Leave a church if you must, but never leave God

I’ll be honest, I do not blame anyone for leaving a church that went off script. I also understand if they hesitate to do so, or hesitate to look into another church when they leave.

This is a very personal and sometimes an extremely emotional decision, one that must be made with God at the lead.

But when you start sensing something is off, pay attention to that. We have the Holy Spirit, and we are given discernment for a reason.

To ignore His prodding because we don’t like change, have been going there for years, have friends there, etc….. is not an excuse to stay anywhere God doesn’t want you to be or somewhere God is no longer welcome.

It is ok to leave a church if you must. That building does not define you.

Your heart does, God will lead you to where you need to be, and it may look completely different from what you imagined. This is my personal experience.

Our recent-ish experience

When I married my husband, he introduced me to his church, the church he served at for years, one he helped build, and define their charter. I was so excited, a community of believers to build a life with.

But it wasn’t meant to be. We left, we had to.

We actively pray for the church and the pastor, but we had to leave after what happened. It hurt my husband more than me because I was new and not as emotionally invested as he was. But it hurt me deeply to see him hurt that day when we knew it was all over.

Now this decision was not made lightly, and not made without God. We stayed through a lot, we waited, we prayed, and we watched. But one day, it was simply the last day, we had asked for clarity, and we got it.

You must remember this — 

Harmful church incidents/issues are not from God, so don’t blame Him for how people act “in His name” because it’s really in their name they are acting.

Don’t use it as an excuse to hate Christianity and leave Christianity. Get back to your roots, the Bible, we have it for a reason. Don’t take what has happened in the past with a church, or what you have seen, and believe that it is from God.

In fact, I believe deep down you know better than that, you know people have taken the Bible and abused and trashed it. That’s a people problem. Not a God problem.

But you still need a community, though.

Go out and find fellowship with others, and it doesn’t have to be a church. It can be a coffee study session, a library date, a home group, an online Bible study, or it can be your friends getting together and starting a study. God is there when two or more are gathered.

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matt 18:20

Isn’t that amazing!

You don’t need the pews, you don’t need the traditions, you don’t need anything but people getting together in His name. That is church, that is community, and honestly, that is what this nation needs to get back to. 

Here’s that slippery slope

If you do leave your church, do not get comfortable not seeking, do not get comfortable being angry at that church, and do not get comfortable slipping away from God.

It is on you to seek His direction, it is on you to surrender any hurt you experienced to God, it is all on you, your free will in action.

Pray, listen, read, and be open to whatever and wherever God wants you next, you may be surprised what God has planned for you.

© Jane Isley

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