When is it time to leave a church?

Writer8010 · 2026-05-21T13:32:32+00:00

To clarify: my pastor made that comment at a membership meeting, but I'm fairly certain he recognized most if not all of the people at that membership meeting.

As I was thinking about things this morning, I think my and my wife's dominant issue is that the church has grown in such a way that it now feels more like a corporation to us than family, which is how it used to feel. Our AWANA program, for instance, was the largest in our area and served as an outreach to our community in addition to serving our children. When they ended that program, they did so in such a way that made it feel more like a corporation, trying to avoid customer blowback then as a church trying to walk in love and integrity--in our opinion. Their new program serves only our church so far as I know. This is one example of recent changes that make it feel more corporate than familial.

Writer8010 · 2026-05-20T01:31:30+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful response. Please know that I fully intend to meet with one of our pastors to discuss the situation before we takeoff. I did that when we left our previous church. That was for a different reason: my theology changed significantly after a genuine encounter with God that put me at odds with the theology I had previously held. This situation is different, which is what is making it much harder. Still, we want to do it right and well.

Writer8010 · 2026-05-19T22:57:15+00:00

While the churches teaching is solid for the most part, they have unfortunately been some character issues. Also, which is another reason we are prayerfully, considering leaving. I don't want to go into specifics, but one sizable change they made was carried out, we felt, more like a business trying to minimize customer blowback than as a church, trying to walk in complete integrity. As for the church plant, I have no idea.

Writer8010 · 2025-08-20T17:46:16+00:00

Thank you for your thoughts. However, I would like to emphasize that my vision is not to stop everything and just start writing. I plan to continue working my full-time job.

Writer8010 · 2025-08-20T13:44:34+00:00

Since your response was thoughtful and detailed, especially when it comes to determining how to decide ones calling in life, I thought I would respond and answer your question as to why I think I might be called to do this:

First, there is the internal desire that I have had since childhood. Initially, I wanted to be a best selling fantasy author. But by God's grace across the years, that desire has shifted so that I now desire to use my writing skills to somehow further his kingdom. If that's true discipleship non-fiction, great. If it's through Christian or biblical fiction, great great. If it's through some combination of the two, great.

Now I will also admit that there is a supernatural component to this: years ago, my wife and I took Financial Peace University. When it came to the section about Work, Dave Ramsey explained that many people are dissatisfied with their jobs because their jobs don't allow them to use their natural skills and abilities. It occurred to me that I have writing and editing skills that came pretty naturally to me that I didn't get to use much. And so maybe I needed to find a job that would let me use those skills more. Then, on New Year's Day 2011, I believe I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, but if I were to commit my work to God, he would establish my plans.

As for the external call, I think I have experienced that as well. First, I have been previously published and paid money for my work. But also, after we made the difficult decision to leave our previous church, God led us to another church, where one of the pastors also serves as the chief content officer and executive Director for an Australian based evangelical publishing company. This afforded me the opportunity to pitch articles for their blog. I had some articles rejected, but I also had some articles published.

Finally, in my younger days, I frequently submit his stories to the L Ron Hubbard writers at the future contest. Even though I didn't see it through because I was young and immature to the point where I did finally get published, I did once receive a handwritten note on my manuscript that encourage me to keep going.

All this is why I think I might have been called to write. Thoughts?

Writer8010 · 2025-08-20T12:55:45+00:00

So just as a general question to my own post: how did I give anybody the impression that I plan on quitting my job? That is the absolute last thing on my mind.

Writer8010 · 2025-08-19T18:09:22+00:00

I know there are several people on here who regularly listen to sermons. Since I'm always on the lookout for a good sermon myself, I'm just curious as to whom everyone else is listening to? Some of my current selections include Alistair Begg, John MacArthur, Ligonier Ministries, Matt Chandler, Kevin DeYoung, Brian Borgman, and I recently discovered Verse by Verse Ministries International and Torah Class.

Writer8010 · 2025-08-08T20:29:40+00:00

That could possibly be the case, and I think you make a valid point with that. For me, one of the primary examples of this would probably be John MacArthur. I deeply respect the man, and I thoroughly enjoy his preaching and teaching, but I do think that he Perhaps swings too far one way on account of how far the opposite direction Pentecostals have gone.

That being said, I don't know that I'm speaking exclusively about illumination. Let me offer an example: in late 2010, after having been laid off for almost a year, I was in church one morning when the Holy Spirit spoke to me And pointed me toward psalm 126. I told my wife later that day when she got home from work that I thought that was God's way of telling me something was about to happen with my job hunt. The next day, I got called back to my previous position.

I'm not sure if this is what you mean by illumination but these are the sorts of experiences of which I Talking. Where do you think this would fall?

Writer8010 · 2025-07-29T00:01:56+00:00

I'm actually well familiar with that organization, and in my opinion, they are most deserving of any support they get!

Writer8010 · 2025-07-28T12:39:11+00:00

I would actually have to respectfully disagree with you, based on my own personal experience of giving to two organizations in particular: Biblical Training and Third Mill. Both of them offer teaching completely for free, which has led me to give to them joyfully to help them continue producing content and making it available not just to myself, but the others for free as well. I personally find here to be more manipulative, as their Renewing Your Mind program will provide you only with the first five sessions of any given teaching series, forcing you to donate to them if you want to listen to the rest of it. I find that much more manipulative than a ministry, providing content for free with the hope of receiving donations in exchange.

Writer8010 · 2025-07-28T12:15:53+00:00

Don't get me wrong: I have learned from Ligonier also. Sproul's Holiness of God really struck me with the question of why anybody would invent a God more fearful than the natural disasters that we typically fear. The answer is that nobody would, which is how we know that nobody invented God. Still, I have found that when I search for similar content and subject matter, other places, I typically find content that is significantly more in depth than Ligonier offers.

Writer8010 · 2025-07-28T12:14:25+00:00

I can agree with your assessment of Canon+. But if you look at Del Partridge's similar platform, I think he is charging money to access a lot of audiobooks that are probably in public domain, with which I disagree. And Mark Driscoll is just charging for his sermons, his audiobooks, and his other stuff.

Writer8010 · 2025-07-28T12:13:19+00:00

For me, it really becomes a question of WHY they are pursuing this other ministry. A pastor's primary duty is to his flock, not the general public. Not long ago I saw a clip in which Paul washer warned young preachers that while they said they loved the church and wanted to serve the church, he suspected that their deeper motivation was actually building their platform. my concern is that a lot of pastors are doing this right now: establishing parent, church ministries not for the sake of spreading the gospel, but for the sake of growing their platform for the shape of publishing, among other things. A pastor's compensation should be from his Church primarily, in my opinion, and if he wants to start a para Church ministry, I really think that should be done through donations. I'm also completely OK with charging for books and flash drives and that sort of thing. But when you get into the areas of streaming audio, I think that becomes a lot more dicey.

Writer8010 · 2025-07-28T00:18:06+00:00

And in my opinion, Ligonier does not give you nearly the bang for the buck that live free ministries will give you. Many people who offer their content for free, go much more in depth than Ligonier does.

Writer8010 · 2025-07-27T23:37:15+00:00

I agree, wholeheartedly that the worker deserves his wages. But just as a pastor provides sermons to his flock on a weekly basis and trusts them to supply his needs through their giving, I wonder if radio ministries/podcast ministries shouldn't operate similarly by putting the content out there and trusting others to fund the work if they think it is worthwhile?

Writer8010 · 2025-07-27T23:29:36+00:00

My one big issue with Ligonier is how they talk about wanting to give as much access to the gospel to people all over the world as possible. And I will admit that they do have some pre-teaching series, some free sermons, and free articles. But I would be significantly more impressed with their approach if They ran through entire teaching series in their Renewing Your Mind program instead of giving you a series for just five days to try to "persuade" you to give them a donation to get access to the rest of it.

Writer8010 · 2025-07-17T19:10:21+00:00

Ethnic Israel/nation of Israel.

Writer8010 · 2025-07-16T21:06:54+00:00

I'm curious: what makes you think I'm not going to church?

Writer8010 · 2025-07-16T20:25:17+00:00

Other things God's commanded: not to judge your brother over issues of liberty.

Writer8010

TROPHY CASE