Affiliated vs. Non-Affiliated

Mosby48 · #1 10-07-2007, 05:16 PM

I have heard much said about affiliated and non-affiliated churches. What does it actually mean? I know churches who are affiliated are marked in the manual but what restrictions are on them? Are they prevented from withdrawing or does it have to be done by church vote? Does it affect the bylaws of the church? On Dan's thread about the ethics of the pastor influencing the Church, can the Church influence the pastor? Please explain.

FRINGE_NUTTER · #2 10-07-2007, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mosby48

I have heard much said about affiliated and non-affiliated churches. What does it actually mean? I know churches who are affiliated are marked in the manual but what restrictions are on them? Are they prevented from withdrawing or does it have to be done by church vote? Does it affect the bylaws of the church? On Dan's thread about the ethics of the pastor influencing the Church, can the Church influence the pastor? Please explain.

I have not gotten a clear answer either, Mosby48. If someone posted it, I missed it.

triumphant1 · #3 10-07-2007, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FRINGE_NUTTER

I have not gotten a clear answer either, Mosby48. If someone posted it, I missed it.

Let me try again....

Churches have to vote at some point in their history to be affiliated. What affiliation does is make having a UPC licensed preacher as pastor mandatory. It is a legally binding agreement between that church and the organization that ensures the church will always be "in fellowship" because it will always be pastored by a UPC licensed preacher.

A church that is not affiliated is kept "in fellowship" solely on the basis of the pastor having a license. But if he chooses to turn the card in, or loses it, there is NO OBLIGATION on that church to keep a UPC preacher. So if a church is not affiliated, and the pastor decided the UPC is no longer what he wants to do, and the church is fine with that....then he turns his card in and they instantly become independent....and there is nothing the UPC can do about it...

Hope this helps.....

Margies3 · #4 10-07-2007, 07:11 PM

Who has ownership of the actual church buildings and the property that it is built on? If a church is affiliated, does that mean that the UPC owns the property? (I had heard that somewhere but didn't know if it was true or not. Maybe someone can clarify it for me).

If the UPC DOES own the property and church when said church is 'affiliated', what happens when a church decides to unaffiliate? Does the church body have to vacate that building and turn it over to the UPC organization?

triumphant1 · #5 10-07-2007, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mosby48

I have heard much said about affiliated and non-affiliated churches. What does it actually mean? I know churches who are affiliated are marked in the manual but what restrictions are on them? Are they prevented from withdrawing or does it have to be done by church vote? Does it affect the bylaws of the church? On Dan's thread about the ethics of the pastor influencing the Church, can the Church influence the pastor? Please explain.

Next....the only restriction that affiliation puts on a church is that it MUST BE pastored by a UPC licensed preacher....

To withdraw affiliation the church (pastor) must call a business meeting for the purpose of disaffiliation. He must then notify the district and invite the District Super and the Sectional Presbyter to come and speak to the congregation about the "safety" of affiliation. The District rep (either Super or Preb) presides over the vote and it becomes a simple majority yes or no vote...

If yes to disaffiliate, there is a simple one page document to fill out, which is obtained beforehand from the district sec, signed by the Dist. super or preb and sent to the dist office....who then sends it to St Louis.....

At the point of the vote the church is disaffiliated, but it takes about 2 months for the paper work to go thru....

PastorDaniel · #6 10-07-2007, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by triumphant1

Let me try again....

Churches have to vote at some point in their history to be affiliated. What affiliation does is make having a UPC licensed preacher as pastor mandatory. It is a legally binding agreement between that church and the organization that ensures the church will always be "in fellowship" because it will always be pastored by a UPC licensed preacher.

A church that is not affiliated is kept "in fellowship" solely on the basis of the pastor having a license. But if he chooses to turn the card in, or loses it, there is NO OBLIGATION on that church to keep a UPC preacher. So if a church is not affiliated, and the pastor decided the UPC is no longer what he wants to do, and the church is fine with that....then he turns his card in and they instantly become independent....and there is nothing the UPC can do about it...

Hope this helps.....

To add a little to this.....an "affiliated" church can vote to become "non-affiliated." Usually, a district official is allowed to make his case as to why the church should not dis-affiliate at the business meeting.

Usually, a church will follow the pastor. However, I do know of cases where the pastor left the UPC and the church stayed affiliated. (got a new upc preacher) But I've never heard of a church leaving without the pastor.

freeatlast · #7 10-07-2007, 07:16 PM

Over half of all UPC churches are NON affiliated churches. The bigger the church the better chance you'll find it non asffiliated. Nathaniel Urshan/ Paul Moody in Idianapolis for instance NON affiliated.

If non affiliated is good enough for the formergeneral superintendant of the UPCI it's good enought for me.

We took our church thru the process of non affiliating earlier this year.

To become non affiliated the church must vote on it.

triumphant1 · #8 10-07-2007, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margies3

Who has ownership of the actual church buildings and the property that it is built on? If a church is affiliated, does that mean that the UPC owns the property? (I had heard that somewhere but didn't know if it was true or not. Maybe someone can clarify it for me).

If the UPC DOES own the property and church when said church is 'affiliated', what happens when a church decides to unaffiliate? Does the church body have to vacate that building and turn it over to the UPC organization?

No...the UPC owns very few buildings that I know of...usually if a district owns the property it is because the property was being foreclosed and the district bailed it out financially at some point in its history...this happened more further in the past than in the last 15 years...

Even in an affiliated church the church remains autonomous and owns its own property...but the district kindof owns the pulpit because affiliation is a legally binding agreement between that church and the UPC that ONLY a UPC licensed preacher will pastor there...

It is important to note that there have been cases where the church was affiliated, the pastor lost his card, and he had to leave with a majority of the congregation with him because affiliation is binding! So if a preacher thinks he might be leaving the UPC...he'd best disaffiliate before anyone catches on...LOL

freeatlast · #9 10-07-2007, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margies3

Who has ownership of the actual church buildings and the property that it is built on? If a church is affiliated, does that mean that the UPC owns the property? (I had heard that somewhere but didn't know if it was true or not. Maybe someone can clarify it for me).

If the UPC DOES own the property and church when said church is 'affiliated', what happens when a church decides to unaffiliate? Does the church body have to vacate that building and turn it over to the UPC organization?

Affiliation has nothing to do with property ownership or church soverenty

triumphant1 · #10 10-07-2007, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PastorDaniel

To add a little to this.....an "affiliated" church can vote to become "non-affiliated." Usually, a district official is allowed to make his case as to why the church should not dis-affiliate at the business meeting.

Usually, a church will follow the pastor. However, I do know of cases where the pastor left the UPC and the church stayed affiliated. (got a new upc preacher) But I've never heard of a church leaving without the pastor.

I pastored an affiliated church and took it through the disaffiliation process.:sshhh