They’re the same thing, right?

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I’m not sure if this is a two-sided coin or a two-headed dragon.  The concept…or should I say interpretation…is becoming more and more blurred.

For some time now, I’ve been lost in the quagmire of trying to sort and decipher this topic.  And as a pastor, I have a confession to make.  I’ve realized that too many times I’ve spent too much time and energy on the membership and not the members.

I’ve recently read the story of a young lady, lost and searching, ended up at a very popular church.  When she first arrived, she received lots and lots of attention.  She was taken to lunch by church folks.  Invited for coffee during the week by the church staff.  The pastor made it a special point to make sure to see and connect with her each Sunday.  It didn’t take long for the young lady to realize that ‘this church’ was where she needed to be.  She started attending the Sunday evening and Wednesday night services.  Got involved in a Small Group.  Soon this young lady walked the aisle, gave her life to Christ.  The congregation erupted with applause at her baptism.

Fast forward a couple of years.

That same young lady is now home on Sunday mornings, no longer involved in her church.  Or any church for that matter.  When asked why she was not active any longer in her church, she stopped and hung her head for a moment, then she answered.  “In all honesty, it was like I was a ‘check-off box’ that the church got to ‘check off’.  Once I accepted Christ and was baptized, the friendliness toward me dulled.  The pastor rarely spoke to me.  It was like they got what they wanted, ‘another one on the books’.  I no longer felt a part of the church any more.”

The sad and convicting part of this is the fact that I see myself in this scenario.  Both as the pastor and, as the young lady.  I’ve had to repent of how I have been more concerned over the ‘membership’ instead of the member.  And I wonder, how many churches right now are being effected by this same dilemma?  Jesus told His disciples to ‘Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.’  When we go fishing, the catch is only part of the process.  Think about it, the care, the cleaning and processing of the catch is a longer and harder process that just the ‘catch’ itself.  So I think that we should be giving more love and attention after the catch.

I also understand how this young lady felt as well.  When we have been between churches, we try to visit other churches if I’m not filling in somewhere.  And I can’t tell you the number of times that we were made to feel as though we had the plague or something.  I’m literally talking ice cold…ignored.  We recently attended one of the largest churches in our area. Attendance that morning was somewhere around 600 or so.  The stage was large and highly decorated.  There were several people in the praise band and there were a half dozen or so praise singers.  I didn’t know a single song.  And that’s extremely rare for me.  Honestly, I have never felt so out of place in all my life.  When we first entered the building for the morning worship service, the greeter at our door…an older lady…never said a word to us, just shoved the bulletin in our faces.  LITERALLY.  We went there to be with a couple friends of ours.  And other than our friends, I thought we were invisible or something.  Even in the traditional meet and greet time, the people around us just looked at us, then turned away.  There was this one senior adult lady that as we were leaving, stuck her hand out to shake our hands and she thanked us for attending.  She was very sweet and sincere.

Ice. Cold.

We’ve had this exact same feeling at smaller churches as well, so it’s definitely not the size of the congregation.

Fact of the matter is, a Christian should care less about membership numbers and such.  They should be concerned about developing the community of believers, loving one another, praying for one another, disciplining each other, etc.  And that should be about everyone that comes to church, not just your chosen click of church friends.

I’ll leave us with the words of Jesus when He asked Simon Peter, ‘do you love Me?’ in John 21.

¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” 

Let’s remember that the next time we go fishing, we have a lot more work to do after we get the fish in the boat.