Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth

“A family from your church wants to join our church.”

The pastor who called me was genuine in his request. We don’t have many people transferring into our church from other churches. And we don’t have many people transferring out either. In this instance, the reasons were noble for leaving our church and going to another church. I’m glad we had a conversation about it.

Transfer growth occurs when a church member moves his or her membership to another church.

It’s also the case that a few churches seek transfer growth as a strategy—never explicitly stated, of course, but completely obvious. Typically, this unstated strategy is expressed in a benign but pretentious phrase like, We’re the best. Why would you go anywhere else? In today’s consumeristic society, I’m not surprised some churches would use this tactic. However, my missiology leads me to believe that “meet them where they are” refers to unbelievers, not other church members.

There are plenty of bad reasons to transfer to another church. Reasons like “They’re the best.” Or “They have the program I like.” Or “They play music I like.” Or “They have coffee every Sunday morning.” Far too many churches have low standards of membership, and transfer growth tends to bloom like algae in these environments. I don’t want to sound too harsh, but it feels slimy when people jump into churches for those reasons.

But not all transfer growth is bad. Not every person is a church hopper, looking for the next best thing. In fact, there are good reasons to transfer to another church, even one right down the road. I’ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth. Read More