At a local Baptist church, a pastor is sitting in on a monthly deacons meeting, and they are discussing the path forward for the church. Like many other established churches, they have amassed a lot of names on the membership roll over the years, but their attendance has remained around 75 people each Sunday. In the deacons meeting, one of the deacons is upset because someone was recently buried in the church cemetery, and no one who is currently at the church even knew who they were. Another one of the deacons has heard a rumor that a member who hasn’t been to church in five years is upset about the new budget plan, and is planning to come and speak against it at the next members meeting.
As a solution, the pastor brings up the biblical doctrine of church discipline, which would have removed these people from the church roll and avoided these issues altogether. All of the deacons agree that it’s biblical and it would be a good solution, in theory. However, there is no way they would want to do it! Church discipline is in the bylaws, but it’s not something they could actually practice. It would be too divisive for their church.
Yet, the problems they were discussing still exist and they still need a solution. So, what do they do?
They compile the names of members that they have not seen for a period of time, and they label them as “inactive.” Then they define “inactive” in their governing documents, and they write it so that their church governing concerns are solved, without having to do any of that messy church discipline stuff. Problem solved! The meeting is adjourned and ministry goes on worry-free.
This may be a fictional example, but it describes the reality for many established churches. Churches find themselves trying to deal with church discipline issues, and they attempt to do so in a pragmatic manner that circumvents the potentially divisive doctrine. Following the example of many other congregations, they employ the magic of the “inactive member.”
But is this really the best solution? Is this even a good solution? The short answer is no. This solution is efficient and effective in solving some practical problems. However, the category of “inactive member,” as it is often used, disregards God’s Word, does not love neighbors well, and prioritizes the church’s desires over it all. It is certainly the easy road, but not the right road. To show this, we must first consider how this solution disregards Scripture and, in doing so, misunderstands the meaning of membership in the local church.
• It Denies the Scriptural Responsibility to Shepherd Souls
Creating the category of an “inactive member” seems effective, but it’s not scriptural. In Matthew 18:15–17 and 1 Corinthians 5, the main texts that teach church discipline, we find this key point: Unrepentant sin is a mark of an unbeliever, and such a person should be considered outside the family of God until they repent or convert. Of course, the church and its membership are not the standard for salvation, but the Scriptures do empower churches to proclaim who is part of the visible kingdom of God as they seek to faithfully represent the citizenship of heaven that only God knows.
With most “inactive” members, the problem is an issue of non-attendance, which is a clear violation of Hebrews 10:25, making it a sin worthy of repentance (of course, this excludes shut-ins, who are not inactive, but providentially hindered). If a member will not come to church and sees no problem with that, then it’s not hateful but faithful to be concerned about the validity of their salvation.
Furthermore, if a church has no clue about a person’s life because they never see them, how can they vouch for any of the gospel fruit that may be in their lives? The obvious answer is, they can’t because it would be impossible to do so. So, they keep reporting them as believers despite the biblical issue of blurring the line of who is and is not a part of the family of God.
When a church calls someone “inactive,” and then ignores their name on the roll, they are denying the serious call Scripture has given the church about being clear about the truth of the gospel and those who are children of God. God created the church to be a gift to Christians, as a body of believers who offer community, accountability, and spiritual shepherding. The true shepherding of souls cannot be written off with a clerical categorization.
• It Denies the Love of Neighbor by Giving False Assurance
Second, the category of “inactive member” protects people’s feelings while playing fast and loose with their eternity. There are various reasons people might be on an inactive list, and for many, it’s simply a records issue. They still walk faithfully with the Lord, but they are at another church, and they never moved their membership.
However, there are also those who truly did drift away. They may have made a verbal commitment, followed an emotional response, and served for a season, but then they walked away and have not been walking with the Lord since.
Now, yes, we hold to a firm view of eternal security, and salvation is not something that comes and goes in a person’s life. However, the Bible also says that those who Christ began a good work in will be brought to completion (Phil. 1:6). Christians are those who display fruit — and where there is no fruit, there may not be a true root.
Yet, these members will one day pass away, and their family will put with firm confidence in their obituary that they were a member of the Baptist church. Nothing really stops any of that from happening. No one is policing obituaries or trying to further depress grieving family members.
The bigger issue is, did a church have an opportunity and responsibility to confront this person regarding their sin while they were still alive, but instead, they passed up on that hard conversation by labeling them inactive? Will the person find their names were on the church roll, but not on heaven’s roll, all because a church was unwilling to reach out to them with genuine concern? The most unloving thing we can do is tell someone all is well, when everything else in their life points toward condemnation.
• It Prioritizes the Concerns of the Church
Finally, there is the positive outcome of the “inactive” language. If a church has a standard for what makes a member “inactive,” they clearly define it in their governing documents, they clearly define the rights or lack thereof that these “members” have, and they implement it all consistently, then they can solve a lot of their practical concerns. A church that can verify votes need not worry about these “inactive members” coming to vote on key matters of the church. A church may write documents so that an “inactive member” has zero rights of membership, making the list more for recordkeeping alone.
This is easy to do, and it is often (not always) easy to implement in a church. Most church members seem to agree with the idea of organizing the roll, and if people are not removed, but simply recategorized, then the process normally goes a lot smoother. This sounds a lot less mean and a lot more clerical. However, while these actions seem positive, when you consider the previously mentioned negative aspects of having an “inactive” list, then this point creates an even greater issue.
The problem is that while it seems administratively easier and cleaner, it fails to confront potential lostness and denies God’s Word regarding the clarity of who is inside and outside the family of faith. It may sound good to prioritize the concerns of the church, but it prioritizes it over people and God’s Word, which means the church has gotten its priorities out of order.
• Conclusion
Removing members from the church roll may not be possible given your ministry context at this time, because the congregation may still have a lot of learning left to do. However, while you are teaching, avoid the temptation to solve your problems quickly with “inactive members.” It may solve some problems, but it creates a deeper one that you will need to address later. We must seek to honor God and love people above all else, and sometimes that means taking the hard road.
— Dalton Fowler is a pastor at Hopewell Baptist Church in Anderson. He is a graduate of North Greenville University and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Nicole Fowler, and they have two children.