Day 234: Do What With What Church?

One of the struggles a pastor will run across is the issue of doing things with other churches. I remember when we had a speaker in a couple years ago that was there to talk about campus ministry. What happened however was a 40 minute talk on how our church was not worshipping correctly to “The Revelation Song” and why it is bad we don’t do more things with other churches. Clearly this person was ignorant to the fact of the church landscape in our city and how small cities work.

Would I like to do things with some churches? Absolutely. Are there other churches I have no desire to do anything with? Yes. Do we do some things with others? YES! However, every church in our little city has gone through a church split. Some took many years to get to that point but Radiant Fellowship only took a year and a half after it launched. What happens in a small town is that people church hop. It is no mystery to the pastors in a small town who these people are. I refer to them as “Boomerang Christians”. They will leave one church and after they have been burned enough, they will come back as if everything is forgotten. Then there are the legitimate ones who leave a church for a very valid reason. It is these people I have in mind while doing things with other churches. If we have a larger constituency of people from a certain church…we probably won’t do anything with them then. I know this sounds a little crazy but a pastor must pastor their church.

In a perfect world it would be great if churches could work together. I am quite confident the church does plenty together…it is the institutions that don’t do so well.