A Word About Recruiting People From Other Churches

Twenty-two years ago, if I learned anything, I most surely learned a couple of "DON'Ts" that have stuck with me pretty good:

1. Don't sow discord among the brethren (King James version), and
2. Don't be a sheep rustler (John Wayne version).

I don't get overly pissy about too much, but violate one of the above two "DON'Ts", and I totally HULK out.  Just kind of the way I've always been.  Everybody has something that rubs them the wrong way.  These are two of mine.  And as a pastor of a growing church, I am more comitted than ever to the importance of those principles.  I honestly believe that any action contrary to them is indefensible, reprehensible, and intolerable.

That first thing? About "sowing discord among the brethren"?  That's a bit from Proverbs Chapter 6, where the writer of Proverbs is telling us about things God hates.  He also says, there's a price to be paid for that kind of behavior.  He says that someone who does that, "shall be broken without remedy", and that "calamity shall come upon him suddenly".  I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound good to me.  Don't be that guy.

What is discord?  Lack of harmony, diasagreement, difference of opinion, STRIFE.  The Bible instructs us in James Chapter 3 that where envying and strife are present, there is confusion and "every evil work".  In simple terms: talking trash about someone else's church is discordant to the body of Christ.  Don't be that guy.  People that talk your church down to try to get you to come to their church are causing strife in the body of Christ.  Not good. 

You know how in the Old West they used to string rustlers up with a rope from a tree?  Today, rustling happens every day, and it's become an accepted practice.  I'm not talking about out on the prairie...I mean, in the church! 

People routinely invite people who are already hooked up with a church family, serving in a church, connected in small groups, and an integral part of a faith community...to attend their church!  What are you people smoking?  Guys, that is so fundamentally wrong.  That's sheep rustling.  Sheep stealing.  It's heinous.  Now if you know someone doing that, know that they are a carrier of strife.  Also know that strife is contagious.  You catch it from disgruntled, selfish, ambitious, and/or jealous people who value their own personal agenda over the body of Christ.  Don't be that guy.

So what about Crossroads?  Don't people who have attended other churches come to Crossroads?  Yes.  However, you must know this:  We do not believe in recruiting church members away from churches in which they are already planted.  Period.  

We talk about inviting all the time, but let me speak very plainly so that there is no misunderstanding: If you attend Crossroads, DO NOT under any circumstances recruit people to attend Crossroads who are already part of a church fellowship.  It's wrong, and you're not helping Crossroads by doing that.  You're just hurting another church.   Remember, our target at Crossroads is to reach people who are far from God and far from church, and trust me, there's WAY more of them, then there is folks who already attend another church.

If someone recruits you to attend another church, do what seems good to you.  As for me, I decided long ago to always grow where I was planted. 

Peace.