Jump directly to the Content

Ghosted Again? Pastors Respond to Disappearing Congregants

Church leaders are seeking fresh ways to prevent "backdoor exits" and adapt to shifting membership.
Ghosted Again? Pastors Respond to Disappearing Congregants
Image: Edits by Christianity Today. Sources: Getty / Zhengshun Tang / Alexandra Pavlova / Yifei Fang / Tanes Ngamsom

The membership packet for new congregants at Cross City Church in Columbus, Ohio, is pretty straightforward. There’s a section enumerating the church’s “essential doctrines,” including creedal beliefs like the Trinity and the saving work of Jesus on the cross. There’s a section about church leadership and discipline, explaining the church’s process when a member sins.

And there’s a curious section under membership, “How to Be Sent Out or Leave the Church”:

There are many ways in which God calls His children out of one spiritual family into another. Physical moving, leading to a new mission and disagreement are all ways in which He moves His children. All these may happen without sin and with a full and righteous leading of the Spirit. … We pray and ask the members of Cross City to be prayerful, honest and communicate concerns, offenses, hopes, ideas and convictions in an early fashion, rather than allowing them to fester in isolation ...
December
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
Leader's Insight: Christians Without Borders
Leader's Insight: Christians Without Borders
My risky mission expeditions force me to ask, am I first a Christian or an American?
From the Magazine
God’s Promises Are Clearest When We Turn Out the Lights
God’s Promises Are Clearest When We Turn Out the Lights
Christians have every reason to reduce light pollution.
Editor's Pick
Come Ye Pastors, Heavy Laden
Come Ye Pastors, Heavy Laden
Learning to walk under the weight of ministry's many hats.
close
close-button