By Ken Blue
Churches should be adding new families on a regular base. I am aware that location has some bearing on ones effectiveness. However, the truth is that the only additions to some churches are transfer members. If this is the case, we are failing in our outreach to the lost. We should welcome transfer member, but they should not be the only additions we have. Do not become content to have only transfer members; this is like taking a dollar bill from one pocket and placing it in the other.
A church should keep records of who joins by transfer and who becomes a member by conversion and baptism. This information will reveal much about the evangelistic efforts and effectiveness of the church. It will signal where you need to make changes and focus your resources.
You will get what you go after. If you are content to have transfer members only, that’s what you will have. But, if you will concentrate on seeing the lost transformed and added to your church, you will see it happen. Evaluate your membership, is it built on the transferred or the transformed?
Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.