What is church to you?

What is church to you?

About a month ago the Lord asked me to write this post and when January rolled around I had so many people ask me questions about church in general that I realize why He asked me to write this.

Who is this for?  Everyone who may be a little confused about what church to attend, who gets the tithe, who gets the donations, etc.  Or you’ve found yourself in a transitional “not so perfect” scenario where church is concerned, and you need a little guidance.

I’m going to use my own journey through church to explain this to you as this is how the Lord told me to present it so that somewhere in my story you are going to get the message as to what is right for you.  After you read all of this you then need to read the book of Acts, which is the formation of the church and look for specific things and take some notes:

What makes up a church?  The different ways in which you can serve in a church/the service component. What does the church actually do?  You can get all of this from reading Acts.  As long as you have all of this in your life, then you are a part of a church.  It just may not look like what we traditionally say it should look like.

First, I grew up Catholic/Anglican.  Saying this so that you know the background I came from.

The White Picket Fence Church

This is where I got saved.  It was also a conservative church – Presbyterian (PCA).  It matched me and my personality perfectly.  We had the same spiritual DNA.  There was a dynamic group of pastors.  The ministries were built out properly.  There was discipleship and growth.  They encouraged us to use our gifts.  The people in the church were awesome.  I had an incredible group of friends that I hung out with.  It was as perfect.  Because it was conservative there was no talk of the gifts of the spirit and anything to do with that.  The sermons were more exegesis of the scriptures.  Preaching the logos word of God in a well-balanced manner, meaning that every subject was covered because every book of the bible was covered.  This means that at some point the sermon is going to step on your toes.  He would talk about every hot button topic in society and show you how to make sense of it using the scriptures.  The church was an evangelistic type of church because the pastor’s main gift was evangelism.  Therefore, everybody that went to that church was taught how to evangelize someone and lead them to Christ.  I’ve never seen this anywhere else in my journey.  I believe this is something we should all aspire to do.  As the word says…

2 Timothy 4:5

But you, be sober in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fully carry out your ministry.

This just means that no matter what kind of ministry you have, it is not fully doing the work of the Lord until you “do the work of the evangelist” and people are getting saved.  That is how you fully carry out your ministry. Otherwise, you are not doing it right.

When I hear people say this church is spirit-filled and that church is not, the truth is that all churches are spirit filled it’s just that the spirit of God manifests Himself differently in each church and denomination.  It may not be your cup of tea but that doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit is not there.  All you need to do is read their statement of faith to make sure their beliefs align with yours and it’s not a cult.

A few years after being saved the Lord would tell me different things He wanted me to learn about and I would have to go elsewhere to learn it because it wasn’t being taught there.  Did I leave the church?  No.  God didn’t tell me to leave, He just told me to go find out about a particular subject.  As an example, He highlighted that I needed to learn about healing.  This wasn’t taught there because their theology is that if God wants to heal, he’ll heal you.  They wouldn’t even spend much time praying for anyone for healing because they believe God would do it without you praying for it.  I do not believe that so, I went and did a “healing school” somewhere else and learnt about it but remained at my church.  Then He told me that I needed to be baptized by emersion.  They don’t believe that at this church, they believed that once one of your parents was a Christian when you were dedicated as a baby you didn’t need to be rebaptized.  And if they weren’t Christian, then you would be baptized and they did that by sprinkling water on your forehead.  So even though I was a ministry leader in that church, after 4 years of being saved, I went to another church got my baptism by emersion and then continued in the same church without telling anyone that I did that.

Why am I telling you this?  At some point, even in the white picket fence kind of church you are going to disagree with something they are teaching or saying.  You need to obey the Lord. There’s no church that is going to line up 100% of the time with what you believe or even what God is saying to you personally.  It doesn’t exist.  So, do not run here and there looking for that because you’ll just keep getting disappointed.  As long as what they are teaching is not heretical and sending people to hell, or abusive behavior that destroying people’s lives, or full of witches that are destroying your life…then you won’t ever find a church that matches every single point that’s important to you.

The pastors are going to preach based on their gifting and anointings, and their doctrinal belief and sometimes those things are not going to align with you.  You still need to respect their authority and submit to that while you are at their church.  If you can’t submit to it, leave.  And then get ready to find something wrong over at the next church because that’s not perfect either.

The one thing I always look for in a church to decide if I am going to stay there or give them my money is if people are getting saved.  Here it the last thing that came out of Jesus’ mouth to the disciples…

Matthew 28:18-20

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I’m sure you never forget the last thing someone says to you before they leave.  This is important to the Lord so he said it last.

And it’s not that God doesn’t want you to have a large air-conditioned sanctuary and fancy coffee, it’s just that if comfort becomes the priority in your church over winning souls, there’s a problem there.

Back to the journey, I also supported 2 other ministries alongside this one because I was listening to their podcasts to and from work and they really helped me.  We’ll call them Ministry A and B.  Then in my later years at this church when God was really impressing upon my heart to learn more about the gifts of the spirit (charismatic gifts), I found another ministry (Ministry C) that was instrumental in my growth in this area.

What the giving looked like?

The church – I tithe here (10%).  I set it up on autopay because I had a regular stable income that didn’t change.  I also served at this church and was growing at this church.

Ministry A  – I was giving them regular donations because they were helping me to grow really well too just from listening to their radio programs.  I set this up for autopay too.

Ministry B – random donations here and there.

Ministry C – I gave them more in donations because they were instrumental in me transitioning from a conservative background into where God was leading me in my ministry.

The Transitional Church

The Lord then moved me from the city where I was living to another city far away so I could no longer attend my original church.  I really wasn’t sad about leaving because I knew that I had outgrown the church and I needed to move to my next stop. Now I am in a transition/in between churches.  I would visit a different church every weekend looking for the right church and one that fit me.  I was looking for a place that was more charismatic, but not crazy!  LOL  I can’t explain it any better than that.  Charismatic mixed with conservative.

I took me about 5 months to find this the place that fit so in between churches here is what the giving looked like:

Ministry C – I tithe here (10%) for 5 months while I was looking for a home church.  Because I was growing a lot from this place even though I had never been there it was all online but it just seemed like everything God was telling me, God was saying to them. So I knew we shared the same “spiritual DNA”.  I was learning in this place, and they really helped me get through some challenging times.  It was like every message was the one I needed to hear and God was speaking to me directly through them. This was my church even though I never met these people in person and I never went to their church.

Ministry A  – random donations.

Ministry B – stopped donating, for no other reason that I outgrew that and God was moving me elsewhere.

The Transitional Church (Part B)

This is the church that I found in the new city where I was living.  I had to drive 45 minutes to this church so it wasn’t like it was convenient but I gladly did it because this was a great church. Sometimes you may have to travel some distance for the right place and believe me it will be worth it. They were really a white picket fence church, it’s just that I call it a transitional church because this is where I finally got to a church that was conservative but at the same time charismatic, but not crazy!  They said it was non-denominational but the pastor is COGIC.

I loved this place.  I learnt a lot and I grew a lot here. I served here.

When it was time for me to leave here, because God moved me, I was sad because I really loved this church.

What did the giving look like:

The church – I gave the tithe (10%)

Ministry A – stopped giving because I just fully transitioned away from this place in my life.

Ministry C – gave regular donations, set them up on autopay because they were really feeding me.

 

The Pit Stop Church

Here’s where it gets interesting.  I moved again into another city and so I was looking for a new church.  So I go back to giving the tithe to Ministry C, and they are like my church online, while I look for an actual church to attend in person.

I found one within couple months.  I like the church.  I like the pastor and his wife.  The people seemed ok. Everything looks good on the outside.  For some reason when I went to switch tithe over to them and give the donation to Ministry C, it bothered me.  I had this battle within myself about tithing to them.  If you ask me why at that moment, I couldn’t tell you why.

Anyway, I overrode my “feelings” and tithe to them anyway because “according to what we are told” the tithe is to go to your home church.  So, I give them the 10% grudgingly and go back to giving Ministry C a donation on autopay every month.

After 4 months of going to this church one morning as I was leaving for church the Lord said to me “you’re going to give $100 dollars at church today” I start wrestling internally, $100, why am I giving them $100?  I’m already tithing to them.  I realized that I didn’t want to give them one penny more.  When I got to the church, they had a guest musician, and this man was so anointed.  I knew right then the $100 was actually for him and not the church.  I gave him the money plus I bought all his CDs.

When I got home and thought about what happened I realized I don’t have a problem giving the money, and even more than I was told to give.  I had a problem giving the money to THIS church.  So, immediately I made a switch.

Here’s what the giving looked like:

The church – random donations.  No rhyme or reason for the amount I was giving.  It was just what I felt like giving that Sunday.  All in cash never received a tax deduction receipt, and I was fine with that.  I know, very weird.

Ministry C – 10% tithe

Ministry D – a donation (this was a new one that I felt was the next direction the Lord was taking me)

Now, back then if you asked me why I did do that I could not give you an explanation for it.  Because it went against everything that we are taught.  The church you attend is to get the tithe and any other ministry gets the donation.  I had NO PEACE about my giving following that rule.  When I flipped it and gave Ministry C the tithe and then gave the church a donation, I had peace.  I know, some of you are probably upset reading this but I’m just being honest with you about what was happening and I’m about to tell you why.  I stopped wrestling internally when I made the switch.

I didn’t serve in the church.  I would just go, sit, enjoy the encouraging messages and tithe.  But, I wasn’t serving there.  I served at MOP but I wasn’t serving at the church that I was attending.

Why is that?  Well, notice the title “pit stop church” I just had to find the right words to describe this. Sometimes in life we get into a spot where things happened along the way and you are hurt, wounded, and you need to heal from things that happened to you.  God will pull you off to the side and work on you.  Have you ever been to a church and you can just feel that the pastor is hurt or the wife is hurt and both of them as just bleeding all over the congregation?  They really need to take a step back and go get healed.

When you preach a message out of woundedness or unresolved issues that is not good because you can’t properly lead people if you are still struggling in that area.  Otherwise, people will be led astray. You are wandering in the wilderness of that place and now you pull the entire congregation to wander along with you in the wilderness of that place.  If you’re not healed from it, don’t preach it, don’t teach it.  Preach something else, talk about something else, just not that subject.

Notice who led the Israelites into the promise land, the two who actually went to the promise land and came back (Joshua and Caleb). They already went to the promise land and knew the way in and out of there. They had complete knowledge of the journey start to finish. Not Moses, because he never got to the other side.

When you safely navigate through the hurt and pain, then you can talk about it because you can then teach people how to get to the other side of that same experience.

This is when God pulls you into the pit stop church or ministry.  You are not meant to stay there.  This is just the place you go for healing, to be restored, rest up so that you can continue the journey.  This really is not your home church.

Pit Stop as in Nascar Racing.  At some point in your walk you will be one of these cars and you will need to identify when you need to pull over, gas up, change your tires (because you are worn out) before you move forward.  Before you Watch this video, turn on your spiritual ears and catch the spiritual significance of what the commentators are saying regarding how each person was coming into the pit stops.

 

If you are in a pit stop church, God did not intend for you to stay there.  You were supposed to get healed in the place (spiritual, mental, emotional) and then move on. This is not your home church.  And if you wait too long before you pull into this place, you are going delay your progress, and you will need to back up.

What was I getting from the pit stop church I was encouragement.  I needed it badly at that point in my life.  I sat there for 2.5 years, eating these cotton candy messages and it felt quite good.  I would just walk in, sit, feed on the M&Ms this week, next week it was hard candy, the following week it was Kit Kat bar, next week Snickers bar, LOL  It was great!  Nothing but cotton candy!  There was no growth happening in this church.  It was just one big ole candy fest! LOL  I got so much cavities I didn’t know what to do with myself.  The sugar high was off the chain!

Here’s how the candy messages sound…

You’re good and God is going to bless you today. You don’t need to do anything God is going to bless you.  You don’t need no repentance, God is going to bless you.  You are the blessed of the Lord nothing bad will ever happen to you.  No one’s getting saved but it’s ok look at these amazing thanksgiving baskets.  Did I tell you you’re awesome today?  It’s your day for breakthrough, but no instructions on anything.  Repentance?  That’s a dirty judgmental word.  Christ died for your sins no need to repent for anything, ever. You’re good.  God loves ya! Keeping on racking up those credit card bills because there’s wealth transfer coming and God’s going to pay off all those bills for you.  Cause He loves ya and He’s in the debt cancellation business, you don’t need to change a thing! Here’s a prophetic word and you’re getting it regardless of what you are doing in your life…because you’re special.  Everybody gets a trophy because you’re a child of God.  You’re special!  Have another chocolate bar…hmm hmm it just makes me feel so good!

I just felt so good!  Thank you for the awesome message today pastor.  And the worship was awesome too! Now I will go and wait for the breakthrough that is coming to my house today.  Oh, what was that? I need to “sow into that message” or it won’t happen for me, no need to repent for anything?  just poof! like magical fairy dust after giving money, I’m just going to get it.  Oh ok, here’s my money in lieu of repentance!  Candyland.

You go into the church, and you feel really good when you go to the church because everything is just about encouragement.  But if you don’t pay careful attention, you don’t realize that you’re not growing, only being encouraged.  Candyland.

Just as a child will not grow properly if you only feed them candy, you won’t be growing if you only consume Candyland messages. This is not the complete word of God. The people who sit under this type of church become spiritually weak – malnourished and anemic – they are not able to withstand the storms of life.  I’m not even telling you to leave this church.  I just want you to know where you are so that you can make up the deficiency.

The second meaning of the pit stop church is that you are in a pit in your life.

You see here’s what happens when you’re in the pit, you can’t really see clearly.  You’re not yourself.  I’m there wounded and I need healing so I can’t see that these people have a problem.  Because I have a problem too.

Here’s some advice for you if you find yourself in a pit in your church life, business life or personal life.  It is the worse time to form any type of long-term relationships or make major business decisions.  You’re in a pit and so are they.  If you form any long-term relationships while you are in the place what you will find is that when you get out of the pit, you may end up looking at these people and think “what in the world was I thinking?”  Well, you weren’t.

You give away 70% of your company because you’re in a financial pit and someone dangled some money in front of your face.  Once you get financially whole again you regret that decision. Some people can get out of the pit with you.  But some people just live there.

How to identify if you are in a pit stop church is easy…

Are you growing in that church or not?  Yes or No. 

This is not to be confused with I used to grow here but not anymore.  That just means you’ve outgrown that spot.  A church that is a pit stop you will find that you never grew.  No matter how long you stayed there, how you entered is how you left!

If all you can say every Sunday is “that was such a good sermon or preach it” but when you look at your own life, there is no growth? Something is missing from there and that is what I need you to see.

So then it becomes a 2-fold thing – a pit stop that is so and you are there on purpose to heal, this doesn’t mean there is a problem with the church.  Then you can have a pit stop where everybody in that church is in a pit and not growing and don’t even realize they are in a pit.  It’s just a bunch of messages to make you feel good, but no one is growing.

I am always concerned when someone sends a prayer request listing a whole list of problems in their life and then end it with this request “and pray for me to find a wife”.  That is the last thing you need right now.  The. Last. Thing.  What you need is a place where you can sort out some of those problems before you bring someone else into it. No major life changing decisions while you’re in this place.  Get out of that pit first.

Imagine a glass with water in it, when you are in the pit the glass is not full which means you need to pull over and let the Lord work on you.  Put some gas in the car (Holy Spirit) and change those tires (because you’re worn out) The emptier the glass is the more desperate and needy you are. And you are likely to make some bad choices because you are so desperate that you accept anything, you just need someone anyone to pour into your glass.  It doesn’t matter that the water they are pouring into you is contaminated because you don’t even know what contamination is because you have nothing to compare it to because your own glass is empty.

Now as you begin to let the Lord work on you in that pit stop the glass gets fuller as you go along.  You have to be disciplined enough to let the Lord complete the work because all along this journey you are going to meet people, but you need to recognize when you’re not ready, so you need to finish getting your glass full before you make any major decisions.  And, I’m not saying wait for perfection, but I believe we all know when we’re full.  How do you know?  You’re not desperate.

Here’s what happens when you just be patient and let God do His work, by the time the glass gets to almost being full, you become very selective.  You don’t just accept anybody.  You won’t just accept any contract or business deal. Because you’re full!  You’re not going to accept contamination because you got pure water.  Holy Ghost filled you up!!!  You have something to compare it to, what is inside of you compared to what is inside of them.  So not just anybody can pour into you.  It’s way harder for you to pick up counterfeits when you are full.  You’re selective not desperate in your personal friendship, business relationships, ministry partners and whoever you select for a life partner…because you’re full.  All that person does when they come is add to you and bring the glass to overflow.  They’re not giving you anything because you already got it!  They are literally just “topping you off” because the glass is already full.

It is not their job to make you whole.

That’s the job for the Father, the Son & the Holy Ghost.

So here’s how I left that church…

After the 2+ years had passed and I was completely healed and God was ready to move me back on to the racetrack, it was like a switch flipped on inside me and I was ready to serve again.

Yeah, like overnight I went from sitting on the sidelines to “it’s time to serve”. I go to register to serve, I tried it on my cell phone error message, I tried it on my IPad error message, I went home tried it on the desktop computer error messages.  I must’ve tried it at least 6 times filled out the entire form but when I clicked submit it wasn’t going through.  Well, you know these things happen, so I sent an email to them that I was having trouble getting it done, no response.

Then I went to church that Sunday, and I spoke to someone at the information desk they said “that’s weird because no one else is having a problem”.  Hmmm. They hand me their Ipad which someone just finished using to sign up.  I fill out the form on the same Ipad and …..error message.  The lady takes it out of my hand, stands there asks me the questions, she fills it out…..error message.  She said let me grab someone else’s Ipad, I said NO.  It’s OK, I will come back. Because at that point, it was abundantly clear to me God was not allowing me to serve there.  It’s just not happening.  And, I’m not saying you can’t have glitches in technology but not like this.

So I left and I went home and prayed asking the Lord what’s going on because obviously something is going on with the church and I just can’t see it.

Side note and backing up a bit, when my daughter started to learn percentages in school one of the first thing, I taught her was how to calculate the tithe.  You know, you gotta teach them young.  So she would calculate how much she had to give and she had her little purse that she would take to kids church and pay her tithes.  I would then see her bringing extra money beyond that and I would tell her that it’s not necessary since she already paid her tithes.  She said she wanted to do it anyway, so I let her do what she felt led to do.  Over the months I noticed that she stopped taking her purse to church.  I asked her about it and she told me that she just didn’t want to carry it around anymore.  I said ok and that was that.

The week after I couldn’t sign up at the church to volunteer, I was dropping her off at kids church and the door to their sanctuary is one that is very heavy, soundproof and automatically closes.  It was closing really slowly on this day so I could actually hear what the pastor was saying to the kids…

They had competition going on and the kids were split in teams by colors – red, purple, blue, yellow.  The competition was which group could give the most money.  Everybody on the team needed to give money and whoever had the most money would win a prize.  So they went from kid to kid individually asking what you have to give today. Individually asked each child. Just imagine sitting in church and your pastor went person to person announcing how much you are giving.

I WAS LIVID.

Tithing is a competition? If you give the most money you win?  This is what they were teaching the children.  I couldn’t even think straight.  It was like my mind went blank.

Here’s what she told me was happening, whatever team she was on when they got to the kid who had no money, she felt bad for them so she would open her purse and give the kid money so they wouldn’t feel bad about being the only one with no money.  It got so bad that they all expected her to pay their tithes every week! Yeah.  Kids church.

It defeats the purpose of tithing.  You can’t pay someone else’s tithe.  A tithe is 10% of your own income.  Where is this twisted message coming from?  Mammon.

Now you understand why I couldn’t give them the tithe.  I knew in my spirit that something was up and it had to do with money, but I couldn’t figure out where the problem was because over in the main sanctuary that message was not being preached so I couldn’t see it or hear it.  It was happening in the kids church.

My spirit man was like “nope”, but my natural mind and ears was like “I don’t see why not”.  I was following the peace of God with my giving. Be at peace when you give and if you don’t have peace, don’t do it.

Why am I telling you this?  Follow your spirit.  Even if you have no clue why you are doing what you are doing. Eventually God will show you why.  Hence, no major decisions or forming alliances or long-term relationships while you’re at the pit stop.  You’re working on yourself, and you may not end up staying in that place.

That was our last day at that church.

2 Corinthians 9:7

“You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”

I want you to know that this place served its purpose in my life.  I needed this at a low point in my life and I got it.  God did use them to help me.  However, once I was in a better place what I was trying to do is make them my permanent church home and it was at that point the Lord blocked me from connecting to them.  He knew that I needed to hear what was going on in the kids church to leave and never go back there.  He could’ve let me here that on the first day I arrived, but He didn’t. Why?  I really did need to sit on the sidelines and get my tires changed and gas up.  This was a necessary part of my process.

After Ieft I said to myself “why did you stay there so long without realizing there was a problem”.  It was at that point that I saw that the church that I was going to was not really my church.  My church was Ministry C, and then D later on.  I didn’t see that there was a deficiency because I was getting fed elsewhere and I was growing elsewhere.  So, my church wasn’t really my church. Even though I was walking into a building every Sunday, Ministry C was really my church which is why I had peace giving them the tithe.  Hope you understanding it now.  If I didn’t have Ministry C and D, I would’ve picked up on it much quicker because the deficiency would’ve been evident with them standing alone.

Some of you may need to separate the church you’re attending mentally from the places you visit online and really look at what you’re getting from there to realize what you really have and truly identify where you are being fed.

I know this flies in the face of everything we have been told but I want you to know that back in the days of the bible there was no internet.  So when you went to the temple, you’re in the temple and that was it. Now, things are different.  You’ve got so much available to you online that you can actually walk into one building on a Sunday to serve and go to church elsewhere online.

---

I’ve said all of this to let you know one thing, not everybody will find a white picket fence church. White Picket Fence aka the perfect church – dad, mom, 2.5 kids and a dog with a beautiful house with a white picket fence around it.

Some of us – single dad, 2 kids, no animals, paying rent.  It’s not the picture perfect but that’s your life right now and you hope one day you get to experience the perfect picture.

Your church scenario right now may not be picture perfect especially if you are going through a transition.  Sometimes you have to build out your white picket fence which will be comprised of different ministries and churches.  You just need to make sure that you are getting what you need by putting things together to make it work for you.

I stayed at the pit stop church for that long because I was getting fed and growing from two different places Ministry C and D and I was serving at MOP.  So I was growing, I just wasn’t growing in that church.

So, when you look at your church life you need to make sure that these things are being met:

Where are you learning, growing, being prune and seeing the most improvements in your life?  That is actually your church.  And, it doesn’t have to be that building you’re walking into every Sunday.

Then you need a place to serve.  A place to give back. Could be your own community work that doesn’t even have anything to do with a church.

Then you need community.  A place to go for support and the fellowship with others.

Then you need to get the word of God into you and you need prayer.  To remain filled.  You have to keep filling up.  Studying the word.  This could be a bible study and you reading the word on your own at home.

Then you need worship and praise, getting into God’s presence.  And you can do this on your own too if you are a disciplined person.  This is why we do the waiting on the Lord sessions.  To teach you the disciple of just worshiping and being still with God.

You can get all of these from the same place (white picket fence church) or sometimes depending on what’s going on in your life you may get this from different places, this is what I mean by building your own white picket fence church.

If you work on a Sunday and a Saturday, it means you will never have a “regular church” experience because while everyone else is at church you are working.

If you are a busy executive and you travel alot for work, then you can’t serve in a church like other people so you may have a season when your service is simply giving money to the church. Your service is giving.  It’s not going to look like how others serve.

If you have a health condition and you are a shut-in, then your church life is primarily going to be online.  You’ll have to build your white picket fence online.

One person I spoke to didn’t know what to do because she lived in a village and every local church was overrun by witches and jezebels. She doesn’t drive so she couldn’t go further than what was local.  Do you think I’m going to tell her to go to church anyway to fit some kind of societal norm?  No!  Did you ever see Elijah communing with Jezebel?  You’re not going into that church. Stay home and go online until God changes the situation.  Your tithe should go to that ministry online that’s feeding you not into a church that’s being run by Jezebel just to say you’re “going to church”.

When covid hit, did you all stop going to church?  No, you didn’t.  You just didn’t go into a building.  I’m pretty sure you attended Bedside Baptist or Living Room Lutheran, what suffered in that moment was community and fellowship.

What I’ve realized over my journey is that the model that we are told to follow actually is not possible for all of us.  It’s different for everyone, even your pastor.

Where does your pastor go to church?  And, where does your pastor tithe or sow his/her seeds?

It’s not a trick question.  It is just to prove the point, your own pastor isn’t even in the box because when you see him at church on Sunday, he’s at his job.  He’s working/serving.  He’s probably getting poured into from another place.  It’s not the same as you.

You just need to find what God wants you to do in the season where you are now. Take the tithe and give it to the place where you are being fed the most, where you are growing, learning, being pruned.  When your situation changes and you find yourself in a church that feeds you, switch the tithe to them, unless Holy Ghost said otherwise.

---

I did it on purpose not telling you the names of any of these churches and ministries because I am not here to bash anyone or promote anyone.  Good or bad.  And I also don’t want you to think that I’m saying don’t go to church because I would love for you to find the white picket fence church.  I just know it is not that easy to find.

Some of you have been in that transitional season longer than you would’ve liked, and when you think you left it, you realize you just moved into another season of transition. It’s OK this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing anything wrong you just need to know when to shift into the next gear and not linger too long in places where you shouldn’t be.  Turn on your spiritual ears and watch this video.

Then read Deuteronomy 12 and see if anything jumps out at you concerning this topic.

I have someone who is looking for a church in the Houston, Texas area, do you have a recommendation for her?  Put it in the comments

Blessings