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PASTOR GENERAL'S
REPoRT
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL.3, N0.24
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
CLEARER UNDERSTANDING ON DISFELLOWSHIPPING
by
Robert E. Fahey
JUNE 12, 1981
While I was talking with Mr. Armstrong recently, he explained the
difference between a member who should be disfellowshipped and one who
should be classified a nonmember. I thought it would be a help to summarize
it for you.
Those who simply drop out, lose interest, stop seeking fellowship with
the Church but are not hostile to it, should be considered nonmembers. They
went out from us--but they weren't of us--probably never converted. We
should treat them as unconverted, neither avoiding nor seeking spiritual
fellowship with them.
Those who seek fellowship with the Church and its members but are
sinning, openly or secretly breaking God's Law such as the man in I
Corinthians 5, should be disfellowshipped. They want to be of us, but not
live God's way of life. We should not fellowship with such "brothers." We
shouldn't even eat with them (I Car. 5:11). They can rejoin Christ's Body
after they demonstrate by performance godly repentance.
Those who sow discord, cause division, speak evil of Church leader
ship, are contentious, or in any way try to pull God's people away from His
Church, should be disfellowshipped. These are the ones we need to protect
the flock from regardless of previous status. They may have to be publicly
marked. They want us to be of them--out of God's Church!
I have discussed with Mr. Tkach and Mr. Rice how to handle this ad
ministratively.
When the appropriate step is to disfellowship, we will
continue to use the present disfellowship card.
To change one who drops out from "member" to "nonmember," we will use
for the present the "invalid baptism" card.
When these cards are re
printed, they will be renamed "make nonmember."
Persons put into this
category will not receive literature unless they request it.
Then they
will be treated like any other new subscriber. The reason we keep them on
file at all is because of laws requiring us to maintain donation records for
a certain number of years.
Therefore, those who are in the old "inactive" category will be made
nonmembers.
This should help us all to speak and administer the same thing-
worldwide!
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