Does God Want You to Leave Your Church?

I think that this type of thinking is very dangerous for Christians, and runs rampant in the modern church. Does Christ call us to separate from each other? Are we not to join together, persevere, and submit to our authority? If God has brought us to a place then He will take us elsewhere if He wills it, but He also confirms His words. Too often our own lack of obedience causes us to not see what He wills for us, and really we are running away. I don't see anywhere in the Bible that tells us to leave the body we were called to. Perhaps our own devotional time is lacking, and the dullness of response is due to our own inner rebellion or starvation. We often expect the church to fill us when it's God we need to be running after. Make sure that you are in God's word and basing your decision out of true Biblical precepts before walking out of the blessing that God has for you in the place where He has put you!

The article was affirmation to me as I made the decision to leave my church a few months ago. I would definitely recommend the article to anyone who is struggling with that decision. I plan to buy the book real soon.

One possibility to consider when dissatisfied with your church is "stay & pray". God can change things round in response to prayer. I think this possibility should have been dealt with in the article.

Very well placed. It is vital that believers know the difference between leaving Church and leaving the Lord. Churches would be better and much more sound in relation to the Lord and themselves and therefore they will find it easier to release people to go on serve and the Lord in much better ways that will in turn help them in the long run and not view them as the enemy. New wine in new wineskins, old wine in old wineskins. In the end it will all narrow down to how we walked with the Lord and obeyed Him and not our allegiance to the Church or the nation - they are secondary where God is concerned.

Many American Churches have lost the purpose of "CHURCH" It is a place to Worship & Praise God, Pray, Learn, Fellowship, Serve God & Others. Service is not limited to within the Church Body,outreach. Fellowship with all believers. See Ps 100; Acts 2:41-47; Matt 28:19,20
Many believers are disillusioned, discouraged & wounded b/c of dictatorships, control, abuse, manipulation, favoritisim from leadership. I have experienced this as a believer myself and I thank God for healing & wisdom. If this is going on within a Church I would recommend that a person first pray & fast to seek God's direction & outside counsel before making a decision to leave. Understand that sheep who are not shepards or in leadership are sometimes powerless to do anything but leave. I wouldn't recommend that someone stay in an unhealthy Church. Pastors & leaders DO NOT OWN God's flock or Church it is a stewardship. Ulltimately God knows time,season,purpose,plan for His child's life.
It's about God not us.

I believe the church is for equipping the believers to do ministry and missions. Sure there are dead churches and at times it is necessary to leave. But God calls us to a church and God will call us to leave a church. This idea of not getting fed is wrong. This is where the church has gone wrong. If a believer has been saved for a couple of years they should be able to feed themselves. We don't go to church to get fed, we go to be equipped and serve.
For a long time now the church has said, "bring us your children and we will teach them. What we should have been saying is "Parents you teach your children we will equip you and support you",
Because of generations of this neglect we end up with the "me-ism" attitude. Feed me! I say open the Bible and feed yourself. Believers need to become self feeders. Honestly I eat food three times a day. I can't live on one meal a week, yet this "feed me" mentality breeds this among immature believers. Result- spiritual starvation.

First I would like to Thank The Pastor On her comments,on 11 of Dec i will Not mention names.I have been in a situation when i became very bored in the ministry, the messages were begining to repeat, I needed more I wasn't growing spiritually,personally I wasn't against the Pastor Dynamic Preacher and Teacher it was just that the ministry had taken me as far as I can go i recieve my Impartation,talk to my leaders as God instructed me to. I believe in my heart that everyone will not stay in one ministry all their life,but like the Pastor said in the previous article if you are going from church to church their is a problem check yourself, and yes their is no perfect church no perfect Pastors, we must remember they are humans just like you and I - with a Higher Calling. Kenneth Copeland and Clefo Dollar teach on Prosperity, Marlyn Hickey is a Faith teacher and Benny Henn of course Healing and Miracles. We as christians just need to find our Purpose In Life and take it from there.

What a selfish, self-centered article. The only real criteria (outside of a very-short paragraph) is, "Is the church meeting my needs?" I thought Jesus calls us to worry more about how we can serve than whether we are being served. My bad. So keep looking. Maybe you can find a church that will feed you and burp you and make you perfectly comfortable and never ask you to have any responsibility for your own spiritual growth, and never, ever (God forbid) ask you to sacrifice or think more about meeting the needs of others (like those pesky new believers the church is attracting) or serve the body. Could we please find ways to make the American church more self-indulgent?

Excellent article - thank you. From a Pastor's perspective, I would add one caution or consideration. If, one finds himself changing churches every other year; and just can't ever, over a long period of years, find a church they are "comfortable" in and "commit" to; one must consider that the problem may not be the churches, but the individual. Sometimes people have unrealistic expectations of finding the "perfect" church, with absolutely no problems. But since each church is made up of imperfect people, each church will always be imperfect in one way or the other. In our culture, that devalues commitment, loyalty, and endurance, it would be a better Christian witness to the world if we, as believers, would model these values as we relate to one another as God's people.

thanks so much for the encouragement in due time. I myself am in the middle of relocating to another church, and to be honest its a little more difficult than i thought. yesterday i was on the verge of frustration but today i feel better and this article put the icing on the cake. So thank you and God bless you.