Definition of Membership—The membership of a local United Methodist church shall include all people who have been baptized and all people who have professed their faith.
1. The baptized membership of a local United Methodist church shall include all baptized people who have received Christian baptism in the local congregation or elsewhere, or whose membership has been transferred to the local United Methodist church subsequent to baptism in some other congregation.
2. The professing membership of a local United Methodist church shall include all baptized people who have come into membership by profession of faith through appropriate services of the baptismal covenant in the ritual or by transfer from other churches.
3. For statistical purposes, church membership is equated to the number of people listed on the roll of professing members.
4. All baptized or professing members of any local United Methodist church are members of the worldwide United Methodist connection and members of the church universal.
From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church--2016. Copyright 2016 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission
