It’s time to look at the other side. What are some good reasons for leaving a church? (Or changing congregations, if you prefer the terminology. We’re not talking about leaving the Church, as in leaving Jesus’ body, but in leaving a local church).
Here are some that come to mind (and yes, I’m stealing some of these from the comments):
- The church is teaching heresy. I believe this is claimed far more often than actually occurs, but there can be a time when a congregation comes to teach things that go against the core of what our faith is. The time can come for sorrowful separation.
- The church won’t respect a difference of conviction. A friend of mine became involved in a house church network. The leaders were strongly Calvinistic and were concerned because my friend isn’t. My friend agreed to allow them to do an in-depth study of the topic with him. When they had finished their study, my friend remained unconvinced. This was unacceptable to these leaders, and my friend was eventually forced to leave.
- My presence is divisive. If I should determine that there is a spirit of division within a congregation and that spirit would not be present if I were not there, I pray that God would give me the courage to leave.
- My spiritual health (or that of my family) is in danger. This can be an especially hard call, but I do believe that someone can be in a state of spiritual weakness to where they can’t survive in certain environments. This is often associated with new Christians, but can affect different people at different times. Again, this is an extreme.
- I’m leaving to go aid somewhere else. We had this come up at the previous congregation that I worked with. One couple had stopped attending. I went to visit them, and they said they were wanting to aid a nearby struggling congregation. I told them that as long as they were going toward something and not running away from something, that I fully supported them. (They were back the next Sunday and have attended consistently since then)
Those should be enough to start with. Help me round out the list. Other reasons have been mentioned the last few days; feel free to repeat some of those.
I noticed that you did not put:
6. Moved to the city to take a better paying job.
Recently I heard a new take on an old proof-text. James 4:13-14 may be speaking more about not putting materialism ahead of spirituality than about adding a “si Dios quiere” on the end of every phrase.
Valid reasons. Going to aid another church (usually smaller) is a good reason. Often times smaller churches can be helped and strengthened by the assistance of other Christians in the area.
I sometimes hear people leave a congregation b/c “they’re not getting anything out of it.” Upon further discussion you often learn that they don’t attend regularly anyway, don’t go to fellowship meals, teach in classes (no less attend them), or go on mission trips. A “feed me” mentality keeps Christians stunted.