When Do You Leave a Church?

abcaines said:
Very easy to do in a large church.
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Easier to do in a large church, but not uncommon in a small one too. It’s been my experience that when people go through crises they often retreat from corporate worship for a spell then relocate to some other church.
 
coverbd said:
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.
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Not going to Church is not the right or godly response to the spiritual apostacy going on today. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we LOVE THE BRETHREN (1 Jn 3:14)! I can fully appreciate walking into a huge mega-church with a superstar celebrity preacher that purportedly preaches the gospel and the "brethren" are nowhere to be found. I can fully sympathize with this but the brethren are around you somewhere! You need to go and find them! If they are like you and unable to find a good Church, band together and START ONE!

Churches are very much relevant and are what Christ has purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28)! Be careful how you slander the Lord's Church!
 
ALAYMAN said:
It’s been my experience that when people go through crises they often retreat from corporate worship for a spell then relocate to some other church.
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I know what you mean. I know of friends who developed cancer and completely withdrew from fellowship; they wouldn't reach out to anyone, they didn't want pastoral visits... Nothing. That was the saddest part. I never saw or spoke to them again. I only heard through the grapevine of their passing.

I know when Angela went through cancer, during the darkest days of uncertainty, we welcomed the connection to the body. We didn't care who we cried in front of. I truly believe maintaining fellowship with others was a major source of the grace we experienced that caused us to grow in our faith.
 
It took me two years before I could go to church. I had cancer in 2018 which caused severe digestive situations preventing me from attending... then Covid.

Now, when we are in town, we go. We want to attend. Someone draws us to desire fellowship.
 
FSSL said:
It took me two years before I could go to church. I had cancer in 2018 which caused severe digestive situations preventing me from attending... then Covid.

Now, when we are in town, we go. We want to attend. Someone draws us to desire fellowship.
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You make an excellent case for withdrawing... Never occurred to me. Digestive issues can definitely make for an awkward situation 😳.

Glad you're better.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Yes, this is a church I would leave. Nah, that’s a church I wouldn’t join.
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My wife and I went to a church where the pastor finally started acting like this. When he started this kind of garbage, showing his hind end like this, we got up while he was lambasting a man in the pew in front of us. When he came after us asking what we thought we were doing I was quite clear when I told him that even JESUS had better sense and didn't do things like this. He followed us to the door. On the way out I told him squarely that his actions were reprehensible and that he should resign as pastor. We had many members leave the service immediately afterward. We were asked by several in the congregation to help start a church...I told them that if the LORD hadn't told them to leave that church they belonged there fighting to change it from within. Only two families went back. We had Bible studies with the other 15 families for around 10 weeks before we decided to form a new church.
 
FSSL said:
It took me two years before I could go to church. I had cancer in 2018 which caused severe digestive situations preventing me from attending... then Covid.

Now, when we are in town, we go. We want to attend. Someone draws us to desire fellowship.
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I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that, Brother. With bilateral Meniere's disease, there are problems with nausea, and other digestive issues as well. I had bleeding ulcers from years of frustration caused by looking well but being ill with balance and hearing problems. As with what you probably experienced with COVID-19, I could keep nothing but some light liquids and broths down, and I lost over 40 lbs in less than a month, and 75 lbs in three months. Covid nearly killed me. We didn't get to go to church for over seven months. It ws so frustrating.
 
Church should be more like a hospital for people with spiritual and emotional needs and less like a courthouse.
 
outside of medical or physicial issues - which can be a valid reason for staying home from church... or issues regarding military service or emergency first responder work - which can be a valid reason for being somewhere else - - - i would say its; when the leadership of a church ceases to be servants of God.... and begins serving man... or worse - serving themselves....... i left a church several years ago for that very reason.... of course many different things can happen that would indicate a churchs leadership has gone in that direction - it doesn;t all have to be acceptance of gross and reprobate apostacy like mine was... ...it could be much smaller and simpler things - some of which most of christendom has become conditioned to accept.. disregard.. or yawn at....... .but if those things indicate the leadership is serving anyone or anything other than God .. and not adhering to the Word of God - then it is time for you to leave....
 
sword said:
Church should be more like a hospital for people with spiritual and emotional needs and less like a courthouse.
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i argued those points years ago somewhere else .... concering whether a church was like an emergency room/hospital - vrs a court house.... . and i said the church is like neither one...... i said that to me church is more like a school... ..... short reasons being that when a hospital or emergency room is done with you are either carried out feet first and delivered to the morgue... or you leave on your own feeling better.... and you don;t go back unless you are feeling bad again...... ......and when a court house is done with you - you either walk out the front door a free person.... or you are frog marched out the back and delivered to jail......

but with a school you attend on a regular schedule and learn things that will make you better at what you do in life - or enable you to have a career and become a service to others and society... and there doesn;t have to be some horrible thing wrong with you or some crime you are accused of to attend.....

but while the comparison to school seems closer - in truth - a church is not really like a school either... church is it;s own institution that cannot be compared to other things nor should it attempt to take the place of them... ... nor should any of those other things attempt to take the place of church..... each has it;s own place and it;s own responsibilities to perform.... and while it is possible to live ones entire life without the need or desire to go to school or go to court.. or to a hospital either one... (and God will not fault you for it) .. it is not so with church....... church is needed on a regular basis if life is to be lived as God would have us live it....

(ok.... so my answer wasn;t as short as i wanted it to be.... but that;s just me....i couldn;t even put a nut in a nutshell... much less a concept like this one).... .
 
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Better stated church should start as a hospital, but evolve into a home. One should feel relaxed and comfortable at church, surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage you. Any correction is done with such love and kindness that it is well received. The Bible teaching should be done in a way that makes you better, not bitter.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Link-When Do You Leave a Church

Some good (and oversimplification too) in this article about principles for deciding if/when to leave a church in order to join another.

Thoughts?
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If you never go to church, then you don't have to worry about leaving.
If you do go to church never be a member, then you can leave anytime
with no drama.
 
coverbd said:
If you never go to church, then you don't have to worry about leaving.
If you do go to church never be a member, then you can leave anytime
with no drama.
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That's why I love Calvary Chapel. No membership rolls. I remember when I got baptized at Bellevue Baptist, I "had" to join. I just wanted to be baptized. I reluctantly joined. I was going to stay with them whether I was a "member" or not because of the fellowship and the Word. I acclimated to the membership idea for the better part of 20 years before I started attending a CC. I was shocked when they told me they had no membership rolls. It was exactly what I was looking for when I was first baptized! Been with CC now for well over 20 years.
 
abcaines said:
That's why I love Calvary Chapel. No membership rolls. I remember when I got baptized at Bellevue Baptist, I "had" to join. I just wanted to be baptized. I reluctantly joined. I was going to stay with them whether I was a "member" or not because of the fellowship and the Word. I acclimated to the membership idea for the better part of 20 years before I started attending a CC. I was shocked when they told me they had no membership rolls. It was exactly what I was looking for when I was first baptized! Been with CC now for well over 20 years.
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We don't go to church, we downstream our Bible teaching.
 
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