I know this might get heated but I wanted to discuss this and bring it up. Why do some resort to sheep stealing and do not find any wrong in it?
If sheep can be stolen, then they were never the sheep of another.....
MANY of us have changed our faith community (I from Catholic to Lutheran). No one "stole" me.... my 'exit' took years. I can post here my reasons for that (and the process thereof) but it was between my Catholic teachers and myself, it was largely my discomfort with the egoism, individualism and rejection of accountability I was taught and had defended in and by that denomination, and my inability to stated that I docilicly swallowed whatever that singular individual denomination said BECUASE it itself alone now says it. I thus could not be Catholic. I felt much more pushed out than lead out. And after I was, I looked for a community very much LIKE Catholicism. I suspect most here at CH are like me - a convert from/to. We all have our individual stories, but I think rarely are the stories about someone who "stole" them out of something they were very pleased and comfortable and active in.
Sadly, among my friends and co-workers, few are Christians (active or even at all). SOME (I'd say half - maybe a bit more) have SOME history with Christianity but have left. Others were never "churched" (although they may have considered themselves "Christian" when they were a child). WHEN I CAN, I try to work within THEIR culture/history/roots for those who ONCE were churched. For example, a couple of years ago, in spite of SO MUCH wanted to attend my own church, I went to Christmas Eve services at a Catholic Church perhaps an hours' drive away because a co-worker had ONCE been active in the RCC and in a discussion, mentioned how much she loved the Christmas Eve services at her RCC church when she was a kid. I saw an opening...... but knew my encouraging her to go would be fruitless (especially since she no longer knew any active Catholics to go with). So I said I'd pick her up, I'd go with her, I'd sit with her (with her 3 kids). It took some arm twisting but she agreed. I'm still ministering to her... encouraging her to "reconnect." I LEFT that denomination but that was MY choice for MY reasons (none I see she shares)..... so my effort is to encourage a return to HER church.
In a way, my ecclesology permits this since I see the church as US - the whole corpus of His people, Christians, believers - not some institutional denomination (mine, included).
My half cent.
- Josiah
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