by Steve Cummings
Have you ever dropped out of the church, a church, or out of the religious scene all together? Do you know someone who has? Why did you do it? Why do you think they did it? You may know exactly why you dropped out. However, when we guess about others we usually guess wrong.
For many of us we simply know that some people come into the church and become bonded members who stay committed to Christ and His church for life. It�s as though they have a cement faith. However, there are others who come in, sprout up, and die on the vine very quickly. Still others stay committed for many years but eventually drop out and reinvest in other things besides God and church. Those who remain committed are often puzzled when their friends and family leave Christ and His church. We wonder what happened to brother and sister so-and-so. We wonder what we could have done to prevent the drop out, and then we start searching for ways to help.
What happens psychologically and theologically, to persons who drop out of the church? What predictable steps do they go through as they fall away? What are some of the subtle yet sophisticated behaviors of the church that causes people to feel screened out�producing dropout members? How can they be won back? How can we help them to become spiritually healthy so they�ll not fall away again in the future?
These are but a few of the questions I hope to explore with you next Saturday morning at the Calling & Caring mini-lab. Please make plans to be there to share in this important discussion, as together we learn the language of healing, and the art of listening. I am confident that when the workshop is over you will consider the time to have been well spent and personally rewarding.
1 Corinthians 12:24a-26 � God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.