“If you had one hundred sheep, and one of them strayed away and was lost in the wilderness, wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it?” (Luke 15:4).
Misunderstanding and mistakes abound in every church. This is normal. Through circumstances that are intentional or otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before someone is hurt or offended. At times, the feeling of hurt or offence is severe enough to cause a member to quietly withdraw from the church.
One morning, during my time as Pastor of the Dungog Baptist Church (a country town in NSW, Australia) I discovered a basket of vegetables that was left on the back door step of our Manse. The name of the giver was on an accompanying note, expressing kind thoughts towards me and my family. The right thing was to track down this person to personally thank them for their expression of kind love. I knocked on the front door of Ruth’s house, believing her to be a widow. To my surprise, an elderly, looooong-bearded man opened the door and grumbled out a cold “yes, can I help you?” Ruth wasn’t a widow. She had an alive husband! Why had I not known about him? I introduced myself to John and explained the purpose of my visit.
It wasn’t long after the time of my surprise encounter with John that I learnt his story of how he had been hurt and offended by someone in his previous church, in a nearby town. How long ago did this sad event take place before my meeting with John? Twenty years! Did John have to stay “lost” to Christian fellowship and service for this length of time? No! If someone in his church had noticed his absence, and cared enough for him, John would not have been listed as being “lost”.
As I write, I know of three close friends who are no longer in fellowship with any church, who are no longer serving the Lord. One of them was a pastor of a church, and the other two held senior leadership positions with their churches. Misunderstanding and mistakes stole them away, quietly, and still has them lost … somewhere. I’ve done my best to reach out to them, to encourage them and love them, but the extent of their hurt is keeping them lost. I haven’t given up on them. I continue to pray for them.
Is there anyone close to you who has been “side-lined” through some circumstance that has caused them hurt or offence? Has anything been done to help restore them back into fellowship with a church? Is there anything you can do? We must do whatever we can to restore those who have been side-lined from our team or church. We must not give up on anyone. The Lord will never give up on us. We are too precious to Him. Look for the side-lined in your life. Angelic rejoicing awaits the restoration of the lost.
Bill
By the way, it wasn’t long before John came to the church in Dungog with his wife, Ruth, and later served as a Deacon with the church.
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