It's kinda hard to explain

Withdrawal of fellowship is something that must be practiced by any congregation striving to be faithful to God.   While necessary, it is painful to the body.   It is also difficult to explain.  I ran across this journal entry from some time ago and thought I'd post it.   It might help someone else explain the process. :)

My husband is a natural teacher.   Some people are in the job they were "meant" for, and he is one of them.  It just comes so easy to him.  One night during our Family Bible study, he had a great illustration for our little ones.  I'd like to share it here, because it helped explain a difficult subject to a young audience.

Some friends of ours chose to leave the church some time ago, despite many efforts to bring them back.  As a result, the elders were forced to ask the congregation withdraw fellowship from them, and my kids have really struggled with that since then. It has been hard for all of us, as it should be for any Christian when a fellow brother or sister chooses to abandon the church.  Withdrawal of fellowship is one of the hardest issues to deal with, and I don't envy the elders their responsibility to do so.  It must be one of the hardest commandments for them to keep.   One night during our study my son asked why we couldn't spend as much time with our friends as before.  My husband pulled out a refrigerator magnet and 2 paper clips and explained it like this:

"This magnet is the Lord's church.  These paper clips are members of the church.   See how they stick to the magnet?  Now, imagine that the magnet is really strong, and, no matter how hard we pull, we can't separate them from the magnet.  We can't pull them away."   Then, he "pretended" to pull them away, to no avail.

"Now," he said, "is there any way this paper clip (which represents a Christian), could be removed from the magnet?"

My kids thought for a minute, and my daughter said, "Yes, if the paper clip let go?!" 

"Exactly," my husband said, as he moved the paper clip across the table.

"Now," he said, "That paper clip (the one who was living as Christian and now is not) is far away from Jesus now.  Jesus is still pulling for him/her to return, but if he or she refuses, they won't be any closer together.  We, as faithful Christians, are the paper clip(s) still stuck to the magnet.   If we want to get where they (the ones who left Jesus) are, what must we do?"

Again, the kids thought, and one of them said, "Pull away from Jesus?"

"Right," he said.   "NOW do you see why we must remain separated?   The hope is that they will miss the "pull" of the church and will come back to where we are, but for us to go to them, we must leave Jesus' body, and we don't ever want to do that."


They seemed to get the point, and they haven't asked again about visiting our friends who left.   We still see them from time to time, and my kids always say, "Boy, I wish they'd come back again."  I must admit, so do I!