Inter-Department Transfers

Friday, 19th October 2007

I heard a fiery sermon some time last year where the preacher said something to the effect of, "I am not impressed by churches whose growth is because they are taking members from other churches! What so great about that? They are not winning souls for Christ."

The preacher did not mention the church by name, but I suspect that he was referring to NCC :-)

Anyway, the sad irony is that he probably has not been to NCC to witness for himself that an altar call is made at every single service, and souls are being won for Christ every single time. Yet, in his own church, altar calls are rarely ever made, probably because the previous occasions when they were made, nobody responded, and he had to resort to "re-dedications" to make up the numbers.

This preacher also ought to examine himself to determine whether what he is feeding his sheep is nourishing them. Sheep do not get "stolen" by other shepherds; they willingly go to pasture where they can be spiritually fed. So instead of pointing an accusing finger at others, maybe he should realise that three fingers are pointing back at himself.

I have blogged about Stealing Sheep in an earlier post, so I will not dwell on that in this post.

Anyway, I was having dinner with a couple of brothers-in-Christ that I just got to know recently, when the topic of church membership transfers came up. One of them had transferred from a denominational church to New Creation a couple of years ago, so I jokingly labelled him a "defector". I was a "double agent" because I have been promoting the cause of another church while remaining in my own church.

Then, this brother said something that was very profound, yet it hit the nail on the head. Since we are all part of Christ's Body, we as believers are part of the one same corporation, so to speak. Hence, any transfer from one church to another is but an inter-department transfer!

And the sooner we realise this fact, the less resentful we will be when we see fellow church members attending or transferring to other churches. After all, it is not as though these members have abandoned the faith to embrace another religion.

Sure, some departments will have a headcount increase, while others may experience a reduction in staff strength. It is our God, in His wisdom as the Chairman and CEO, as it were, who permits (and even orchestrates) this movement among and across departments, according to where He sees the needs of the corporation are.

So let's not get envious when we see other churches grow, whether it be via external recruitment (ie. winning of souls) or via departmental transfers (ie. transfer of church membership) or departmental secondments (ie. attending other churches).

Let us learn to rejoice with those that rejoice, because God is the one that is causing the increase. Amen?