If My Church Doesn’t Seem Very “Radical,” Should I Leave It?

Should I leave my Church?

So, sometimes people ask, “If my church doesn’t seem very radical, then should I leave that church?” That question, well, it’s so tough to discern what is radical. What does that really mean? I think it’d be better to ask some more fundamental questions at the core of that. Number one, is the church biblical? That’s a good question to ask. There’s an objective basis upon which to measure that. Is your church preaching the Bible, teaching the Bible? And not just preaching and teaching it, but saying, “We want to submit to it. We want to obey it, and what we do is going to fall in line with this word.”

If that’s not happening, then my encouragement would be to, if the Lord has given you influence in that church, to say, “How can we become more biblical and work toward that?” But if that is not going to happen, if there’s resistance from pastors, leaders, elders in that church in that kind of context to being more biblical in teaching and preaching and following the Bible, then I think it probably would be… Well, I would probably encourage somebody, you need to be the body of believers that’s submitted to the Bible and is underneath the Word, and who’s being shepherded by people who prioritize the Word.

What is Driving my Church?

So, ask that question, and then, the fruit of that, and then is the Word then driving mission? Is our church focused on making disciples of all nations? Now, that looks different in different churches, the way, the avenues through which that plays out. But is there a priority on spreading the gospel of Christ to the ends of the Earth, and starting in the community where that church is and then beyond? And I want to encourage every single follower of Christ to be in a church that is teaching, preaching the Word, obeying the Word, and the fruit of that is following Christ on mission in the community and to the ends of the earth.

And so I certainly encourage every Christian to be a part of a church like that. And again, if somebody’s church is not doing that, then I want to encourage them to graciously, humbly with love and compassion, if there are opportunities to work within that church to cultivate that and see that grow in that church, that can have huge benefit, not only in your own life, but in many, many others’ lives that that church impacts. So that’s worthy work.

The Growth and Value of the Church

Not every church and certainly even the church of perils is not arrived at a certain point. So there’s always growth that needs to happen to that. But if somebody finds themself in a place where the church, just leadership in particular is not going to move the church in that direction toward how can we most effectively make disciples of Christ in our community the ends of the earth, and we’re going to work toward that with passion and align what we do with that, then I think it would probably be worth having a conversation responsibly, humbly saying, this is why I’m not able to continue in this body and then to move on to another body where that is.

But I want to encourage caution on that in a church hopping, church dating culture, where that just happens so flippantly all the time. I want to love the church even in all its weaknesses and words and difficulties. I want to encourage people to love the church. At the same time, I don’t think people need to end up wasting 50 years of their Christian life, not hearing the Word of God and not being a part of the mission of God.