Church Dropouts

One of my favorite pastors was teaching a lesson a few weeks back, and made reference to Church Dropouts and I allowed the Lord to speak to me about this very thing. You know there are High School Dropouts and College Dropouts, but we never really give thought to Church Dropouts. Allow me a moment to explain how Church Dropouts occur.

When I think about how high school dropouts occurs, there are two sides. There is the side of the school (and the people within it), and then there’s the person who dropped out. Both side have to bear responsibility for the person who dropped out. The same holds true to those who drop out of church (religion) altogether.  Now, I want to focus on the side of the church and the people within it more than the person who dropped out of church.

You might be asking why am I addressing this? If we are claiming to be the church that represents Christ, we have to own up to our own failures, and repent. And that’s not a bad thing. If anything, it’s showing humility on our part, which is actually worship to Christ. I have been in church for quite some time and it’s amazing as to why we act puzzled, or angry as to why people have left (and then point the finger at them as to why they left). Sure, they make the final decision to leave, but at the same time, we have to look at our hands to ensure that we don’t have their blood on them. And sad to say, we have a lot of blood. So, let’s talk about this.

How have we caused church dropouts around us? Pride and ego are the biggest two culprits.  How do they manifest themselves?

You go to that church? Our pastor can preach!

We had church over here!

Get over your issue (you should never have issues)!

I’m so holy than you that I can point out your flaws!

It’s your fault as to why you’re struggling!

It’s your lack of faith as to why you’re in the shape you’re in!

We care for our own (clique) and the rest of the people around me can go to hell!

I hear from God and I’m the only one who hears from Him.

Men are to dominate their women, and the women have no voice!

Those are just some examples, and I’m sure you can think of others as to why others either condemned or they feel they will never measure up to God. The beauty of God is that He loves us, even with our flaws.

I want to real quickly focus on one sentence I typed up there because I want to say something to that: “We care for our own (clique) and the rest of the people around me can go to hell!” This is one that I’ve seen that has caused many casualties in the church (and they eventually dropout). I don’t know about you, I can’t sit around and watch people go to hell.  Intercession is so necessary (and just because you go to intercessory prayer, doesn’t make you an intercessory prayer warrior). And now this takes me to my next point.

How do we stop the church dropout epidemic? Deny yourself (I heard one pastor say “Kill yourself – the flesh, that is), and humble yourself. In fact, Jesus said that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In fact, Paul talked in Philippians 2 about the importance of being like-minded. Sadly, in the church, we care more about legalism, and our personal agendas than we do what God is requiring of us. To love and coming together on one accord. Jesus talked extensively about sacrificing for the glory of God. But as a result, we have many casualties, and we curse the very ones who are wounded. Maybe we need to read Luke 15 and get out of our comfort box (go after the lost sheep, lost coin and the son that’s lost).

Let’s go after perfection in Christ.

Blessings:

The MayneMan

Our Attitudes As Christians

I would like to extend to a huge thanks to two authors for inspiring this blogpost (Danielle Taylor & Cynthia Lamb). I believe that our attitudes as Christians need to change for the better; if we don't, we will have a lot of blood on our hands and perpetrate the fraud thinking we're doing Kingdom business. I have a lot of topics to cover on this topic, so I will get directly to the point. You see, our selfishness attitudes, our pride and egos as Christians is why we are failing at Kingdom business.

I hear this phrase quite a bit from Christians, "I'm cutting people off cause they're not adding growth or I can't be around them cause they have too many issues, or cause they don't support my favorite preacher, gospel artist, etc." Here's a rhetorical question: Did Jesus ever cut anybody off? Many people would look to Judas, but the truth is that Judas cut himself off. God never cut anybody off (He pronounced judgment only because they cut themselves off from Him). So how dare we think that we're bigger than Jesus by cutting people off? What makes this even worse is that we cut people off due to minor issues (such as the things mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph). Now I did cut one person off by blocking them (this was a stalker case and due to her mental state). Now that doesn't mean that I won't stop loving her or praying for her. See, when we tend to cut people off, we do it with so much malice that we act no different than the world. Here's a question worth considering: have you ever prayed for anyone you've cut off, or did you frown your nose when you cut them off? In all seriousness, it shows that we are on the throne and not God. Let me make something clear: I'm not saying that you don't use discernment when you deal with people, you MUST do that.

Our attitudes actually aid to the number of agnostics and atheists. If we were to show love and compassion towards them (because God loves them too), they would see how real Christ is. Yes, they ultimately make the final decision, but we don't want to hinder them with our pride and ego. Sadly, there are times they get it better than we do due to our behavior.

One of my dear friends made this comment: when you have Christians going overseas to preach the gospel versus preaching in their own state (due to fear, burned out), that's a sign that we're not heeding the New Testament (thinking on scriptures such as bearing one another's burdens, and pairing up in twos - to witness, and pray in agreement). But at the same token, another sister friend said that missionaries overseas are coming over to witness to us because we're too complacent with the gospel (I would even add the fact that we are so partial to the gospel, that we would rather hand around our respective cliques - you must go to my church to be a part of my circle - and the 99 found sheep). So, what have we shown to the world? How to be fragmented and divided. Now how's that for Kingdom business?

How did we ever get to the place that we will attack those who are truly God's anointed versus those who are perpetrating a fraud? We will tear down those who God put up, and we lift up people who we KNOW are living foul and will cover it up cause they itch our ears? What does that show? We're selfish (and heaven forbid that we call it out, then we have to hear "you're judging." And don't let me tell you that I'm in sin, for you would end that friendship with me quickly - but then you want me to show love and compassion when you slip and fall). Also, how did we get to the place where we base our friendships and associations based on who gives us goosebumps, itches our ears, and supports our personal agenda? What about God's agenda and what He wants us to do? And the last thing for this point: how did we get to the place where we tell people who are going through to "Talk to God" but then turn around and want them to stop what we're doing to pray for us? That is not only discrimination, but it's also hypocritical and we need to repent for our behavior.

There are things that people will want to debate you over such as "how come you don't defend my pastor, or my church?" and we Christians will get mad (and scholarly I might add) if we don't defend their pastor, their church, etc. I'm not saying this is arbitrarily a bad thing, but when it takes precedence over the Bible, then it's a major problem!

The last thing I want to touch on is "titles." When we put our title over the fact that we're a child of God first (and you drop your sanctification if you're recognized for your title), then we have a serious problem. Now, you can call yourself what you want, I still consider you a child of God first (but I will respect your title and your position). And granted, I may have a title, but I also know that my title is not who I am ultimately. I'm a friend/child of God (and a brother in Christ) first.

Yes, I know that we're going to be hated by men, but it's a travesty when hatred comes from those who say they're in the body of Christ. If we keep pride, egotism as our attitudes in the body of Christ, we'll be doing more harm than good when it comes to Kingdom business.

Now, this post is really out of love and concern, and really a plea that we've got to get back to being on one accord. If we really want the signs and wonders in Acts 2 (as well as seeing many get saved), we have to be on one accord (of course, not solely for the signs and wonders, that's what God wants from us anyway). It's been said, we will be known by our fruit, not by our prosperity!

Blessings.

The Mayne Man