A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited.
The pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent.
The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the one lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and “dead as a doornail.” Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. Just before the pastor was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.
As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.”
Keep on glowing in your life. So go to church daily or as often as you can.
Read the Story : A homeless “nobody†in church
Fellowship….is that which sustains us…!
It can be in so many forms…yes friendship, is a great great gift!
Cute story, but it doesn’t address why people stop going to church. My wife and I have seriously attended our church for 2 years and in that time found very few good friends. I have found a lot of people who no longer go to churches beacuse a lot of church-going Christians don’t want to be anything more than Sunday-morning friends.
We can cover problems like this up with anecdotes, Bible verses, and long words, but the fact is that I’m not going to a place that doesn’t care about us. Period.
Yes, I get a lot out of going to church – but
the price I feel just ain’t right. Feeling
good hearing the gospel but feeling bad with
the carnality of the people. I have my areas
to grow but the years of this conflict I feel
the best solution is not going to church.
Reason why I stop going to church:
1). I got sick and was not able to get out of bed to go to church and no one called me. Finally after they discovered I had not paid tithes I got a letter asking why I had stop tithing with a sharp rebuke.
2). Never felt the manifest presence of God in a tangible way. It was more like the Pentecostal preacher would whip the people into an emotional frenzy. I felt closer to God with 2 or 3 of my Christian Co-workers at lunch when we’d have prayer or bible readings at the park across the street from the job on our lunch break.
3). I found I could not trust hand me down sermons esp. the ones where they flat out sell the blessings and favor of God for ten percent on every dollar. If they do not understand that the New Covenant is based on Grace and not laws, rituals and works like the Old Covenant then they have no business preaching at all.
4). Too many people sit on the pew & believe everything the Pastors says without fact checking. For example: They love to use fear to mandate tithing. Most even quote Malachi 3:8 on being cursed for not tithing. They fail to understand Galatians 3:13 said Christ has redeemed us from the curse. SO which is it? You can’t be cursed and redeemed from the curse at the same time! Sad how most Christians don’t seem to understand what changed after Jesus said Paid in Full on the cross. Hebrews 7:12.
It is scary how most people just take one verse out of context and run with it with no understanding of Old Covenant vs New Covenant.
It’s good to know who Jesus& God was speaking to Jews under the Old Covenant or the Redeemed under the New Covenant. There is a world of difference in how God dealt with both.
Too many Christians think walking into a physical church building means they have a personal relationship or walk with God. For people that think this way, did the ritual of the marriage ceremony mean’t you have an intimate bond with your spouse?? It could be that a person has an external commitment but lack genuine love in their heart. The same could be said about going into a church building. Many people could go to church out of a sense of duty or obligation. How is that pleasing to God? Do you want a marriage where the person is with you out of obligation and not true love? Then why would God be pleased with you serving or loving him out of duty or obligation. If I don’t feel a bond with the people in the church what is the point? What is the point to go and be a spectator and look at the back of someone’s head in a Mega-church structure.
The early church were participants with many spiritual gifts to help, encourage and build up one another. Today’s average church is more like an elite social club where robots look the same & don’t want anyone who looks different rocking their boat. Some snobs looked down on a poor homeless man who wandered in. They made it obvious he was not welcome but a celebrity came to church and they fell all over him even though half the movies he was in were nothing more than godless propaganda!
Some church folks are losing so much credibility that they are making Jesus look bad. I’d rather they keep their religion private than claim to love Jesus then act just the opposite of the way Jesus taught. A lack of love is a sign you are not his followers since Jesus said they will know his followers by their love.
I am not wanting to but ready after 7 years to leave my Christian Church. There are many times I have gotten little or no support with financial hardships and NO CAR, meaning rides to Church dinner followed by Celebrate recovery group, I NEED! Oct 18 I was seriously injured hitting head first into a Fire Hydrant and had a concussion and staples in my head. I did not get one call, but one hug from someone I trust. I can set up a sanctuary in my 2 room apt. I would rather be Alone with God and Jesus. I was baptized and am FIRM believer. I trust GOD with everything. I looked in my area And so far not one Church was along the First Christian, Disciple Line. I do not want to make GOD angry or go away from me. He is working in me as I type this. He has taken 3 Bug infestation plagues away in 2 years. He has thrown needed money my way and i NEVER had to go hungry. I think positive and have extreme FAITH and Love for God and Jesus. I can go to the Beach or a park which I plan to do to Worship. God Bless You for this site.
When I was a kid I had a drug problem “I was drug to church” Now I get to go! Here are my reasons: 1. God promised he would be there. 2. I get to hear the word of God. 3. I get to teach the word of God. 4. I get to use the gifts God has given me to serve others 5. I get to have others bless me with their gifts. 6. I get to give (it is God’s money after all) 7.I get to see growth in myself and others. 8. I get to pray for others and see God’s answers. 9. I get others praying for me when I’m too weak to pray. 10. I get to worship God with those I love and that love me. It seems like I get more out of church than I give and that is just like God.
I’m just recently wanted to leave my Christian church after 6 years because my life gotten way to busy with work and less rests and lazy to. I’ve known different type of christians at church and 50% of them are easy to deal with and other half are long and hard to trust but as time goes on things have to move on due to work, or laziness and also wanted out of my comfort zone to get active and stop reading the bible because it’s lots of violence, some sentences might have violence against the female side but never the male that causes men to become violence and some of the female around their 20’s can be bossy together at times and most of the kids like me around because I’m less bossy and easier to deal with than how the girls react to them. One guy that I’ve met at meetup group on Friday nights and he used to be in a religion until he found out that the religion that he was in was a scam and almost about to get married but his gf decided to dump him at the wedding and he left his own religion because all that. I’ve decided to stop going to church all the time because it kinda loses out my responsibility to do my job or have rests or active outside instead of going to church and reading the bible to makes me lazy in a horrible ways.