Should My Church Be Affiliated with the UPCI?

yes well to to I'd like to use this for a more broader View and then we'll focus on that question so the upci is a fellowship of ministers and churches now I've often heard the term it's a fellowship of ministers it's only half true it's a fellowship of ministers and churches so if you look at the constitution of the upci technically and officially all members are credential ministers and missionaries and members of affiliate fated local churches so we're going to come back to that so so actually every local member of an Affiliated church we considered to be a upci member now as far as voting rights local church members have voting rights in their local church credential ministers certain categories have voting rights in their section based on their jobs but then all credential ministers have voting rights at the district level at the general level so there are different kinds of men membership that have different types of voting rights but in our Theory we consider not only preachers but also church members to be members of the upci so we're not just a fellowship of ministers we're a fellowship of ministers and churches or which as you mentioned I think that's probably going to come as a surprise to some yes now the reason why you have this thought is because we are uh the upci is basically congregational which means each local church is self-governing many people don't understand this but you have three basic types of government uh you have hierarchical which is exemplified by the Roman Catholic Church they they own the church buildings they assign the pastors they remove the pastors through the hierarchy the local congregation does not control these things then you have a intermediate form the Presbyterian form of government where you have ministers ordained ministers but you all also have ordained Elders or lay leaders and the the those ministers and lay Elders in an area they help determine the decision so it's not just the local church that can make all of its own decisions but then the third form which is what we have is congregational each local church it owns its own property it has its own bylaws it decides its own membership it elects its own Pastor if there's a major issue with a pastor it can call for a vote of confidence on the pastor and so in every meaningful way the local church is in control of its own Affairs the upci headquarters or District cannot walk into a church remove a pastor put in a pastor tell somebody what to do remove a member or anything like that it's self-governing so that's very important to understand I think

we literally do not have any Authority uh if it's a minister we have some authority to discipline but you know we're a voluntary Association so people can join us or they can leave us we don't have the right to investigate them unless they allow it so we're not like the government we can't you know prosecute somebody for wrongdoing but if they violated our ministerial standards we can investigate and issue a discipline which could include removal but only to the extent they consent which when they join us we have what's called a Judicial procedure so they consent to that process but let's say we're in the middle of that process and they resign their credentials we have no more jurisdiction they're private citizen they have a right to privacy we can't follow through because they no longer give consent or if we don't follow our own procedure then we're jeopardizing ourselves because they've only given consent for us to investigate them according to these certain guidelines so that's easily lost when when that somebody feels like wrong is taking place and that's why we say if there's an allegation of criminal wrongdoing such as child abuse you need to go to the proper legal authorities cuz we we literally can't really do everything that might need to be done so don't don't blame us for not taking care of something if we don't have the power you know we can handle it as far as Church uh minister or credentials and the local church can handle Church involvement and membership but the whole range of legal options as far as investigation and discipline you have to go to the proper legal authorities which God has placed government in our lives for that purpose now so let's go a little bit further uh but we do think organization is very important for Missions for accountability for ministerial credentials we believe it fulfills biblical principles so while the exact form of a local Church's government or even the exact form of the upci is National General international government is left up to us the principles are in the New Testament uh so I would like to refer you to my book The Apostolic Church in the 21st century we'll discuss these principles in detail and also the position paper Church government of the upci which is found at upci.org statements archive so if you go to statements archive you can actually read how we explain our church government so now let's focus on this so we do believe strongly and organized effort accountability common Doctrine working together for Missions being uh cooperative and mutually submissive to the people we elect As Leaders you know so all that we believe is scriptural but when it comes to the operations of the local church we believe the local church is the best one to be in in control so a local church has two ways to be in fellowship with the upci so this is our general term churches in Fellowship the one thing what might be a church simply elects a upci credential ministers a pastor they're automatically in Fellowship we will list them in our directory we'll put them on our church locator their only legal connection to us is the fact their Pastor is a upci minister so it's as simple as that now the district can there could be special exceptions where the church doesn't really want that connection or the district doesn't want that connection but typically when a church elects a upci minister automatically it's considered a upci church that's in Fellowship however you can see that's a very um limited connection because at any given time if the pastor says you know what I'm turning in my credentials suddenly immediately it's not a UPC Church or let's say the pastor resigns and they elect someone else well Suddenly It's not at upci Minister well the the church never even knew it they never voted on it they never talked about it they could wake up the next morning and say no you're not up fellowship with upci so for that purpose there's a second way a church can belong to upci and that is they have a business meeting and they vote to affiliate so this is a technical term we as a church want to be affiliated with upci now to do that we have a sample Church government that we recommend to for their bylaws however they can have their own they don't have to use that but they do have to have certain things in there um to be considered Affiliated so some of the things would be the local church elects its Pastor it's not appointed by some external hierarchy so if you're going to be upci church we want to know that you're electing your pastor not that some guy that we don't even know has the right to take away to remove your pastor or put in your pastor so there are some basic rights that we want you to have in your local church government so assuming you have that you vote by Church vote and the Practical effect it means this we you know we want to follow upci Doctrine the articles of faith we want to work in harmony with the upci general Constitution our local church government will be compatible with the upci general Constitution and we will always have a upci pastor so here's the real protection let's say the pastor dies resigns or unfortunately let's say there's a Minal discipline where he's removed from the upci well the church is already stated we want a upci pastor so they will call the district superintendent he may call the preser and they will say okay we'll help you find candidates it's still going to be your choice we'll have people preach for you you will still decide who you want to be your pastor but we will make sure it's going to be upci a upci pastor so that term affiliation then it basically guarantees that it will always have a up Pastor now the church is still suffering governing none of that changes so just because you're Affiliated this is where there's a lot of misconception well oh if I'm Affiliated District come in and take over remove the pastor put in a new pastor remove members take over the building or if the upci gets sued they can take our church away from none of that is the case nothing changes as far as self government even to this extent if the church says we don't want to be Affiliated all they have to do is have another business meeting and vote to disaffiliate then they're back exactly but as if they were not so so what is the value of the affiliation actually it's it's fairly weak but what it does is if you ever decide to change your status at least you have to have a proper business meeting at least you have to inform the people and at least the district gets to send a representative to explain why they would like for you to stay upci at least you actually get to vote but at the end of the day you vote you still decide so the difference is this if a church is not affiliated the pastor is the only person who decides whether it will be in fellowship with the upci or not at any moment he could change that without consulting the church if you're Affiliated the church will always maintain a relationship with the upci even as long as it wants to so even if the pastor resigns from the church or if the pastor resigns to the upci that church knows we can still stay upci if we want to now in practice it's fairly weak because let's say a pastor wants to go another Direction he's usually in control in leadership he can keep preaching teaching talking to leaders convincing them and say you know what let's vote to leave the upci and and succeed but many times there's a case relatively unexpected where suddenly the pastor dies or suddenly the pastor resigns goes somewhere else or suddenly you know rarely but sometimes let's say a pastor's caught in adultery he resigns well then it's a sudden shock well if the church is Affiliated they know we'll still we'll still have another upci pastor we we don't have to fight that battle in some cases that actually is the difference in helping the church stay upci or helping retain its property so it doesn't get sold without their knowledge even though the upci doesn't own the property if it's Affiliated then the church has a right to appeal to the superintendent help us navigate this situation in the absence of our pastor and so there are I can give you stories of churches that maintain their identity that because they were Affiliated I I can give you stories of churches where they disaffiliated now now many churches never were Affiliated historically and that's fine but if a church is Affiliated then suddenly disaffiliates unfortunately not always but sometimes the next step is leave the UPC all together sell the building and I personally had to deal with cases people come be saying but but we lost our building the church closed down can't you do something I say no you voted to dilate you voted to leave the UPC so you know it's just like a Baptist Church I can't tell you what to do whereas if you still Affiliated yes I could hold a business meeting with you and say no we're not going to sell the building no we're going to get a new pastor but if you're not affiliated then I can't even you know your your church might be closed down without your voting on it your church might be sold without your voting on it because that's that's what happens when you're totally uh voted to cut ties so for that reason we very clearly say affiliation is optional not mandatory and there are many reasons why people have never gotten Affiliated however I would say what 60 uh uh 60% to 2third now are affiliated because as time goes on when new churches are started if they want to get a upci funding such as North American missions Christmas for Christ or uh move the mission then they must be affiliate that's a simple procedural protection so for that reason most new churches affiliate and so over time that happens now when I started the church in Austin I Affiliated why you might say well the pastor is giving up a slight bit of control I felt any control I gave up would be so minor but in case now I thought I was going to Pastor there until I died or got to to the age of retirement but still I thought you know when I'm gone I can't 100% protect my legacy but as much as possible I want the church to be in control of its own destiny and not just one person down the road make that decision and I I want the district to be involved at least in advising and communicating therefore I want to affiliate my church to try to protect my work when I'm no longer available and then every daughter work we started I said if you want to become self-governing I don't want to hold you forever I believe in self-governance of local churches even churches that we started I didn't want to keep them in a hierarchy their whole existence I wanted at some point for them to grow to maturity grow up be self-governing like we believe for every other church but one condition is I want you to apply and get approved to be affiliated with the upci so that way even if I'm no longer in Direct Control I want to the comfort of knowing the district will have some connection of involvement as much as possible that the the money and the time the energy the people that we've invest in that church at least there is some procedural protection that makes it likely that it will stay in the upci and stay doctrinally in the apostolic faith so I do recommend affiliation for legal and doctrinal protection the identity of the church um it's not essential and we recognize both uh both types of churches as part as in fellowship with the upci