Linked Notes & Sermons

Caring for Members Means Calling Them Out

5 min read

Purpose

Addresses the objection: “We need to focus on members first before we can think about growth.”

The counter: Focusing only on members produces members who don’t grow. Turning inward is not pastoral care — it’s protective theology that keeps people comfortable and spiritually stuck. True care includes calling people to their destiny. And that destiny, per True Father, is outward.

Hook / Opening

A wife told her husband: “Don’t just put up with me — believe I can do better.”

He thought he was loving her by enduring without complaint. She experienced it as giving up on her.

That gap — between tolerance and genuine love — is the tension in the “members first” posture. If all we do is maintain people, we’re tolerating them. We’re not believing in them.

Scripture

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.‘” — Matthew 25:23

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt — knowing how to answer each person.” — Colossians 4:6

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” — James 5:16

Main Points

Point 1: Inward Focus Doesn’t Heal Members — It Stagnates Them

2026-04-11-growing-others-accelerates-own-growth A failing medical student passed their exams by tutoring others. Teaching forced understanding that studying alone hadn’t produced.

You don’t need to be fully healed to help someone else. You need to be one step ahead. The act of reaching out is what accelerates the reaching in.

The early church pattern: disciples had three years of formation, then immediately went out building others. James says confess and pray together → healing follows. Peter says use your gift to serve. Paul says build each other up. John says love others or you don’t know God.

The pattern is consistent: self-focused spirituality stays incomplete. It must turn outward to close the loop. Serving someone else is not a distraction from spiritual growth. It IS spiritual growth.

The feeling of God rushes in when you stop trying to feel God and start serving someone else.

Point 2: Love Has Two Sides — and “Members First” Only Uses One

2026-04-11-two-sides-of-love-compassion-and-accountability God’s love has a masculine side and a feminine side. The feminine: “I’ll never let go of your hand.” The masculine: “You can do better. I believe in you.”

A community that defaults entirely to the feminine — infinite patience, no challenge, protect-don’t-push — produces members who feel held but never grow. Compassion without accountability is tolerance. And tolerance, as the wife in that story knew, doesn’t feel like love from the inside.

Calling members into witnessing and outreach is pastoral care — the kind that says: I believe you have what it takes. The talent isn’t meant to be buried.

The parable of the talents is not primarily about evangelism strategy. It’s about what God thinks of the servant who plays it safe to avoid losing what they have. The buried talent is the congregation that protects itself from growth.

Point 3: Settlement Era Means Members ARE the Evangelists — That’s the Care Model

2026-04-11-settlement-era-demands-sustainable-evangelism We’ve moved from the Restoration Era (crisis tactics, sacrifice everything now, staff-led campaigns) to the Settlement Era (sustainable systems, ordinary Blessed Families as frontline witnesses, relationship over program).

This is not “ask less of members.” It’s “ask differently.” Instead of occasional crisis campaigns, it asks members to live as witnesses in their daily tribal sphere. That’s lighter on the calendar and heavier on identity.

The Settlement Era model of pastoral care is:

  • Train members to witness from their own transformation
  • Create community strong enough to invite others into
  • Design Sunday for the people members are already inviting
  • Release people rather than maintain them

2026-04-12-witnessing-triggers-holy-spirit-not-just-shares-information There’s a spiritual dimension here too: the Spirit moves through public proclamation, not internal preparation. A culture that perpetually prepares without going out is a culture that never activates the Spirit. The members are waiting on the Spirit. The Spirit is waiting on the members to go.

Illustrations

Medical student + tutor: Growth through teaching, not just study. growing-others-accelerates-own-growth

Oakland and New Hampshire, 1970s: 3 members → hundreds. 7 members → 40 in 3 months. Pure zeal, no programs. The Spirit moved when members went. witnessing-triggers-holy-spirit

Talent buried in the ground: Not a failure of activity — a failure of faith. The servant was afraid. Fear-based stewardship returns nothing.

Application

Three reframes for pastoral leadership:

  1. “Members first” and “growth” aren’t opposites. The deepest member care calls people into purpose, not just comfort. What would it look like to disciple each member toward one witnessing relationship?

  2. Greenhouse model: Mentor one person weekly. Simple format. Creates genuine friendship. Lower barrier than formal programs. This scales naturally — each person mentors one, who mentors one.

  3. Ask the thermostat question. thermostat-not-thermometer The congregation reflects what leadership models. Are we thermostats (setting temperature) or thermometers (reading and mirroring the room)? If the room is flat, it may be that nobody has decided to be the thermostat first.

Closing

Jesus didn’t wait until the disciples were ready. He sent the 72 out before they understood the resurrection. He told Peter “feed my sheep” before Peter had finished grieving his own failure.

The pastoral move is not to protect people from mission. It’s to send them into it and walk alongside them.

True Father’s word is a plumb line: “How many citizens of heaven you restore will be the most precious thing for you.” Not: how well you maintained the ones already here.

Caring for members means believing they can do more than attend. That belief is love — the accountability side of it. Give them the grace. Season it with salt.

Sources & Notes

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