Over the past few months I have visited about 3-5 other churches on top of attending my home church. A common theme that I was noticing was that either the church had growth due to the new attendees leaving another church or have lost members for various reasons. This problem has really weighed heavy on me because I have personally seen the leadership of two churches deal with the heartbreak and confusion of seemingly faithful members leave the church. This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to have a "getaway weekend" with some friends and attend their church. This left me about a good 9 hours alone to really sit and ponder why all these events were happening. I drove and questioned if the problem lied in leadership, the services, or if the problem was solely placed on the person(s) leaving. Being a product of both churches' leadership and despite them not always "getting it right" I still feel their leadership and ability to Shepherd a Church or Youth Group is phenomenal. I've attended both churches' services and God has shown up and moved mightily. Which for me has left only one option...the person leaving. I won't get into too much detail about my opinions on the persons and what they are doing, but the point of this post is to more expose the pattern in the Church lately.
The Scripture that has constantly been ringing in my ears is 2 Timothy 4:3 "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." My opinion...welcome to that time. I firmly believe that the main reason for people leaving is because God is sending out a message that isn't very popular. I believe that in these End Times people who are truly hungry to see fruit coming forth from the Body are receiving direction on how to genuinely live for God rather than say a cute little prayer and attend church and call it a nice way to get into Heaven. Hate to bring some Biblical truth to this post but that nice little "Sinner's Prayer" you prayed is not enough (a nice start I'd say, but just that...a start).To truly be saved and enter into Heaven there is a constant pressing forth to the mark, active relationship with Jesus that will result in Holiness, and bearing fruits. I don't say that by our works we are saved, but there is so much more that is involved than a nice little prayer and church attendance. God doesn't care about your church's numbers. I have heard preachers say, " God loves high numbers because that means His Word is being heard." Incorrect! The Devil loves packed out churches to people who really aren't living or hearing the Word. I believe God will move stronger and mightier with a church of 20 devoted Followers than Joel Osteen's church of people attending to feel good. God doesn't need numbers. He wants Followers. The problem, however, is that following God and His Word seriously isn't the most popular of choices. God will breakdown every preconceived doctrine and replace it with His Truth. Also that whole die to yourself daily thing isn't the most popular of the Words Jesus said.
So what happens when God opened the eyes of a core group and leadership of a church and they begin to truly preach The Word? Exactly what is happening to a few churches I know. I have noticed that in the turn of the year the messages at my home church have drastically changed. I, guest preachers, and my Pastor have all begun preaching this message of Following Jesus and denying ourselves so that Jesus may have His way among us. My biggest frustration in Christians is that many many many of us use Jesus as a self-help program. The average American goals are to FEEL morally right, healthy, wealthy, happy, and have a little religion. When it means to get radical for that religion it is time to go somewhere else. That's what I have been noticing in my church and various other churches. When you stand on The Truth and God's standards many people don't want to hear it and will do anything to fight leadership and sow discord among the Followers before ultimately leaving. When the attention gets turned off of a person and turned to Jesus the popularity that kept someone there begins to fade. (If I were preaching this would be the moment I say " I'm bout to start meddling.") When the fluff in messages being presented from the pulpit ends and the Word gets used for its original purpose to teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16) people will not stay. The Word can be offensive at times and when leadership rises up and takes its roll to correct the congregation or to tell lovingly that someone is out of order and in rebellion, families will go because now Church isn't about feeling good anymore and we lose this sense of self-righteousness and sense the necessity of denying ourselves and letting go of everything so God can use us. Not every Christian that walks into your church is willing to be apart of God's vision.
John 15 and Matthew 13 beautifully sum up the reality that all people in our churches aren't going to Heaven. The Church is constantly throwing out seeds and only 1/4 of those seeds end up being fruitful. John 15 also states that God The Father cuts off every branch that doesn't bear fruit. A lot of instances where we are seeing dramatic weeding out in our churches are seeing threats of people leaving should be treated as exactly what it is...God weeding out our churches so that we may bear more fruit. Lets not hold onto the weeds that are trying to strangle the fruitful. The churches I have attended I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is setting those churches up for revival and to see things deeper than what has ever been seen before. However, as a church we can not experience God in that level when we have a cancerous people plaguing our Body. When the Word is being powerfully brought forth God responds.
I have had the blessing and privilege to be under two amazing sets of leadership and I owe so much to them and their ministries. It is such a hard thing to see leadership hurt due to the weeding out process and having people that they've poured into leave, but God has a plan and a purpose for His Church and at the end of the day some relationships in the Body need to end so we can move onto another level of Glory and have our tents enlarged. I want to finish this by saying not every person leaving the church is in rebellion or "unsaved". Some people have different preferences in churches and if the church isn't theirs that is okay. There is however a biblical way to leave a church and a very non-biblical way to leave a church and how you leave makes a huge difference to everyone involved and most importantly to God. If you leave fighting and being in rebellion against leadership don't expect to be blessed by God in many aspects of your life.
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