A seminary professor named Stanley Hauerwas has a novel idea about how churches should receive new members. A teacher of Christian ethics at Duke University, he has written about the church's need for honesty and has called us to tell the truth as a "community of character." To this end, he has a modest proposal. Whenever people join the church, Hauerwas thinks they should stand and answer four questions:

• Who is your Lord and Savior? The response: "Jesus Christ."
• Do you trust in him and seek to be his disciple? "I do."
• Will you be a faithful member of this congregation? The answer: "I will."
• Finally, one last question: What is your annual income?1

You heard me correctly. When people join the church, Dr. Hauerwas thinks they ought to name their Lord and Savior and tell fellow church…