Shifting Sheep

[David]

Brethren,

Greetings in the Name of Jesus!  I would like to initiate a discussion concerning an aspect of ministerial ethics.  The basis of the discussion is summarized in the following series of questions:

1. What are your practices related to saints moving from one assembly to another?
2. When someone visits your assembly from another local Apostolic church for the first time, how do you handle that?  Do you call their pastor(s)?
3. If someone begins attending your services regularly, do you ask them why they have moved churches?
4. If someone expresses that they have left the other Apostolic church and now call your assembly home, do you press the question of why they changed?
5. When a saint moves to your congregation, do request or require a letter of transfer from their other church body?
6. What if the other pastor(s) says that they left in an inappropriate way, or they caused turmoil in the process of leaving, or left because the church leadership was in the process of disciplining them?  Would you require them to return and reconcile before joining you?  Would you require a release from the previous assembly?
7. What about when you find that out that someone from your assembly has begun to attend elsewhere?  Do you contact that individual, or the pastor(s) of the assembly, or do you just let it go?
8. Can anyone speak to what the standard is in the UPC for such matters or what is taught concerning this at Apostolic bible schools?

Please feel free to share your thoughts, practices or some stories.  I think that this is an important issue for the body as a whole and I would like to hear what other pastors have to say about this.

[Mike R. Prevost]

So does anything think it inappropriate for members of multiple congregations to come together for a "friendly, informal, long standing, regularly meeting, Oneness Pentecostal Bible study group" ???