by Just Dee

Created on: October 06, 2008

I have just recently come out of a very unhealthy church. So in this, I would like to encourage you to pray fervently before joining a church. The church I came from was one that mislead me and now I believe the experience helped me to warn others. I loved the church to the extreme. I fiersly stood up for the pastor and I really believed in what was taught.

Then one day, for some reason, I started praying for truth. This became a whirlwind of ups and downs as errors within the church became prevalent. Control and manipulation was a tactic that was used by the pastor. He was not very discerning and welcomed false teaching. He would lecture us instead of preach to us. Sundays became a place where we didn't really learn about Jesus, instead it was about finances, signs and wonders outside the confines of the bible and sound doctrine.

Services became a place where extreme chaos was the focus. The pastor would try and hype the congregation up. The members were only your friends if you stayed within the confines of the church. "Dare you go to another church".

I could go on and on but basically, the task of finding the right church is so important. The days we are living has made the task very difficult for finding the right church. To conclude, I would say pray. Lean on God for guidance. Read your bible and understand scripture for yourself. Don't ever rely on a pastor. You need to rely on yourself to know God and understand his word with your interpretation. Prayerfully do all things, whether reading your bible or simply being in church.

A biblical church will give you adequate space and will not force you into their 'membership'. A hauty church that promotes themselves as the best, are probably worth avoiding. A church that does not go in line with scripture would be one that I would run far away from. A church that likes to promote guilt trips is not healthy. There are many more things to look out for.

The right church is biblical. The right church teaches the love and grace of Jesus. The right church treats all people the same, no one is better than the other. Pastor's are not to regard themselves as 'the annointed'. They should serve in humility and love. The best advice is to pray about it. Pray that God leads you to the kind of church that He wants you to be in. No church is perfect but there are unhealthy churches and seriously toxic churches out there so use discernment in finding the right church.

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