{"id":699509,"date":"2020-03-04T02:00:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T08:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=696470"},"modified":"2024-04-11T15:34:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T20:34:05","slug":"five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA family from your church wants to join our church.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pastor who called me was genuine in his request. We don\u2019t have many people transferring into our church from other churches. And we don\u2019t have many people transferring out either. In this instance, the reasons were noble for leaving our church and going to another church. I\u2019m glad we had a conversation about it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Transfer growth occurs when a church member moves his or her membership to another church.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the case that a few churches seek transfer growth as a strategy\u2014never explicitly stated, of course, but completely obvious. Typically, this unstated strategy is expressed in a benign but pretentious phrase like, <\/span>We\u2019re the best. Why would you go anywhere else?<\/span><\/i> In today\u2019s consumeristic society, I\u2019m not surprised some churches would use this tactic. However, my missiology leads me to believe that \u201cmeet them where they are\u201d refers to unbelievers, not other church members.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are plenty of bad reasons to transfer to another church. Reasons like \u201cThey\u2019re the best.\u201d Or \u201cThey have the program I like.\u201d Or \u201cThey play music I like.\u201d Or \u201cThey have coffee every Sunday morning.\u201d Far too many churches have low standards of membership, and transfer growth tends to bloom like algae in these environments. I don\u2019t want to sound too harsh, but it feels slimy when people jump into churches for those reasons.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Geography<\/b>. In today\u2019s transient culture, transfer growth is an inevitable reality. Most churches will experience some transfer growth. When you move to another city, you should transfer membership to another church. Additionally, churches should reach out to believers who are new to the area.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Theology<\/b>. When a church makes wholesale changes to doctrine, then it\u2019s time to consider a move to another church. If you believe something completely different than what your church believes, it\u2019s better for you to find a church closer to your beliefs. When people come to your church because of doctrine, then you should consider receiving them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Family<\/b>. It\u2019s best for families to worship and make disciples together. When two families blend together, they should attend the same church. When parents move back in with children in their last season of life, decisions must be made about what church to join. Family reasons are good reasons to transfer.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Abandonment<\/b>. This reason is tragic, but cases of abandonment occur. I know of occurrences where one group in a church pushed out another group unjustly. The abandoned group must find another church. You\u2019re not wrong to receive this group at your church.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Life stage<\/b>. This reason is broad, but a life stage change could be a legitimate reason to transfer churches. Sometimes you get to an age where you can\u2019t drive as far and you must find another church closer to your residence. You might adopt a special needs child that could require a completely different schedule and necessitate a transfer.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Several good reasons exist to move your membership to another church. Not all transfer growth is bad.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA family from your church wants to join our church.\u201d\u00a0 The pastor who called me was genuine in his request. We don\u2019t have many people transferring into our church from other churches. And we don\u2019t have many people transferring out either. In this instance, the reasons were noble for leaving our church and going to…","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":699469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,175,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-699509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-grow","category-membership-and-assimilation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFive Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"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\u2019ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\u2019ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-04T08:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-11T20:34:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"811\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sam Rainer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sam Rainer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sam Rainer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2f0912bee8a19725429a51e837b0b4bd\"},\"headline\":\"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-04T08:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-11T20:34:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/\"},\"wordCount\":572,\"commentCount\":23,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Church Answers\",\"Grow\",\"Membership & Assimilation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/\",\"name\":\"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-04T08:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-11T20:34:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2f0912bee8a19725429a51e837b0b4bd\"},\"description\":\"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\u2019ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":811},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2f0912bee8a19725429a51e837b0b4bd\",\"name\":\"Sam Rainer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8911395b33b01cf015954e64ffa6595812addf41f7aa42dad5156c5438379dc3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8911395b33b01cf015954e64ffa6595812addf41f7aa42dad5156c5438379dc3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sam Rainer\"},\"description\":\"As President of Church Answers, Sam Rainer wears many hats. From podcast co-host to full-time Pastor at West Bradenton Baptist Church, Sam\u2019s heart for ministry and revitalization are evident in all he does.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/samrainer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth | Church Answers","description":"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\u2019ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth | Church Answers","og_description":"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\u2019ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth.","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2020-03-04T08:00:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-04-11T20:34:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":811,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sam Rainer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sam Rainer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/"},"author":{"name":"Sam Rainer","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2f0912bee8a19725429a51e837b0b4bd"},"headline":"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth","datePublished":"2020-03-04T08:00:24+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-11T20:34:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/"},"wordCount":572,"commentCount":23,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg","articleSection":["Church Answers","Grow","Membership & Assimilation"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/","name":"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth | Church Answers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-04T08:00:24+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-11T20:34:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2f0912bee8a19725429a51e837b0b4bd"},"description":"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\u2019ll give five good reasons you should accept transfer growth.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Featured_Image_03_04_2020.jpg","width":1200,"height":811},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-good-reasons-to-accept-transfer-growth\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Five Good Reasons to Accept Transfer Growth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2f0912bee8a19725429a51e837b0b4bd","name":"Sam Rainer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8911395b33b01cf015954e64ffa6595812addf41f7aa42dad5156c5438379dc3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8911395b33b01cf015954e64ffa6595812addf41f7aa42dad5156c5438379dc3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sam Rainer"},"description":"As President of Church Answers, Sam Rainer wears many hats. From podcast co-host to full-time Pastor at West Bradenton Baptist Church, Sam\u2019s heart for ministry and revitalization are evident in all he does.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/samrainer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826106,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699509\/revisions\/826106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}