Do you have any church wanderers?
 

Do you have any issues with people who wander from church to church?

I’m writing this article anonymously as it is just about possible someone could identify who and where I am talking about, whereas I am interested in whether this is a general problem of modern society.

Our church is in a medium-sized town. There is a good mix of churches, some new, some old. Crucially, I think, the town is small enough for ‘Christians’ to know each other and to be able to get around quite easily.

The issue we have noticed over recent years is what we might call ‘church wandering’. You get to know someone who is coming to your church over a few months, then they disappear; eventually you hear they are going to a different church, but then a few months later they re-appear at your church again. Then the pattern repeats.

The next thing we noticed is that this involves a small group of people who mostly know and associate with each other. Two or three older ones appear to have key influences. When a new church opens, or one of the older ones gets a significant revamp, they go off there for a while…before showing up somewhere else.

There are some obvious problems with this which you might think they would spot from some simple Bible study. They argue that they belong to the ‘Universal Church’ and use this line to influence younger and impressionable new Christians. This makes it sound like they are marvellously idealistic and closer to Jesus.

An obvious problem is that they are entirely free of commitments. One of my wife’s favourite sayings at the moment is ‘Are they on a rota?’ because to provide all the activities people expect from a church you need a LOT of people to be doing something. The Body of Christ does not have any spare parts, and even the appendix is attached to the rest of it.

A second problem is that there is no financial commitment. They may well all give large quantities to charity, but they are not committed to any one church through tithing for example. Both of these problems reflect a lack of commitment to do anything for others.

Of course, they are not under the authority or ‘covering’ of anyone either. This actually makes them a disruptive influence when they fasten onto new Christians who still do not know how things should work in the Body of Christ. This showed up recently when one of them convinced others to go off and get baptised in unusual circumstances.

I am not talking about people who prayerfully make a decision to change churches. Some of our friends gave up coming to our church so they could support some young people planting a church in a nearby town – a totally different scenario.
 
So, I am interested in what experiences others are having. Is this just our town, or is it a characteristic of life for some Christians today?


Image | Olena Shapovalova | Unsplash

The author is a member of a Baptist church, but given the nature of the piece has chosen to remain anonymous

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