I have discovered others who have become disenchanted with the direction their church is headed. Frustrations are similar, reactions too. Solutions vary depending on the family and situation.
One woman left a baptist church that was seeker friendly and is seeking to understand all that is Lutheran. She desires really the companionship and servant attitude in the Baptist church, but wants the systematic theology of the Lutheran church.
Nazarenes are struggling as their churches have been infiltrated with seeker friendly and contemplative teachings. This is very similar to my experience in non-denominational churches.
Some have noted the youth programs in their church are more for entertainment. There may again be service as a focus, but the fruits don’t go beyond this in changed lives. The youth group kids from church look like every other group of kids.
So what is the solution? Which church will best meet the needs of a person thirsting for a focus on Christ who recognizes a need to get into the bible? I believe that answer is much more complicated than it might appear. Just finding a church claiming to be a “people of the book” is not enough.
I fear a big separation that will do no one any good in the long run. I fear we’ll have the passion in service oriented congregations. We’ll have the connectedness of the body in small group/seeker friendly congregations, and well have serious study in churches with liturgy. I would like to see churches who value the bible as it should be. I then would like to see the body of Christ in service to one another out of love. I hope churches with serious bible study would also have fellowship with one another. I hope there will be a passion to follow and worship, and a passion to support those who go beyond the local church to give the gospel to others beyond the walls of the church.
I still carry the fear of being duped. I see good things in my current church. Pastors preach well and from the text, expository style. People are serving one another. There is a connectedness in the body (the pastor went out of his way to walk up to us in the hallway and ask about a family member he heard had health issues…we are very new to this church and people go out of their way to make sure we feel welcomed and remembered). There are missionaries supported. I’m just waiting for the honeymoon phase to end.
When will a program check out as tainted by contemplative? When will I see the compromises? Of course, I do not expect the church to be perfect. However, I am still cautious. I feel for those who haven’t yet found a church to scrutinize, however.
We’ve seen good things in this church, many good things. It’s horrible to keep trying churches and only seeing seeker friendly, contemplative, or emergent (or a mix of everything) tainting all. I pray for brothers and sisters who don’t get any refreshing from the pulpit.
I am a C...I am a CH...I am a CHRISTIAN 
Someone once described ministries/churches as “buses” — they are all going the same direction (hopefully), that is, striving to follow Christ, but not all people work best with a particular ministry/church. If you don’t get on this bus, there are other buses to get on.
It’s important to realize that we are all human and we are all doing our best (hopefully) be grow into Christ. The Body of Christ is diverse and massive and alive and… in the end, it won’t be our doctrine that we’re remembered for anyway.
It’ll be what we believe (ie, Romans 10:9, 10).
Great post!
I think the buses description is interesting. Sadly, I do believe some ministries are on the wrong road all together. That is why we switched churches. Of course, no human thing is perfect.
Because I was so blind before for a long time…I fear being deceived again. I believe many are in the same situation. I do agree, many churches are fine and may have things I prefer and others may have things another prefers…and each is fine. The seeker friendly model isn’t right, the flatness of nominal faith either.
The expositional preaching from a man of faith is what is needed no matter the trends or shape of the congregation. Every church has it’s projects…and hopefully, these are within the will of God and do fulfill the proper place in the church.
Your posts are so interesting, christianlady! I feel like you are going through exactly what I went through just last year. I was so disillusioned by the church. Ours was not necessarily seeker-friendly (except that I dropped by at a carwash they decided to hold after we left, and it was so gimmicky and seeker-friendly, I cried.)
I knew deep inside that it was more than “I love Jesus, I only need the Bible, John 3:16,” etc etc. It was wearisome hearing the same things over and over again. Unfortunately, they are truth but the repetitive, elementary preaching was turning me off.
As for the comment by 100fold, I have to caution you about that mindset because not all “Christian” roads (or buses) will lead to heaven. The Bible is clear on that. Many will say, “Lord Lord and He will say, Depart from me. I never knew you.” We have the Holy Spirit to guide us and we have the Word to establish God’s truth. Yes, many interpret it differently – but that doesn’t mean that how we interpret it is true. In the Bible, there is no room for, “What works for you, what works for me. Let’s agree to disagree.”
I think when we have been so disappointed with our church experience, we are overly cautious about getting into a similar mess again. I have said the exact same thing as you, “I’m afraid that the honeymoon phase will be over.” But I am seeing that there are churches like the one you described. I am overwhelmingly grateful to be a part of it! Praying for you, sister…. whoever you are. 🙂