EDITORIAL

ARTICLE
The article critiques hypocrisy, power abuse, and lack of
love in churches, urging leaders and members to focus
on unity, accountability, and guiding people toward
Christ rather than traditions. It calls for self-reflection
and a return to compassion and humility within the
church community. EUP
İT

E E WR

ED
İTİO
R
F N

CHURCH!
WHY ARE PEOPLE LEAVİNG YOU?

WHY ARE PEOPLE

LEAVİNG YOU?
CHURCH!

www.books.mercyb.com

MERCY BALOGUN

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 Church, Why Are People Leaving You?
This is a common question and
something that bothers me so much
and l hope this will change how we see
church and hopefully backslider will
slide back in. First l will like to define the
meaning of the word “Church“ when
you hear the word “ Church” What
comes to your mind ? Is it a building?
Perhaps the choir and the singing or
pastors or a place to wear your Sunday dress to and
mark register every Sunday? Or a place of sanctuary
and where you meet people of the same like minded?
Whatever your view or understanding of church. The
big question is “ How did God see His church?

The church is not a building . The church is me and you.

The people inside a building are the one worshiping
God , not the chairs or beautiful designs. You can
worship God in any building and called it a church . If l
write the word “ Church without letter “ U” it means U
are missing , so a church without u in it is meaningless .
So back to my question “ why people are leaving the
church ? We have already established that me and you
are the church. So why are we fighting one another ?
Why are we hurting each other to the extent that we
became enemies and yet we are in the same body of
Christ . I am not even talking about so many slander
and abuse of power from our leaders and pastors. I
have seen enough mess to make me want to wander
away from church .

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 I was once badly hurt and disappointed with the way l
was treated in a church and l decided to take time out
but kept my faith, but l thank God for restoring my
faith and give me a better understanding of what
church is all about. I never had any emotional scare till l
became a Christian. I was brought up to love, respect
and with confidence. I almost lost my identity because
I was confused about my identity in Christ and how to
balance it with my upbringing.

The church is a place where people from different

background and attitudes come together to worship
and we are all bound together with the blood of Jesus.
That is why we called each other brothers and sisters
because we all have one father . We are family and
family will fight each other but they can’t change the
fact that you are still related . We can disagree to
agree .As a member of God Family , you will have
misunderstandings and sometimes huge disagreement
but we are still one because body of Christ is not
divided. If your family or yourself is not perfect you
should not expect perfection from anybody.

The Bible says” Anyone who claims to be in the light

but hates a brother or Sister is still in the darkness.
Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the
light and there is nothing in them to make them
stumble. ( 1 John 2 vs 9-10) so you see, we are to love
one another in Christ.

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 I was once badly hurt and disappointed with the way l
was treated in a church and l decided to take time out
but kept my faith, but l thank God for restoring my
faith and give me a better understanding of what
church is all about. I never had any emotional scare till l
became a Christian. I was brought up to love, respect
and with confidence. I almost lost my identity because
I was confused about my identity in Christ and how to
balance it with my upbringing.

The church is a place where people from different

background and attitudes come together to worship
and we are all bound together with the blood of Jesus.
That is why we called each other brothers and sisters
because we all have one father . We are family and
family will fight each other but they can’t change the
fact that you are still related . We can disagree to
agree .As a member of God Family , you will have
misunderstandings and sometimes huge disagreement
but we are still one because body of Christ is not
divided. If your family or yourself is not perfect you
should not expect perfection from anybody.

The Bible says” Anyone who claims to be in the light

but hates a brother or Sister is still in the darkness.
Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the
light and there is nothing in them to make them
stumble. ( 1 John 2 vs 9-10) so you see, we are to love
one another in Christ.

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People have different expectations when they come to
church because no one prepares them. If you are not
expecting anything you can not be disappointed .
Church is like an hospital and different people are still
undergoing treatment and if you focus your attention
on people like that you can miss the purpose of why
you are in the church. I once read of a man that
complained to his pastor about people in his church
and he said he wanted to leave , so the pastor told him
to do one thing for him before he leave. He told the
man to hold a cup full of water and walked around with
it without splitting the water.

He took on the challenge and he was so focused that

he hardly see what others are doing and that is a great
lesson if you want to receive anything from God and
not be distracted. Let’s face it Jesus disciples are not
perfect.

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To mention the few, Jesus have Thomas the doubter
among his followers , Peter who talk before he thinks
and also denies Jesus , what about Judas who
betrayed Jesus unto death . He also have James son of
thunder later turned to Apostles of love.

So you see we are all work in progress .Having said all

this , is not an excuse for us to misrepresent our lord
Jesus . We are to work towards changing our attitude
and aiming to be like Jesus . No one spend time with
Jesus and remained the same . We cannot keep
sending people out of church with our behaviors and
we are comfortable with it . Church should be a place
of sanctuary where we can run to and find help , it
should not be a place where you are abused and all in
the name of God. Some pastors are so manipulating
and obsessed with power that they will change
people’s destiny because of control. We will spend so
many hours and days to win souls and within little time
we will send them away with our attitude. We run our
church like a private company and if we can’t have our
way we chase people out of church and we will hide
behind the scriptures to manipulates the situation . We
are too arrogant to apologize when we are wrong and
yet the bible say “ He hate pride” we controlled people
of God with the bible by twisting the word to back up
our bad attitude. I am always amused when l heard
leaders says “ l am only human and forgetting that to
whom a lot is given , a lot is required . We respect you
because of your office of honour and when you
misbehaved and abused your office you can’t take it
lightly.

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We love to compare the church to the way the
unbeliever run their company, but we don’t have the
same discipline. We have witness many head of
organization or government resigned because of
misconduct and yet our pastors will not be
accountable for what they did.

We should not talk because they are now God? Please

don’t misunderstand me , we should forgive one
another . But don’t act as if nothing was wrong . Don’t
take us for a fool. People are leaving at the church
because of behaviors like this. How can somebody in a
place of trust abused your children and it’s okay? How
can someone you trust so much betrayed your trust
and humiliated you? Our culture have taken the place
of God . No wonder the bible says our tradition has
made the word of God to be of no effect. Most of our
black churches are run by tradition . We do things that
have absolutely nothing to do with God . Our young
one this days are not comfortable in our churches
because they cannot relate and we lost them to the
world. It breaks my heart when l heard that most
children committing crimes now are once in our
churches and sadly they are pastors children. Two
examples of great leaders came to mind in the Bible. Eli
was a priest that had recognition and respect he
earned in public but did not extend to the handling of
his private affairs. He failed to discipline his sons or
correct them when they sinned and even when God
pointed out his son's errors and we all need to learn
from his mistakes. Parents need to discipline their
children responsibly (1 Samuel 3 vs 11-14).

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t's not really surprising that Samuel repeated the same
mess with his children too. He was raised by Eli and he
was the one that delivered the message to Eli and he
saw what happened to Eli as a result of not raising his
children in a godly way and yet he was unable to lead
his sons into a close relationship with God. If Samuel
sons follow his way, the Israelites would probably not
ask for a king. Sometimes pastors can be too busy
looking after everybody and neglecting their homes.
(1Samuel 8 vs 1-4).

Let’s wake up leaders and pastors. You are not in that

position to drive people out of church especially our
young ones. We need them to continue this race. We
need them to stop killing each other. All kind of
atrocities is going on around our children If they are in
Christ and not being bullied and controlled in the
church, maybe we will not be dealing with backsliders
now. Is it that difficult to show love and compassion to
people because we now have few people in our
churches. Most pastors are so humbled till they have
few members and money and at that point, no one can
talk to them anymore. The dangerous part of it is that
they are surrounded with yes yes people. They will
never tell them the truth and that can eventually leads
to destruction. I am not saying don’t disciplined , but
please do it out of love . I am so tired of seeing destiny
destroyed because of selfishness and power in the
wrong hand. We need to pray for our leaders and
pastors against the spirit of pride Our Jesus watched
the feet of his disciples , for me that is humbly and we
are to follow that.

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Can you imagine a top pastor humbled enough to do
that? It’s not even physically watching the feet l am
saying, for you to washed someone feet you have to
bend down and that is what l am talking about . No
wonder the bible say “ God resist the proud and He
give grace to the humble ( James 4 vs 6) Whose
church is it anyway ? Is it your church or the church of
God ? We have to be careful how we handle God’s
people because Christ redeem them, not you . Moses
did not enter the promise land because he was so
familiar with God that he forgot that God will not share
his glory with anyone. ( Numbers 20 vs 11).

He disobeyed God and put himself in the same place

with God. Sometimes we carry ourselves as if we know
God more than he know himself. We talked to people
of God as we please , just the way Moses spoke to the
people and God was not having it. We have to be very
careful so that we will get to the promise land.

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How can we spend so much time to catch a fish and we
used our hand to put it back in the water . It’s not easy
to win Soul for Christ and yet we do not value this souls
. We push them back to their old lives. Everything they
hate about the world is in the church. Some Christians
are even worse than an unbeliever. A place that was
meant to be a place of comfort have turned to a place
of torment and pain . Tis is not what God intends for his
bride the church.

Are we ready for the coming of Christ the groom

because he is coming very soon for his bride and right
now we are busy buying and selling in his house? We
are too much into religion but not relationship with him
. We are busy comparing the numbers of members and
how big our church building is . God is not interested in
our building and how many members we have, He is
interested in how many people will make Heaven. We
should not focus our energy on numbers but pay
special attention to the vulnerable souls God has given
you . Do not chase them away. Teach them the truth
and let the truth set them free.

We are in the last days and you don’t have to be a

Christian to know that. The signs is everywhere. Study
to show yourself approved. Do not be tossed around
with every doctrine . Aim to know Christ yourself . Stop
chasing after miracle and wonders. Stop being a prayer
collector. You can pray to God yourself. Prayers is
speaking to God and He want to hear from you and not
always depending on someone to speak for you.

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He love to hear from you because he cares. Don’t let
what others do to you in the name of Christ chase you
away from His love. Come back to your maker. All
churches are not the same . You can’t say because you
don’t like how you are treated in one hospital and
because of that when you are sick you will not go back
to the hospital. So you ask? Will l not go to Heaven
because l don’t go to church? Oh no, The bible says
”Let us consider how we may spur one another on
toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up
meeting together as some are in the habit of doing ,
but let us encourage one another and all the more as
you see the day approaching (Hebrews 10 vs 24-26).

Imagine if you are a footballer, you will need a team to

enjoy playing the football . You can’t say l am a
footballer but l play by myself. We need each other to
survive . Christian walk is not easy . We need to
encourage each other in love. If you have been hurt in
anyway by your brother or sister . Please forgive and
let go . I am not perfect because l am still work in
progress and l pray everyday that l will not be a
stumbling block to someone’s salvation . We are the
church someone will ever see. We find it difficult to
support each other. If a fellow believer falls, the first
person to criticize will be a Christian. We don’t help
one another and yet the Bible says ” when we dwell in
unity that is when God commands blessing (Psalm 133)
no wonder we are broke. I want to provoke our thinking.

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Since you have given your life to Christ, how many
charitable things have you done? What is your prayer
life like? Are you give me give me and a prayer
collector? Do you only pray for you, your family and
you? Is it just you and your selfie? Have you ever done
any exploit in his name or win any soul to the kingdom?
When was the last time you visited the hospital to pray
for the sick or the prison or feed the homeless?
(Matthew 25 vs 36) I once heard of a story of a
preacher preaching in a village about Jesus and one
villager lift up His hand and tell the preacher ” Jesus
used to live in our village. So that caught the preachers
attention, so he was curious and he asked the man
where exactly in the village Jesus used to live? The
man took him to a burial ground where a missionary
was buried. He told the preacher that everything he
was saying about Jesus reminded him of that
missionary. The question is this? Are you like your
father in heaven? Can someone say you remind them
of Jesus or they are shocked that you are a Christian?

I remember many years ago when l was a little girl l was

playing outside with my friends, but far from home and
one man came to me and ask me to take him to my
house, he said l looked so much like my father but he
doesn’t know our address. He was so convinced that l
am his niece. Do we resemble Jesus so much that
people will say to us to take them to the house of God.
Our lives should lead people to Christ. The Bible says
”whoever says, l know him, but does not do what he
commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

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But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly
made complete in them. This is how we know we are in
him whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus
did” (1 John 2 vs 6).

If whatever l am doing is not leading anyone to Christ, l

am wasting my time. Some of us have blended so much
with the world with the way we speak, our dressing and
our attitude that no one will believe you have ever
heard of Jesus, not alone gave your life. I have seen
some shocking pictures of so-called born-again
Christian on the social network. Half of the breast is
out and you are almost naked and even our
conversation did not reflect our faith and we wonder
why the world is not taking us seriously. We have so
many actors and actresses in our churches. We know
how to play the role of a believer on Sundays and we
are someone different on any other day. Maybe we
thought the rapture will come on Sunday.

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I am not pointing fingers at anyone, l pray to God all the
time to help me to represent him well. Is not by might
nor by power, but my spirit says the lord. I don’t want
to bring reproach to his name. We all need his grace to
stand upright in this generation. In the book of Luke 1
vs 9-13, Jesus told us a parable of two men who went
up to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed” God l thank
you that l am not like other people -robbers, evildoers,
adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a
week and l give a tenth of all l get. But the tax
collectors stood at a distance. He would not even look
up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ”God, have
mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus said that this man went
home justified before God. For all those who exalt
themselves will be humbled and those who humble
themselves will be exalted. I was speaking to someone
the other day that Jesus is coming soon and hope it’s
very soon because Jesus asked ” when the son of man
comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 1 vs 8) It’s a
very good question we need to ask ourselves. Am l still
in faith? Are you still in faith? Maybe we have allowed
the pressures of lives to affect our love for Christ?

We allowed offences to take us away from the

presence of God. We blame everyone and everything
but ourselves. I want you to search your heart right
now. Be real with yourself. Are you still a believer or a
church goer? Do you still go to church to fulfil all
righteousness and you are harboring pain and hurt in
your heart? Are you ready for the coming of Christ?

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 If you are a pastor of a church, l want you to be real
with yourself, maybe it’s time to step back and really
search yourself to know why people are leaving your
church. Do you have an attitude that you need to deal
with? It is easy to point fingers but the change will not
come until we change first. Nobody is perfect and you
are accountable for the souls in your church.

Jesus said in the book of John 17 vs 12” l kept all my

disciple saved except the one who was destined for
destruction so that Scripture will be fulfilled” how
many pastors can say that this day? Can you honestly
say you did all you can to protect the precious souls
God has given to you. We spend so much time and
money on our conferences to win souls and yet we can
not nurture the one we have already. We keep looking
for a perfect church and yet we are not perfect. If you
are in a church and you can see what is missing, stop
criticizing and do something about it. If you claim to be
a child of God and you are in your father’s house and
you can see what is not right, will you not fix it?

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When Jesus saw people buying and selling in the
temple, what did he do? He certainly didn’t pray for
them or bless them either. He took ownership and sent
them out of the temple( John 2 vs 15) we have too
many buying and selling in our churches and definitely
money changer. Most churches this day are about
money and nothing else matters. May God help us. We
are always waiting for somebody to do something, the
truth is you are that somebody. It’s time for you to take
care of your father’s business.

SELF-REFLECTION
What is your understanding of the church? Do you
have any bad experience as a Christian?

Do you still believe or you are just going with the

flow? Be real

As a leader, are you leading people to yourself or to

Christ?

Are you part of the problem in the body of Christ or

a solution ?

Why are you saved ? Saved from what ? How did

you feel right now in your walk with God? Please be
real

So many propaganda around Christianity, how do

feel about that? Does it make you doubt the
existence of God?

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 Do you believe we are at the end time? Do you still
believe in the coming of Jesus Christ? Do you
believe heaven and hell is real?

If you die today, where will you go? As a true

Christian, that should be our ultimate goal.

Don’t be distracted with all the noises and distraction

around Christianity. What if you think hell is not real
and is real, by then it will be too late. Do you seriously
want to risk it? You have nothing to lose but heaven to
gain. A word is enough for the wise.

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