It seems the Lifers in the church get to decide who is called a church hopper.
If the Lifers want you to leave, in fact shun, discourage, and practically escort you out because they have deemed this is not the church for you, it is NOT church hopping.
If you are a major financial contributor and friends with the right people in the church, you ARE a church hopper when you leave.
The way to tell the difference is what happens when you leave. If they tell you good riddance, you are NOT a church hopper. If they sincerely want you back in the church and take proper steps to help this happen, you ARE a church hopper.
I didn't marry the first person I dated is that considered spouse hopping?
With in the first few weeks of attending a new Church it seems like they are just foaming at the mouth for you to become members. It takes a while for you to get to know a Church. If you attend just Sunday mornings at the most you will get just 52 visits per year.
I believe you need to take sometime to get to know the Church and it's congregation. After the honeymoon is over is when you really find out what marriage is all about. I don't want to be married to a woman that is ungodly, nasty, a gossip, and doesn't help me on my spiritual walk. I would not want a Church that was the same.
Helpful insights here from my anonymous friends. The second stat on my post says that most churches are not growing by reaching unchurched people. Instead, if they grow, they are just getting people who have been "de-churched" from somewhere else. Of course, I believe that we should warlmy welcome everybody who comes --however, it gives me much more joy to welcome a new person who is totally unchurched.
I care about you, Walt, although I don't really know much about you except the things you have shared here. I pray for you, and ask God to help you, and give you strength. I'm glad you found my blog and have had the courage to enter into the conversations.
I wonder if this belonged to one of the apostles? Simon the Zealot strikes me as the kind of guy who would wear an earring. I recall the time, when I was graduating from seminary, I received an invitation to start a new congregation in a college town. In the letter, they outlined the vision, the demographics of the community, and their expectations for the pastor. The letter ended with a p.s. -- "and of course, your wife will not be permitted to wear earrings." They forgot say anything about ME wearing earrings. For a while, I was tempted to go ahead, take the position, and get my ear pierced.
I was ordained July 10, 1987, when General Superintendent, Dr. Earle Wilson, laid hands on me, shook my hand, and declared, "Take Thou Authority to Preach the Word!" I was thinking about that recently, and began to wonder how far back I could go with the succession of my ordination. So, I did a little research. I was ordained by Earle Wilson Earle Wilson was ordained by Pilgrim Holiness General Superintendent, William Neff William Neff was ordained by the Pilgrim founder, Seth Rees Seth Rees was ordained by Nazarene founder, Phineas Bresee Phineas Bresee was ordained by Methodist Bishop, Levi Scott Levi Scott was ordained by Elijah Hedding. Elijah Hedding was ordained by Francis Asbury Francis Asbury was ordained by a renegade Anglican priest named John Wesley John Wesley was ordained by Anglican Bishop (of Oxford) John Potter. From Potter -- there's a trail all the way back to St. Peter!! You can see the chart here. (Potter is at the bottom of the page #90. Now, how abo...
A pastor friend e-mailed me with this question yesterday: I am working with a well-intentioned man who is considering becoming a part of our congregation. After exploring Wesleyan Doctrine, he is hung up on one thing- that we allow women in ministry. He believes that 1Timothy 2:8-15 is a clear Biblical prohibition against females in ministry. I have always understood Paul's teaching on women in public worship environements in Corinthians and Timothy to be context driven and not a broad theological statement. This has been a learning experience for me because I learned that I was unprepared to defend our Wesleyan position, I had just accepted it. Any Biblical direction, orginal language clues, or historical perspective you could offer would be most welcomed. He is not bigoted about women, he feels they are equal in the eyes of the Lord but have been assigned different duties/roles in the kingdom. How would you respond to his question?
Church Hoppers versus Lifers
ReplyDeleteIt seems the Lifers in the church get to decide who is called a church hopper.
If the Lifers want you to leave, in fact shun, discourage, and practically escort you out because they have deemed this is not the church for you, it is NOT church hopping.
If you are a major financial contributor and friends with the right people in the church, you ARE a church hopper when you leave.
The way to tell the difference is what happens when you leave. If they tell you good riddance, you are NOT a church hopper. If they sincerely want you back in the church and take proper steps to help this happen, you ARE a church hopper.
How many pastors have left their Church in the last 5 years?
ReplyDeleteI didn't marry the first person I dated is that considered spouse hopping?
ReplyDeleteWith in the first few weeks of attending a new Church it seems like they are just foaming at the mouth for you to become members. It takes a while for you to get to know a Church. If you attend just Sunday mornings at the most you will get just 52 visits per year.
I believe you need to take sometime to get to know the Church and it's congregation. After the honeymoon is over is when you really find out what marriage is all about. I don't want to be married to a woman that is ungodly, nasty, a gossip, and doesn't help me on my spiritual walk. I would not want a Church that was the same.
I wonder how many people in that last 5 years just quit attending Church.
ReplyDeleteHelpful insights here from my anonymous friends. The second stat on my post says that most churches are not growing by reaching unchurched people. Instead, if they grow, they are just getting people who have been "de-churched" from somewhere else. Of course, I believe that we should warlmy welcome everybody who comes --however, it gives me much more joy to welcome a new person who is totally unchurched.
ReplyDeleteI did not jump. I was pushed by a bunch of ungodly,nasty,gossips.
ReplyDeleteAt the time I did not have the means to travel to a new chruch if I had wanted to.
Instead of hopping I still considered it my church that I chose not to attend at the time.
I was praying for God to either change there hearts or close the church before it hurt many more people.
No one seemed to care except for a few of the good people on this blog.
I care about you, Walt, although I don't really know much about you except the things you have shared here. I pray for you, and ask God to help you, and give you strength. I'm glad you found my blog and have had the courage to enter into the conversations.
ReplyDelete