How to Survive Your Megachurch

Surviving is either remaining in or coming out of your megachurch/church with your faith and heart intact. How have you done it?

Here are some thoughts that Heretic and I have come up with.

1. Roll your eyes back and think of the Church of England. (Hmm – my motive for going initially was that I wasn’t going back to the Anglicans.)

2. Keep something back to live on – whether it be your money or your own time and energy.

3. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can only access the Presence of God at church.

4. Maintain your friendships and love for people who do not go to your church – for the sake of the relationship, not just for evangelism.

5. Don’t believe your pastor is above temptation.

6. Don’t believe your pastor is God.

7. Is your church a corporation – then they probably want your money as much as any other corporation.

8. Do love the genuine believers around you and continue to value them as God does, not because of their position in a hierarchy or their external degree of success.

9. Ignore any pressure to look good for marketing purposes.

10.Only go to as many meetings as you can go to without putting pressure on your family life, genuine friendships or work life.

11. Don’t believe that serving God first means putting your family second to your church.

12. Don’t believe that tithing is more important than feeding your family and paying your bills.

13. Don’t put should on people.

14. Do think for yourself.

15. Test everything you hear and know that this is what we are meant to do.

16. Do nothing out of guilt.

17. Do just ask God when you or others need something – don’t think you have to do anything to earn his love or answers.

18. Be kind to your pastors and leaders – just don’t feel you need to take everything they say as gospel.

19. Know that your work is an important part of your life, not just a way to raise funds for God or to evangelise. God designed us to work in all kinds of ways.

20. Know that your key relationship is with God, not your church. Body life is vitally important – but we need Him to come first.

I could keep going, but I’m sure there are many more thoughts out there. What are yours?

Do you think any of this contradicts a Purpose Driven methodology, Prosperity Gospel, or any other current fashion?

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RavingPente