Revival Blog

This article might be a good read, especially if we went to church together and we have not spoken in some time.

What do you do when you are absolutely, positively sure that your church is going in the wrong direction and the leadership has no plans to turn back? What do you do when the leadership then brings accusation time after time over the course of several years against every person who disagrees with the leadership? What do you do when you cannot act as if you do not see the leadership living in open hypocrisy, unrepentant sin, more concerned with the comfort of the leadership then the well-being of the sheep? Moreover, after you break with the group what do you do about the people who are stuck in the deception that clouded your vision for so many years? I have been in this situation and this is my warning to those who find themselves in a similar place.

It is said that if you put a frog in hot water, it will jump out but if you put him in room temperature water, you can turn up the heat until you cook him. These churches are that pot of water and there are a whole lot of sheep that are being stewed with the frogs.

We had known that our church was off course for a long time. We continued to serve and pray, wondering if it was us who was wrong. We would join in the leader’s accusation against people as they left, often airing gossip as confirmation that the only reason they left was their moral shortcomings. We continued to see problems with the ministry but “running from them” as the leader said, was taking the easy way out. “If you really heard God and wanted to serve Him you would stay and be faithful,” was our thought.

As always happens, the moral failures of the leadership became more evident. This came as a confirmation of what we had been experiencing in prayer; things were amiss and were getting worse. We shared our reservations repeatedly over the course of years with people that could facilitate change but things continued to worsen.

God had us there for several years as a witness to His warnings. The fact is we had so much invested in that work that we did not want to leave it despite the faults. Regardless of all the problems, it was our church. We believed that God wanted to do something special there and we would hope where there was no hope that things would turn around.

When we finally had a peace about leaving we found a congregation that was on fire for God and seeking holiness. After a few months of sitting under the preaching of the Word, we were shocked to find how much compromise we had allowed in our lives. We were broken by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. False doctrine is a pollutant that clouds the mind of those who entertain it and corrupts the work that Holy Spirit wants to do in the people of God and as much as we thought we could avoid it, we were sullied.

As soon as we left, God confirmed our worst suspicions left and right. There was no question that we came out of a fallen assembly and that there were a bunch of people that we had served for years that were stuck in that quagmire. The question became, what do we do?

I have seen people go through this process before and reacted more like a son of thunder than the beloved of Jesus. They call people on the phone and say, “Can’t you see all that is wrong?” The truth is that they cannot, and pointing out all the problems with the organization that they are still in, and the leader they still follow only causes them to put up their guard. Additionally, when someone actually throws caution to the wind and warns the people, they are systematically slandered as a troublemaker, divisive, rebellious, or bitter. This is a trap set by the enemy to give more reason not to have audience with those who have left. By the grace of God, I have been able to avoid that pitfall.

I have prayed daily for certain people and have had an open door to those that the Lord would lead to call me. I have earnestly prayed that God would shake them up and seek after truth, weather or not I have a role. I trust that Jesus is able to shepherd His flock and that in time, those who truly seek after God will see the situation as it is. That is my conviction but I would not throw stones at someone who feels lead to sound the alarm.

But questions remain. Is it wrong for someone to actively reach out to those who are in a similar situation that they were just delivered from? Is it wrong to want to show people that they are way off base even at the risk of offending?

If the people who left are really deceived, shouldn’t you as a Christian be happy that you still have contact even if it is annoying? I would caution those who choose to stay behind not to judge too quickly those who left. If you love truth, you may want to give them a call and test the spirit. You may be surprised. If you were a Jew in the time of Jesus are you sure that you would have seen the truth or would you have joined in with the throngs of those that yelled, “Crucify! Crucify!” and hoped that the priesthood was simply reformed?

The fact of the matter is that our time here is short and there are lots of churches that preach the gospel, keep watch for false doctrine, and equip the saints for the work of the ministry. I would not begrudge a person or say they took the easy way out if they wanted to attend a healthy congregation. To the contrary, I would say that if you are in a place that winks at sin (or denies the truth and condones sin), you had better be sure that you are where God has you because if you slop around in the mud long enough, you are going to get dirty.

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