Changing Membership in the Local Church

By Pastor David Cox

My thoughts about how the membership in a church changes.

In my 30+ years of being a local church pastor, I have noted that our members change quite a lot over the years. While we seek to gain members and keep members, that just is not going to happen in the majority of the cases. In general, people move from place to place, and they change churches with these moves.

Instead of getting discouraged with this fact, a pastor should be happy that maybe if he edifies his people, then they will grow into spiritually mature church members, and when they change to a new church in a new city, he will have input into their lives, and these mature Christians (with your help) will contribute greatly in other churches eventually.

Our attitude as pastors should not be one of all members being permanent, but we are like a hospital. Some people come for a short stay, and others come for a long stay, but it is very rare for people to stay kind of forever. These are usually more like Doctors and Administrators, and in churches, even the church staff also changes.

Our goal as preachers should be to invest heavily in all our people, and God will determine who stays and who goes.

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Pastor David Cox is a missionary. See my ministry updates here.