“A Sad Conversation I Had with a Member of the Church”

Dear Friends,

One of the great disappointments most every pastor faces is seeing good people leave the church. Now while I know the church is not perfect and it can’t always be everything to everyone, a sense of personal failure often creeps in as you wonder what I or the church could have done better to prevent the person from departing.

There will always be times when, for whatever reason, people just fail to fit in a church. Sometimes it may be the fault of the pastor and or the congregation and sometimes it may be the fault of the persons leaving, and frequently it may be a combination of both.

Having said this, I confess I am one who desires to see every single person walking through the doors of the church find a home where he/she fits in, is excited, and can thrive in the midst of a loving and embracing fellowship of people who are seeking to grow in their friendship with Jesus and with each other. Call it community, or fellowship or “koinonia” as the New Testament Greek word expresses it. Whatever name you give it, the word is the super glue that binds people together in one family.

And the main ingredient in that super glue is love, love for Jesus, and love for one another. And that love was not passive; it was an active, seeking, searching, and unselfish kind of love that created a kind of community that amazed those on the outside.

Dr. Luke describes it this way in Acts 2:42, 44, 46-47. “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Every day they continued to meet together . . . they broke bread in their homes and ate together . . . and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

A few years ago, I talked with someone who had chosen to isolate herself from church involvement. She expressed that she was unhappy with life and that recently her life had been filled with a number of disappointments. She also acknowledged that she no longer had much personal involvement with anyone in the church. On several occasions I had sought to involve her in a ministry where she would be connected with other people, and on both occasions, she declined saying she was just not ready and just not interested. I felt sad for this person, but unless and until she becomes willing to engage with people, the chances are good that she will continue to grow more and more dissatisfied with her life.

We need each other. We need to be involved with others. We need to work together, serve together, worship together, and spend time together. We are exhorted in Scriptures to bear each other’s burdens, love one another, serve one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, and we can’t do this effectively if we are living in isolation from one another.

We as leaders are always looking for ways to connect those in the body. We desire to do everything we can to foster community, whether through small groups, work days, fellowship breakfasts, Sunday school classes, or fellowship time following services, for we know that when people get together, church ministry not only takes place but relationships are formed and friendships are born, and in the process hurts are often healed and new life is fashioned.

If you are one of those who has chosen to function exclusively as a consumer of what the church offers, I challenge you to risk jumping in and getting involved in some group, or class, or project. If you are comfortable coming to church each Sunday, enjoying worship, only to scoot home as quickly as you came, I suggest that you may not only be cheating the church of the gifts you have to offer, but you, may be cheating yourself of the joy that comes from serving alongside of one another.

As I close, let me provide an option for serving for those of you who might be willing to venture into ministry.  Our fellowship hour following services continues to grow, and we need to help support those few who have been responsible for serving us. How about volunteering to be one of those who help in the set up and clean up for our Sunday morning Fellowship time? If you want more specifics as to how you can become involved, drop me an e-mail, and I will happily provide you more information. I think I can promise that you will be glad you did.

Yours in faith and friendship.

Pastor Tom

tom@nmbchurch.org

P.S. “Be united with other Christians. A wall with loose bricks must be cemented together. “Corrie Ten Boom.