By Ed Barnett
At our 2017 RMC Constituency Meeting this last July, we announced that the next five years will be a time for each of our churches to reach out to former Seventh-day Adventists in their area. Each of us has friends or acquaintances who have seemingly slipped “between the cracks” and are no longer a part of our fellowship at church. I want to take this opportunity to challenge each pastor and church member in our conference to begin working on a plan or strategy to reach out to our brothers and sisters who are no longer a part of our faith community.
This is never an easy task, but it can be a very rewarding one when you see people reconnecting with us. It can be very exciting both individually and also for the church family as a whole. As a pastor for more than 25 years, I remember trying to reach out to former members and finding that they were generally easier to reconnect with the church than someone encountered “cold turkey” off the street.
This may issuing an apology for what these individuals suffered at the hands of the church in the past. Sometimes our people have been ignored or have been treated poorly. We should be quick to apologize for any behavior that may have caused them to become disillusioned with the church.
We may think that those who stopped being a part of our community were at fault, but an unfortunate attitude, a hurtful comment, or even a mundane comment about them taking a pew seat which you “reserved” only for yourself may be the reason they have distanced themselves.
Many times I have seen people come back to the church and get actively involved again. They can be a great blessing in the church and in reaching out to other people who have slipped away.
The whole matter is very personal to me. I have a sister and a brother-in-law in this conference whom I love very deeply. They were both brought up in the church and went to our schools, but were treated poorly over a late school bill for their kids in one of our elementary schools. At least that is the story that I have been told over the years. I wasn’t there, but they were hurt and didn’t feel welcome in the local church. They have been out of the church for many years now.
Having people treated ungraciously, even if they were totally at fault or wrong in their assessment of how they were treated, is not okay. It is not consistent with how Christians work things out. Sensitivity is required of us at all times.
I sure would love to have some caring members or pastor go visit with them and apologize and invite them back to the church. I don’t know what the results would be, but I am praying for them and hoping that someday someone will reach out to them from their local church.
The rule of thumb is that it usually takes one visit for each year an alienated person has been away. So this really isn’t a quick or easy task. It may take 10–15 visits before someone makes the decision to come back. A single cursory visit is not enough. This kind of reclamation must be a consistent ongoing and prayerful process that a church must organize if it is to be effective.
Looking to the future, I would love to invite each of you who are actively involved in our conference to prayerfully consider what you and your local church can do to come up with a plan to reach out to your former brothers and sisters who are no longer a part of the church. Former Seventh-day Adventists realize that this world is coming to a close. May we help them, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to get their lives turned around and begin living for Jesus each and every day.
–Ed Barnett is RMC president. Email him at: [email protected]