Proactively Caring For Other Members

A recurring frustration for members of a local church is the thought "I wish I could have been there for _________ before he left the church." We think about what we could have said, how we could have listened, or simply the ways we may have noticed that someone was slipping.

There are struggling sheep. Some are struggling with their faith in God. Others are up to their necks in a tragedy and it ends up affecting their commitment to the church family. Others are frustrated with something going on in the church, and that frustration builds until they choose to go somewhere else, and perhaps it was not even known to you they were having problems.

Then there are straying sheep. These are the ones losing the fight with unrepentant sin. The loss of straying sheep is the most heart-breaking loss of all.

We need to be proactive to these struggling and straying sheep, not just reactive. The article below is from 9 Marks, a ministry focused on building healthy churches. While this piece by Eric Brown focuses more on helping people before a church practices official excommunication, and thus many things here do not really fit our regular practice at Fellowship, it is still a thought-provoking essay that can equip our church family to focus on people before problems get out of hand. I hope it is helpful to you.

You can read the piece here.