It's Time to Get Out of the Church

Believe it or not, one of the things that I believe can actually affect one's spirituality detrimentally is to stay too long in the church. Many Christians (I don't know if I would say most) have grown up in the church and been in the church most if not all of their lives. They know all the church hymns. They know popular scripture verses in the Bible. They understand church protocol and all of the do's and don'ts of going to church. But at the end of the day, for many church-going Christians, you don't see any substantive change that's going to literally transform the world. For this reason I say, It's Time to Get Out of the Church.

Let me say very quickly that this statement is not intended to cast any type of negative light upon the church. The church is still the Body of Christ (1Corinthians 12). But what ends up happening to a lot of Christians who actually stay in church too long is that their focus gets off. When a person stays in the organized church for too long, they start to focus more on the church instead of The Kingdom of God. Jesus didn't say seek ye first the church, He said seek ye first the Kingdom (Matthew 6). Unfortunately, the Ministry of the Kingdom and the ministry of the church, oftentimes, are not the same. For this reason, if one is going to focus on the Kingdom the way Jesus prescribed, at some point they will discover that It's Time to Get Out of the Church.

Am I advocating or suggesting that you leave your local congregation? Not necessarily. Am I denouncing one having a church membership and being affiliated with a local congregation? No I am not. What I am saying is that if there is not a Kingdom Focus being facilitated by the church for which you associate and are affiliated, then yes, It's Time to Get Out of the Church. I didn't say it's time to "leave the church". You can stay a member of a local congregation if the Holy Spirit is leading you to stay. But one cannot sustain a Kingdom Focus and fulfill their Kingdom Destiny if at some point they don't Get Out of the Church.

The Kingdom of God will not be found in the church. The Kingdom of God will be found in the world (Acts 1). First off, the church is not a place or a building: the church consists of the people of God who are born again believers in Christ. God has commissioned us to take the message of the Kingdom as the church to the world. But how can we do that if we're always "in the church", in the building, in the sanctuary? We can't. Yes, Jesus ministered in the temple and in the synagogue. But He primarily ministered in the streets, meeting people's needs. That's where the church needs to go. Let's get Outside of the four walls of the places we congregate as the church. Let's get Outside of our church dogma and tradition. Let's get Outside of our preconceived notions and misconceptions about "people in the world" and what they think about Christians and Christianity. Let's get Outside of our comfort zones and stretch into the Kingdom Manifestation that Christ is calling for from His church and His people during this season. Saints, we can no longer simply "do" church anymore. We must answer the Call to be the church and to be a Witness for the Kingdom Revolution that God is ready to release in these upcoming days. And in order to do that, as believers in Christ, we must recognize that It's Time to Get Out of the Church.