the injured reserves?
January 24, 2011 (Monday)
One of the teams in yesterday’s professional football playoffs had 15 players on injured reserve as the game began. That’s a sizeable percentage of the total number of team members. Players who have been injured and are likely not to return for the season can be placed on injured reserve. The injured reserve player must be replaced with another player. This will probably be another player already on the team.
It occurs to me that this is a lot like church membership. Many members are classified as “non-resident.” They moved away but did not move their church membership. In addition, there is another list of inactives who still live in the community but no longer participate in church activities. Many of the non-resident and inactive members could well be called, “Injured Reserve.” Something has happened in their lives that may or may not involve other church members, that has had such a negative impact that they no longer attend church.
For the most part, churches simply let the people go. They may be approached in some way when they first start drifting away, but after a while the situation is accepted by all concerned that “those folks just don’t go to church anymore.”
A football team continues to maintain contact with the injured player, providing support in many ways and encouraging the team member to be rehabilitated so that he may someday return to active status. Can churches afford to do less?
In Luke 15, Jesus told stories about seeking those who have fallen by the wayside. His stories were about a coin and a sheep. Each was lost. Each was then found. They were found only because they were sought. A third story was about a son who intentionally separated himself. His father knew where he was, but could only pray for his son to have a change of heart. When that finally happened, he was received with joy. Recovering people is harder than recovering coins or sheep, but possible, and infinitely more rewarding.