Here's what bothers me a bit...I am on their email distribution list so I am notified about the meetings and coming events so they have my contact info...no one followed up about my missed meetings. I started thinking that really no one at that chapter really cared if I attended or did not attend. It was a little click-y and I was a new comer with limited or no professional contact with the other members and they had a lot in common but I did think at the time they wanted me there. So I decided to wait it out and see what happens, because I could really be over reacting or just being selfish about my feelings.
My hypothesis became conclusion when I was serving at the Greg Laurie Chicago Crusade. I happened to run into another member of the group, and he even remembered my name. But, no how have you been, thinking about making another meeting or anything at all about the FCPO. I had to bring it up and just gave him an excuse about why I was not currently attending just to see what he said. What I got was a nodding of the head and nothing more. So clearly they did not want me at the meetings...and with that I never went back, even though that scheduling conflict has since resolved itself.
Now the point of all of this is not to place blame since I could have been the cause of the problem and unintentionally alienated everyone and no one wanted to confront me on it. I have just closed that chapter and moved on. But the point is, please, if you are in a leadership position in church or Christian organization make sure you check in and reach out to the marginal people in your group. It is easy for new Christians or people with problems or whatever to flow right out of church and right back into the evil of this world. You need to always be holding that hand out to bring them back in. One call, one coffee, may be all thats needed to shine a little of his light into another's life.
By the way a friend of mine went to the Chicago chapter of FCPO a couple of months ago and the first thing they mentioned after they had caught up with her was to ask how I was doing and see if I would be attending again any time soon. Guess which group I will be going back to...
