Church Hopping

In a letter of January 2002, we wrote that members of our Elmendorf community are free to leave if they feel the need to do so. To this Yann, a young believer of an Anabaptist church in Ireland, responded:

I have a little problem with what you wrote [about baptised members being free to leave the community any time they feel like it]. I know what you are saying. "The One and Only Church" mentality is very irritating. HOWEVER, I do think that long, hard, faithful commitment to the community we are in is an essential ingredient of Total Surrender to Christ. Yes, one can change churches, but I am very weary of all the jumping around that takes place in conservative Anabaptist settings. I am glad we don't do that with our wives! What a sorry picture indeed!

It is in our nature, as modern apes, to jump around---especially with the curse of globalisation. It is all so confusing . . . There is great spiritual virtue in staying, and staying, and staying, through thick and thin. But what do we plain people know about that? May the Lord have mercy! I am opening my heart to you. Please don't become offended, but I feel this part of what you wrote is difficult to accept. Forgive me, brother, but I can no longer be at one with this reasoning, even though I understand your heart (I think), and know there have been terrible abuses of church authority. Yes, church membership must remain totally voluntary, but we must fight, warn against, and heal one of the greatest cancers of Western Europe: Lack of Commitment. America has this disease too.

In response to Yann's letter, Brandon, a young believer from another community in Minnesota wrote:

I read Brother Yann's response to your first letter. I must say I agree and appreciate whole-heartedly his (completely scriptural) idea of "long, hard, faithful commitment."

I believe he hit the nail on the head when he talks about America's disease,"Lack of Commitment". It seems like we (the current generation) have completely missed and rejected "absolute integrity and commitment."

I believe that until we come back to these virtues we will not prosper, and much less enter the Kingdom of God.

I have come to appreciate very much the word "integrity." It means a lot to me because I can see in us a great lack of being whole, faithful, steadfast, sound, and absolutely committed to Christ and his Kingdom.

This is what I feel deep down about being faithful and enduring to the end, regardless of the tests and trials that the Lord brings our way to purify our earthly and carnal personality. May the Lord bless us with such integrity and faithfulness to his kingdom.

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Yann and Brandon express very well how we also see things.

Having given ourselves to Jesus and to our brothers and sisters in church community, we do not believe we may "get up and leave" without a good or scriptural reason. Just because we feel "called to work in another place," or to "do mission" here or there, is not a good enough reason. If we are truly called by God, the whole church (our local church) will recognise that call and bless us on our way. We have no business leaving the church and our responsibilities in it, just for personal preference, because we get tired of being in one place, or because we find it hard to get along with others where we are.

The way of Jesus is the way of creative solutions. Rather than walking off, we need to learn how to walk together "for we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink" (1 Corinthians 12:13).

But our church community is not a trap. If anyone lives here but can no longer agree with what we believe and practice, he must leave. We may or may not bless him (depending on how and where he goes) but we will allow him to depart in peace.

We are a voluntary community of believers.

In response to the above letters, Michael, from Indiana, wrote:

I am quite interested (to say the least) in what you meant about the voluntariness of the community (and in regards to a "life commitment")! I am not sure I understood the statement fully, or how this relates to practical matters in the Elmendorf understanding. Are you saying that if a person left your community you would not necessarily equate that with leaving Christ or breaking vows? If so, my respect is definitely growing!

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Not everyone leaving our community breaks a vow to God and the believers. Some that leave (members in proving) never made such a vow. Others leave for valid reasons we can bless. The remainder we leave in the hands of God. "It is better not to vow," writes King Solomon, "than to make a vow and not fulfil it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not say, 'My vow was a mistake.' . . . Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God" (Ecclesiastes 5:5-7).