Throughout the years, I have seen people leave churches for some of the strangest reasons. One was because the pastor did not seek them out and speak to them after church. Another time people left over the color of the paint on the walls. Still others just withhold their money as a silent way to force changes within the church and control what is happening at this church..
When I talked to these people, they just said, “You don’t understand. This is important and I want the church to go back to the way it was.” Funny, but things haven’t changed much in 2000 years. Paul also talked about divisions in the church to the Corinthians. The pattern today is usually new church start, great growth, plateau, turn inward to please those attending, worry about maintaining, decline, death.
Questions to ask yourself. Is the church teaching sound doctrine? Is it reaching people or just keeping house? Do I understand the vision for the local church? Are lives being changed physically, emotionally, and spiritually? If you response is no, then I would suggest that you first look at yourself and ask, “Why not?” ? Is the gossip outlasting the message that is being preached? Ow. . . now that is nitpicking but many times what is mentioned above may apply to your church.
If you seek to be a part of a church who is reaching people for the Lord, pull alongside those people and get to work. It is in helping others needing to be feed that the message of salvation that we are enriched and fed.
Today it is important for us to look at the things that unite us and not the things in which we disagree. Our purpose as Christ Followers is to bring others to a relationship with the Lord.
When we allow divisions to drive us away, are we just moving our issues from one church to another? Maybe it’s time for us to look at ourselves and pray about our own lives. What are we showing the world when they hear about our divisions?
Most importantly we need to be united in love, peace and forgiveness. Through a growing relationship with the Lord, He will show you that the color of the paint on the walls has nothing to do with having a relationship with others and with the creator of the Universe. Don’t split hairs any more!
1 Corinthians 1:10 “I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.”
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