When Should I Leave My Church?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Over the months, we've had a steady stream of emails,
00:00:07.440 | probably over 50 by now,
00:00:08.760 | all on the question of discerning
00:00:10.760 | when it's time to leave a certain church.
00:00:12.600 | So many scenarios factor into a decision like this,
00:00:15.400 | and it makes it really hard, I know,
00:00:16.580 | to answer the question with much specificity
00:00:18.600 | in a podcast like this,
00:00:19.600 | but maybe you can put some categories out there,
00:00:21.920 | Pastor John, for listeners.
00:00:23.100 | What are some general guidelines or broad categories
00:00:25.560 | you would introduce for someone who is asking
00:00:27.760 | whether it's time to leave a local church?
00:00:30.320 | - One of the reasons that it's difficult
00:00:35.120 | is because we don't find explicit instances of this
00:00:39.760 | in the New Testament, and the reason we don't
00:00:42.720 | is because the letters of the New Testament
00:00:46.080 | are written to one church in a city,
00:00:50.520 | not several churches in the city
00:00:53.680 | among which Christians are circulating.
00:00:57.040 | It treats the church in Corinth or Thessalonica
00:01:00.800 | or Philippians as one church in the city,
00:01:04.240 | and the letters that are written to several churches,
00:01:06.720 | those churches are in different cities,
00:01:08.640 | and so it's not about people moving from one to the other
00:01:11.560 | unless they're moving in the city.
00:01:13.500 | So that's the reason the Bible is so silent.
00:01:16.660 | The development of the church hasn't gotten to the point yet
00:01:21.760 | where there are this unbelievable multiplicity
00:01:24.600 | of local churches to choose from in any locale.
00:01:28.240 | So the way I think we go about answering the question
00:01:31.760 | is by asking what the church is so that you can test,
00:01:36.040 | is the church being the church here,
00:01:38.440 | or is it defective to a degree
00:01:40.720 | that I should go to another one?
00:01:42.960 | And the four things that I would mark
00:01:46.040 | as defining what the church is,
00:01:48.280 | number one, it's leaders, elders, pastors,
00:01:52.880 | whatever that church calls them,
00:01:55.240 | New Testament calls them elders or overseers or pastors.
00:01:59.160 | They minister the word of God fully and faithfully.
00:02:03.160 | Number two, they minister the Lord's Supper and baptism.
00:02:08.060 | And number three, they exercise church discipline,
00:02:12.480 | excluding from membership,
00:02:15.080 | those who walk in a way that contradicts the gospel
00:02:18.080 | or brings reproach upon the Lord.
00:02:20.080 | And four, they love each other and they love the community
00:02:25.080 | and they're seeking to win the lost
00:02:26.880 | and reach the nation's mission of the church,
00:02:29.520 | in other words.
00:02:30.360 | So any one of those four could be missing and serious
00:02:35.360 | and therefore lead a person to consider
00:02:38.500 | looking for another church.
00:02:40.760 | The problem is, and I'm sure that's why
00:02:43.200 | we've gotten all these emails,
00:02:45.560 | is that it's just never that black and white.
00:02:48.840 | Here's a church with only three of its four traits,
00:02:51.560 | I'm leaving.
00:02:52.400 | It's just never ever that easy,
00:02:54.080 | especially when it comes to the doctrine of the church
00:02:56.840 | and the ministry of preaching.
00:02:58.580 | So preaching can be defective in lots of ways.
00:03:03.000 | It can be unclear, it can be disorganized,
00:03:05.840 | it can be incomplete, it can be imbalanced,
00:03:09.020 | it can be unfaithful to the text, it can be shallow,
00:03:12.400 | it can be mingled with too much self and on and on and on.
00:03:16.040 | It's just never nice, clear, black and white,
00:03:18.960 | oh bad, I have a warrant to leave.
00:03:21.400 | It's not that crystal clear.
00:03:24.160 | So as I've tried to think of something helpful
00:03:28.000 | to say to people that have asked me this
00:03:30.840 | lots of times over the years,
00:03:33.400 | here's what I've come up with.
00:03:35.500 | When the weaknesses or the errors or the sins
00:03:40.280 | of the preacher or the preaching and the teaching
00:03:43.760 | reach a kind of combined extent,
00:03:47.560 | in other words, all those different ways of possible defects
00:03:51.260 | they combine to the extent that mature Christians
00:03:56.260 | that you consult, not worldly ones,
00:04:00.020 | but mature brothers and sisters that you consult with
00:04:03.760 | think your faith and obedience would be damaged
00:04:07.720 | if you stayed and your usefulness there
00:04:11.680 | doesn't outweigh the pitfalls, you're free to go.
00:04:15.700 | And I wanna say free to go to a church.
00:04:22.000 | You're not free to go nowhere.
00:04:24.440 | Not being in a church is not a New Testament option.
00:04:29.280 | To belong to Christ is to belong to a body of believers,
00:04:34.280 | defective or perfect, there aren't any perfect ones.
00:04:38.600 | And so if there's no church,
00:04:40.480 | I mean, if you're living in a little town
00:04:42.360 | and you go into a church and you feel like
00:04:43.920 | they've left the gospel, what do you do?
00:04:48.720 | Well, you don't say church doesn't matter.
00:04:53.240 | You seek out a few other believers
00:04:56.160 | and you do your best to gather as a church,
00:05:01.160 | win other people to Christ,
00:05:03.560 | seek the blessing from a distance of the churches
00:05:07.400 | that you know, but you never leave hastily.
00:05:11.320 | You never leave without serious prayer
00:05:13.600 | or consulting with other believers,
00:05:15.520 | mature spiritual believers.
00:05:18.360 | You never leave without talking to the leaders
00:05:22.040 | about why you're considering leaving
00:05:24.080 | and taking your time and praying about it with them.
00:05:27.880 | And you always strive for peace, even when you must go.
00:05:32.240 | - Very good, thank you, Pastor John.
00:05:34.600 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:05:36.400 | Email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:05:39.600 | You can visit us online at desiringgod.org
00:05:41.400 | to find thousands of books and articles, sermons,
00:05:43.240 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.
00:05:45.800 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, thanks for listening.
00:05:47.880 | (upbeat music)
00:05:50.460 | (upbeat music)
00:05:53.040 | [BLANK_AUDIO]