I often hear a lot among my Christian friends about the importance of loyalty to one church and how church-hopping is wrong. When I read in Acts of the Apostles, I read, not only the apostles going place to place establishing and checking up on churches in many places, I read that people who traveled with them did this. Also, I have read where Paul explained that Christ is not divided to believers who stressed whose household of faith they were with.
It really seems that we place importance on what Paul described was not supposed be among us - division (not divided because of church membership but divided because there is so much exclusiveness, disassociations, feelings of betrayals concerning membership changes, and other problems within the church as a whole - as a result of membership). Of course, I have always believed in belonging to a church, which I have belonged to primarily one church for years tithing in that one place. But as I have belonged to a primary church, I have always kept myself in fellowship with other churches -some even participating in their missions - because I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. This trend started for me when I belonged to a church here in the city where I'm from but also belonging to a church out-of-state where I attended college and got saved my sophomore year. From then on, I experienced so much fellowship, relationships, and inconspicuous ministry.
When I returned home, I continued this habit for years and really felt myself experiencing just a small fraction of the joys, various missions, and unnoticeable ministry that disciples experienced in Acts moving around getting their feet wet in fellowships, relationships, witnessing, and missions. Then, the subject of church-hopping kept getting thrown out there as some kind of crisis among Christians. It's made an issue by church leadership, and considering all that I've read in Paul's letters and Acts, I don't understand why. Can someone please explain this to me?
It really seems that we place importance on what Paul described was not supposed be among us - division (not divided because of church membership but divided because there is so much exclusiveness, disassociations, feelings of betrayals concerning membership changes, and other problems within the church as a whole - as a result of membership). Of course, I have always believed in belonging to a church, which I have belonged to primarily one church for years tithing in that one place. But as I have belonged to a primary church, I have always kept myself in fellowship with other churches -some even participating in their missions - because I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. This trend started for me when I belonged to a church here in the city where I'm from but also belonging to a church out-of-state where I attended college and got saved my sophomore year. From then on, I experienced so much fellowship, relationships, and inconspicuous ministry.
When I returned home, I continued this habit for years and really felt myself experiencing just a small fraction of the joys, various missions, and unnoticeable ministry that disciples experienced in Acts moving around getting their feet wet in fellowships, relationships, witnessing, and missions. Then, the subject of church-hopping kept getting thrown out there as some kind of crisis among Christians. It's made an issue by church leadership, and considering all that I've read in Paul's letters and Acts, I don't understand why. Can someone please explain this to me?