Church Refugees
” Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” upon (1 Corinthians 12:27)
A pastor friend of mine told me of a different kind of church growth that has been challenging his church. Most churches would be singing hallelujah at the addition of another 30-35 people joining with the other saints.
Sometimes, however, those who become a part of the body of Christ are more like church refugees. That is, there has been some kind of trauma that has found them treading the path toward the new church. They’re spiritually homeless looking for a place to rest their weary souls.
Our nation can attest to the challenges of masses of refugees descending upon us and trying to figure out how to deal with the influx? Churches are simply smaller versions of that, with the added element of being faith communities. Of course, our history as the church of Christ has its inception connected to a mass of people coming into it shortly after the Day of Pentecost, when 3,000 people became Christ followers and were baptized. That event must have been spectacular. The new church had to adjust in many ways. They didn’t plan on a financial campaign for a building addition (There was no building yet!) or going to two services, but rather how were the needs of all these new people, including a number of widows and their unique situations. going to be met? There was a heightened dependence upon the Holy Spirit (Another new element of their organization’s unique functioning.) to lead them, and to show them how this was going to be solved.
My pastor friend also quickly brought the Holy Spirit into our conversation. He is leaning on the Spirit, trusting the Spirit, and knows he can not navigate this sudden church growth without the Spirit.
You see, the church refugees that showed up in the community of faith he leads came from another congregation whose pastor announced one Sunday from the pulpit that there were some health issues going on and it would be his last Sunday. He was done, and with those words, the church was pretty much done as well.
How does a church welcome what is left of another congregation who are experiencing grief, confusion, anger, bitterness, and a loss of identity? How does an existing faith community minister to a group of believers who did not ask for their church to go through a sudden hospice experience? My pastor friend is wise enough to know that there may be more people sitting in worship on Sunday morning, but many of them feel like workers who have shown up for work on a Monday morning only to see a sign on the door saying their company has gone out of business. Suddenly, they are back to a beginning point. a job search, and the erasure of seniority. Those who were the key leaders of what was now have no influence, no power, and no say.
Unfortunately, the story is not unique. The pandemic necessitated that churches rethink how ministry is done, as opposed to how it has always been done. An incredible number of churches closed their doors, creating an enormous number of refugees. Truthfully, a number of churches were on life support before the pandemic. Covid-19 was the final factor that turned off the switch. Many of those from closed-churches have never gone back to church, any church. They’ve become displaced refugees who have found something else to take the place of the time commitment they had made to a faith community. The absence of in-person worship and ministry was too numbing for them. For others, they figured out that being a part of a church had been something they had felt obligated to do. In their mindset, closed doors freed them from the unwritten contract they had adhered to for so long.
Back to my friend’s church, he shared with me that his church is learning as they’re going. It’s resemblant of the reconfiguring of the first church in Jerusalem. The disciples (apostles) had been confronted with the problem of the widows of the Hellenistic Jews being neglected in the daily distribution of food. They pointed to the Hebraic Jews of the faith community as playing favorites. Some quick strategic planning by the apostles that put a care plan in place was enacted. It was one of those, “We’ve never done this before” moments that, I’m sure, was punctuated with mistakes and the asking for forgiveness, but things changed and the first church continued to grow.
My friend’s church has come to understand that it’s not about keeping people happy, but rather conveying in various ways that God loves the new spiritual refugees in their midst, and the church is committed to caring for them. Some will probably drift off to other places because the new place of faith is not like it used to be in their former place.
However, others will experience the heartwarming sensation of being accepted and loved no matter where they’ve come from.
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