I recently moved churches.
It was a hard decision but then I remembered that my last
Home Church was decided on after several ‘tests’ with others, lots of prayer
and soul searching. I only settled on a Church when my Spirit rested and I had
peace in the place.
As Christians, the Bible teaches us that those who are led
by God’s Spirit are His sons and daughters. Sometimes we may even say our
decisions were made by God’s leading but eventually realize that we may have
been wrong, when we lose our peace and experience trouble all around us.
This is what made me understand that my decision to move Churches was not
wrong.
Some people say that changing churches is spiritual
prostitution but as far as I know, the Bible tells us that Jesus is the Way.
The Bible did not tell us that our salvation is hinged on the Church we attend.
So many are so focused on what humans will say or think that
they become deaf to what God has said and is still saying. As followers of Christ, we must be courageous enough to follow God and not man because we will end up living with the consequences of our decisions, whether we did it to please people or we made them to please God.
I believe there are 4 things we can check to confirm where
God is leading us as regards Church Membership.
1. Your loyalty to leadership
You cannot be a member of a
congregation and despise your leadership.
As soon as you begin to despise
your Pastor, their words and ways, you need to prayerfully relocate because
your being there is just a waste of time for you. If you give your time and
even honour to your leadership grudgingly, do not expect any blessing because
The Bible tells us that God loves a cheerful giver.
You cannot receive any impartation
from your Pastors when you do not value the anointing upon them. You cannot
attract what you despise.
In my former Church, I met many
people who had issues with leadership and some of them were leaders themselves.
They badmouthed the Pastor and did not appreciate the honour bestowed upon
them. They were deeply unhappy and yet they remained there. Some were quick to
inform me that they were only there for a time and did not care whose horse was
gored.
Each day, I wonder why people
remain in a Church, of all places, where they are so hurt they cannot even be
open enough to receive any blessing from the message.
Christianity is a faith-based walk
and where your thoughts are tainted by hurt and pain, faith would be difficult
to grow.
God’s gift makes rich and adds no
sorrow, so once there is sorrow in the gift of fellowship, you have to take a
second look, in case you just got dazed by the angel of light – Satan.
2. Alignment of your Values
If your values do not align with
the majority, you have to backtrack because you’ll be beating your head against
a brick wall expecting them to change.
Change, is indeed possible but
know that even God’s Word tells us that two cannot work together except they
agree.
If your values do not align with
that of church Leadership, then disagreement is inevitable and therefore,
progress will be elusive. Be conscious that hurt will be your reward because you cannot
come and overturn long standing traditions without the backing of those in
authority.
3. Too much Talk
Church is a place Christians go to
refuel their spiritual vehicles so that they can effectively and efficiently
navigate life’s terrain. It is a place where you take what you've received back
to conquer your world. It is not a place where you go to get the victim
mentality because the words are different from the actions.
If you attend a Church that leaves
you with much to ‘talk’ about after the service, you need to rethink your
membership. If you want to get a degree in GOSSIPING, Church should not be the
place for it.
4. Check Yourself
When all is said and done, we need
to check ourselves also, to be sure that we are not the problem. We could
become the problem when we join the ‘Talkers’ to badmouth the leadership and
the Church’s methods. We become the problem, when we forget what the Bible says
about love and start acting like stark unbelievers, judging and reacting. We
become the problem, when we start disobeying God’s instructions because of what
people have done or said to us. We become the problem when we begin to
gallivant with the chickens, forgetting that we are Eagles.
A time comes in a Christian’s life, when they have to choose
to live for God by absolutely following His written instructions and listening
for His verbal instructions. That is the time when we do crazy things that
people cannot understand, for God. It is a time when our lives are not
concerned about what people say but are driven by what God says.
It is when we get to that point that we can truly enjoy being
members of any Church.
