Every church has problems - and the people who cause them. It has always been so. Let us consider the Corinthian church. Some members got drunk during communion, and others wouldn't attend unless their favourite preacher was speaking. One guy was even having an affair with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1). Sitting beside us on Sunday mornings are some very messed-up and dysfunctional people. But GOD keeps working with us, because HE sees our potential value to HIS KINGDOM. After writing about murmurers, complainers, the lustful and the greedy, Jude ends his short book with these words: 'Now to HIM WHO is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of HIS glory with exceeding joy' (Jude 1:24). Noah didn't jump ship, so for the same reason we shouldn't leave our church - there is no better alternative. Paul and 276 others were in a storm that looked unsurvivable. Nevertheless, he told them, 'Unless you stay on board the ship, you cannot be saved' (Acts 27:31). Does that mean it is always wrong to leave a church? No, but we should be sure our reasons are scriptural and not self-centred. We may say, 'But the pastor's sermons are too long.' Paul once preached so long that a man sitting in a third-storey window fell asleep, fell to the ground, and died. And what did Paul do? He laid hands on him, revived him, set him back in the window and made him listen to the rest of the sermon (Acts 20:9-11)! Seriously, if our church has problems, we don't have to leave; we should stay and pray. That is how things get changed. AMEN

Every church has problems - and the people who cause them. It has always been so. Let us consider the Corinthian church. Some members got drunk during communion, and others wouldn't attend unless their favourite preacher was speaking. One guy was even having an affair with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1). Sitting beside us on Sunday mornings are some very messed-up and dysfunctional people. But GOD keeps working with us, because HE sees our potential value to HIS KINGDOM. After writing about murmurers, complainers, the lustful and the greedy, Jude ends his short book with these words: 'Now to HIM WHO is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of HIS glory with exceeding joy' (Jude 1:24).
Noah didn't jump ship, so for the same reason we shouldn't leave our church - there is no better alternative. Paul and 276 others were in a storm that looked unsurvivable. Nevertheless, he told them, 'Unless you stay on board the ship, you cannot be saved' (Acts 27:31). Does that mean it is always wrong to leave a church? No, but  we should be  sure our reasons are scriptural and not self-centred. We may say, 'But the pastor's sermons are too long.' Paul once preached so long that a man sitting in a third-storey window fell asleep, fell to the ground, and died. And what did Paul do? He laid hands on him, revived him, set him back in the window and made him listen to the rest of the sermon (Acts 20:9-11)!
Seriously, if our church has problems, we don't have to leave;  we should stay and pray. That is how things get changed. AMEN