The Death and Life of a church

Am I just selfish? I grew up and attended the same church my entire life, until last year. My wife had attended this same church for about 7 years before we left. As a church, we failed to recognize the changing demographic of the neighborhood through the years and this eventually caused us to even resent the changes taking place around us. There were times when we would pull together as a congregation and reach out, but our efforts were soon eclipsed by the enormity of the task or by the lack of help from others in the congregation. I’ve been on both sides-the side that works their fingers to the bone and the side that really hasn’t a clue what’s going on, or acts like they don’t lest they be recruited to help. Looks like I just told on us-maybe we relied on our own ability a little too much. Factor in a little pride, poor church structure, a few dozen content believers and you’ve got a church that just couldn’t pull it all together. And we couldn’t. After many years of struggling, Danyel and I decided it was time to move on, that was 9 months ago.

This last week marked the first meeting of the remaining members after an apparent split. One of those members contacted us and asked if we would like to come back and begin serving in the neighborhood. Sounds good right? Not exactly. Danyel and I believe we have found our place at a new church, but that’s not the only reason we can’t return. It is the leadership. We cannot return because we feel that our beliefs, our style, and our approach in no way coincide with those ideals presented by the remaining members. However, our desire to reach the neighborhood certainly still exists. I still love each of them very much, but feel that I cannot serve with them. So, should I just suck it up and serve the people of the neighborhood and disregard my own struggles with the church for the sake that one more may become saved? OR Do I pick up the pieces, pray for the congregation and move on? Feel free to ask me any more questions that might help paint a better picture of the situation.