I have served in several churches in my time as a pastor and I have talked to dozens of people who were restless, wounded and discontent in the church they attended.  The common denominator was that they had been in the same church for years, it had become less and less dynamic, and had settled into just “keeping house.”  These believers were unchallenged and felt as if they were drying up.  They nearly all had spoken with leaders in their church on several occasions and had prayed for years that revival or renewal might break out.  They were each discouraged and disgruntled and yet continued to attend a church where they were essentially unfruitful. I’m assuming there are many others in that situation who struggle with whether to “find another church” or to “hang in there” another year.

For some reason, I feel prompted to share some thoughts on that today. There are always disgruntled members who are looking for the perfect church (defined as a church that would do everything their way) but that is not who I am thinking about in this blog.  I’m thinking about believers who have stayed in one congregation for years, served there faithfully, enjoyed some seasons of excitement and fruitfulness at that church – but that was long ago.  There are others who have been longing and praying for revival at their church or asking God for a powerful move of the Holy Spirit where they are.  Yet there is no evidence on the horizon of either of those desires being fulfilled.

When I ask why they live with such disappointment and discontent for years they usually answer that they love their church and the people there.  Often these are “lay leaders” in the church who feel that they would be abandoning others who have been crying out for the same things for years. And so they stay and attend faithfully each Sunday in what seems to be the triumph of hope over experience.

Lots of times I hear church leaders say that these people need to continue to serve, they need to be part of the solution and not the problem, or that they need to renew their personal zeal without depending on church leadership.  And, sometimes, that has merit.  But there are also churches that vacant of life, vacant of God’s Spirit, and whose leadership is not hungry at all  to change that environment.

I’m reminded of what Jesus said regarding his life of service to the Father.  “ I can only do what I see the Father doing” (Jn.5:19).  Henry Blackabay put it this way, “See what God is doing and join him there.”  Jesus pointed us to fruitfulness in the kingdom of God and to fields white unto harvest.  I believe there comes a time when we need to understand that God is doing nothing or very little in a field because no one is plowing, planting, or watering and those who oversee the field are content or even committed to it laying fallow.  There comes a time when believers need to find where God is working or moving and join him there in a field that is producing a harvest. Remember, those fields are always in need of laborers.

I know why many people hang on in unfruitful churches year after year.  They stay because of the relationships they have there and for what those people mean to them. They also have a history in that place – weddings, funeral’s, baptisms, etc. I am a huge fan of love and loyalty and think those are very godly traits.  But sometimes we put those relationships before our relationship to God and so choose to stay in a religious environment that weakens our spirit and greatly limits our fruitfulness in the kingdom.

I have also visited with dozens of people who attend churches where the gifts of the Spirit are minimized or rejected and who keep calling out to God to receive their own gift of healing, prophecy, or even tongues. They want to see a “Pentecost” at the church they attend beginning with themselves. They want to see lives changed and loved ones healed and set free from fear and addictions.  And so they stay for years yearning and praying for a move of God.  I don’t want to judge any specific situation, but typically if God is not moving it is because leadership is not allowing it.

God honors authority.  Many Christians have placed themselves under the authority of leaders who are truly not interested in a life-altering move of God or who deny the present ministry of the Holy Spirit. To see God move or to receive the gifts of the Spirit, those believers may have to step out from under authority that is saying “No” to those things and find spiritual leaders who are saying “Yes!”

Here’s the thing.  If everyone were living in a city whose water sources had dried up to a trickle and whose civic leaders refused to haul in water, would we applaud the ones who stayed and died of thirst with the people they loved or would it be better for one to leave, find a stream overflowing its banks with fresh water, return, and lead the others who were thirsty to that source?

If anyone chooses to leave a church I believe they should do so in love, with respect toward leadership, and in a way that does not create disunity, But I see so many being disobedient to Christ because they love a church that is being disobedient to his Spirit. Nearly every believer I know senses that we are in the last days. So why sit on the bench when the game is late in the fourth quarter, the team is playing for the greatest prize of all, and you are needed on the field?  Paul said to “Run in such a way as to win the prize” (1 Cor. 9:24).

I am not saying to run to another church at the first sign of trouble or at your first disappointment. Try to be part of the solution but, if year after year, God is not being allowed to display his transforming power and glory there, I encourage you to go where he is busting out, turning lives and the world upside down,  and join him there.  Be fruitful.  Be joyful.  Be passionate. Go where spiritual leaders welcome your hunger and zeal rather than feeling threatened by it.  The time is short.  Jesus wants you in the game!