Practical Pastoring: Receiving and releasing people

Receiving and releasing people is an area of church life that is crucial yet often overlooked. One of the keys to receiving and releasing people is to allow the Holy Spirit to bring into the church those He wants in, take out of the church those He wants out, and allow to remain those in the church whom He wants to remain.

If our expectation is that our success is determined by having a large congregation, we are missing the mark. Jesus asked the Twelve if they wanted to leave when other disciples had turned back and no longer followed Him. Remember, many are called; few are chosen; some a...