“Declined” & “Denied” explained

We recently included “Denied”, “Declined” and “Withdrawn” transfers on the Transfers report that clerks print for churches that do not use eAdventist. Apparently the terms “Denied” and “Declined” aren’t widely used because many clerks are wondering what they mean.

“Withdrawn” is used when there is an error in the request — wrong church, wrong name — or the situation has changed — member has already transferred out, member decided not to transfer. Only the requesting church can “withdraw” the request.

However, “Denied” indicates that is no error on the request but the church deems the member not to be “in good and regular standing” — in other words, “Not recommended” for transfer.

Likewise, “Declined” indicates that “Grant” (or “Recommendation”) was received but the requesting church now deems the member not to be “in good and regular standing” — in other words, “Recommendation not accepted”.

In a nutshell, “Withdrawn” is the general-purpose way to abort any transfer request. “Denied” and “Declined” are used to convey that the member is being held accountable for his/her actions — exactly what the transfer process was designed to do.