A Plea

My Dear Sister in Christ,

You have now been absent from the body for over a month now - failing to attend the services of the church and absenting yourself from the Lord's table. We have spoken on the telephone and both shared thoughts regarding your situation and one of the questions I posed to you was, "What biblical evidence do you give for taking the route you are taking and absenting yourself from the church you so faithfully have been attending?" What biblical reason can you give for leaving the local church you helped to begin and covenanted with others "..to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines..."?

Is your leaving a result of the Pastor hurting your feelings? You complain that the preaching has been directed to you or against you? Does this wound your conscience? Would you prefer he spoke ‘smooth things'? Is the preaching not supposed to ‘stir the conscience'? If he was wrong have you forgiven him?

Or perhaps, you feel that he is unconcerned about your soul? That he fails to pray for you? That he does not try and meet your spiritual needs as much as possible?

Perhaps you feel the church lacks a proper understanding of the fundamentals of the gospel? Is the soteriology of the church in error? Do you feel that the church does not care for each member of the body? Do you feel unloved by its members? Do you not observe any evidence of God's grace upon the church?

You state that you have a difference of opinion in your interpretation of some doctrine in the Bible that necessitates your leaving the church but also acknowledge that you have an interpretation that many faithful preachers do not hold. Is this an adequate reason?

So, you leave off attending your church to travel some distance to another church to hear someone who you describe as a good preacher. That is for now. What will you do when he says or does something that you feel isn't correct? When he preaches something you disagree with? Things that you feel are directed against you or are offensive to you? What will you do when the church doesn't feel so caring? When you have a disagreement with them?

I'm afraid you're beginning a long, lonely, unbiblical trip that has many problems along the route. Problems that can be avoided by returning to the church you are a member of that wants to grow with you together in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have many good qualities that the Holy Spirit can use enabling you to contribute to the growth of the church.

We're not perfect. Our pastor is not perfect. I am not perfect. I have lots of questions but seek to resolve them by working in the church. I believe that Christ intends His church to grow and we are to be His instruments used by the Spirit of God. This takes work and charity and love and patience and......well you get the idea.

Christ has provided us with the analogy of His church as a body to help us understand our inter-dependence upon, not independence of, one another. You are part of our body........and we miss you.



If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ....So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7,13 )