Looking for a remnant

 

A book I browsed through on community building says, “Ninety-five percent of inactive church members have experienced a cluster of “anxiety-producing events”-a snub, a lack of care when really needed, a moral lapse by a church leader. If we learn to hear and respond to people’s cries for help, we can usually prevent their dropping out.” This sounds right but is it always true?

Some people who are fed up with church have defined their own terms for fellowship. If Jesus attends their meetings, good for them. Some are jumping from one church to another looking for something they may or may not have a definition for, but may identify it when they see or experience it. For those ones, I wish it is love, the Agape, given and received without strings attached.

But some people will never be committed to any gathering of believers for the simple reason that their salvation is suspect. They’ve learnt to act and talk like the people they meet during Sunday services and have successfully blended into the mixed multitude. Their conscience tells them, “You belong here”. But one can never be half pregnant.

Last Sunday, we held meetings with two groups of people in our church here in Yei after the worship service. One group was made up of older folks; members who felt an urgent need for authentic spiritual growth and are willing to covenant with us as we take a trip together, and unmasked towards reality and truth land. The second group, my prime target, were the youths. They insisted on an encounter with God with a hunger that both encouraged and scared me.

So, two groups, agreeing on two different meetings every weekend (aside regular church meetings), with two different agendas, one aim, all bound by a covenant. God is up to something here.

As we pray and plan for these meetings, it gives me so much joy to imagine that God is always looking for a remnant not a crowd. A few that may have been snubbed at one point, ignored by leadership knowingly or unknowingly, discouraged over and over again by moral lapses within the church. But something inside them yearns for truth and drives them towards it.

By God’s mercies, these remnants often arrive at a point of no return; where they pull through a crisis of faith and cross their individual River Jordans, with the assistance of a coach, and together, they begin to engage a future and hope reserved for them before the foundation of the world.

It’s going to be a busy season for me as I PIECE several puzzles together, with my gaze on the Master, asking Him to assemble for Himself those that will drink His blood and eat His flesh indeed… His tribe’s men and women, who belong to this clan. Even so Lord!

Discipling adults is tough. They have a lot to contend with, to give up and eventually buy into.  But there’s always a remnant and I’m looking for them with the eyes of faith, hoping to see clearly and further.

I’m surrounded by many young minds who continue to wonder what lies beyond “there”; that unfamiliar and seemingly distant place tickling their fancy and arouses their adventurous spirit, which poles both negative and positive ends. But we dare to step out in the right direction, regardless of the pains accompanying these initial baby steps.

I’m unlearning a lot and it feels very awkward. But I’m seeing results. I welcome your questions, counsels and certainly covet your prayers.