John Piper, founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, recently presented three ideas for helping to keep new believers in church.
In an “Ask Pastor John” podcast, a listener named Sarah asked about how to prevent people mistaking a sense of belonging to a Christian community with faith in God.
“The problem comes when one of these ‘believers’ feels socially slighted or pushed out. Maybe she feels the pastor is more distant than he was in the past, or her overall friendships have grown colder, and her sense of belonging in a particular church waivers at the relational level,” inquired Sarah.
“Then she finds that her ‘faith’ crumbles to the dust as she turns away from God altogether. How can we guard ourselves (and one another) from mistaking a sense of belonging within a community to genuine faith in God?”
In response, Piper offered up ways to prevent this from happening. First was to “keep Christian community real and authentic and sustaining and satisfying and beautiful both to those inside and those outside the church.”
“The new believer needs to feel this and be taught this. They may come into the community so deeply in love with the…
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