Why You Must Choose A Church Wisely - 100 Dod - Day 86 by Apostle Emmanuel Iren: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Church Is the Primary School of Discipleship

When you go through the strict biblical narrative, you don't see any provision for special Bible schools. The church of Jesus Christ is the pillar and ground of truth, and the church of Jesus Christ should be sufficient for all things — theology, development, and discipleship. If you need a Bible school to learn the basics of church doctrine and Christian living, something is wrong with your church.

There is a tendency toward an individualistic perspective on spiritual growth. We do not understand that there is such a thing as spiritual trauma. The same way some people had to be adults at nine or ten, fighting to survive, fending for themselves — that kind of dysfunction creates adults who want to figure out everything alone, who will never say what they're going through, but who are disappointed when people don't intuitively know. Many believers have carried this into their spiritual lives.

A lot of people do not even know what it means to attend a good church. They are not being blessed and they think it is normal. They are not moved by the worship. They constantly have to filter the theology. If your spiritual development cannot be traced in any meaningful way to the church you attend — if you had to study on your own to understand the gospel, on your own to learn how to pray, entirely independent of where you worship — that is not normal.

The single most important thing God can do for you to help you grow is to give you a church and a leadership that can continue with you for your progress and joy of faith.

Two Extremes to Avoid

1. Leaving for Flimsy Reasons

   A lot of people have turned church attendance into a popularity contest — following whoever is trending, whose video has the most recent views. That has reduced spiritual discipleship to a spectacle.

   If you are growing where you are, if the word of God is being taught faithfully, and if you have spiritual conviction to be there — stay. The Bible says God promised: "I will give you pastors after my heart." There is a reason they are called ministry gifts. There is a supernatural dimension to how God places you in a particular ministry. You cannot treat it carelessly. Those who commit when there is nothing impressive to see — when the equipment is basic, when the building is ordinary, when only love for Jesus is evident — those are the ones who truly understand what the church is for.

   Don't be the person who is always jumping from one place to the next, always looking for the next excitement. It may even be the same pattern that is affecting your relationships.

2. Staying for Sentimental Reasons When God Has Spoken Otherwise

   There are people who have turned church into a social association. Some have even had a clear word from God — through multiple converging signs — about where they should be worshiping, and they are ignoring it. Theological disagreement on fundamentals (not superficials), lack of blessing and growth, and a clear direction from God are not small things.

   Your destiny will be waiting for you in the place God has pointed you to. Some of you are supposed to meet key people there, to be trained for a ministry that is coming, to encounter a life partner. By missing any piece of what you are convinced to be the will of God for your life, there is a dangerous ripple effect. Sentimental disobedience has consequences.

Practical Guidance

• Attend a church where you agree theologically — at least on the fundamentals. Do not sit under teaching that constantly has to be filtered at the doctrinal level.
• Don't divide other people's houses. Enthusiasm for a different ministry can, sometimes unintentionally, create disruption in where others are planted. Go where you are fed without undermining where others belong.
• Pray about where you attend church. Some have prayed earnestly for a future partner but have never once prayed about which church to attend. These things are connected.

It all begins with discerning what God has given to you. Find that place, commit to it, and stay the course.