Your Reason For Not Attending Church

Lynx,
are you off your meds???

How then do u claim 2 b Christian? We are commanded to come OUT of the world.

lucky

majority of sermons ((in my experience)) are 30 min or less & could have been condensed to 15. whole services typically last 1 hour, with half of it being music, announcements and collecting money.

to me, obviously, this is no way to be 'fed' or 'discipled' adequately. especially when also those sermons are usually cookie-cutter bullet-points the pastor got from a preaching listserver and are aimed squarely at the lowest-common-denominator in the congregation. an actual teacher behind a pulpit is extraordinarily difficult to find, and one that's willing to teach from that dais as though he's not speaking to babes the whole time, harder still.

there's a lot to be said for smaller-group Bible studies outside of what i like to call 'the sunday morning big show' -- but the really disheartening thing is that when churches do have such opportunities, only a very small % of the people that nominally 'attend' the church are ever willing to take part in them. all most of the people in the pews want is 1 hour a week of smiling and nodding and being cordial to relative strangers on their way out the door, and many churches cater to that.

if you want more than this, that sadly puts you in a shrinking minority, i'm afraid.
if you have more than this -- blessed

A while ago I heard a woman sharing her story on the Focus on the Family radio program... she was talking about going to church and finding her place with an autistic son who was, to say the least, an unmanageable handful. He did not care for the service but liked the "after church" === the tea time and people milling about, so that is what this mom did- skipped the service and showed up with her son for the social part afterwards. Her son discovered that chairs needed putting away, which he was willing to do, and he was then asked to be a helper in that capacity, which eventually led to him becoming a greeter, and then someone who worked in the sound booth, where his love of music was a sight to behold LOL... Long story short, this church embraced her and her son: not everybody did all at once, for some people need time to come around to how we are all different... but she and her son both found their place there, and joy, and love, as well. Perhaps churches like this are rare, but they do exist. I pray you find such a one, and do not give up The mom wrote a book about her experiences, called Dancing With Max. Here (<- click!) is a Focus on the Family page with links to stories concerning autism. I found this book also:

View attachment 209187

I learned long ago that if somebody wants to believe something bad enough, he will find reasons to believe it. It's hopeless trying to argue with him.

I learned long ago there are a LOT of people who will argue a lot to defend what they want to believe. It's even more hopeless to try to argue with all of them.

All that is left is pointing out how blatantly illogical the most ludicrous arguments are... mostly for entertainment. Nobody's going to change anybody's mind, so I might as well have a bit of fun with it.

================================================
this answer is really quite sad - many are just pointing out their own experiences with the churches they have attended over
many years while trying to find one that is vaguely Biblical - we've done the same 'church-hunt' and came up with
'a wild-goose-chase' - this is not being critical, just sharing, no need to take it personal, as we are extremely happy for those
who have found TRUE FELLOWSHIP in this fallen-world...not saying that we 'haven't found True Fellowship, we have done so,
but over these many decades, it has been very rare and few and far in-between...
as it is written:
MATT. 24:5.
For many shall come in My Name, saying, I Am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Post and a few others have a clear and realistic understanding of today's 'traditional-christianity'...
again,
not judging or arguing, just pointing out and sharing personal experiences,
as many in here do daily, it's part of a Christian's 'job and to be take seriously, not for fun or for any
self-serving-reason...

I was watching a woman on YouTube recently who was announcing that she would no longer be attending church because she isn't pleased with certain things that were taking place in them.

In reading through the comments, I came across one that I found really interesting.

"Church: the only place in the world where people leave because of hurt.

Work: the only place in the world where people stay no matter what hurts they go through"

For those who have stopped going to church, I would like to hear your views on this along with scripture reference that supports your decision for not going.

If one church is not operating according to God's standard, wouldn't it make sense to find another church to attend rather than giving up on going altogether?

And most of the people flee once the sermon has finished, a mass exodus out of the carpark.

the key has been for us, after looking a 'lot', is 'not to look, but be still and be led'...