I HAVE STOPPED CHURCH HOPPING, WHY?

The last time I checked, I have been in like 7 churches so far, including the church I was born from.  This is not a secret because; those who know me personally knew me from the Catholic background.  Actually I was a staunch Catholic until I was in form two when I made that personal decision to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  At first it was my secret because I feared to say this at home as I knew it would not be accepted at home and even at school because I was a YCS (Young Catholic Student), leader as the Organizing Secretary.  And so, at school from form three, I was not a Catholic but when I went home I was a Catholic.  This went on until I left high school and at some point in college where I could no longer pretend; where I announced my stand.   This was not kindly taken as I lost many friends, I was rejected and called a betrayer of Catholics’ and to make the matter even worse, as a best student overall in my year of graduation in my former secretarial college, I was dropped from a job offer I was to get because of my utmost performance; just because I announced my stand!

It was not a very easy journey for me.  At home I did not mention my stand until I got my first job at age twenty when I knew, I was now standing on my own and I could do things on my own.  When I broke the news at home, no one questioned me because I was home at most three days and when I went my way, no one was with me and that enabled me leave the Catholic Church so easily and I stood on my own.  Coming from the Catholic background, it was not very easy to understand the worship style of the world I ventured into.  But my joy was the things they did, made me freer to be who I really wanted to be in the things of God.  But I will confess to you, that venture was not easy as I was subjected to so many confessions in the public and that was not the world I had come from.  As a Catholic, your sins were between you, your Catholic father and your God.  I did not know what I engaged myself to as I protestant.  Not mentioning getting pregnant out of wedlock and standing on the pulpit to confess before a multitude of people and everybody looked at me those of, how could you do that?  That was not the only big mistake I made in life, but a repeat of it much later and others that I could not even mention because, as I speak, I do not think I would be in any of the churches because of my sinful nature that I was in.  Little did I know, people hide their sins and me I am this girl who likes walking in the light and I go yapping all what I am doing because as I know, we should not hide our sins but confess them to one another and to God. 

That has been my struggle all along because I am this kind of a woman that, I will share all my sins. Let me tell you, no one will love you because you are a sinner as they will always judge you.  Let the truth be told, no one is righteous not even one.  We are all sinners, it is only that most of us we keep it to ourselves and confess to our God alone and we do not share them.  I am not trying to say here that people should sin in secret and keep it to themselves, rather, I want to say, know who you are confessing to and how they will be walking with you in relation to your struggles.  I have made many mistakes confessing my sins to people that are so evil to a point, what I share has been tarnished to be something else and I am called a pretender and not a lover of my Lord Jesus.  But Lo!  That has been my hardest journey and I do not regret any bit about my openness and vulnerability in my protestant world. Because, it is out of my weaknesses that today, I am a conqueror in Christ Jesus because I am no longer the same Rose.  I have dealt with most of my struggles and pain and I am wired for greatness because I chose not to be comfortable with my struggles and pain.    

Since I have hopped many churches, I know many things about churches and let me tell you for free, no church is PERFECT.  All the churches I have gone through, my friends, have issues and to be honest now I have made my conclusion, there is no church that is PERFECT.  I am not planning to move soon until the Lord tells me to.  In my last church I was, the Lord told me to move and I did not really believe he spoke because I could not see the church to join that could match it. But I obeyed anyway after an encounter.  And I now understand  why the Lord wanted me to move.  If you are waiting for me to pack and go, you will wait for long because the Lord has not yet spoken.  But if he does I will not hesitate.  I will move as he tells me because, I always listen to his voice and not people’s voices or what is going around me.  Today I am a mature woman in Christ and I am past some things I did, when I was young in the spirit.  There is no one’s church, we should all know that.  You might think some churches belong to some people but I will tell you, no church belongs to anyone.  The church belongs to God and that is why no one can brag about a church.  I have gone to churches that were thriving so much and today they are no more!  Why? There is no church that belongs to anyone.  We make the Church of Christ and that is why we are called to walk the talk and not just talk and walk other ways.  And no wonder we have so many issues in church.  I know someone is now waiting for me to leave my current church because of a post I made recently on my Facebook page that I manage.  But I will announce to you.  I am not going anywhere.  My saying that was targeting the people the clip was  speaking about in church and also encouraging my son who is so down currently about churches.  The people who kill other peoples dream and yet they claim to be godly and in church.  If you are in church and you behave like a worldly person, what hell are you doing in church my dear friend? You should be the first one to pack and go!  And leave the people of God to serve him in spirit and in truth.   

My take today in churches is, let us take it as our responsibility to behave as children of God in church. It makes me shudder to see people in church are worst of jealous, rumor mongers, haters of others, destiny killers, betrayers, conman and women, husband grabbers name them.   If someone is thirsty of God they come and say all their weakness in order to be set free and be guided on how to go about good and clean life, the church the best thing they can do today, is to reject, talking behind their back, tarnishing their names, make them feel good for nothing and name all those bad things?  So what is church for?  For coming to show off and pinning others down especially those that are struggling in life in many aspects of issues such as illness, financial lack, emotional illness, poor in the spirit, and so forth?  If you are not a rich person no one will even want to listen to you?  But if you drive the biggest car and have all what it takes you are the one who is honoured and valued.  What about the person that needs that help and recognition as a poor person in spirit?  What changed in the church where we now only focus on who is who and have forgotten the mandate that brought us together as a church?  Jesus did not come for the rich; he came for the POOR IN SPIRIT AND SINNERS!  Church, let us go back to the basics that the Lord taught us.  That is, being there for one another and carrying each others burden (LOVE).  And more so, reaching out to the LOST SOULS!  It fails me to understand the many short courses we take in churches, the many Keshas (overnight prayers) we attend, the many rallies we arrange and manage, the many fellowships we attend and others we attend to, and yet we remain the way we were even before we took the courses and many church activities we enroll ourselves to.   What is wrong with us Church?  Can someone answer me? 

I have made a lot of observation as a church hopper and I will tell this without fear, Church, we need to be the children of God and be like Jesus in all aspects.  There is no need to be a child of God only on Sunday and the other days we are just like the world.  We need to go back to the word of God and see where we are going wrong and especially in the Kingdom of God.  We are living a lie and we need to change for the good of our Church and be what God wants us to be and not what the world wants us to be! 

I have purposed not to church hop as much as I know things are not working so well where I am.  But when I say this, I do not mean if you are not happy where you are, that you should stay there.  Pray about it and let the leading of God be your guide. As for my case, have purposed to do things different and that is, being what God has called me to be and not a people pleaser so that I join the club of those that are being used by the evil one to bring problems in church.  It is so bad to see people in church for more than 10 years and others and they do not show any change in them but they are just the way they were and not only are they, they influence others to be like them in church and those are the people who bring problems in church and you wonder what has happened in church.  When I say this, these people are not many, but they are the idlers who have no work to do but to poke their noses where they ought not to, in the name Jesus.    

We are only fighting for positions in church, we want to use the church money in the wrong way to benefit ourselves instead of helping the needy, the poor and the work of God.  Our work nowadays in church is to come to show off what we have in terms of cars, clothes, relationships and others I won’t mention here. Remember God knows all our motives when we are in church and he will judge us.  If you are in church and you are not influencing the people in your house, where you work, where you go for shopping, and others, is it in church that you will bring change?   First deal with your house and when it is in order, come to church and bring that change there.  There is no need of living a lie so that you come to please people with your pretense and you are coming to influence others with your evil motives.  Be warned children of God, before the wrath of God comes upon you.    

As a servant of God, I am not speaking as a perfect person, but as a leader who is sent to tell us that we ought to change and bring the sanity that is needed in church and not the madness that we see in the world.  If we are like the world, where will the difference be?  Let us wake up and be used of God as we ought to and not pretend to be what we are not. If you know you are not living right, can you change and repent!!