Transferring membership
What is the significance of transferring my membership? I was baptized and confirmed WELS and have always attended a WELS church. I just move for my job quite a bit and have always left my membership at the church my parents still attend to this day. The WELS church I have been going to is trying to get me to transfer to their WELS church, but I don't see what the big deal is.
One of the blessings of a synod is that members can worship and commune in other churches of its fellowship. It sounds like you have been and are enjoying that blessing.
Belonging to an individual congregation affords “all the rights and privileges” of membership, as you sometimes hear during the rite of Confirmation. Membership in a specific congregation presupposes that people will be utilizing those rights and privileges by primarily worshiping and communing in that congregation.
In addition, when people join a specific congregation, they place themselves under the governance of that church and the spiritual oversight of the pastor. It can be challenging for a pastor to provide direct spiritual oversight, which also includes the possibility of church discipline, if people are not able to utilize their membership because of distance.
For these reasons like these, pastors will often encourage members to align their church membership with their current location.