In a discussion I had last night, the subject came up again about what should happen when people want to leave a church. To be honest, it's not a subject that I'm very good at. In the 24+ years that I have been the pastor at Christ Fellowship, I would imagine that I am not overstating the case when I say that over one thousand people have left my church of 150 people.
Here's how I see the problem: People have free will. If God doesn't force me to be saved or even to do His will, how can I compel people to stay in a congregation when they don't want to? People are going to do what they are going to do.
But the other side of the coin is this: Many people leave churches because of things that are correctable. They have hurt feelings; they feel left out; they misunderstood something the leadership said or did; or, they just were never welcomed into the church family. It seems to me that in these cases, much more should be done to show the love of Jesus then to simply say "they are adults and they can do what they want."
So, tell me. What do you think? How free should church members be?
2 comments:
I have only left 2 churches in my 44 years of life. The first was because Denny and I got married and decided to go where Denny's Dad was the Pastor, so I left the church that I grew up in. The second we left because they kind of kicked us out. People were getting baptized in the Holy Ghost and the Friends Church really doesn't agree with that, so we left.
I agree that people usually leave because of hurt feelings or personal issues. Those that leave because God is moving them usually leave the "correct" way.
Obviously, like you said we can't make people stay when they don't want to. All we can do is reach out to them and try to correct anything that we as a body have done wrong.
Personally, I think we spend way too much time worrying about "where we are called/what are we called to do" when we should just be the body. Do the work and bloom where you are planted. If God wants you moved, He alone will open doors for you to do so and He will show those over you. Leaving that way would be a beginning and not an end.
I have been a Christian for 20 yrs. and I have left two churches. One for good and the other I went back to. The reason I left the one for good is I was filled with the Holy Ghost and that church didn't like it either.
I left the other church a couple times actually. Those times were the correctable reasons that were corrected. This is the loving them like Jesus would that PBR is talking about. If they miss church for a couple weeks and you don't know why, contact them to see if anything is wrong. People like to know they are being thought of or cared for. This is what I call a church "family".
I think a person should be allowed to leave a church if they want but before they do, it needs to be addressed on WHY they are leaving. Most of the time it is the corrective one but nobody will take the first step to find out. Is it because we have gotten way to busy in this life to stop for a moment to check on someone that may need us? A "just called to check on you" means a whole lot to someone today just because everyone is "too busy" and have their lives they don't want interuppted.
Just my thoughts
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