I don't understand that!
If someone feels compelled to "leave a church" (I have problems with that ill-defined expression), then he probably disapproves of that church in some way - and maybe even harbors ill will towards that church. Perhaps he feels that that church is actually sending an anti-Christian message, etc.
In that case, why would he care about any negative after-effects to that church after his leaving? Wouldn't he actually hope that his leaving might precipitate a collapse of that church?
Regards,
Thirty years ago my church had a chasm that still causes it problems. What it boiled down to was you had 3-4 deacons who were mad at the pastors salary. He was a full time pastor, provided with a parsonage, salary and gas for his travels. Now this pastor didn’t sit on his butt, he visited members in the hospitals, nursing homes and home bound and he brought the message Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday evenings, he really did work his butt off. I was in the hospital in a city 60 miles away for several months and the man made a minimum of two trips a week to visit me.
These 3-4 deacons had been fine with the pastors salary for a dozen years and then the board of directors gave him a small raise, 2% of annual and they went off and started murmuring to other deacons. Before you know it the deacons were having secret meetings in violation of the church constitution trying to get rid of the pastor. One deacon out of twelve had been left out of these meetings on purpose, but he was approached and he went to one meeting. He listened to their plans to remove the pastor and told them they were in the wrong, their behavior wasn’t Biblical, that they were not going to the man like the Bible said and were violating the constitution as well which had been written in 1842. He told them I will not stand with you and will oppose you if you go through with this unChristian stunt and warily told them if you do this it will split this church and do generational damage, don’t do it, pray and seek God’s guidance, if God wants him removed He will do it in his own time. They ignored him.
These deacons brought it up on the floor of the church on a Sunday morning and the pastor stood for nearly two hours and was verbally ripped by these deacons and their cohorts and physically threatened. That one deacon stood alone with several members of the congregation and defended the pastor. The pastor never replied to any of their behavior, he just stood there and took it. End result the pastor resigned that evening. Out of a 400 member congregation you had almost 125 members walk out that day and eventually they formed a new church. They asked for their letters and the deacons spitefully dismissed all of them, not granting the letters just said you are churched.
Flash forward to today and that small group who left and formed a new church is thriving. The original pastor stayed a couple of years and felt called to another congregation hundreds of miles away and still the new church grew. Now it has paid for a new church, and about paid off a new educational facility and has a 200+ enrollment and routinely has 120-150 members on Sunday mornings and 50-60 on Sunday and Wednesday evenings and are seeing souls saved. That one lone deacon is old and white headed now and had been involved in the new church from it’s beginning and enjoys every minute in the services. The new church even though they were dismissed continued to participate in the local church association and were graciously accepted and they welcomed in members for associational meetings from the old church which had dismissed them, fed them and made them feel at home even though many, but not all of the original church members were dismissive and rude to those they had ran off.
The old church where the chasm took place has slowly lost members and is in decline and barely making it’s bills. About fifteen years later, the same bunch of deacons got upset and dismissed several members because they wouldn’t follow their demands. The current pastor who has been there about six or seven years faced one of the same deacons in the original chasm once again carrying on about money. This deacon wanted the pastor to take a pay cut and the pastor said absolutely not. This time the church and other deacons said no, we’re not going through this again because of you and money. He got mad and left, actually showed up at the new church and found out sure, you can be a member and join, but you will not be a deacon. He’s wondering about the town going church to church now, homeless for a church.
The original churches current pastor has accepted the new churches extended hand of fellowship and is essentially saying to the older members, you have to stop this and accept and help your fellow Christians, what you did was wrong, lets move forward and see souls saved that is why we are here, those you ran off are doing that, we need to do it. So you essentially have a generation where that church has floundered just as the one lone deacon predicted.