Sunday, May 14, 2006

10 Ways to Hinder Your Church

It has been said that there are no inactive members in any church. They are either actively building it up or actively hindering it. I’m not sure where this came from, but there is a lot of truth in that statement. With that in mind, here are 10 ways to work against your church.

1. Show up only when it is convenient.

2. When you do attend, show up late and leave as soon as possible.

3. Find something to grumble about (music, preaching, people).

4. Whenever your pastor or teacher makes a mistake in his theology make sure everyone realizes it, but be sure not to talk about it with him.

5. Never appear interested.

6. Refuse to accept any responsibility.

7. Do not spend time in prayer for your church and pastor.

8. Realize that you know more than the leaders in your church, but do not be willing to use that knowledge to teach others.

9. Be more concerned with position and privilege than the advancement of Christ’s kingdom.

10. Above all else, realize that Church is about you and what you get out of it.

May we all work diligently in our churches in whatever capacity we can.

God bless,

Doug

9 Comments:

At Monday, May 15, 2006 7:56:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is a "Great" ten ways you can destroy your church.
If every "christian" would see and realize that we all might see more clearly.

 
At Monday, May 15, 2006 2:39:00 PM, Blogger no_average_girl said...

how true...it's kind of like the devil's beattitudes that made an impression on me a few years ago!

 
At Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:37:00 PM, Blogger Joshua Ritchie said...

So now I know that I gotta do to hinder my church. Great points of application. I kid.

Point well taken. Sometime we do things that do hinder the Lord's work. May we do what only glorifies the Lord.

 
At Monday, May 22, 2006 11:35:00 AM, Blogger Lew said...

probably the hardest thing for me is #7. It's an ongoing prayer request, whereas other things that I pray for have an end goal in sight.

 
At Monday, May 22, 2006 1:43:00 PM, Blogger Doug E. said...

Lew,

I agree, that one is easily neglected.

Thanks for stopping by,

Doug

 
At Tuesday, May 23, 2006 1:08:00 PM, Blogger Mama en Fuego said...

What's good for the Church can also be said about society in general. The truth is we could apply all these things to our everyday living and if we did so we could change the world for better.

I have recently found a church that I like after moving to a new town and this list reminds me how important it is just to truck on ahead and get my hands dirty with this new church.

Thank you for the swift kick in the butt.

God Bless.

 
At Thursday, May 25, 2006 11:54:00 PM, Blogger Kathryn Judson said...

I would add another way to hinder your church. I used to work at a newspaper, and for a while I was the religion page editor. The running joke inside the business is that if you don't start out agnostic or atheist, working on a church page will turn you into one.

I laughed at first, but, honestly, after a while it can start to feel like churches sit around and pick the most obnoxious, petty, pushy, thin-skinned, troublesome person they can find to serve as their media liaison. Something like, 'Hey, Maudie's a pain, so why don't we put her in charge of publicity? That will get her out of here, at least, and give us a little peace and quiet..."

Not a good plan. Newspaper offices, by and large, are already full of people who don't believe in God and think religion is stupid at best. I couldn't believe how many "church ladies" (and gents) who walked through the door on church business personified the worst stereotypes about Christians held by people outside the faith.

 
At Friday, September 21, 2007 5:56:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I see this is an old post, but it only came to my attention today. Much truth here. Thank you.

shirley buxton
www.writenow.wordpress.com

 
At Saturday, July 05, 2008 6:49:00 PM, Blogger Mike Barrett said...

"All who are thirsty, all who are weak, come to the Fountain..." I guess I don't share the enthusiasm of these other 8 posts. Church should be open to all kinds of people who need healing. Giving them a message that they might "hinder" church growth misses the point. C'mon, I'm sure you know there is a deeper set of issues here that need to be addressed. You could come up with 10 ways to identify more perfect church people... or 10 ways to spot someone that you don't want to attend. You get the point. Peace.

 

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