Mez McConnell, a church planting pastor in Scotland and founder of the church planting ministry 20Schemes, gives some good advice to pastors and church planters concerning a certain type of church folk called church hoppers:

These are the people that every church wishes didn’t exist and that every church planter should dread turning up. Church-hoppers are those who have been to every church on the block (often more than once) and never seem able to settle down. They often present as lovely people who are misunderstood and are the innocent victims of all the other horrible churches out there. Furthermore, they will always give compelling (and plausible) reasons for why things haven’t worked out at their previous churches (it was never their fault!)

We should be very wary of those who are quick to judge other local churches, not least because experience has taught me that if they turn up at your church slagging off the last church, it’s only a matter of time until they’re at the next church slagging off your church! Church-hoppers are dangerous because they do not understand commitment. If a friend of mine asked me for advice regarding their desire to start a relationship with a man who had never shown any commitment in previous relationships but who was known to have slept with every girl in the village, my advice would be the same as my advice to any church planter/leader wanting to welcome a serial church-hopper into their fellowship – DON’T DO IT!

To do so would be to arm a ticking time-bomb.

If you are a church hopper, please stop and settle your family down somewhere for their good and for the good of the church. Your constant moving around confuses the churches you visit and hurts them when you leave. When I say hurts them, I really mean it. So, no more sleeping around. Commit, settle down, and love for the long haul. Oh, quit your hopping ways.

Read the whole post here.