Faithful membership in the local church

[TheGloryLand]

Keeping faithful members is a hard thing to do these days. What are pastors doing differently to keep them, besides preaching the true gospel? I know some churches higher them as workers, but those that don’t work in the church. How do you keep them from leaving. Some pastors say it’s out of their hands, but I believe there is something you can do to keep them, coming back. I know this may sound weird, but have you ever visit them? How about asking them for their phone number and giving them a call once in a while, I believe this can help. Some might say my job is to preach the gospel and attend my sheep, but here only, in the church building. Some give up with members that stop attending services, and don’t even do a follow up. This is not my job to do. One time, a young man said to his father, my girlfriend don’t wanna see me anymore and the father said to his son, Son there is more fishes in the ocean. I guess this could apply to members also.   
 

TGL

[BrotherTony]

I know my wife and I were members of a church full of nepotism, hirelings, and people from off the street. These are some things that are very common in churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It's not uncommon for them to have a secretary from outside of their own churches membership. It's also a common practice in many of their churches to hire people from the secular sector to play in their worship band, and to work in other areas of their ministry. It's hard to find faithful members if they're not allowed to function in the churches programs. There were also issues with the pastor only visiting people who were in his own age group. I know that many of us who are in their senior years were being overlooked and basically shut out.  And the nepotism in the church was a real problem with an assistant pastor who was the brother to the worship leader, and whose father in law was the head Deacon for the church. After the worship leader left during the heighth of the pandemic because the pastor wouldn't require everyone to be vaccinated and wear masks, the assistant pastor, who was also the youth pastor, went and became pastor of another larger church in the area. His father in law left a few weeks afterwards. Then, instead of hiring another person to lead the worship portion of the service, the pastor installed his wife. Several months later one of the pastors buddies in the church became the assistant pastor.  It wasn't good, and we and several other older families we basically frozen out. We've been looking ever since. 

People will only be faithful if they have a right heart and are truly seeking to please the Lord. They're the ones who should be working in the churches. The pastor should be looking for and working towards helping his congregation to find their spiritual gifts and helping them to utilize them.