July 2024 FRESH START

Photo credit: Emmanuel St. Cloud
what is “profession of
faith?”
BY DON BYARD
Profession of Faith has been adopted by the Seventh-day
Adventist Church as one of three ways of being voted into
membership in the local congregation. Most are familiar
with baptism and transfer of membership by letter, but
profession of faith (POF) uniquely provides another option.
When a person has been baptized by immersion, they may
request membership by profession of faith. Usually this is
because Seventh-day Adventist Churches do not have a
method of transferring membership across denominational
lines. Sometimes within the SDA setting, it is difficult to
transfer membership from one church to another because
of inaction on the part of the church holding the
membership. Often this is the case when transferring from
another country where communication is non-existent or
intermittent at best.
“ C h u r c h i s n o t
a n o r g a n i z a t i o n
y o u j o i n ; i t i s a
f a m i l y w h e r e
y o u b e l o n g , a
h o m e w h e r e y o u
a r e l o v e d a n d a
h o s p i t a l w h e r e
y o u f i n d
h e a l i n g . ”
NICKY GUMBEL
Occasionally, a person
isn't sure which
church holds their
membership due to
frequent moving,
poor record keeping,
or lack of a church
clerk to process a
request for a letter of
transfer. Handwritten
records were kept for
years and the
transition to digital
files has been slower
in some areas.
Membership by POF is
equally valid as
baptism or transfer of
membership by letter.