Should YOU Go To Church?

The question nobody is actually answering

This is a contentious issue so feel free to share your thoughts and opinions, or to tell me to go to hell!

You’ll never be this based

Nevertheless it is a topic of critical importance for everyone, especially Westerners. The conventional wisdom is, “just go to church, any church, lol,” but this is simply bad advice. There are some pretty good churches out there, but there’s at least as many churches that are genuinely worse than nothing. As such it is my intention here to arm and inform you about all sorts of churches so you know what you’re getting into.

If you’re brand new to Christianity with no background in it, or very little, you will get the most benefit from a church. The vast majority of churches are geared toward the “milk drinkers” aka baby/child believers, so you’ll find a lot of options for churches that offer you learning experiences and opportunities for spiritual growth. Unfortunately, once you grow past this point, the picture becomes very bleak for churchianity.

What makes it quite a bit more complicated is that church has been transforming into a space that is not exclusively Christian anymore. It’s inclusive now, yay! You need only poke around online a bit to see great numbers of people, especially men, that are taking an interest in the church for pragmatic reasons such as: tradition, dating and marriage, political causes, guidance, based stuff, and the list goes on. It may seem positive at first that Western decline is driving interest in the church, but the results have been an even greater weakening of the institution.

The Church is for The Saints, not you clowns pursuing personal gain.

In addition to this, we have at least 200 years of declining Christianity in The West. The liberal takeover has been underway since the 1800s. Few are aware that J. Gresham Machen was battling liberalism in Christian Cemeteries Seminaries back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a battle which he ultimately lost when he was ousted from Princeton Seminary in 1929, almost 100 years ago. It’s gotten so much worse since then. No matter how low you set your standards, you will still find many, even most churches don’t even reach that low-low bar, at least in the US.

We are under what I call The Curse of Babel, with over 40,000 Christian denominations existing in the world today. Each and every one thinks they’re right and everyone else is wrong. It’s as if the concept of pride doesn’t even exist in their minds.

Pastors and priests are also a professional class: they are formally educated in seminaries and churned through a professionalized system to follow certain conventions, dogmas, and teachings (It’s no different than any other college education). Long gone are the days of shepherds and teachers being raised from amongst the congregation or anointed by the Holy Spirit. It’s a job and a professional career now with credentials needed, and that phenomenon goes all the way back to the Catholics. Some would have you think the Reformation wasn’t needed and justified…

99%+ of institutional churches run on this model, which is why they are all going downhill in synchrony as virtually every institution of higher education is compromised, as are nearly all major institutions.

This Seminary/institutional-based profession is the “deep church” and a cesspool of vipers.

Dilemma

Hebrews 10: 24-26;

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

As a result, The Saints are in a pickle. You don’t want to forsake fellowship with believers, but is it right to take part in a corrupt institution?

Personally, I believe there is an easy answer to this, and it is the conclusion I’ve reached over this past year. My answer is an emphatic no, shun the weak, liberal, and false churches. In fact I take it to the extreme and shun ALL institutional churches. That’s my personal conviction.

That’s not to say I’d never go to a church again, but I’ll almost certainly never go beyond being a guest and visitor in one because of what I’ve learned on my journey and my experiences.

This isn’t about me, however, it’s for you. I’ve reached the conclusion of my 3-1/2 year journey through the church in America and am here to share my knowledge and judgement, but it is critical for you to judge where you are at in your journey accurately! If you don’t, none of this, in fact nothing anyone tells you will ever be of any use to you. It’s a long marathon and we’re all of us at different stages, reach them at different times, and have different needs at each stage.

You need to proceed with the goal and perspective of pursuing spiritual growth or it is all in vain and useless to you. If you aren’t growing, you are backsliding. You cannot fall into a complacent spot and spend 30 years of your spiritual life without any spiritual growth in the same church “you are comfortable in” and then say you’re a good Christian. You aren’t. You’re probably more backslidden than anyone and need to re-learn how to even grow at that point, which is more difficult than if you were starting over from a baby. But you’re never too old and it’s never too late!

Evaluating a church and your needs

For those that are young/baby Christians or simply naïve (which is the vast majority), I’ve got some general guidelines and principles to use in evaluating churches. When you have limited understanding or background or just don’t know where to start or go next, churches can be a good resource for you. But you must choose wisely:

• In general, a church cannot grow beyond the spiritual maturity of its leader or learn beyond his understanding. If you are convinced the head pastor is less mature than you or more ignorant than you, then leave immediately and keep looking. Bear in mind: if you think everyone younger than you is less mature/more ignorant than you, you are immature and ignorant.

• The people going to the church will tell you everything you need to know. Observe and talk to them and ask about the church. It’s genuinely more useful to talk to people that have been coming regularly for a time than to talk to the staff if you want to get a feel for that church. They are a barometer for the teaching, efficacy, and nature of the church, and aren’t playing PR games.

• Be bold, sociable, and ask questions! Don’t be part of the crowd. This is just generally good for anything in life, but is easier said than done. If it’s unfamiliar to you, use churches to practice! Any church where the pastors/elders/staff won’t talk to you when you ask uncomfortable/difficult questions isn’t even worth bothering with in the first place.

• Look at the age and gender of the congregants. If the average age is over 60 and the only young people are family, it’s a legacy church and has no future (but can still be a valuable learning experience). If it’s mostly just men, it’s probably heady and interesting but not meeting women’s needs (rare in the US). If it’s mostly just women, it’s probably watering down Scripture and not teaching anything challenging (which is most), and therefore has no spiritual growth beyond a basic level. If it’s all young families, stability is what it’s all about and might be good for you if you have a young family.

This isn’t a comprehensive list, just some key points and things to look at. Next would be to get into theology and theological systems but that is way too much to add to this essay. Catholic and Orthodox churches also have substantial variety in them, and must be similarly evaluated. Some are woke garbage while others are the uber-traditional churches that I can appreciate.

Common types of churches and their issues

This is what every non-Catholic church looks like anymore

There’s many different kinds of churches out there, particularly in terms of denomination. Here I’ll focus on more of the style and type of church that applies across denominations.

Liberal “church”

These churches are totally worthless, but are thankfully pretty easy to identify. If they ever fly a pride flag, have woman pastors, say anything to the effect that “the Bible has issues”, or promote/tolerate any kind of leftist messages like trans stuff, you know what it is. It’s garbage, don’t waste your time. Rebuke or troll them if you feel like it but don’t waste any time or effort on these.

Milquetoast megachurch

I would describe most churches in this category as the generic megachurches, pictured above. Note, that though the technical definition of a megachurch is “greater than 2,000 weekly attendance”, smaller churches that adopt the same style and practices are also ‘generic megachurches’ in reality. They invariably have the dark sanctuaries, purple lights and high production values such as semi-professional musicians and expensive lighting. It’s a lot of pomp and circumstance to attract the masses and meet consumer expectations.

These types of churches are chameleons and come in many flavors. Most of your “non-denominational” churches are in this category, and actually do have a denomination. Many will try to rationalize these churches and talk them up, but the truth is that this type of church is simply expert at marketing. They know what sells, and they sell it to get your “tithe” (tax money). It’s a business and a career, not a spiritual practice.

Quality varies all across the board, from extremely bad and dysfunctional to borderline-decent. The defining characteristic of this sort of church is giving the appearance of sound Biblical teaching and practice, with none of the action or accountability. They might even be so bold as to tell women to be submissive and obedient to their husbands, but there’s never going to be any accountability on it. They just say what sounds right without follow-through.

These churches are cleaning up right now and proliferating like mad. I believe it’s the only branch of Western Christianity that is growing right now besides some of the very traditional denominations. Almost every other one is dying.

A better iteration of one of these churches, especially if they have good preaching, can still be a good starting point for the uninitiated. It can also be a good place to connect with small groups.

But never stay in these churches long-term: that’s how they grift you. There’s no vertical change long-term, no deepening spiritual growth, only horizontal growth in packing asses in pews. They’re a mile wide and a foot deep at most. Use them if you can and then move on, do not get planted here.

They have at most 1-2 years of good instruction to give you, which is what hooks you into their comfortable model. But there’s also a lot of bad habits and false doctrine (like Zionism) they can teach along the way that you might want to avoid entirely.

Strong Man Syndrome

This is the church of one man. It’s almost always a family affair and it’s run like a mafia. Don’t get me wrong, strong-man governance is better than democracy or the monstrosity we have right now, but it’s not a good church model.

There’s no accountability for the strong man, his word is law. As a result you’ll see massive asymmetries in the moral fiber of these churches, and they’ll take on the personality of their leader. Some Biblical values will be harshly prosecuted, while others are totally ignored.

For example, a strong-man church might take a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and alcohol, where you can’t even drink a drop, and be very strict on sexual immorality, but be totally fine with gossip and strife. They’ll often look the other way on any sort of immorality as long as the “right people” are doing it.

The result is a very hypocritical church with a lot of blind spots. They may be great watchdogs on some issues, but they’ll be blind to others and show a strong preference to the in-group. The pastor can do no wrong here.

These churches breed pet sins and rarely have any future plan beyond family inheritance. You should always be suspicious of a church when it’s a family affair and the successor is the pastor’s son.

Too traditional

The best example of this is The Orthodoxy. They’re still doing John Chrysostom’s liturgy from the 4th century every Sunday. I find it quite amusing that trend-chasers are piling into one of the most repetitive Christian traditions in existence. I don’t think they’ll last more than a couple years. Then again, maybe they love repetition. some people do, but not me.

Beyond extreme repetitiveness, this is not a spiritually sound practice. Anything that is hyper-traditional is all about man-made traditions that developed long after Scripture, and Scripture doesn’t have any impact on their thinking. This is the same error for which Jesus condemned the Pharisees.

Matthew 6:7-8;

“And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

Ironically He teaches the Lord’s prayer right after that verse, one of many lines being repeated over and over and over again despite Jesus’s actual teaching against that practice.

The performative rituals are not the purpose of the Gospel, and this thinking is error. I still prefer these churches to most Protestants these days, but it’s a lesser-of-two-evils situation.

Charismaniac

One of the worst offenders in my book, these churches have people “catch the spirit”: rolling on the ground, babbling, laughing hysterically, and all kinds of nonsense. You must read your Bible carefully to see how the spiritual gifts are actually supposed to manifest, and this is not it. These practices are mass psychosis and hysteria, not The Holy Spirit. Telling the difference is a very difficult matter of discernment, but you can always go back to Scripture to see how it is supposed to be and judge it that way.

A little charismatic goes a long way, like fish sauce. I think many of the too-intellectual churches can benefit from a drop of the charismatic way, but when a church goes too far in that direction it becomes name-it-and-claim-it-ism very quickly and stinks to high heaven. God is just your cosmic bellhop here to “bless” you. Your feels are better than that mean old Bible!

I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with the charismaniac types and their churches. You give them an inch and they’ll take a mile: everything is up for grabs with these people and they’ll go against Scripture outright.

It’s important to distinguish light or medium charismatic elements from the out-of-control charismaniac types. If they have charismatic elements like believing in the spiritual gifts, then that can be a good thing but be cautious. If they’re into that “catch the spirit” nonsense, do not approach.

1 Corinthians 14: 26-33;

“How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”

Anti-intellectual

These churches can overlap with other types above, particularly the milquetoast types. This is a pathetic way of thinking as Christianity is the basis of all reason, logic, and science as we know it today. These churches and christians really just shoot themselves in the foot, as they are capitulating to the leftist premise that Christianity is against thinking and science, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Too intellectual

These can also overlap with any type above, but particularly the strong-man types. There’s an old saying, “You don’t want to miss God by 18 inches,” which is the distance between your head and your heart. Having all the knowledge and understanding in your head is good, but this is ultimately about the heart and soul and action, so too much emphasis on the intellectual can be a bad thing. Calvinists are especially susceptible to this rut.

1 Corinthians 8:1;

Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

Many of these categories overlap as well. Basically, if a church doesn’t fit in any of my categories above, it’s probably one of the few good ones. Or it’s something entirely bizarre.

Conclusion

In short, pretty much every church in America has some serious issues. I can’t speak to any other nation, but I would wager it’s not much better in any Western nation. Hillsong is ‘Stralian, after all.

The institutional church model is fundamentally broken at its foundation. Practically nobody runs a church the way the Bible teaches. It’s supposed to be a participatory experience with everyone involved, not a theatre or performance. I have seen this done nearly the right way once in my life, and it was pretty much a cult. This was a massive failure of the Reformation: they did not return to the Biblical model of church, instead they kept the Catholic institutional model. To some extent, it’s unavoidable if Christianity is your official religion, but that doesn’t make it right.

So, should YOU go to church? Well, it depends on where you’re at and what you hope to gain. If you don’t actually believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, and you aren’t interested in it and open-minded to that teaching, then no. Do not go to church in that case.

For believers, you must follow your conviction. Most churches are hopelessly corrupt and I am sad to say, nobody is going to fix them. They must die off and be deprived of resources, they do have big bills to pay after all.

You always have to make Scripture your #1. That is your authority. Almost every church is trying to become your authority and supplant God. They teach you to follow men, professional pastors/priests, not God, and that is an abomination.

As such, you can attend institutional churches at your discretion as long as you do not view them as your authority. They cannot be trusted and you cannot let them be your middle-man to God.

The best way of doing things, however, is to form small groups of like-minded people to study and follow the Bible as best as you can, away from the institutional church. They mostly just want control. This approach has its issues as well but we have to get away from the institutional model as quickly as we can.

The Saints are facing imminent persecution in The West, and there’s no bullshit rapture coming, we’re all going through it until the end. So go to institutional church if it is moving you forward and you put it in its proper place, otherwise pass it over and seek alternatives.

Shalom