Leave or Stay?

Fresh Blog

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

To leave, or to Conform and die?

The system of "church" is guaranteed to conform you, shape you, program your thinking, and keep you boxed in to someone else's religious works.

How will you truly find your calling if a pastor, priest, deacons, board, or hierarchy exercises spiritual headship over you and conforms you to their organizational walls?

Your "vision" is THEIR "vision", their words and programs become your words and programs. And if they have departed from scripture, it is as Jesus said to the church in His day: "If the blind be leaders of the blind, they shall BOTH fall into the ditch".

You will sit in a pew and follow the programs, classes and positions, or maybe even become a credentialed minister, all of which will never bring you into the mature image of Jesus Christ.
Read the gospels and especially the Book of Acts and see if your church does what you read in scripture.
Are you seeing heaings? Devils cast out? The Word confirmed with signs and wonders (like the ones in scripture, not the Lakeland-Toronto et al kind).

Or does church have what we listed in this article: (see the article "NOT in Scripture" .)

Like most of us,you will be conformed to the image of church rather than be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

For years we wrestled with finding our place and calling in the church system.
Being the loyal, obedient followers that we were, we did the programs, door knocking, Bus ministry, Friendship House, G-12 School of Leaders, and many other church growth programs!!!!!

We did "visitation", sold peanut brittle for fund raisers, raffles, bake auctions, fireworks sales, church yard sales and bar-b-cues, car washes, and countless other works to support "our" church.
We invited family and friends to children’s plays and children's church music recitals.
We invited them to Mother's Day breakfasts, church banquets, Easter programs, Christmas Programs, Harvest Parties, church Plays, featured speaker events, and "Special" services, all done in our efforts to “hook ‘em” into regular attendance.
We did the "revivals" and worked hard to invite folks to "church" with minimal success.

Those attendance gimmicks were referred to as “bait” in staff meetings.

We thought they were an effort to "GROW THE KINGDOM" (of our assembly), all of which were at the direction and “vision” of our leadership who told us God was directing them to do these things.
-without exception, every one of these programs failed to deliver.

We had friends in other churches doing similar things in their church, -good, sincere Christians who wanted to please the Lord

We did the spiritual gift and ministry questionaires, attended Big Name events, seminars, and conferences from California to Texas. We mailed out newsletters and ran advertising and the list goes on....

We did a lot of "church Stuff" but we never found our true place in the body of Christ with our Lord as our Head, as we followed the "vision" of our leader.

How long will you endure? How many circles will you run around?
If you stay in the church system, it will never end...... And you will not walk in the power, authority, holiness, Christ-likeness, or come to the knowledge of the Truth as long as you are a member of the body of the church system.

Stories abound locally of the “church hoppers”; those who flit from church to church just like butterflies, all in a search for the sweet nectar of the kingdom. They think if they can find the right pastor, right group of Christians, or correct church government, that all will be well.

Here is a relevant prophecy from Amos: 4

:6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

:8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

Can we find an application for "church" today?
Consider the lack of satisfying "bread" (God's Word), mal-nourished, weak, powerless Christians found sitting in the average "church" pew. God is witholding the true and hidden manna from them to cause them to return to Him!

Note the prophecy of Ezekiel:

Ez. 34: 5-6 “And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the beasts of the field, and were scattered. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: (church to church, denomination to denomination) yea, my sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and there was none that did search or seek after them. –Certainly not the hirelings…

Five years after leaving "church", with Christ as our Head and The Lord as our Teacher, the search is over.
It is astounding and truly miraculous how many people a disciple of Christ can effectively minister to once they are outside the box of "church". We are contiually amazed at the folks from around the world who contact us and share their similar testimonies of the blessing of leaving church.

No longer are many of the "called out" ones sitting on a pew, working on a building, keeping a 10-11am Sunday tradition, or thinking by inviting them to "church" they are effectively witnessing.

Three steps to make:

1. leaving The Apostate Church System (after recognizing IT for what IT is)

2. getting the system purged and cleansed out of our hearts ( a Work of the Holy Spirit leading and guiding into all truth -John 14:26), and

3. growing in faith, holiness, and the knowledge of the truth as you walk out your salvation and return to the scriptures.

Leaving "church" is never an excuse to indulge the flesh, retain malice toward those you leave behind, or become spiritually lazy.

Once before, in the “last days” of natural Israel, Jesus was sent "to the lost sheep of the House of Israel". Now, the Lord is calling to the “lost sheep” of SPIRITUAL Israel. There will NEVER be unity in the competitive, fragmented church world, but there is a true unity in those whom Christ has chosen as the prophet said:

Ezekiel 34:11 For thus saith the Lord: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day (dark day when the WORD of God is obscured).

13 And I will bring them out from the peoples (those that call themselves “Christian”),
and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses (where the “living waters” flow), and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 I will feed them with good pasture; and upon the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord.

The coming days will usher in great opportunity for Christ's ministry through His people apart from the church kingdoms.
The signs of a believer Jesus gave us in Mark 16:16-20 will be fully restored to His bride who is "without spot or wrinkle" as we return to "the faith once delivered to the saints".

So let us od as in Hebrews 13: Let us therefore go forth unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.

God bless you as you PREPARE HIS WAY, and God grant us the grace "to make our calling and election sure".

POSTED BY: rory AT 11:05 pm | Permalink | 1 Comment | E-mail this

Comments:

Thank you, brother, for sounding the trumpet! The message of that trumpet is "Come up hither, and I will show you what must happen after these things" (REV. 4:1)! In other words, having seen the condition of "the seven churches," we are called to overcome them and become one Bride with one Husband, and Christ will let His Bride see His marvellous salvation which must take place after she is completely out. Many of your messages, like this one, are effective ways of sounding the REV. 4:1 trumpet to whoever will hear and get in the Bride!

Posted by Chris Bland on 02/20/2010 01:52:54