There is an all-out war on the church, today. Satan is doing all he can to get pastors to quit and to get churches to close their doors. And it’s working! One research shows that over 3,000 churches close their doors (die) each year!
The average church member doesn’t realize that by their actions they are actually HELPING to kill their church. So, what advice would Satan give you to help you kill your church?
1. DON’T ATTEND FAITHFULLY
While there are legitimate reasons (like sickness and being away on vacation, etc) that someone might occasionally miss church, you would be surprised at the excuses the pastor gets.
“I was tired.”
“The family came over for a visit.”
“I had a birthday party to attend.”
“My child had a ballgame.”
What people forget is that the church isn’t the building; it’s the people! Without people, there is no church! So, go ahead and miss church for trivial reasons, but you just might be helping to kill your church.
2. WHEN YOU DO COME, SHOW UP LATE
It is sad how many church members have an “I’ll get there when I get there” attitude about church. They wouldn’t dare have that attitude toward their job, but for some reason, the Lord’s house doesn’t deserve the same respect.
We say that God is an “on-time” God, but can God say that about us?
Anyone can have an emergency come up which makes them late for a service. But if you are consistently late, you are saying that what you were doing was more important than coming to worship the Lord. That attitude will help kill a church.
3. FIND FAULT WITH EVERYTHING AND/OR EVERYONE
A detective will often begin a homicide investigation by finding out who had something negative to say about the victim because that person could have played a part in the victim’s death.
Likewise, when a church dies, those who were always finding fault are the prime suspects! Satan loves fault-finders because they can kill a church quicker than anything.
4. AVOID RESPONSIBILITY AT ALL COST
Tejado Hanchell said, “Many people have a ‘renters’ mentality when it comes to church; they take no ownership. When you rent an apartment, if something breaks, you call the landlord to fix it. Since you don’t own it, you have no obligation to fix it. There are too many people renting pews.”
Are you a pew-renter? Are you just a pew-warmer? Do you step up when the pastor needs someone to take some responsibility or do you bow your head, hoping he doesn’t look your way?
A church needs people to be willing to move from just following to leading. A congregation full of followers is on life support and is getting ready to die.
Tomorrow, I will give you some more ways you can kill your church.