Quitting Church: The Church of the Dry Bones

I can remember back when I first started attending charismatic type of churches, it was so alive and amazing. I don't know if it was because I had endured years of lifeless and dead services and this was so new but things stopped being so alive and settled into preservation of the status quo.

It seems as if churches are having an identity crisis. They want to attract people so they change music and add coffee bars but they've driven the outrageous and crazy that the Holy Spirit brings to a gathering of spirit filled believers. I think if an unbeliever walked into a church where the Holy Spirit was moving, convicting, and falling down then they would have no choice but to say hold up! What is this? Quitting church talks about people who walked into services as staunch atheists but after attending a spirit filled service in which the holy spirit convicted them through the prophetic word, they left believers.

If an unbeliever comes to a church with no power that is focused on making people comfortable with the current state of affairs then they will soon lose interest and go on to the next thing

I wonder why churches shun the unknown and supernatural. Is it because they cannot control it?

Spiritual Gift Tests

Quitting church talks about when members are asked to discern for spiritual gifts, they have them do spiritual gifts worksheets so they can figure out what they should be doing. Why not have people listen for what God wants them to do?

I've done those tests before in church and frankly I think it's a waste of time. I think if people are Sincerely praying to the Lord, then there won't be any guessing about what their gifts are. You shouldn't need a worksheet to find out your passions. You know it...you're just too afraid to speak to it. That's what I'm talking about though. It's all so clinical and not outrageous which is crazy to me since Jesus’ whole ministry was outrageous and not clinical.

The book mentions a church where instead of doing spiritual gift quizzes, the leaders of the church laid hands on each other to receive a spiritual gift of God’s choosing. (158) That sounds more like it to me!

I often think that half the pastors would be sat down and silenced if we were to go strictly on the basis of whether or not one was called to lead and teach God’s people.

Right now I think we are watching the beginning of what I believe will be very dark days for our country and the book mentions that after 9/11 people were in church looking for God and when they didn't hear from him they soon left. One preacher said it was a squandered opportunity.

One only has to turn on the news and see how things are going to see that the church will have another big opportunity to minister to people, but the way things are now, I believe they are unprepared. However the good news is this is how movements start.

I can't help but wonder if this is God’s way of pruning his people. People are leaving these dead churches in droves and perhaps the way to get mature believers back together is to have them leave these dead and lukewarm churches and reassemble on their own. Just this week I was engaged in a Facebook discussion with people who were sick of these silly and worldly tactics designed to attract and engage the youth in church. 

Most of us agreed that it doesn't work but others continued to argue that kids don't like church because it's boring. It's boring because there's no power, no testimonies, or reasons why they should keep coming! I would agree it IS boring and I wouldn't waste my time either.  

Kids today are marketed to constantly and they know when someone is blowing smoke ip their behinds. We shouldn't have to dumb everything down. Life has tough questions and it's not all silly and immature gatherings.

The author and her friends complained that the spiritual gifts such as prophecy has been squelched in church so why go? To listen to loud music that you can't even sing to? To hear John 3:16 for the millionth time?

This is one of the reasons I can't help but wonder if this is pruning away from the building because the people that leave are mature christians, and I'm willing to be that these people want to see the supernatural and crazy stuff that happens when The Holy Spirit comes to the church. They don't want cool services. They want spirit filled and outrageous moves of God.  Even with the decline, The one movement that is growing within Christianity is the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement and I don’t think that’s an accident.

I guess I would be considered charismatic in many ways. I have anointing oil that I've used to pray over people. I believe in prophecy and Miracles but Not that Benny Hinn nonsense and I believe stuff happens that nobody can explain and it's supernatural. I don't see the point of having any faith if you don't believe in the supernatural.

I am a charismatic who also believes in science and all that good stuff like Logic so if I go into a service and see outrageous spirit driven Holy Spirit fire falling from heavens, my Faith is strengthened and I believe even more.

We overcome by the blood and the word of our testimonies so why aren't there any testimonies?

You know what else I find odd?

Why don't they have testimony time anymore? When people hear those testimonies it helps build their faith especially when the people in the audience know their stories. Now There was a funny cartoon on social media not too long ago that basically said they stopped having testimonies in church because too many people were getting outed for their poor behavior. To avoid that, you could pre screen all testimonies or have people stop acting crazy in church.

Instead of faith building stories, church becomes all about the pastor his lesson or whatever entertainment the church has planned. How many times do we have to hear the same people sing the same songs and do the same praise dances?  It's tired.

Maybe these churches don't want to seem like weirdos but the guy who started the movement one Jesus of Nazareth would be considered not just a weirdo but a heretic. He gave those early believers  quite an Experience and it Sure wasn't routine and boring. Jesus also did a lot of substantive teaching and not just a show which can happen when there's more emotionalism than substance.