My wife and I leave when the leadership is becoming/has become immoral, doesn't preach the Gospel, or is abusive to church members with the deacon body allowing it to continue after they've been notified of what's going on. We've seen a progression of our local IFB and SBC churches alike becoming morally bankrupt, supporting things the Scriptures don't, and it's been a really strange experience for us.
While I completely agree with your observation about one of the important aspects of a mature Church being the shepherding aspect, it's been my experience that there is also a very significant amount of people that do not want any form of accountability and shepherding in their life. They like to keep it superficial because they don't want to be involved and don't want to see biblical principles being put to the challenge in there existence.
For some of us, it’s not so much that we want to not be involved or we want to keep things superficial, as it is a variety of negative church experiences over the years adding up to a reluctance to get too involved or to develop anything beyond superficial relationships in church. Personally, I attend church because I know it’s the right thing to do, and I want my family in church, but at this point in my life, I don’t trust getting too involved because I don’t want the “church drama” that I’ve experienced attaches itself when getting too submerged within the church.
That answer is a good addition to the discussion, because it explains how some people don't plug deeply in to the worship and service of a local body. Being jaded by past experiences is a legitimate expression of our lack of willingness to invest ourselves deeply only to be burnt again. Having said that, I think that once a church (through its' membership/fellowship/leadership has demonstrated a model of Biblical church existence then we ought to seek to immerse ourselves in service by using the gifts He has given us. My description of the shallow and superficial relationship that many seek to maintain in their "religious" expriences was simply a way of explaining how I would find such a blase church life easy to abandon for something a bit more flashy. And of course if a church doesn't provide the framework of evangelism and discipleship unto servanthood then I would ascertain that upon my visits and find that a cause to move on to the church that did do church right.
I suppose you can get a mega churches prone to that. It's not a given though that it has to be that way.
It's not a given in any church or denomination.
I like it.
Maybe these churches are becoming cults? Better get out. We rarely attend church. We down stream our services or Bible teaching. I don't know if churches are relevant anymore with the advent of technology. The same can be said of missionaries.
I think we have real life, bona fyde judaizer in our midst.
Yes I am
Jesus said he would build his church and the gates of hell wouldn't prevail against it. The Bible tells us that he was in the synagogues...it was his custom. Churches aren't irrelevant.
Very easy to do in a large church.
Yes, this is a church I would leave. Nah, that’s a church I wouldn’t join.If you can't fall asleep without getting called out, or you are unable to establish your own kingdom in the video room... (It takes a special skill to keep the frame centered like this!)