I have seen churches where those who feel disturbed by the Holy Spirit leave and those left in the pews sit smugly and say “Good, they didn’t need to be here anyway.”
And the church withered and died because the purpose of the church is to go and find sinners and let the Holy Spirit work.
Yes, the seeds may be choked by weeds or fall on fallow ground, but we must still scatter the seeds where there is nothing planted.
I notice that the pastor in this article and the church members aren’t saying “Good, they need to leave”, rather they are saying “The word of God needs to be preached, and sinners need to repent.”
And that is the right attitude to have. A call for repentance, not joy that sinners are leaving the church.
That is the typical "bottoms on pews = successful church" reasoning that I hear all the time. IMO, the main purpose of a church is to serve as a meeting place for people to worship God. A church in and of itself is not going to save people. Only God saves people. Going into a church and sitting on a pew and listening to a sermon is not going to save anyone. I've seen many people start attending a church because their kids want to go. Those parents sat there week after week and never really became believers (I carpool with one). Sitting in the church did not result in some magical transformation or osmosis. Church is ultimately a place where the saved sinners can go and worship with other saved sinners. If there are people going to a church who do not like the form of worship at that church (don't like the music, don't like the preaching style, disagree with doctrine, etc), they can go elsewhere; as there are only a gazillion churches from which to choose.
Pro LGBT supporters who go to churches that are not already pro-LGBT go there in an attempt to undermine the beliefs and doctrines of those who are not pro-LGBT. It is time that Bible-believing churches accept the fact that those people are 5th columnists who want to betray the church to the enemy.
So, if membership declines because people who could not accept the doctrine chose to leave, then the church probably should die because there is not enough living tissue to support the tree after all the rot is cut away. I would choose a dead church over the first United LGBT Church of the Rainbow Banner any day. And I am getting tired of hearing namby-pamby cliches like "hate the sin and love the sinner" while the LGBT'ers take over everything. They are locusts who consume everything in their path. Church should be a sanctuary from the LGBT crowd, not a haven for them.