I am looking for an approach to Christianity that works. I've tried many churches, many popular pastors like Joel Osteen, Andy Stanley, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, and others, and many approaches. It seems like with a lot of them you have to do 1000 things right before you can expect an answer to your prayer - tithe, forgive, believe, don't wear your clothes inside out (Lol) and a thousand other things! Does anyone have an approach that works for them - that consistently results in answered prayers!
Thanks
I found after 12 years in the Charismatic movement, that when I left it and spent around 3 years in an Anglican church, another 7 years in Baptist churches, and the last 23 years as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of NZ, the rank and file Christian believer is the same anywhere, and they worship God just the same as anyone in any church.
I have come to the conclusion that it is not what you get out of a church, but what you put into it. Many attend churches as leeches to suck out for themselves whatever they can get out of it. They are the ones who complain and change churches when the church doesn't give them what they want or what they think they need. This is because of the false doctrine in especially Charismatic circles that God will meet all your "needs", when what they think is that God has to supply all their wants, and when they don't get them from one church they leave and go to another in the hope that they will get what they desire.
What I did was to stop being a pew-sitter in a large church, and went and joined a smaller church where there was a shortage of people-power. I found that I was put to work teaching Sunday school, being in the choir, invited onto their Board of Managers, being a deacon, and in my Presbyterian church an elder and treasurer. I then found I was on the worship/preaching roster. None of these things would have happened if I had stayed in the large Charismatic church where there was always competition for roles within it.
It all depends on what you want to be - a leech sucking the ministry dry and ending up being dissatisfied; or a contributor being available to perform any role in the church, including being the janitor if that was offered to you.
I am involved at present in my new city, at a Union church (Methodist/Presbyterian) which is quite liberal and tends to concentrate on improving our world. If I was wanting to be a leech, I wouldn't be going there, because there is little they can add to my Christian experience. But because I love the Lord and make the Bible the foundation of my faith, I am available to make a contribution to that church that could inject more of Christ into it. It is not that I am going to throw my spiritual weight around and tell them they are all wrong because of their liberalism, but, because they are short of preachers and people to lead services in their cluster of churches, I have offered my services once they get to know me better; and when I do preach, my messages will be Bible-based to give them a better understanding of the Bible. It will be like the frog in the boiling water syndrome - that by a slow process, I can use my influence to bring a more Christ-centred attitude to that church.
It is sad that there are multitudes of experienced, capable people sitting in large churches doing nothing, when there are smaller churches around them starving for good workers and preachers and who would welcome them with open arms and receive the blessing of having these ones significantly add to the life of their churches.
I think that a lot of it is because the large churches are filled with self-seeking, lazy, spiritual leeches who just want to be ministered to all the time, and are not prepared to get off their acres and get with a church that would greatly appreciate their experience and expertise.
If you did that, you will find yourself part of a loving and supportive Christian family who will accept you as one of them; and when that happens, you will find it very difficult to leave them - as I did after 23 years when I moved cities recently.
