One of the most crucial times for pastoral care may be when someone leaves our church because they’re moving to another town. It may make a colossal difference for many years if they’re resourced to look for a good church there!
(This is very true of people leaving for university too. A top priority each summer, as the academic year begins with all the temptations that tends to involve, must doubtless be to ensure that any students heading off from our church are in contact with the believers in the student Christian Fellowship or CU where they’re going. In Britain https://www.uccf.org.uk/starting-uni is great for this; for elsewhere, try via https://ifesworld.org/en/global . But resourcing their `church search` is vitally important also!)
So how can we do this?
First, we need to be very sensitive! And it’s best if we can offer two or three options for them to make their own choice. (This may well mean recommending churches of more than one denomination – although that is safer in some countries like Britain than in some others.)
Obviously it’s easiest if our own church is part of a denomination or network of churches where we can be confident that any sister church elsewhere will be solidly biblical and in good shape. But not all of us are in that situation. (I’m not, alas.)
Here in Britain, then, a website listing Bible-believing churches of different kinds all over the country is that of the Evangelical Alliance, www.eauk.org/churchsearch . A good thing about this site is that it usually includes churches’ websites, so you can have a prayerful and informed look at what you can recommend. A similar, more conservative grouping, smaller but still including some 1200 churches and agencies, the FIEC being one group among them, is Affinity, https://www.affinity.org.uk/churches/ . Another site to look at perhaps is www.FindaChurch.co.uk , although the churches on this site are of many kinds and definitely not all committed to a healthy biblical, evangelical faith.
Elsewhere in the world, the World Evangelical Alliance has a list of national member alliances on https://worldea.org/our-family/regional-national-alliances/ . Not all those listed have a weblink supplied, but if you know the name of the alliance in a particular country then you can google it! However, it’s important to remember that history, church politics and various other things may mean the alliance in a specific country only represents one part of the spectrum of Bible-based churches; and a little research with denominational centres or missionary bodies, and most of all with trustworthy friends or Christian leaders, may be time very well invested. Personally, as I’ve done this year by year I’ve slowly built up a database (reflecting my personality obviously!) of churches I feel good about recommending in numerous different cities and towns.
I cannot overstate the importance of all this!, particularly where the person moving away is not all that strong in their faith. I think of very sad incidents I’ve known where someone has moved away, wandered (eventually) into a church building they’ve noticed somewhere near them, found it uninspiring, not known of any vibrant alternatives, and ended up not going to church at all. This is catastrophic, and out of love we must do all we can to avoid it happening!
And lastly you may like to improve(!) and print out the following suggestions, and give them to the person who is moving:
Important questions to think and pray about as you seek a new church home – recognizing too (which is really important!) that the perfect church doesn’t exist, all churches will have weaknesses!…
Top priority, because everything else flows from this: Do you sense that this church’s leaders wholeheartedly believe and want to obey the Bible, absolutely unreservedly, and not `correcting` it by anything else; and do they believe the truths `of first importance` that it teaches – especially that Christ was God, that he died in order to pay for our sins, that he then rose physically from the dead `according to the Scriptures` (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-7), and so that we’re saved, not by our living a good life or taking the sacraments, important though these are, but only by `turning to God in repentance and having faith in our Lord Jesus` (Acts 20:21)?
Is feeding on the Bible central to this church’s life and to its teaching? No church is perfect, but is the Bible taught here in a way that’s desirous above all to seek to draw out what Scripture really says, and then to apply it to everyday life?
Whatever its size, is this church serious about trying to reach out with the gospel to those who don’t yet know Jesus?
Again, whatever its size, does its worship bring you closer to God? And is it a place where you could probably envisage bringing your not-yet-Christian friends?
Do its members seem to be interested in each other and caring for each other, and for newcomers?
Does it seem to take prayer seriously?
Does it seem to have a heart for God’s mission into the world as a whole?
Pray with your departing sister or brother that the Father will lead them; and stay in touch – treat them as still part of your own fellowship – until you know they are solidly settled in a fellowship elsewhere!
