Chris' Christian Blog

July 10, 2021

"Prompt: Should churches enforce strict attendance policies with their members? Should there be special considerations? What do you think?

Example: A church will bring up for a vote the continued membership of a member if a member has not attended a church service for 3 months. If they want to continue to be a member of the church, they must write a letter explaining their situation. The pastor will give his recommendation to keep or vote out this church member. The church will then vote on rather that member remains a member or if their membership is discontinued."


I think that is a terrible idea. For one thing it would cause hard feelings. God is all about building relationships, not severing them. Luke tells us in Acts 2:47 that Holy Spirit is the one who decides church membership to begin with. The idea of people voting for a member is not biblical.

I do agree with the church ex-communicating members who are involved in blatant and flagrant sin. See 1 Corinthians 5:1-15. This however has to be handled with a lot of tact and should be used rarely, not as a punishment, but as a correction. Members should also be well aware that for every finger they point they have three pointing back. We are all guilty of something. Christians are not perfect, just forgiven. So when I go to accusing somebody else it is usually to take the focus off of my own sin. There are somethings that should be addressed such as a person who is doing something the Bible says is wrong and doing it publicly and flagrantly. An example might be two people living together out of wedlock or somebody practicing homosexuality openly. I'm sorry, but God's word openly condemns it and the world sugar-coating it does not make it righteous. If a person clearly refuses to repent of open, public sin then they need held accountable because it gives the Lord a bad reputation. On the other hand, Jesus said that the "first among you who is without sin should throw the first stone."

So when it comes to pointing out the sin of another I tread carefully. Therefore, I am against any policy that removes people from the roles for not attending regularly.

"Prompt: I was ctuising the galaxy with Garfield and found this planet:

STATIC

The Art of Flying  (E) Bring another's words to life, take flight! #2250390 by PiriPica

Write about this in your Space Blog entry today."

I agree with the sentiment of this poem. I published a book many years ago. I took a couple of copies with me one day when I went to the doctor's office. Another patient there read one of my poems and was moved to weeping. She bought the book and I made a fan. The poem however was not a touchy, feely type poem to me. It is amazing the way one can write one thing expecting a certain reaction and get a completely different response.