Results for “Church Membership Register”

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• Transfer of MembershipChristian Life

  Transfer of membership is the procedure by which a church member's record is moved from one church to another when the member leaves one congregation for another. The term also refers to the certificate, or letter of transfer, that the original church issues for this purpose.

• Deposition (Church Discipline)Organization & Polity

  Deposition is a form of church discipline in which an officer such as a minister, elder, or deacon is stripped of the office itself. It is distinct from excommunication, which also removes church membership.

• ExcommunicationOrganization & Polity

  Excommunication is the most severe stage of church discipline, in which the church removes an unrepentant member who has sinned from the church community and revokes that person's membership.

• ConfirmationWorship & Rites

  Confirmation is a rite in which a baptized believer personally professes the faith and receives the laying on of hands to be strengthened in that faith. The Catholic and Anglican churches call it the Sacrament of Confirmation, and Lutherans also practice confirmation, while other Protestant denominations have a comparable rite of admission to church membership.

• Suspension from the Lord's SupperOrganization & Polity

  Suspension from the Lord's Supper is a form of church discipline in which a member who has sinned is barred from participating in Communion for a period of time. The term is used chiefly in Presbyterian church constitutions.

• Church BylawsOrganization & Polity

  Church bylaws are a written body of self-governing rules that set out the basic principles of a church's operation, including its purpose, membership qualifications, decision-making bodies, election of officers, and management of finances and property.

• Congregational ChurchDenominations

  The Congregational Church is a Protestant denomination that follows congregational polity, in which the entire membership (the congregation) of each local church makes the final decisions on church matters. It arose from the Puritan and Separatist movements of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England.

• Schisms in the Korean Presbyterian ChurchHistory

  The schisms in the Korean Presbyterian Church were the divisions of the once-unified Presbyterian Church in Korea during the 1950s into the Kosin, Kijang, Tonghap, and Hapdong bodies. The disputes concerned the handling of Shinto shrine worship, views of Scripture, and membership in the World Council of Churches (WCC). Further divisions into numerous denominations followed.

• New Members' ClassChristian Life

  A new members' class is an introductory course, typically lasting several weeks, in which people who have newly joined a church learn the basics of the Christian faith and the life of that congregation. It is also called a new believers' class.

• WCC ControversyControversies

  A controversy among Korean Protestant churches over whether to join and cooperate with the World Council of Churches (WCC). It was one of the causes of the 1959 division of the Presbyterian Church in Korea into the Tonghap and Hapdong branches, and it flared up again on a large scale when the WCC held its assembly in Busan in 2013.

• Annual ConferenceOrganization & Polity

  In Methodism, an annual conference is both the yearly meeting at which the clergy and lay representatives of a given region decide on the ordination of ministers, clergy membership and appointments, and the administration of local churches, and the regional unit over which that meeting has jurisdiction.

• Minister Without ChargeChurch Offices

  A minister without charge is a title used in Presbyterian constitutions for an ordained minister who retains ministerial standing but has no church or institution in which he or she is assigned to serve.

• Pastoral District (Gyogu)Organization & Polity

  A pastoral district is a unit into which church members are divided, by region or by group, for pastoral care and church governance. In Korean Protestantism the term (gyogu) usually refers to a pastoral district within a single congregation, while in Anglicanism it refers to a regional church unit, or diocese, under the jurisdiction of a bishop.

• ChurchDoctrine & Theology

  The church is the community of those who believe in Jesus Christ. The word translates the New Testament Greek term ekklesia (an assembly of those who have been called out), and it refers first to a gathering of people rather than to a building.

• Church MinisterChurch Offices

  A church minister is a person whose principal work is ministry in the church, such as preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. In Korean Protestant usage, the associate pastors, evangelists, and others who assist the senior pastor are collectively called associate ministers.

• Church BulletinWorship & Rites

  A church bulletin is a newsletter that a church publishes every Lord's Day, containing the order of worship, sermon information, church news, and announcements.

• Church DedicationWorship & Rites

  A church dedication is a service in which a newly built church building is offered to God as a place of worship. In Korean Protestant churches, it is usually held after all construction debt has been paid off.

• Church ConstitutionOrganization & Polity

  A church constitution is the foundational body of rules in which a denomination codifies its principles of confession of faith, church government, offices, worship, and discipline. Depending on the denomination, it may be called a "constitution," *The Doctrines and Discipline*, or another name.

• Church DisciplineOrganization & Polity

  Church discipline is the practice by which a church examines the sins and wrongdoing of its members or officers, urges them to repent, and, when necessary, imposes censures in accordance with its church constitution. It is also referred to as church governance or, in its judicial form, ecclesiastical trial.