Monthly Archives: March 2016

Church and divorce

Whilst still on the subject of physical divorce, let us take a quick glance on spiritual divorce. People in nowadays move from one church to the other. Regardless the reasons, this affects the church directly and indirectly. I grew up as a Methodist and I recall when you were to relocate/ transfer or move to another church youwere required to obtain  a remove/testimonial from the church you are vacating. This made the work of the leadership easier since the testimonial would have information regarding the moving believerl, which will guide the leaders even on the spiritual level of that particular believer. This might sound very much of a tradition but it worked, but I do not mean it was without flaws. Imagine if I leave my church already an elder or a deacon and when I get to the new church, there has to be a struggle of adaptation with noone aware of my capabilities and incapabilities. You find that some people suffocate within the church. This spiritual divorce has become no different from marriage divorce. Mind you, you were joined into that particular body of Christ and for whatever reasons you are now detached to join another body. Am I saying people should stay in a church that is of no benefit to them, absolutely not. What I encourage is that you will have challenges at church and wherever possible, endure and move out if really there is a push. Also I encourage churches to have proper systems in place on how to receive people more especially those that are from churches or have been members of the church. The church is full of wounded soldiers, people that got hurt from one church and moved to the other with open wounds. Wounds that never get healed. Sometimes we are happy that our churches are full but we don’t know what it is full of. These people are suffering the same pain divorced people suffer. At some stage I was angry with God for what happened in my life. I am not proud of this, but it’s a fact. My anger was directed to God. I couldn’t stay away from church then my prayer was; Lord may I find a church where nobody will even ask me of my name and indeed it happened. I stayed in that church for years, coming in and going out. It didn’t make my pain better but I got worse by day. I did things that hurt me even more. I started indulging on sin for nobody knew who I was.spiritual divorce is tarnishing the image of the church as some of the disconnected individuals begin to spread false doctrines. I understand some people relocate or are even directed by Holy spirit to move to another church. But at least resign and be released so you go out with a blessing. What really hurts is when people move out and keep moving around without control. Let the leaders learn to release people when they decide to move. If and when as a leader you are not in agreement with the the members decision , advise them acvordingly, if they insist release them like the prodigal son. Do not curse them, who knows they might reconsider and come back. I strongly believe that if your leader has trusted you with a flock, and there is a sudden mmisunderstading which pushes you to leave, give back the keys and the flock for, surely it does not belong to you. I know people that are called that their leaders refuse to release and I know people that felt they were called and went out prematurely irrespective of warnings. We need to be sincere and understand the purpose of the church. We are in a race, but it is a relay not a competition. Serving is not for personal gain but for the perfection of the church and working of our Christ like character. HOPE REMAINS FOR WE KNOW CHRIST IS PERFECTING HIS BRIDE ( THE CHURCH)