I<\/strong> sat in Lois Tyler’s living room, watching her be uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n “You have a nice church,” she said, “but we just can’t go there anymore.”<\/p>\n\n Our church was in the middle of a building project. For eight months, we\nheld worship services in a neighboring church at 2:30 on Sunday afternoons.\nThe Tylers were not pleased.<\/p>\n\n “My husband cannot worship at that hour, and he will not.”<\/p>\n\n I thought that was the end of it, but it wasn’t. The Tylers didn’t\nreturn to worship at our church, even when we returned to our building. But\nthey did come to many other things, such as a weekly Bible study, monthly\nseniors’ meetings, and many of our special events. The Tylers had become\nwhat I call polydomous Christians.<\/p>\n\n “Polydomous” is an adjective referring to creatures who live in more than\none nest. Poly is from the Greek, meaning “much” or “many.” Domous is from\nthe Latin, meaning “home” or “domain.” People become polydomous for many\nreasons, some of which are legitimate and healthy. As a pastor with some\ninterest in bird watching, I was amazed to discover how much certain birds\nhave in common with today’s churchgoers.<\/p>\n\n In fact, using the bird-to-people analogy, I can list at least six types\nof polydomous<\/em> Christians.<\/p>\n\n Magpies<\/strong>\nThe magpie is a bird with a reputation for chattering. This chatter is a\nmixture of whistles, scolding calls, and rasping sounds. Magpies also tend\nto carry off bright objects and take them home.<\/p>\n\n Sally is a Christian magpie. She has been a member of our church for decades.\nYet, on any given Sunday, she can be found in any one of a dozen churches.<\/p>\n\n Why does Sally regularly visit so many different assemblies? She tends to\ncarry shiny objects back home. Sally loves to know what’s going on\nelsewhere. She is not really a gossip, but she likes having the inside scoop.<\/p>\n\n Sally actually has been helpful, alerting me to needs among my colleagues:\n“Pastor Bob’s wife is very sick.” And occasionally by tattling: “I saw\nthe whole Finch family at First Free on Sunday. You’d better check it\nout.” Magpies are the inter-church pipeline.<\/p>\n\n Hummingbirds<\/strong>\nWith the ability to hover in midair and fly backwards, the hummingbird is\ndelightful to watch. Flitting from flower to flower, it drinks nectar at\nabout a dozen slurps per second. Its tiny wings beat at tremendous rates\n(up to 200 beats per second), making its frenetic movement seem effortless.<\/p>\n\n Ted and Doris wander between Catholic mass, a nearby mega-church, and our\nlocal assembly. Bill visits a New Age group whenever the mood strikes. They\nare the hummingbird Christians—flitting, fluttering, floating from one church\nto another. They go to see the novel, attractive, and bucolic aspects of\nchurch life. Hummingbirds will dart away from nitty-gritty issues of ministry\nto sample sweet experiences elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n Mourning Doves<\/strong>\nThe mourning dove is so called because of its mournful call, a sad yet beautiful\nsound. Like their feathered counterparts, mourning-dove Christians also sound\na plaintive call as they temporarily migrate to other churches, and they\nusually have good reason: legitimate problems in their home congregations.<\/p>\n\n Sarah’s church was in crisis. She didn’t want to join the exodus\nof members, but she desperately needed a sense of worship that she wasn’t\nreceiving in her home church. For her own spiritual health, she began attending\nanother church in addition to her own. At a weeknight worship service she\nwas able to find the sustenance, joy, and blessing that was currently lacking\nin her own church.<\/p>\n\n No one church \ncan provide everything, \nnot even a megachurch.<\/em><\/p>\n\n Peter was also feeling incapable of worshiping in the church he had attended\nhis entire life. As a leader, he was taking the blame for things that were\ngoing wrong. Every time he entered the building, he felt as if fingers were\npointed in his direction. Desperate, he began visiting an early morning worship\nservice at a neighboring church. Though it was an entirely different tradition\nthan he was used to, the liturgy gave him the spiritual nourishment he needed.\nEventually both Peter and Sarah were able to return exclusively to their\nown churches, feeling whole and healthy.<\/p>\n\n Mourning doves become polydomous because they need a place to rest, heal,\nand be ministered to. They want to receive what is no longer provided at\nhome, without having to leave.<\/p>\n\n Cowbirds<\/strong>\nEvery spring, the female cowbird deposits her eggs in dozens of nests built\nby other birds. Never making their own nests, cowbirds instead leave others\nto care for their young.<\/p>\n\n The Whittakers don’t send their children to our church’s weeknight\nchildren’s club. Neighboring First Church has Awana, and the Whittakers\nfeel their children need the added structure of this program. They do this\nwithout any apology nor any indictment of our program. It’s just\nwhat’s best for them.<\/p>\n\n Our youth group is populated with a number of young people from other churches.\nA couple of them are here because their church is too small for an active\nyouth group. Keith and Mike came because they clicked with our youth pastor\nbetter than with the youth pastor at their home church.<\/p>\n\n Brenda is a single mom with several children at home. She enthusiastically\ninvolves her family in Vacation Bible School, kids’ clubs, and youth\ngroups here, even though they worship elsewhere on Sunday mornings. This\nis the way of the Christian cowbird: laying eggs in a variety of nests.<\/p>\n\n Ruffed Grouse<\/strong>\nTo grouse is to gripe, groan, or whine. Although I’ve never heard these\nchickenlike birds, their name makes them an easy target.<\/p>\n\n When applied to churchgoing, ruffed grouses are those people who become\npolydomous because they want their home church to know how unhappy they are.\nIt’s a form of protest.<\/p>\n\n These people don’t completely leave, they simply attend different churches\na couple of times a month to explore other events and services, and to let\nothers know about it.<\/p>\n\n The typical Christian grouse will toss out comments such as: “We were at\nInternational Church last week. It was wonderful. We’d forgotten how\ngreat things could be.” Or, “We’ve enrolled the kids at Christ Chapel.\nThey have such a superior program, and we can be in a small group at the\nsame time. Now that’s planning.”<\/p>\n\n Waxwings<\/strong>\nThese social birds can work together to strip an entire orchard of fruit.\nSometimes they gorge themselves until they are almost unable to fly. They\nscour the area for food.<\/p>\n\n Jackie searched every church within a two-hour drive of home looking for\na mate. She was not alone. David did the same, as have dozens more I could\nname. These Christians became polydomous in order to satisfy a need.<\/p>\n\n Sam represents a different genus of the waxwing. His wife had left him, and\nhe needed support that just couldn’t be provided in his home church.\nSo he joined a support group in a nearby megachurch.<\/p>\n\n Christian waxwings are in flight searching for what they need. But sometimes\nwhen they find it, they eat their fill and don’t take off again. Although\nJackie found a husband and brought him back with her, Sam eventually made\nhis support place his church home.<\/p>\n\n Learning to love the birds<\/strong>\nMy perspective on polydomous Christians has changed over the years. At first\nI was jealous and hurt when I discovered some of my people had more than\none church home.<\/p>\n\n Now my reaction isn’t so negative. In fact, I’ve learned to like\nthe idea. As I seek to help polydomous people clarify why they are attending\nmore than one church, sometimes I discover things that make me a better pastor.<\/p>\n\n I realized that some of my people can be used to bless other congregations.\nNo one church can provide everything, not even a megachurch. Therefore,\nI’ve learned not to be envious that other churches offer ministries\nand programs that mine cannot. This also mitigates my pride when my church\noffers something other churches do not.<\/p>\n\n For many wounded believers, polydomous church-going can be a useful step\nin their healing process. A change of locale can become a safe place to mend\nand be fed during a difficult time. This haven may or may not be temporary,\nbut I have come to believe that having those options is a wonderful blessing.<\/p>\n\n I also realize that, when it comes down to it, I cannot stop people from\nbeing polydomous—and I will only try when the other church is not Christian.\nFor instance, Henry claimed the crystals, meditations, and blue healing lights\nfrom his weekly New Age spirituality group were a helpful addition to his\n“Christian journey.” Although he is not a member of our congregation, the\nrest of his family is. So, I pointed out the scriptural inconsistencies in\nhis practices and warned him of the anti-Christian nature of his second home\nof worship. The rest, however, is up to him.<\/p>\n\n All in all, I’ve come to a more holistic perspective on the beauty of\nthe entire body of Christ. God’s church is much bigger than my<\/em>\nchurch. By themselves, our respective congregations stand incomplete, but\ntogether they reflect the wholeness and diversity of Christ’s body.\nSo I will continue to observe and cautiously celebrate the presence of polydomous\nchurchgoers in my flock.<\/p>\n\n John Beukema <\/strong>is pastor of\nWestern Springs Baptist Church\n4475 Wolf Road\nWestern Springs IL 60558\nJHBeukema@aol.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal.\nClick here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"