Quitting church.. but how?!

Quitting church... but how?!
As soon as you become aware that church and church-membership keep you from growing into a Christian and from growing into the Fruit of the Spirit leading to eternal life you may want to quit your church and churchmembership in a hurry. But that is easier said than done! There are many kinds of problems, temptations and pitfalls for everyone that decides to leave his/her church. Everyone who doesnot want to use a 'physical- or spiritual first-aid-kit' will certainly read this!

A new conscioussness ánd a new way to go along with it
Your eyes are open; you are fully aware that both church and church-building are neither how GOD works nor how GOD organizes his Children. Church is actually keeping you from becoming a personal Temple of GOD in Jesus. And as a result of that keeping you from active personal growth in the Spirit. So you want to quit church immediately!

Still: your new insights do not make you happy, because you know you'll have to leave your familiar surroundings and even quit your membership of it, because you know you cannot serve two lords. Either you serve GOD and participate- and grow in the Body of Christ ór you serve satan and participate- and grow in every body and harmful spiritual connection to be kept away from Christ and being denied / denying yourself to become a Christian yourself.

Fact is, that you will have to do without friends, family and aquaintances you had in church; some of them may even become total enemies!! And that prospect is a not a pleasant one at all. Still you do realize that you have to act according to your new insights!

Leaving your old world before you go on His Way
So you leave that old world as if going on a journey; not to go back afterwards, because your are truly on His Way now leading towards an eternal destination. Before you pack your suitcases, tell them why you are leaving and say goodbye to all that you leave behind you will have to make a choice yourself and also get the insurance that goes along with that choice.

You are turning away from an old life and you are trying to live according to all Gods Commandments now.

As a conformation of your new life and insights you will want to get baptized by immersion; in that way turning into a clean Temple in Christ. You realize you are now worthy again to receive Gods Spirit in that clean Temple so you want the laying on of hands so GOD can give you His Spirit and the Spiritual Gifts you need to go out with in service for others. Only with that 'Spiritual Insurance' you are ready and able to leave your old world and to go out on His Way!

The old churchworld is made difficult to leave...
And from now on it will get increasingly difficult! Everyone who thinks 'the only thing remaining is to simply quit my church-membership and say bye-bye' is going to be very disappointed and supprised indeed, because:

Church has developped all kinds of 'delaying-tactics' and 'delayings-protocols' to keep you in church.

Church has all kinds of worthly temptations to keep you in church

Church is also your family; and they will try to keep you in church in various ways. By means of bribeing you, by deceiving you, by blackmailing you, by threatening you and by fooling you.

Church-procedures made to discourage leaving church
Churchboars and leaders have developped many formal protocols so you are not able to leave church and certainly so you cannot leave church quickly.

Some churches have made it impossible to quit formally and they use that to discourage you and to keep you in their church [the Roman-Catholic church for instance]. Still: you have to give them a writen notice that you formally and personally quit their church as a member. They willnot get your name out of their books, but your written notice is above all how you confirm your choice to GOD and the world. And that is most important!

Most churches have an automatic protocol of delaying your notice; Churchboards, churchleaders and churchspeakers have concluded a formal silent protocol of delaying your notice of your churchmembership for 1 year at least. They will avoid talking to you about your notice, willnot answer your letter and willnot strike your membership out of their church-register. The only thing they want to say, is that you need time to think it over and that they will give you that time; even if you don't want that time...Don't take their 'no' and 'the time they offer' for an answer, but write them in a registred letter that you want to end your churchmembership immediately; also that you want an written conformation of it within 4 weeks. After those weeks you can go to a lawyer and use your registred letter in court. Or you can answer following church-writing/invitations with a copy of your registred letter.

Worldly churchways of seduction and threats in order to keep you in
Because of the occult foundation of believe churches have, following occult churchteachings, following unbiblical church-behaviour and church-fruit it willnot be suprising that the church-institute will try to seduce you or threaten you so you will stay in church and forget your decision to leave.

Underneath you will find the most striking seductions you will have to deal with:

Suddenly you will be granted a special task, job or project; unlike before.

Suddenly churchfunds will come available for your ideas, projects or goals; unlike before.

Suddenly family, aquaintances or other churchmembers are very interested in you; unlike before.

Suddenly you are invited or nominated to take place in a churchboard or daily church-management; without you asking for it.

Suddenly your presence and skills are needed for all kinds of tasks; unlike before.

These seductions -usually going along with false compliments and false personal interest- often appear to be empty promises or come to an end shortly after they are convinced you willnot be leaving them. Accepting their bribe also means that you will grow into the same worldly fruit they are growing in too. Besides that: they will be able to blackmail you with the bribe they offered you in the future. Getting out after accepting the bribe will almost seem impossible.

Do not be mistaken: also by means of 'negative incentives' the churchboard/leaders/representatives/members will try to keep you in church. Numerous negative actions are possible. Underneath you will find a few of those possibilies so you can recognize them:

Churchleaders threaten you with mental- or physical violence; directly or indirectly.
Churchleaders threaten 'to expose you before the whole church'.
Churchleaders threaten to set your wife/husband/children or family against you
Churchboards or leaders threaten to withdraw loans, pensions or funds
Churchleaders try to underline theologically why only obidient churchmembers receive the Kingdom of GOD;
- only their church and their churchmembership is 'good'
- you are alone and you cannot possibly serve GOD in that way
- only large numbers of churches and members have impact before GOD
- only important churches are noticed by GOD and the world

Do realize that all these fake arguments contradict with how GOD sent Jesus to us. Jesus went alone. Also Jesus sent his disciples; maybe they went in couples, but they were not in large numbers at all. Also realize that Christians have been going out to spread the Gospel, to educate people in the Word of GOD, to baptize people, to cure people, etc. long before churches even existed!

Overall: as soon as they know you want to quit your churchmembership they will want to change your mind; either in a positive way [by means of seduction] or in a negative way [by means of threats/violence or both]. Churchboards, churchleaders or churchsspeakers will invite you for a personal conversation or formal meeting 'to make it so'.

When you feel very happy during the conversation you most certainly will have been offered a bribe; when you refuse the bribe(s) your sheer hapiness will leave you within soon. But do keep your intention to leave your church and tell them that; however abusive or nasty they become.
When you feel very unhappy during the conversation they most certainly have feed you with negative input. Usually you cannot say exactly in words what was so negative what they said to you, but you do realize and feel it was very negative. Your emotions didnot fool you at all!!

However you feel during the conversation/meeting or afterwards: don't let them fool, bribe or deceive you. Stay clear and firm on the fact that you want to quit your churchmembership. Also ask a written conformation of been striking out of the church-register!

'The church-family' tries 'to keep you in'...
Nobody is likely to think of deceit, bribes, threats or force when thinking about family. Still chances are that leaving your church will lead to these 'family-actions'. If the family doesnot think of it first: the churchboard and churchleaders will have it in their 'descouraging-protocol' and they will put your family up to doing those nasty things. All 'to keep you inside' and change your 'mind'...

Churchleaders usually threaten family-members too; by warning them that certain privileges, acces, money, pensions or funds will be taken away. Or that important churchleaders or speakers willnot want to visit your house again. They can only avoid it by taking aggressive actions against you. And the family usually give in to their threats and starts threatening you:

With divorce, abandonement, expelling, etc.

With eviction

With violence, verbal agression

With reposession of goods

With withdrawing loans

etc.

Reading all this you will realize how hard it is to go on His Way. You will feel pain, deserted, betrayed and abused. However sad, empty and afraid you may feel: try to picture how Jesus must have felt at the cross and how the apostles felt when they were persecuted. The resemblance will immidiately show you whose Way you are on!

Don't give up: however nasty and lonely it will get for you. When you give in to their seductions or threats you have to realize what it is your are going to miss in the future. Christians know that they will have to face and deal with descouragement, bribery, threats, torture and death. Still they are asked to stand firm and not to give up!

Preparing yourself / making preparations is 'half the job'...
You now know what you may have to face when you want to quit church. And a warned person knows he has to be prepared and to prepare him-/herself to what is coming. As soon as you tell or write churchmembers you want to quit church permanently you will have to face 'the churchmix-music'.

Before you do so: think hard about:

Who you are going to tell it first

How- and with what Bible-passages you are going to justify your decision; if you are going to do that at all...

What your attitude will be in case of negative impulses

How to cope with eviction, withdrawel of loans

Who to speak in case of mental- or physical abuse [the police, your physician, etc.!]

etc.

Finally: free of your church!
It may be a very hard Way, but not an impossible one. Whatever happens after you have decided to quit church: remember that you are suffering for the sake of His Name. So: do not give up, but continue however hard it gets.

Maybe you already left your church but they do not want to confirm that they striked you from the church-register. When you have quitted your church with a registred letter you have proof you left your church. Of course you can also bombard several churchleaders with copies of your letter for some months :-)

When they keep refusing striking you out the church-register be warned that on a later moment they will again try to get you back in church. So: stay alerted at all times!

Maybe you will feel uncomfortable on your new Way, because everything you did was mainly based on the calender of the church and what their leaders asked of you or organized for you. That is all gone now. At least it should be!

Also you will find out that leaving church is even more than leaving the building and quitting your membership. The church has provided you with lots of things that were not biblical and not suitable for Christians. Church-traditions, churchfeasts, churchdays, churchways, etc: you have to leave them out of your life. Sometimes that is even harder then quitting the church formally.

The best cure is to get going personally and aks GOD in the name of Jesus or... Jesus directly in prayer where to go, what to do and... to go freely. Have Faith!

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