is okay. Then they put it in the bulletin and the church votes. We aren’t clear on how putting the names in the bulletin was an oversight if the final step in this supposed new process is for the names to appear and be voted on as usual, but it doesn’t matter because none of this is true.

This “explanation” is an imaginative spin on a new service being offered by the North American Division. Simply, this service allows church clerks throughout the division to connect electronically to send the relevant data about transfers back and forth. This reduces the time involved in the process stipulated by the Manual, but does not in any way alter the steps, much less take over the task of approving or disapproving of transfers. Quite frankly, it is ludicrous to think that the General Conference could consider and approve every transfer for its over 16 million members worldwide.

The evidence presented by Elder E did seem to ultimately have an effect. Pastor DeSilva never admitted that there had been any impropriety in the 18 transfers over these two months, but by the time the church board finally met in October he was touting the incident as an example of how he would make corrects in procedure if anyone pointed out to him that the Manual stipulated anything that he wasn’t currently doing. (We’ll explain the context of this statement when we describe the October church board meeting.)

There is one other thing we need to say while on the subject of membership transfers at Takoma Park. It is our understanding from various sources that there is a backlog of transfers out. We can only imagine that Pastor DeSilva is refusing to act on them because he doesn’t want it publicly seen just how many people have left Takoma Park as a result of this whole fiasco. Individuals caught up in this backlog who call the church office to inquire about the holdup are told simply that the transfer is “in process.”

Next: "Reconciliation"

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