Taking One's Leave

Bolton Parish Church, a place about which I have previously written, is somewhere I have never managed to enter. Curiously, two figures have bene carved into its Victorian porch, a man and a woman, who look like they are attempting escape. Or are they, like me, perplexed about trying to get in? The former, I think, seeing as their nether regions are successfully within the sacred walls. I suspect that this is humour rather than any profound theological statement about the nature of election or irresistible grace, and I rather enjoyed the joke. Yet it does raise issues of profundity: people leaving a church.

Some people depart from a fellowship because of styles of music, or the pastor’s nasal tones, or, worse, their behaviour has been censured, and they would prefer to attend that other church where it is more tolerated or endorsed. There, perhaps, they lose faith and return to the mud from which they had previously been wallowing. Some leave for better reasons, such as seeking employment, beginning one’s own ministry or to plant another congregation. There are some whose departure a pastor should attempt to resist, while for others he might open the door and help them pack.

If you are tempted to leave a church, as yourself why. If someone attempts to dissuade you from going, ask them why. If someone doesn’t seek to dissuade you…ask yourself why.

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