Quitting Church: Unable to find Rest in the Pews

Unable to find Rest in the pews

Matthew 11:28

Come to me and I will give you rest—all of you who work so hard beneath a heavy yoke. Wear my yoke—for it fits perfectly—and let me teach you; for I am gentle and humble, and you shall find rest for your souls; for I give you only light burdens.”

A gentleman who had been rocked by the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal said her God had mercy do him in the Orthodox Church but he used a phrase that resonated strongly with me. He said, “Yet the price I have I pay is never being able to rest in peace in this or any church ever again”

After growing up in a dysfunctional and legalistic church, I have limited faith in churches. I really enjoyed attending  the non denominational church I found after leaving the church of legalism because it's where I Learned about God. It's where I received healing from my dead faith. It's where I learned that God was still  I alive and still in the supernatural business. However when things changed I began to grow uncomfortable. it was I Was starting to recognize some of the behaviors and It was becoming so familiar and I simply wasn't willing to go through the sinking of a church ship  yet again.”

I ended up at another church that was further away from my home but then they started having church drama and while they handled it with the utmost grace and as Jesus would, I had enough. I was already at the point where I said I didn't see myself committing to a church or “getting plugged in" because I was tired of it all but I too was not able to rest in peace in a church ever. I would get triggered  And it would be all over for me

Relevant Church means discussing relevant issues

After one has been churched to death their whole lives and you take a break, you do realize how much of a time waster church is.

When I was growing up church was our social life. We didn't have much else going on because church was the center of our lives.

These days people have so many options that churches are trying to hard to be relevant and failing big time. Relevant doesn't mean watered down

I agree with one of the women interviewed:

“Church seems to be a preset mold and either you fit into it or not. I want to go back. But it takes such a lot of effortless to go there after working all week and doing errands all Saturday. And if you do go, you want something back.”

I remember being so excited about  Sundays when I first Left legalisms that I would catch the bus to church because I didn’t have a car! At that time the  church I was attending was on fire. Prophetic words, praising God, speakers who spoke messages lo that I still remember years later.

Then it became Hum drum and about preserving the status quo. This seems to be a common theme. Maybe some churches think prophesy, dancing, supernatural occurrences testimonies and the like are too much and not seeker friendly but that's what believers want! Believers don't want dead religion!

This chapter of the book also dealt with why relevant topics such as sex and the singles are not discussed in church.  (She gets more in depth about singles later on)  As the book points out,True Love Waits may work when you're 15 but not so much when you're 25 or in your 30’s like myself. The author points out an article that was written by a then recent convert to Christianity who was appalled at all of the fornicating  that was going on in church amongst singles and why nobody was talking about it.  Churches don't like to get uncomfortable and sex definitely makes them uncomfortable and it really makes them uncomfortable when someone may get convicted about an issue! When I was growing up, It was common knowledge that people slept around in church married and single.

All you ever heard though was that you should be a virgin when you get married but I rarely heard testimonies of people who followed through. I did hear a woman who was still a virgin at 36 and waited until she was married to have sex. She was beautiful and she used that to drive the point home that it wasn't because she was ugly and undesirable. This was her choice because she wanted to honor God.

That was far more impactful than someone getting up saying don't have sex unless you're married and everyone knows they are sleeping around or from married people who are enjoying their sex lives.

We need Testimonies not empty words

Personal testimonies from people who have walked the walk when it comes to faith are much more impactful than listening to pie in the sky rhetoric. The author of this  Julia Duin mentioned Bob Sorge who I had them privilege of listening to speak at Shiloh church. He had a botched throat surgery which left him with the ability to speak higher than a whisper. I haven't forgotten his message of God sending him a message at a baseball game. I bought several of his books and as the author of quitting church says it's one of the best resources of learning about why you may have unanswered prayers in your life. I was personally convicted with the book on envy as well as unanswered prayer because I was struggling with both big time in that season of my life.

As he said in the book people who are waiting on God will not be comforted until they receive the full deliverance of God. Empty promises of breakthrough  and shallow words aren't enough. We are waiting for the miraculous manifestation of God.