6 church behaviors we need to leave behind in 2020

• Claim-it-all prayers: Listen well to the prayer - it’s not everything you shout Amen to.

E.g If the pastor shouts “You are getting a Range Rover!”, I’m not saying Amen. Why? Because its a G-Wagon I want. You get the point 😂😂

Some will say “It’s prayer, can’t hurt you, say amen to all of it”. But if we consider our relationship with God a real thing, and every prayer an actual interaction with God, shouldn’t we be thoughtful about the kind of discussion we are having with God in prayer? 

And the scriptures actually say “Don’t make rash promises and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.” Ecclesiastes‬ ‭5:2‬ ‭NLT‬‬. So, be more reflective in your prayers/interactions with God. 

• Annoyingly loud praise: You know you are making a racket - disturbing your neighbors and others. They suffer in silence because they don’t want to be the ‘satan’ interrupting your worship session. You know you are tone-deaf: you are making more noise than music. But you persist, because “the Bible says we should worship with a loud shout...”

Stop that.

God can’t get honor with worship that deliberately offends others. We hype praise and worship a lot, but there are instances where God is not pleased by them. In Isaiah 1, He expresses His disgust with worship and sacrifices from the hands of those that have tortured others. And Jesus says to make peace with those offended with us before coming over to bring our sacrifice. So why do we think there’s spiritual value in obnoxious praise sessions that annoy others? 

If you are guilty of this, please make it stop. Thanks. 

• Non-specific prayers: One of the biggest culprits is “Father God, bless Sis X”

What does this blessing look like? A job, peace of mind, money? 

We create unproductive loops in prayer when we ask God for the same thing again and again since we don’t know if He has responded. And this loop can make us get tired of praying - as humans we yearn for positive responses to our efforts and will lose motivation when we don’t see this. Meanwhile, God wants to prove Himself as powerful over our circumstances - we rob Him of that opportunity when we are not specific in prayer. 

But one may say “God knows what’s on my mind when I pray ‘Bless Bro Z’. He can respond to that.” But that means we have forgotten one of the critical components of our faith journey is the witness of our testimony. How does God get the glory over an answer to a prayer, when the spoken prayer had no connection to the answer? If the apostles at the Gate Beautiful had told the lame man something as vague as “Be blessed!”, and somehow he still received healing, do you think the crowds that were convinced of the power of God through that event would have easily connected the dots? They could have ascribed the healing to some other god aside from Jesus whose name the apostles invoked in the healing. 

We must remember every response we receive is a testimony: yet another opportunity for God to convince others that He is powerful enough to be their God. So be specific.

• Prayer contracting: It is okay to ask to be prayed for when you lack strength. But get comfortable with going to meet God yourself for your requests.

There’s a reason the Bible says “remember your God in the days of your youth”. Life gets more complicated as we get older. We will face challenges that defy our level of wisdom and experience, and start to run helter-skelter to different sources if we are not connected to the Source. 

This is why false prophets and cult leaders amass wealth because people are ready to give them all their money in search of solutions to their challenges. We are asked to remember God in our youth because finding the discipline to cultivate that relationship while dealing with life’s challenges can be hard. 

There is an initial period of persevering in prayer. Persevering because the devil doesn’t want you to have a relationship with God, so he’ll throw everything he can your way - offenses, distractions, useless traditions, confusion - to prevent you from having a real conversation with God. But as you keep resisting him by persisting, you will make progress. 

Get into that discipline of personal prayer - early. 

• Care for pastors and church workers: Do you uplift your pastors and church workers in prayer? Or give gifts to them? Or say thank you to them? We remember them only when we have needs, forgetting they are human too. If you don’t do this already - this year is a good time to start.

• Pasto-latry: On the opposite end of (5) is an excessive elevation of pastors. Your pastor is never wrong, and you shut down anyone that questions them. 

You think that by this you are demonstrating love for your pastor, but this is not love at all. You are setting your pastor up for a bad fall, and putting them at risk of losing all they have worked for and becoming a castaway in the end. 

None of us have perfect Christian lives, and we all need reproof and correction at the right time to keep us on the right track. Your pastor is human and has flaws, and must be respectfully encouraged to rectify their steps when they err.