5 Reasons Why?
5 Reasons I would claim to leave the church
Submitted by rogermugs on 18 June, 2008 - 17:39.
People keep leaving the “church” to go to house churches (which may be more of the “church” than our buildings in warehouses with pastors wearing cutoff jeans and bleaching their hair to be relevant), and now I understand why.
I’m hanging in there because I think the church can sort it out… but these are the five reasons I would cite to leave the church:
5. My pastor hasn’t had a relationship with a non-believer in over 10 years
4. The leaders of my church are workaholics and I find it hard to believe they have a healthy relationship with the Lord when they don’t have the time for their family
3. I’m sick of it being about one man. Be that the pastor, or the musician or whatever, I want to see them raising up other people and sending them out, content to have many small churches instead of one mega church
2. There are 1,000 people who attend my church. I know 50 and only care about 20 of them. I attend a small group to go deeper with those I care about, but I have no reason to remember the name of the guy whose hand I shake between worship and the sermon
1. There is no place to really do ministry, the leaders will not let go of control. I want to pray for people, bless people, watch out for people, be there for people. I want to be invited to do what the Lord has called me to do.
The Planter: I have had more rants about number one than anyone. Control always hinders something. I have had some conversations with leaders about letting go of control and they refuse to do that because they are afraid of not being in control.
posted by Bob Carder @ 12:59 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Good morning Bob.
One of the things I've learned in life is that changing locations rarely solves anything. We carry our baggage with us wherever we go. I was involved in House Churches for many years and they can be just as dysfunctional as conventional ones - sometimes moreso. One thing that drives me crazy about house churches is that they spend an incredible amount of time talking about the 5 reasons they left the conventional church. Conventional churches have problems, but starting house churches generally doesn't solve anything. Most house churches don't grow anyway, if growth is our standard.
Personally, I think that all the church deconstruction is a waste of time. We're deconstructing ourselves out of existence.
Here's why none of the five reasons cited are healthy reasons for leaving.
5. That's between the pastor and God. I can talk to him privately, by why would I leave a church over that? His behavior isn't stopping me from having a relationship with a non-believer. This seems really judgmental.
4. They may be workaholics or they may not be. Does he really know that so intimately that he can judge them for not spending time with their families? Even if they are, is leaving the church the loving way to respond to this?
3. So instead of it being the pastor's vision, it needs to be his vision. Hmmm... No one's stopping him from sharing Christ at work, discipling, helping others serve Christ. Why waste the time attacking the pastor?
2. There's all different kinds of community. When I go to a sporting event, I don't complain that I can't be intimate with 50,000 other people. You know some intimately, others you welcome as brothers and sisters in Christ even if you don't know them well.
1.There's always places to do ministry. In fact, the best thing this guy can do is quick talking about how bad his church is and start doing ministry. Love people, pray for people, tell people about Jesus and don't worry about what his pastor is or isn't doing. Will the pastor tell him he can't pray for people? I doubt it.
Rick, thanks for the well thought out rebuttal. Good work.
You are also right when you say we take our baggage with us everywhere we go.
Wouldn't it be great if "the captives could be set free" from all that baggage?
Isn't that what Jesus came to do.
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