So its once again Missions Month in CEFC, and as I listen to the pastor droning on and on about reaching the world for Christ, I am again drawn (as I am prone to do), to thinking abt myself. Hehz…
I remember thinking about the parable of the lost sheep, and how Jesus said that all the heavens rejoice when that one lost sheep is found. And while many people interpret that “lost sheep” to mean those who are unsaved, I wonder why there aren’t any Missions Week or Missions Month that focuses instead on those who have backslided and left church. Could it be that its much easier to focus on newcomers than to try to reach out to ex church members? Maybe because doing so would require taking a good hard look internally at where the church could possibly have gone wrong and driven members away?
I think back to the 30 years that I spent in church, and I think more than 50% of the people I knew had left church. I’m not sure if that’s a typical statistic, but at least I can say that’s true for myself. From people I see attending church, to those who was in fellowship and then in cell group, until those whom we had allegedly “won for Christ” through various Evangelistic programs that we had done… more than half had left church. Admittedly some moved on to other churches, but so many just totally decided not to go to church anymore. When you include the numbers who still attend church but obviously are just nothing more than filling seats, and you wonder what exactly are we inviting people to, when we invite people to church.
Many may think I’m very cynical. But my recent housewarming experiences tell me that its instinctive to clean up your house before inviting people over. Yet when it comes to church, we seem totally eager to just ask people to come and expect them to be blind to the cracks in the church social group, and the accumulated dirt that’s bulging from under the carpets. And then instead of taking good hard looks at where we went wrong, we sigh and shake our fingers at those who left, labelling them as backsliders and worldly.
A good analogy of this behaviour would be like a person who bought a tool and never really learned how to use it. So he damaged the tool, and proceeded to label it as a poorly constructed tool. He then goes out to look for a new tool, and the cycle repeats itself again and again. Maybe, instead of repeatedly buying new tools, the person should learn how to use the tool properly first. Or perhaps to take the analogy even further, to learn how to repair the broken tool.
I also remember Jesus saying that if you cause a brother to stumble, its better to take a large stone, tie it around your neck, then go drown yourself. I wonder how many people are stumbled every time the church runs Missions Month. Every time we invite someone into the church community only to burn them after that, we might lose the person forever. And instead of trying to seek the lost sheep back, we tell ourselves we can always just get another sheep to bring back into the fold. And then we convince ourselves that we have “found back the lost sheep” and all the heavens is rejoicing. How blind can we be to what the Father’s heart truly is!
Maaaaaaaany
years ago, CEFC had a reputation as a church where wounded church members could
go to and find healing and restoration. It was a common testament among the new
members in the church that they had been badly burnt in their church, but in
CEFC they found genuine fellowship and community which restored them. Back
then, CEFC was in the business of finding back the lost sheep. I wonder how
true that still is today. Is CEFC still a place where wounded Christian solders
can find healing and restoration? Are they still in the business of finding
back lost sheep? Or have they also now transited into the business of just
finding another sheep?
