Your involvement in a church home can have inadvertent impacts on your loyalties to pastors, teachers, ministry leaders, and even that church in a way that can be unhealthy. A problem exists in American Christianity where loyalty to a building, a fund, a cause, or even a celebrity pastor usurps worship of God and His statutes; the example of this problem is exposed in this case and the unfortunate reality is that spiritual manipulation, lack of discernment, and incorrect theology all culminated in a sad situation at a men’s conference in Missouri.
You need to know about this situation because it will help to address any unhealthy attributes that your spiritual life in The Lord may be shifting towards; you must be an objective participant in a church, while also being a learner and seeker after God in Christ Jesus. If you accept anything and everything from your church leadership without using The Word of God as your guide, you will walk yourself into an unbiblical and situationally irresponsible approach to church attendance and support.
Church is supposed to be a place that sinners learn and grow in their faith, being sanctified by the reading of The Word and the convictions of The Holy Spirit, changing the individual heart more and more towards The Lord. If your church and its leadership aren’t doing their role of equipping the saints for study, growth, and addressing the sin in ones’ life while performing Matthew 28:19-20’s dictate of going into the world, you may have a spiritual problem and you may belong to a gang that wears a cross.
Please listen with discernment and pray to The Lord about unhealthy loyalties that overshadow your basis of faith in Christ Jesus.
Just because you attend a church doesn’t mean that you are getting what that church is supposed to be doing in leading God’s sheep toward our Savior; Jesus Christ. Know the difference between a healthy attachment with objective critiques and unhealthy attachment and blind loyalty; your faith and your eternity may depend on understanding the difference.
The Wry Pastor
Bible References:
Nehemiah 8:1-2
1 Corinthians 1:23
Matthew 28:19-20
Romans 6:1
Revelation 2:14-16
Revelation 2:20-21
Revelation 3:1c-3
IDGTC - Church Gang: Are you in one?