I serve as the director of the regional branch of my religious denomination. Part of that role includes overseeing the efforts of 37 living church ministries videos in my region. Because of my position, people often ask me how they can know if it is time for them to change churches. This is always an awkward moment for me. I know that my response will impact not only that family, but two churches as well. I know that if I tell them to go to a different church, then the church they have been in may be losing one a great family. I know that if I tell them to stay in their current church, I may well be hindering their spiritual growth because a different church may indeed be exactly what they need to pull them out of a spiritual rut and take them to the next level in their spiritual development.
I still do not have a perfect answer worked out to that question. But I have been working through some processes that families can explore when they come to that place in their life where they are considering changing churches.
Here are some wrong reasons to change churches:
1. We want a church that is more “fun.”
While church should be fun, that is not its primary purpose. The primary purpose of the church is to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to a community that does not know Him. Will changing churches help either church more effectively accomplish their task of proclaiming the Gospel?
2. We want a worship service that has more “zip.”
While younger people tend to like more “zip” in their worship than older generations, what is more important is that worship honors Christ and helps the worshippers be more in tune with what the Spirit is speaking into their lives. Regardless of worship style or music preference, one must ask which church will help the individual person focus on God and be more connected to Him. Which service has more “zip” may not be the correct question nor the right answer.
3. We are tired of having to teach all the classes and lead all the programs for young people. It will be much easier to go to a church where there are other people with children the same age as ours who can help share the burden. News flash! Every church, regardless of its age or size has trouble recruiting youth and children’s workers. If we change churches just because we think it will be “easier” we will most likely be disappointed a few months later when we find ourselves taking more than our share of turns in the nursery.
4. The pastor (or deacon, or Sunday School teacher, or youth group leader, etc.) made us mad.
We should never leave a church in anger. When we do, we simply take the anger with us to the next church. It may lay dormant for a few months, but eventually our anger will come out at the new church. This is not fair to the new church. If someone at our current church said something to us or our child that makes us upset, we should speak to the person directly and get the issue resolved. Running from an issue does not count as “resolving” it. Gossipping about the issue to others does not count as “resolving” it. Only by going directly to the individual involved can we resolve such issues.