Easy prey?
“Stealing sheep” or “sheep stealing” refers to the practice of a Pastor and or congregation ‘taking/enticing away’ the members of another congregation. This is a distasteful practice that pastors and churches should discourage. My concern is not about leaving church, its with taking away members.
Sheep stealing is not the same thing as a common change or transfer of membership. It usually has a dark side. Whenever there is a steady flow or trickle of members leaving a congregation to join another, usually newer church in the neighborhood there is something or someone behind it.
Sometimes, it is genuine disgust and protest against policies or practices of the leadership or conflicts within the congregation that causes some members to leave their church. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself. Frankly, I’d rather do the same than stay and cause problems for the congregation. However, as one author puts it its not the leaving, its how you leave the church. Unfortunately, with the present age of the ‘hype-filled’ church, it is a migration to another church looking to find something they don’t have at their church that bothers me about this whole issue.
Taking away the members of another congregation can be ‘cultish’, counterproductive, and dreadfully misleading. Encouragement of ‘cultish’ behaviour is to be avoided. In this case, members leave one congregation to attend another, pulled by the personality of the new congregation or the old congregation with a new leader. Pastors should discourage this. It takes humility and maturity to tell someone to move in response to God’s action, not because of a personality.
It is counterproductive when churches are distracted by rivalry, while millions of persons miss hearing the Gospel. The body of Christ is not built up when Christians are playing “musical chairs” with church membership. This church hopping is poor Stewardship and dishonesty in some cases. If we take a closer look, we’ll find we are the problem not the place of worship or the members.
The practice of stealing members from one congregation to increase the numbers yours is misleading as it relates to statistical claims on global church growth. Except in countries where the church is growing as a result of persons leaving from one religion or no religion to Christianity, then figures in global growth in Christianity are not altogether accurate.
Although not in all instances, I am aware of some statistics that gives the impression that Christianity is booming in some countries when it is in fact not so. The real situation reflects that Christians are merely switching membership. So one church grows at the expense of another church.
Take the sweep of “charismatic/Pentecostal type” churches in Latin America as an example. While churches so labeled as Pentecostal or Charismatic are bursting at the seams in some countries, their increase in membership is in line with a similar decrease in the “mainline” or older congregations like the Roman Catholic Church. The growth of one is at the expense of another, while the un-churched remain untouched by the message. And unimpressed with our divisiveness. The exception as I said earlier, is in those countries where there is a switch from another religion to become Christian.
Church leaders and their congregations need to stop this practice of deliberately taking away the members of one congregation to fill their pews. It is laziness of the worst sort. There are many persons who need to hear the word. They are far from impressed by our rivalry and the spreading of conflicting messages.
The world is confused, while our egos are being massaged. Churches and leaders that are engaged in this practice of stealing members might see numerical growth, but not growth in God’s grace.
Do you know what fuels the numerical growth or loss in the membership of your church? Please share your experience with us by leaving a comment below.
Peace,
Marvia
Thank you for your interesting article on the issue of sheep stealing. I was wondering how this fits into the megachurch phenomenon here in the United States. They claim to be “reaching the unchurched” but seem to be doing nothing more than gathering the lost or wandering sheep of other churches.
Phillip,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
I’ve observed the same ‘re-cycling’ of members in mega-churches in the US as well. You are right, the so-called un-churched are really ‘lost and wandering’ sheep. While the numbers of un-churched grows unchallenged.
Peace
What about situations, where people need to leave bad churches? Sometimes that’s the case. Churches who do not meet needs will always have that issue. If a church is meeting the needs of its congregants, you will still have some leave. Churches that seek to steal members from other places, will in turn have them stolen back. I just find that most churches who complain about these things, will “take” members in from other places, when in fact the person involved needs to grow themselves. Going out of the way to attract folks from other churches is wrong. I just want to point out that there are other dynamics in involved.
grace + peace
There will always be someone whos needs arent getting met, the church isnt to meet the need God is! And we are to meet the needs of others not just ourselves:) Look at what Gods doing in you not what the church can do for you….
Kim, this is a great reply….why don’t people get it???
Hi Steve,
Yes you are quite right that sometimes people need to leave a congregation for conscience sake when they are not comfortable with its teachings and practices. However, I always advocate that one should try to seek a way to reslove this before we just up and leave. Sometimes, too if we are honest as you point out we (the ones looking to leave) are the ones in the wrong and whatever bad attitudes we have in the congregation we are leaving, we’ll take it elsewhere.
Personally, I’m not happy about receiving other people’s members especially those who are leaving their congregation because they are disgruntled about something. I usually do my own checks to see what I’m getting into, even though I don’t prevent anyone from attending our church. And I also appreciate it when a colleague calls and asks what went down with this person, they gave me a story but I want to hear from you. If more of us were doing that, instead of playing against each other we would, I believe, keep ourselves accountable as leaders and challenge members who are playing musical chairs looking for the ‘perfect’ church to be more honest.
So thanks for your input and the other dimensions you ahve pointed out.
Marvia
Its hard on a pastor when people leave a church with frustration and don’t take care of it, cause then when they go to the next church, that poor pastor has to deal with it…not good!
I certainly agree, no one should ever just get up and leave, they should always seek to resolve. I guess I have known many people who just were in really bad churches (Financial mismanagment, adultry, etc.). Not making the case that excuses all the leaving. I’m making the point, that someone who goes to another church may not have been “stolen”. The stealing is when a Church on purpose goes to places and seeks out people because “its better over here”. No justification for that at all. I have just seen cases where Churches were accused of stealing, when in fact, the sheep were driven away because of all the drama at the Church. Our policy at our church is dont go and get anyone from another ministry, but don’t turn them away from attending. You don’t always know what you could be sending them back into?
These things are not only rampant in the United States. Some churches also do this in the Philippines. There are several of them. It is saddening. There are so many sheeps that are lost yet these pastors are too lazy to look for them and share Jesus to them. I heard one comment before shared by our Pastor when he is counselling another Pastor to stop this kind of church growing he says, why spend time looking for unbelievers when there are good tithers from other churches that we no longer need to teach. According to our Pastor he even added some are meant to plant we do the harvesting. Some are hiding behind “Church Pioneering Method”. They build a church usually near their house and invite some guests for fellowship. Later on the Pastor will invite them for dinner and start questioning how that guests grow spiritually in their church. He starts casting doubts in their hearts making them doubt if God will really grow them where they planted them. The Pastor will even steal other local church Pastor questioning his salary, how the church really supports them and so on and so forth. They oftentimes conduct “revival services” asking other church to allow them to be guest speakers in their church then slowly they will invite the regular members who liked their preaching to try attending in their church and the cycle goes on. This method is very unbiblical. In one of the churches in Alabang called New Life there was a member who left the church and got ordained from another church. He started doing conferences and everywhere he goes he “pioneers” a church with members from other churches. He began a ministry called Swordfire Ministries Internatl.. I am not sure if they are legitimate member of that organization though. But God is not prospering this method. In the past 10 years of their ministry no church is firmly established wherever they go. How can God bless you if you are not really following the great commision? They will just get members who have attitude problems and relationship issues they cannot fix in their local church while the bible teaches us that we should mature in faith and like God we shouldbe restorers of relationships not wreckers. Now since they failed several times they are in the “pioneering business” again in Pasig in Metro Manila under the name Zion Rock House of Prayer with the members from the River of God church there. You can check their facebook account. Let’s pray for these Pastors for God’s word to wrestle in their hearts. There are millions of people who need Jesus desperately. May they learn from the ways of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
some churches say that they have more of God than other
churches more of the holy spirit than other churches
But has God told you that or is that just what you think
the church in our town that does this the preacher just
screams and does not have any meat to his preaching
just alot of hype. I want to see a move of God not a move
of a pastor and people stealing sheep
You know what, this is an epidemic. In the West, overall church membership is decreasing. Yet these mega churches are increasing rapidly. And this is why….
They are attracting transfer growth.
It is so disheartening for pastors who are copping the bad end of it…. the smaller churches are getting wiped out of existence…. The Acts 3 church shared resources and money, giving to who had need. Why can’t the churches with 3000 people offer 50 of their members to go help a struggling church? Why is it that its the opposite? Why do they want to get bigger when they already have more than enough?
It also causes mass disunity and hatred between churches….
And burn out. Pastors are burning out.
Me and my sister got this guy Noel saved… We had invested so much time and energy into leading him to Christ and when some folks from this mega church found out, they came and invited him and he left our church after 2 weeks to go there… The problem is that we aren’t seeing the fruit of our hard work, coz its being taken away from us! The large churches are seeing the fruit of our hard work. So freeeaking annoying! and it will be the end of us.
The ‘performance based hype church’ has at its core a reliance upon exciting the flesh. We subtly embrace accommodation over regeneration. Emotionalism and sensationalism have been falsely labeled as the anointing. Therefore we see people migrating from ‘church to church’ looking for the latest fad to satisfy the flesh. This is not new. The churches today are filled with modern day Athenians looking for the latest religious fad (Acts 17:21). To make things worse, manipulative leaders put out the bait to draw the weak. The weak in turn gobble up the bait and believe they are ‘being fed’. In the end no souls are won to Jesus Christ.
When we started our work nearly 20 years ago, the Lord clearly instructed me not to invite anyone to join us. EVERYONE who is a part of our church is there because they believe God sent them there. If they believe God said to leave, then they are free to do so. What is sad is that very few leave to expand the Kingdom. They simply go join another church they believe is more exciting. In nearly 20 years, of all the people who have left our work, less than 5 did so correctly. Most leave mad or looking for a platform to perform their ministry, or for the classic reason “I’m not being fed”.
Yes, people have come to our church disgruntled and complaining about the last place they left. I have learned that whatever complaints they have about the last place is what they expect me to satisfy. If they claim they weren’t being fed in their last church – then they expect me to give them what they want to hear. That usually ends when I confront their sin. If they claim their ministry wasn’t recognized in their last church – that means they expect me to give them a platform in our church. If they claim their last pastor was too controlling, that means they don’t want any guidelines from me.
The reason few pastors deal with this is because most are looking for ways to survive. They guise filling the pews with ‘saving souls’. That is why they eagerly accept transplants rather than converts. They know the more people they can attract, the more financially solvent their church will be. More money means they can produce bigger programs and give them the ability to erect larger buildings. These pastors know that people in the pews add to the perks of the pastoral system – a system that is not even found in scripture. In other words – to many pastors, people equate to money.
I love the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not the buildings, but the ‘called out assembly’ that Jesus purchased with His blood (Acts 20:28). Whenever Jesus is not enough to satisfy, then the search for the fleshly exciting will take its place. The church is commanded to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). I am committed to the values and structure of the church seen in the New Testament scriptures. A church where souls are added daily (Acts 2:47). A church where the Word of God is demonstrated (Acts 12:24; 19:20). And above all, a church that the gates of hell has no capacity against it (Matthew 16:18).
All I can say is…Your response is EXCELLENT! Inspired by the Holy Spirit!
Hi Marvia. I have recently left my church of 7 years. In the best possible way, I expressed my frustration with the “christian fellowship” label but experiencing growing pentecostal type practises – tongues, encouraging us to do miracles, hyped worship etc. It didnt go down too well. I guess I felt misled and disappointed. But no-one seemed too bothered about pursuing me, not that I needed that, but where’s the love? I miss fellowship but it’s different now, I don’t really belong in any church I know, a bit frustrating sometimes. anyway, you take care and God bless you. Stephen.
Interesting article.
Some things I do have a different thought on though. I am a pastor of a small church. My goal is to reach the lost. I have a firm belief that if a person is attending a church that preaches the gospel and believes that the only way to salvation is through a relation with Jesus Christ than I do not seek to have them in my church.
What you say about all the growth of the pentecostal churches in Latin America is wrong though. I have been there. First of all, most of the “catholics” there do not believe that they are going to heaven solely based on what Jesus did. They think that they might make it if they are good enought and do the right things. Salvation is not based on works but faith in Christ. So if a pentecostal or other evangelical church has growth because a catholic person found Christ, that church is seeking the lost.
Much of the growth also does actually come from unchurched people. I have been there doing street ministry to kids in the street.
From both sources, the LOST are being found.
As a Catholic I know one thing-that without Christ NONE of us are Good enough to make it to heaven. It is through his grace and sacrifice on the cross that each and everyone of us will be granted eternal salvation. Like everything else in life we must try to live a Christian life each and every day of the week. Not just on Sunday and giving large amounts of money to the Church is not an instant pass to heaven.
Pastor Wine it would be good for you to know that my brothers in Latin America are espousing what the Church teaches. We are not a sola scripture Church. We do believe that each and every Christian must live out what Christ calls us to do each and every day.
Churches are always entice people by sending emails, they all do it,