3. You Are Comfortable, but Never Convicted.
If you are attending a church and you have:
a) never been convicted,
b) never been offended in your sin when the Gospel is preached or taught,
hightail it out of there!
It is very dangerous when a church’s preaching and teaching team operates in what I call the “Ren and Stimpy Theology.” What I mean by this is every sermon and lesson that comes from the preaching/teaching team is always “happy, happy, joy, joy,” but there are never heart-piercing, convicting messages that will challenge people.
Church shouldn’t be designed to just make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, but church should be there to bring conviction through the Word of God to bring correction in a person’s life.
Additionally, if your church is not balanced in its teaching, your walk with God becomes stunted; you will not grow.
If you have ever had to go to a hospital to get better, then you know that most times in your healing process, there is pain involved.
It’s the same thing with church; your healing process won’t be joyful all the time. There will be and should be times you are broken, convicted and offended in your sin.
4. Congregants Are Content With Being Pew Warmers.
I can generally tell if a church’s culture is unhealthy if its congregants are content with being pew warmers.
What is a pew warmer? A pew warmer is a person who does not get involved in their church; they only attend church on Sundays, and they are content in doing so.
When a church is healthy, people are excited about lending their gifts to the upbuilding of their local church and the Body of Christ as a whole.
However, if the only time a church sees a rise in volunteerism is when the pastor lays a huge guilt trip on his or her congregation, something is wrong. When a church’s environment is a healthy one, you should never have to inflict guilt upon people in order to get them involved.
They will have a heart to serve, not out of guilt but out of desire.
RELATED: “Ministry” Is Service
5. Outreach Is Never Planned or Preached.
A church that never plans or even preaches outreach is unhealthy.
When a church feels no need or desire to not only preach helping those outside of the four walls, but never does anything in its surrounding community, it speaks volumes.
Outreach was and is the heart of Jesus. Having worship on Sundays is not church; it’s simply a meeting. The work that is done in the community to show God’s love is church.
It is one thing to talk church, but it’s another thing to actually BE the church.
If the church that you attend never preaches or plans outreach in the community, country or world, you are definitely part of an unhealthy church.
Real church takes place by rendering service, usually outside the four walls of a building.
