Time to move on?

**HarvDog** · 03-30-2007, 01:34 PM

My wife and I believe it might be time to leave our church and attend elsewhere. We have attended our current church since 1994 and have been involved in various ministries including choir, worship teams, productions, sound, lighting, youth, sports, and outreach. I have also served as a deacon for about 7 years. However, some recent changes have resulted in actions and practices that we don't agree with and, quite frankly do not line up with The Word. This is one of the reasons we have taken a break from many of these activities. In addition, the Christian Education for adults isn't as strong as it used to be. By the way, we have discussed all of this with the pastors and elders at our church. We have realized that we are not being fed through the sermons and teachings at our church. I have wondered if we even were while we were involved so heavily in so many ministries, or if we were so busy, we didn't notice. Fortunately, we take the initiative to listen to tapes, television, and radio broadcasts.

Interestingly enough, I am reading "The Bait of Satan" by John Bevere and he touches on this. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 6:

I'm often asked, "When should I leave a church or ministry team? How bad does it have to get?" I respond, "Who sent you to the church you presently attend?" The majority of the time they answer, "God did." "If God sent you," I reply, "do not leave until God releases you. If the Lord is silent, He is often saying, 'Don't change a thing. Do not leave. Stay where I have placed you!'" When God does instruct you to leave, you will go out with peace, no matter what the condition of the ministry. "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace." - Isaiah 55:12 KJV Therefore, your departure will not be based on the actions or behavior of others but rather on the Spirit's leading. So leaving a ministry is not based on how bad things are.

We certainly don't want to be out of the will of God and have been praying about this for a very long time. We may not have received an audible voice telling us to leave, there have been many other signs. When we spoke to leadership, they claimed that they were already aware of many of the problems but not much has been done to address or correct them. Where some of the issues aren't making it easy to stay, these aren't the only reasons we are considering a change. In addition, we’re not naive enough to believe that there aren’t problems in other churches. Besides the issues, we feel that we are not getting what we need spiritually, not to mention, not using our gifts (e.g. music, etc.). We have visited many other churches and have really enjoyed the worship and the messages.

I guess I just wanted to get some thoughts from anyone who has been through something like this.

Either way, just keep us in your prayers…

**christsavedme** · 03-30-2007, 01:55 PM

Prayers will be with you my friend. My wife and I just went through this about 1 year ago. It is not an easy decision by any means, but sometimes it is God's will.

The part we found worse than anything was finding a new church! We finally did and now call it home and love where we are.

Just wanted you to know that ya'll will be in our thoughts and prayers!

Andrea · 03-30-2007, 02:06 PM

Sounds to me like God has already spoken.

Good luck finding the new church.I'll keep you and your wife in my prayers.

**unioncountyslayer** · 03-30-2007, 10:11 PM

First of all, I feel like it's not the Pastors job, or the churches to "feed" you on Sunday. It is their job to equip you to feed yourself. If the Church is doing things that are outside of the Word however, it may be a good thing to get a fresh start somewhere else. If you do decide to stay, my advice would be to work hard to bring some of the things back that were strong at one point. Don't wait on others to do it, dream big and make it happen. Good luck with whatever your decision.

HoppeMan · 03-30-2007, 11:12 PM

It's always hard to leave a church, but if you feel you should, then you better do it

It's also always pretty hard adjusting to a new church. Hope you can come to a good decision pretty soon!

**Mathews XT Man** · 03-31-2007, 08:29 AM

Whereever you go..make sure they actually teach out of the Bible... chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Been to a couple where they dont even bring a Bible to church!! Good Luck.