Neal Pollard
Saturday’s Denver Post carried the bizarre story of Billie Jean James, a Las Vegas woman who with her husband, Bill, carried hoarding and pack-ratting to unheard of lengths. The 67-year-old woman had been missing for four months and dogs with experience at ground zero on 9-11 and searching for victims during Hurricane Katrina could not find her in her home. But, that’s exactly where her husband found her–buried beneath a pile of junk! Though the husband is not a suspect in her death, you have to wonder how close they were for her to be lying in their small, one-bedroom home for so long without him knowing where she was.
“Whatever happened to brother or sister So N So?” “Do you remember that family that used to attend here? Did they move?” “What?! When did he die? Three years ago?!” These statements have been made far too often in churches large and small. They are symptoms of a church that, at least in individual cases, lacks closeness as a spiritual family. Our world has conditioned us to be individual units living in isolation from one another. Too often, we live that way in our neighborhoods. On the job, we pretty much stay to ourselves and lack connections with any real depth. We may have a bunch of virtual friends through social networks or online connections, but those alone and in isolation lack the depth and breadth of actual, face to face friendships. The same thing can happen in our church relationships. We can become units of isolated believers.
The church is described as family in 1 Timothy 3:15, depicted in its various forms in 1 Timothy 5:1-2. We are to be apart of each other’s lives (Titus 2:1ff). We are to share life together, a trait which characterized the church from the very beginning (Acts 2:42-47). The church is to be a loving group, known to be disciples of Jesus by a visible, active love for one another (John 13:34-35). Something is not right, is even dysfunctional, when we do not know each other and are virtually strangers who meet together looking at the back of heads we stare at during worship before we quickly scurry out the door. Such disconnection where we maintain merely a drive-by philosophy of church, devoid of relationships, sets us up for tragedies that go beyond that of Mrs. James. For, if we slip away from faithfulness and are buried beneath the rubble of sin or broken faith, we make it harder for brothers and sisters to find us. To die in that state is eternally devastating. Let’s be more than a unit of isolated believers. Let’s be family!
The Preacher Pollard Blog 
Hey Neal,
This so much reminds me of the church I had been attending, and am a member of for many years. Since my Mother passed Oct.25,2009 I have not gone back to this church. I have not recieved one phone call or one visit from anyone there. When my Mother passed, I called the preacher there and told him what had happened, and told him the arrangements for my Mother. To this day, I haven’t heard or talked to him (or any other member there). It’s sad when a church don’t want to grow or even show interest in the members that do go there. Still visiting other churches until I find which Church of Christ I feel like I belong at. Thank you for posting this. I wish the members at Dawson Rd. Church of Christ could read this. Maybe it would ‘unclick the clicks’ for those who only associate with those in their own little groups.
Sincerly,
Janice (Pollard) Ivey
(Your cousin)