5 signs that a culture of death is at work in your church?

What is the "Culture" of your church?

The dictionary defines "culture" as: "the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: i.e... the youth culture; the drug culture."

The culture of a church will dictate what songs you sing, activities you sponsor and even the kinds of messages that are preached.

Your church has either a culture of life, or a culture of death at work in it right now.

5 Signs that a culture of death is at work in your church

1. In a culture of death: altars are barren, and the spark of excitement about a ever present God is gone.

Things have settled into a ritual, where you give lip service to a God you have become casually disconnected from.

If you have more memories than you have dreams, no matter your age, you are probably involved in a culture of death.

2. How you handle differences of opinions, even doctrinal ones, is a clear indicator of your culture.

When facing opposition Jesus's disciples wanted to call fire down from heaven to consume their antagonists.

Jesus quickly and strongly rebuked them

" Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

He knew, if He allowed this spirit to remain in his fellowship circle, it would forever change the culture from life to a culture of death.

3. When Personal failures are used as a means of one party to exercise superiority over another.

The woman caught in the act of adultery readily comes to mind. Those in leadership in that church saw her failure as a means to trap Jesus. They cared nothing for the woman. She was nearly a pawn in their plans. They did not care about the confusion their stunt brought into the church.

They were on a mission to prove their rightness.

" He who sets out to teach someone a lesson, has not even learned the first lessons of living."

Anytime leadership does anything simply to prove a point, Leadership is wrong!

How your church treats people who have fallen, is a very clear indicator of your churches culture.

Sin should not be championed as in Corinth, nor should it be turned into a production as with this woman.

I have witnessed a few of these public executions and heard of others.

I heard of one, where a mother was forced to stand up and confess her sins publicly. Her teenage sons and her family learned about her transgression for the first time, there in this public setting.

The motive of the leadership was not repentance, restoration or healing. It was manipulation, coercion and humiliation.

The more you remember and exploit the failures of others, the more God remembers yours sins and the deadlier the church becomes.

4. Spiritual pride always precedes a culture of death.

The Jews became so pure they could not fellowship with anyone who was not an exact carbon copy of themselves.

"Only by pride cometh contentions".

When your saints cannot fellowship, "others of like precious faith" ...

When you cannot smile at or be kind to others, who seem to be wearing the exact same uniform...

It is deep seeded pride that requires people to remain at odds long after the original offense has been forgotten. Long held and maintained differences produce a culture of death first in the individual and than in the church as a whole.

An elite mind set ... where no one around you is as good or as holy as you , This is a culture of death.

I heard of one church where a few of the saints refered to themselves as the "Navy Seals" of Christianity.

"We are elite and everyone else is less than we are."

I am not sure how this meshes with,... " let everyone estemem others as better than themselves"

When we begin to compare ourselves among ourselves we have quit growing, striving and becoming.

Times of great spiritual hunger have always been marked by a "Woe is me" attitude as we see ourselves and our need for Gods help and mercy.

We equally acknowledge, "I need the help and mercy of my fellow believers."

This acknowledgement produces humility and a culture of life and revival.

Cultures of death are brought on by a mind set of, "we have arrived, we are better than others ... let us take our ease. "

The call for comfortable predictable church also produces a deadly church.

5. Your view of God and his involvement in your life.

If you think you can live anyway you want, and God does not care. You are in a deadly church.

"Every son that the Father recieveth he chastenth"

Chastening is correction not murder.

Do you think God is always angry and he is out to hurt you?

If you got this revelation from the ministry, you are in a very deadly church enviroment.

I know of a minister threatening a group of young people with the threat that "God was going to kill them if they didn't straighten up."

"Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

Jesus taught the parable of the wheat and the tares. The workers wanted to purge the field of the contaminating plants. Jesus said let them grow up together, " lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest:"

If Jesus was a murderer, this would of been a perfect time for his "righteous" anger to be on displayed. He had bought good seed, he had paid his workers to sow it

Jesus's answer ... "Let it grow up together."

God is not a murderer. If your pastor tell you He is, he is sick and the church is sicker.

When the prodigal left home, he was not threatened, cursed or rebuked.
Environments of death, make it impossible for the prodigal to ever return, find repentance, reunion or restoration.


If you are in a culture of death your greatest hope is in leaving and relocating into a church that has a culture of life.

In a perfect world we could find one church to join and remain loyal and connected for life. However in the real world, churches are born, they grow and unfortunately many decline and die.

In the Book of Revelations, we see seven churches which were born, rose to prominence, and eventually declined and died.

"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

God does call churches to repentance. And as with people if they repent, He will restore them to fellowship and animate them with a spirit of life.

But too often the culture is so full of death, your best option is to relocate to a place where life can be spoken into your world.

It was the angel of the church who was charged with the responsibility of changing the culture back from death to one of life.

If he (the pastor) cannot not change the culture, ... you need to move.

To be fair, I have known of pastors who could not change the culture, so they moved. Either way, life is too short and eternity is too certain to remain part of a deadly culture for long.


God will not stay no matter how loyal you are, and how pure your motives are for staying.

"I will remove thy candlestick out of it's place"

When God moves you should too!


Here are four reasons you should leave if you are concerned.

1. Our greatest loyalty is to Christ, even in environments of death He is calling you to newness of life.

2. Our second loyalty is to those who we are responsible in leading, Our wives and children.

3. Deadly churches are deadly.

They destroy marriages,

They destroy relationships.

Deadly churches demand you to avoid and disown those who you are the closest to.

They also destroy your relationship with God as spiritual pride, self righteousness, and un-forgiveness keeps him at arms length in your life.

Deadly churches destroy your confidence in God.
" without faith it is impossible to please God." Once your faith is gone, you soon begin to doubt your own experiences and beliefs.

Deadly churches destroy your confidence in the man of God.

It is best to leave while you still have your faith and confidence in God, his word, and his plan for your life.


4. Leaving a deadly church is not just the right thing to do, but it is our duty.

This is an uncomfortable decision, but often it is the only right decision.

As with all deadly churches you will be hated, despised and lied upon, which just proves you were right, they are of "a culture of death"


Finally:

In the beginning God spoke life into the chaos of darkness and created a culture of life.

He commanded everything that he created to reproduce and fill the earth.

A culture of life.

No matter how dark or chaotic your life is, Gods word can speak healing and life into your world.

If your church has a culture of death, or if it is dying. I encourage you to summons your strength to do what is right, just and honorable.

Shake off death, reach, grow, strive, become and ... Live!



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