Because he'll be lying but 'technically correct'.
I know he's getting by on a 'technicality', but it is still a straight-up deception. He knows that the local congregation keeps a list and however they keep it it is still a database. Here's the definition of a database: a comprehensive collection of related data organized for convenient access, generally in a computer.
No matter how they store the 'list' it would still be a database unless they had everything on paper and threw them haphazardly in a drawer somewhere. This crap makes my blood boil. Even more so because every time I bring something like this up with my spouse, she just ignores it.