Dismembership plan

Read the main article, "Loose Connections."

When House of Mercy was founded in 1996, having a membership roll wasn't on its radar. "There were maybe 30 people at church," explained Debbie Blue, who has copastored the St. Paul, Minnesota, congregation since it began, "and most of them definitely didn't want to be a member of a church. We were barely able to convince them to come to a thing called church."

Blue recalled that when someone eventually brought up the subject of formal membership, "people didn't want it. They ­didn't want a thing that would define some people in and some people out."