Leaving a Church

[steve7150]

I like when things get shaken up. and the attitude "we can't shake things up because there might be a visitor here" really galls me and i think it is dead wrong. People, in my opinion, are attracted to a move of the HS, not repulsed by it. look what happened in Acts.




I appreciate everything you are saying as i'm in a similar position. I would love more passion , more seeking the Holy Spirit but then again the elders have to deal with so many different types of personalities that they do tend to gravitate to what's inoffensive and kinda churchy politically correct.
I lead a bible study and the elder who gave me the position wants me to be inclusive and make things comfortable for the less motivated people which bothers me a lot, yet he is the elder so i try to make it challenging but understandable.
Elders have a tough job and i think few are really good at it , and my thinking is if you stay at almost any church long enough eventually you will see the wrinkles show up that you missed initially therefore i think if possible it's better to stay and try to make a positive difference.

[Murf]

I struggled with this as well. I changed my mindset on "attending a church" or not attending a church to "being the church". This helps me no matter where I end up on Sunday as well as the rest of the week.

tim

[TK]

Amen, Tim.

Thanks for the input, steve7150.

TK

[darinhouston]

Certainly if the church is so 'seeker sensitive' that it actively seeks to put out spiritual fire and maturity that would be a huge problem worth leaving over! What's more, if you were traveling outside your local community to attend such a church, this seems counterproductive to the task of incarnational ministry.

It's not so much the spiritual fire and maturity they seek to put out, but it's a consequence when you tear apart relationships over and over and folks never dig deep in fellowship out of fear of creating an "us" mentality. The problem is that I see the church as primarily an "us" thing (for God's glory and purposes of course -- just vs. "them"). Evangelism and outreach is something completely different from my perspective, and when we're out among "them" we should be as one of them instead of portraying an air of aloof separateness. The problem is most Christians in such a fellowship reverse things completely and make the gathering to be the thing to attract folks and then seclude themselves when among the world as if they are in a bad neighborhood trying not to be noticed or something - and only attending social functions or going to movies or recreation with other Christians, etc. That just seems backwards to me.

[TK]

excellent, darin. i agree.

TK

[darinhouston]

It's a real shame, too, because it could be so great -- there was a time when they let things go for a while in a class we were in for several years because the folks were undergoing so much hardship, and were having kids left and right, etc., and just really needed the continuity. That is the deepest fellowship I've ever been in, I saw the spirit move in the service and challenges and the help and support and healings (my wife's cancer being one), and we are still (12+ years later) closest to those people than any other group of folks I've known (most of whom have long since otherwise gone separate ways). They are and will always be an extended family to us no matter where they all go -- that is what the Christian family is supposed to be.