What caused you to leave your church?

[AwakenedOne]

Virtually all pastors are complete and utter failures when it comes to their biblical purpose. How can I say this?

Eph4
v12 And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
v13 For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Read the above passage carefully, particularly the highlighted part. You will see that the job of the pastor is stated as to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry.
Therefore, if you attend a church where the same man is at the front addressing the same people year after year with the same message, then he has failed completely and totally in the biblical job description. His success is merely in entertaining, or man managing, the same people for another year. He has managed to keep them in their place, contributing financially to their own emasculation and impotence as ministers of the Kingdom.

As long as the saints simply suckle from the tit of leadership, they will never enter their own inheritance and anointing. They will never do the work of the ministry. They will remain pew fodder.
I might add that being allowed by the man at the front to occasionally participate in a service, is not what this verse means!

The man at the front of the average church has no connection to the biblical pastor, or to any of the other ministries. He may believe that his ministry is that of a pastor, but a simple comparison to the scriptures will reveal the truth.

I agree with you 100% on this. You have to read Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola. It will add to your knowledge of where our church practices come from. The answers might suprise you.

 

[AwakenedOne]

Some years ago my friend who has a prophetic anointing, because of various things that God had spoken to him about decided to take his family outside of the Institutional Church. Having 2 young children under 5, he still wanted to have a family worship time and was unsure how to do it with his children as they were used to going to church together on Sunday.

I suggested that the Lord was just as able to speak to the children as to him and his wife. Therefore he decided to give them some paper to draw on whilst they all listened to the Lord together.
Now bear in mind, that my friend had told his children absolutely nothing about leaving the church, or why. They were just following what the Lord had given them.
On the first Sunday, they all sat down together and my friend told the children to listen for what Jesus would say to them. Within a minute or two the 5yr old boy was scribbling away furiously. When dad could hold his curiosity no longer he asked what his son was drawing.
He started to describe. He had drawn a great long bed, with dozens of people all laid across it fast asleep. There was also a man standing at the bed head pushing it.

Dad, "What are you drawing son".
"It's a bed daddy, a big bed".
"Ok, and who are all these people on the bed son".
"Those are all the people in church daddy, asleep".
"Oh, really! And who is this here at the end?"
"Oh, that's uncle Dick, (The pastor) He's pushing the bed with all the sleeping people!"

Sharp intake of breathe!

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings!
A 5 year old boy had meticulously drawn the prophetic picture as he had seen it from the Spirit from the Lord, confirming exactly what God had been speaking to my friend about.

Unless adults repent and become as little children they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. They will just continue playing the charade of church.

Wow! that is truly amazing! Out of the mouth of babes. An Awakening is happening and the days of the Institutional Church System are numbered.

 

[meshak2]

Unless adults repent and become as little children they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. They will just continue playing the charade of church.

Problem is that most churchgoers are not interested in being true to Jesus and loyal to Jesus.

Their goal is not Jesus, rather their church and their denominational doctrines.

their Lord is not Jesus for sure.

 

[Francis Drake]

I agree with you 100% on this. You have to read Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola. It will add to your knowledge of where our church practices come from. The answers might suprise you.

Yes thanks, I have actually read Pagan Christianity, and it is truly excellent.
However the Lord started showing me the falsehood of the institutional church system over 30 years ago and has been speaking to me about it ever since.
It has been a very costly walk!

I have posted this prophetic word elsewhere, but I will do it again. "The church is an institution that Satan has set up to prevent Christians doing the work of the Lord."
This is a word that the Lord gave me many years ago, and I see no reason to doubt it.

The churches we see are the offspring man. They are not built on Jesus the Rock, but built on their various pastors and denominations.
These churches may include freeborn sons and daughters of God, but they are just institutional clubs we have invented to imitate a truly organic body of Christ. As such, they imprison the saints and replace their direct communion with God.
I have seen non Christians hear God speak better than most churched Christians.

 

[BrandiFL]

I stopped going to church because I realized that we are in the 21st century and it's crazy that we are still gathering together and chanting about how great the invisible sky wizards are.

When I realized there is no evidence for any of that nonsense I started seeing church people like a bunch of tribal savages all convulsing and dancing around a fire to summon favor from the sky spirits.

 

[Johnnz]

I stopped going to church because I realized that we are in the 21st century and it's crazy that we are still gathering together and chanting about how great the invisible sky wizards are.

When I realized there is no evidence for any of that nonsense I started seeing church people like a bunch of tribal savages all convulsing and dancing around a fire to summon favor from the sky spirits.

Ho hum. Another modernist in a postmodern age, somewhat dated now.

John
NZ

 

[New_Wineskin]

Forum members,

I want to hear your stories or reasons why you left your particular church organization. For me, it was because my church was superficial and 80% of the sermons was about money. It wasn't about Christ anymore or his teachings. It was more like a for-profit corporation than a meeting place for believers to come together.

What are some specific things that have caused you all to leave your organizations?

Law and legalism . I saw too many differences between what doctrines I had and what the majority of the rest had . Also , older members were pushing for more and more hymns which made worhip more and more dead by their demands . I liked hymns here and there . But , it was getting to be about 80% when I finally left .

 

[Norah63]

This thread is a breath of fresh air blowing across the body of Christ.
Learning to hear our Fathers voice and be about His business.
Having attended several diffrent places of worship it seemed I went in hungry and left starved.
Speaking up only gets one labeled as trouble.
Now it is plain that our maturity is life. Working our our salvation with fear and trembling.
No longer do I seek a "place" to love and hear and serve my Lord.
It is wonderful to read how others are maturing and hearing truth. Thanks so much for all your posts. Jesus is Lord!

 

[meshak2]

This thread is a breath of fresh air blowing across the body of Christ.
Learning to hear our Fathers voice and be about His business.
Having attended several diffrent places of worship it seemed I went in hungry and left starved.
Speaking up only gets one labeled as trouble.
Now it is plain that our maturity is life. Working our our salvation with fear and trembling.
No longer do I seek a "place" to love and hear and serve my Lord.
It is wonderful to read how others are maturing and hearing truth. Thanks so much for all your posts. Jesus is Lord!

The organizations have created many cliches to silence the truth.

Jesus' followers need to speak up, regardless, lest we share their guilt.

 

[Norah63]

Yes speaking up must be our first responsibility.
And having done so there is nothing else to do there.
Others may want to be a part of the body ministry, but are too timid to join in and be helpful. The author and finisher of our faith is our reward, we need not mans approval.

 

[meshak2]

, we need not mans approval.

yes, sister, amen.

 

[AwakenedOne]

This thread is a breath of fresh air blowing across the body of Christ.
Learning to hear our Fathers voice and be about His business.
Having attended several diffrent places of worship it seemed I went in hungry and left starved.
Speaking up only gets one labeled as trouble.
Now it is plain that our maturity is life. Working our our salvation with fear and trembling.
No longer do I seek a "place" to love and hear and serve my Lord.
It is wonderful to read how others are maturing and hearing truth. Thanks so much for all your posts. Jesus is Lord!

Truly Inspiring words. Thank you.

 

[homeschool1]

I agree with most of what has already been said and I don't want to just be a repetitive post.

We mostly have felt like the pastor/leadership required you to be at every service all week long or if you did not you were not a legitimate member. They would literally treat you as if you were invisible in many ways or "subpar".
We don't agree with that and felt it was a form of control.

There were other things too, but that was really not right.

 

[DIVA_for_Christ]

AMEN Ezeric!!!! Once I left after 5 years in "leadership" I immediately starting going to another "church" thinking that's what He wanted me to do only for Him to have me leave there in a few months saying "Don't worry about being connected to a church - you are connected to Me so you are the Church".

 

[ezeric]

Some years ago my friend who has a prophetic anointing, because of various things that God had spoken to him about decided to take his family outside of the Institutional Church. Having 2 young children under 5, he still wanted to have a family worship time and was unsure how to do it with his children as they were used to going to church together on Sunday.

I suggested that the Lord was just as able to speak to the children as to him and his wife. Therefore he decided to give them some paper to draw on whilst they all listened to the Lord together.
Now bear in mind, that my friend had told his children absolutely nothing about leaving the church, or why. They were just following what the Lord had given them.
On the first Sunday, they all sat down together and my friend told the children to listen for what Jesus would say to them. Within a minute or two the 5yr old boy was scribbling away furiously. When dad could hold his curiosity no longer he asked what his son was drawing.
He started to describe. He had drawn a great long bed, with dozens of people all laid across it fast asleep. There was also a man standing at the bed head pushing it.

Dad, "What are you drawing son".
"It's a bed daddy, a big bed".
"Ok, and who are all these people on the bed son".
"Those are all the people in church daddy, asleep".
"Oh, really! And who is this here at the end?"
"Oh, that's uncle Dick, (The pastor) He's pushing the bed with all the sleeping people!"

Sharp intake of breathe!

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings!
A 5 year old boy had meticulously drawn the prophetic picture as he had seen it from the Spirit from the Lord, confirming exactly what God had been speaking to my friend about.

Unless adults repent and become as little children they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. They will just continue playing the charade of church.

Ment to say that its a great prophetic story!

We have to be open when we are doing house church or simple church to the young or the simple or quite ones, whom the LORD might talk through to the rest of the group. Its not always the best speaker or the oldest!

-eric

 

[joserjedi]

I left my Church in the High Desert after two years of ministry. The church endorsed and promoted a book that basically was making gentiles be jews. The book was boundry stones by Eby, who is a Messianic Jew. I talked to the pastor who was sold on the book. The guy teaching the book was a disciple of a Rabbi who used to sing with Maranatha group. I couldn't in good conscience stay and do ministry. I resigned and rescinded my membership.
Please pray for me as I have a small group in my home.

 

[Nienna_Lady_of_Tears]

We left our church due to the fact that we both have Asperger's syndrome and it didn't matter what size the congregation was, there was too much light, too much sound (and little sounds most people don't notice get us) too many people in our large personal space bubbles (even we have to be at least a foot and a half away from each other or it gets overwhelming) and I also have sensitivity to smell. My husband is so bad he'll actually twitch and end up on the floor.

And small churches don't help. The smaller the congregation, the smaller the building and I also have claustrophobia.

My husband pursued a Bachelor's in Preaching from Harding University. At the last moment he had to change to General Studies because his disability issues prevented him from obtaining an internship. But he was just one semester away from completing it.

I am working on an online Bachelor's in Biblical Studies from Sunset Bible Institute. We are opening our new place to a few of our friends in the Fall, when they come back to school. We're not going to take them away from their home churches, so we're going to worship in the afternoon.

 

[keepuslord]

I found out I was in a well established but secret cult. Everything was kept secret from those not within the inner circle, every question I asked of those in authority was always answered with just another question posed back to me. We nearly went crazy, blaming ourselves for our lack of understanding we learned the way of silent conformity. We had no clue except our feelings of separation until their super apostle visited from another state and dismantle the church for lack of obedience to his dictatorship. Families were destroyed, they were separated and sent to other churches outside the state we lived and ordered to shun families/friends that refused to bow to this apostle ordinances. In a way they've separated my husband and I since he now keeps silent about his faith refusing to study and pray with me.

 

[keepuslord]

This thing of mixing Law with Faith is sweeping through many areas of the church now. Sad ending for the end time church, I'd say it's causing great confusion.

 

[meshak2]

This thing of mixing Law with Faith is sweeping through many areas of the church now. Sad ending for the end time church, I'd say it's causing great confusion.

What do you mean by mixing law with faith?

Do you know Jesus gave us His commands to obey? His commandments are His law.