The Town of Odyssey

My church is currently in the midst of a split. Thankfully, my family is staying, and only a handful of people are disgruntled.

In my lifetime, my family has been part of 5 different churches. The first was a major split, the second was a mess, the third was changing their stance on music so we left, the fourth had half of the families leave for various reasons, and now the fifth is going haywire. >_>


Have you been a part of church splits? Have you left a church? Do you think it's sinful for a church to split? Why is it so common?

My family left a church when I was in highschool, it was a case of the Elders and Pastors kicking people out of the church who criticized them. My family wasn't kicked out but we left after several families we were close to were.

I do think it's sinful for a church to split, I think the New Testament is full of calls for unity in the local body.

For the church we left in highschool I think the reason it had problems can be explained through this quote from Frank Herbert. "Every revolution contains the seeds of its own destruction." The church we left was founded by a pastor who had broken away from another church a few years earlier because he was criticizing the head pastor. It seems like that breakaway only led to more of the same problems.

I've only been in 2 churches my entire life. The church I've been going to for 13 years was started over 60 years ago and it did split in it's early years but it is now a great church!

I wouldn't know if my church has ever split or not. It's moved to a different location, but it's been around for 105 years and it's going strong.

American Eagle wrote:the third was changing their stance on music so we left

This... makes me sad. How have we become so wrapped in our dogmas on nit-picky issues that don't matter that we're willing to ruin relationships, cause hard feelings and demote the spread of the gospel over them? What happened to the Kingdom of God being unified by the gospel? As far as I'm concerned, if it glorifies God, it's in; if it doesn't, it's out. Anyway, don't mean to get personal or anything. My family has attended two churches in my lifetime. We left one because of an issue with the youth pastor but, I was too young at the time to be told details.

Ideally, churches should only split in the case of new branches forming as a result of natural expansion with the support of the trunk rather than wedges being forced down the middle creating two incomplete, rough-edged halves.

American Eagle wrote:Do you think it's sinful for a church to split? Why is it so common?

I think it depends on the issue over which it happens.

Why is it so common? The simple answer is that Satan knows Christ works though His body, so he tries to split it's unity.

I attended a church for a while that ended up splitting to plant a new church. We left about that time because the old pastor was leaving, and the new pastor was... different. The split was not probably the right thing to do in this case, because the new church plant failed, after creating lots of confusion and hard feelings between the church members. I think under the right circumstances its good to split, (like to plant a new church)

We have left a church, the leaders we found, after we got to know the church better over the course of 4ish years, were very misguided, and were kicking people out of the church if they didn't believe exactly the way the leaders did. We went kicked out, but some lots of people were, including some close friends, and they were hinting to us that we weren't going to be there very long, so we left.

I've never been in a church that has split, because the hierarchical nature of my denomination (Catholic) prohibits splitting. One is either in communion with Rome/the Vatican or one is not.

That said, after the 1960's Vatican II Council modernised a lot of elements of the Church, there was a division within the Church between those who wanted to keep the old Rites of worship ("traditionalists"), those who wanted to embrace the modern changes ("conciliarists") and those who agreed that the modern changes were bad but wanted to reform the changes instead of going back to the old ways ("reform of the reform"). So among these groups there's a lot of division and you typically won't find Catholics who like Pentacostal-style worship showing up for a Latin Mass. I started out going to a pretty mainstream church for my childhood, and in college I got into the charismatic movement. Finally, after college, I drifted away from that and now I would say that I am in the traditionalist camp. My current Church is owned by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) which is a Priestly Fraternity that got in a lot of trouble for disobeying Rome and ordaining bishops in the traditional rite. A lot of Catholics think this group is schismatic (which means outside of communion with Rome and therefore non-Catholic) and currently the SSPX and Rome are engaging in talks trying to come to a compromise that will allow them to preserve the traditions pre-Vatican II. I also go to a Church owned by the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) which also says the Latin Mass but is not in dispute with Rome.

Anyway, this is probably WAY more information than anyone wants to know or cares about, but I thought since there aren't too many Catholics here, you might be curious as to whether or not we all get along, or whether there are, in fact, some divisions within.

I've noticed that church splits are usually about somebody's traditions getting messed up, not liking change, or somebody's poor little pride got hurt. I seriously don't understand why idiot people cannot get along.

AND NOW: MESSY MONDAYS:

At my church we have banana splits once in a while.

American Eagle wrote:Have you been a part of church splits? Have you left a church? Do you think it's sinful for a church to split? Why is it so common?

I agree with Ayn Rand that churches should try to stay together. This reminds me of a story about a church about to split. There were two separate fractions whose leaders went to the elder and said that "this was the end; we want to split." The elder decided to bring this to the Lord with prayers. He had all the leaders pray and fast for a whole day. The next day, again, the leaders wanted to split. Again, the elder implored them to pray. This went on for two or three days when finally the two fractions felt this peace and decided not to split and resolve the differences...

I like how one missionary explained all of the different denominations in America to a Russian man. He said its because somebody wants to lead and have his own following.

Ik my church had one big split before I was born over what I don't know. But since then I have seen the main to splinters decrease in size as churches leave for one reason or another. We are either too conservative and the join a more liberal denomination. Or the church goes ultra-conservative (my church denomination, Pilgrim Holiness, is already strict) and go independent.

Finally to answer the question; is it sinful to split? It all depends on the motive. There are something's that simply can not be compromised and there are things that should be dealt with privately.

Also on the note that somethings should be done quietly. A few years ago my family had to leave a church. We didn't make a big deal about it and in fact at the time my dad was a board member and the pastor's son was my best friend. However, the actions of the younger generation was appalling. The church had lost its focus on what it was there for. Every year at youth camp I am in the dorm with this church and I'm very thankful we left because I could have been caught up in things they are. It was kinda hard at the time but now I understand. Even through the whole situation however my dad has still given them deer when we had too much and they even came to my sister's open house.

My church at the time had a big one when I was in jr high. The head pastor left the state to start a church elsewhere, back in his hometown or something, and the church voted on making the associate pastor the new head pastor, and he lost by like 3 votes. And it had to be a 2/3rds majority, so he had over half the support. So yeah, he left then and started another one in town, and some people left the original church and went to his. My family liked him a lot but we stayed for whatever reason at the original church.

Then some years later at the church I currently go to, the head pastor retired and moved to Florida, and the associate took over, and he slightly modernized some things, and there was like a coup and much blood was spilled and a lot of people left to go to a more traditional church... although I guess there wasn't an ACTUAL split, just a lot of people left to go elsewhere, not start another church. But anyway that head pastor decided to cool things down to step back to associate and we got another head pastor who was pretty cool.

I've been going to my church my entire life, and the church is only 27 years, but I'm pretty sure we've never had any kind of split. A few families have left over the years, but no mass exodus or anything.

I've caroused many different churches because we wanted to see what different denominations were like. Thankfully, most of the them are united enough. Sadly, most of the Christian Reformed Churches here are uninspiring and often times it seems like they're only united within their community without any reaching out to others.

my previous church had a split when I was like, 2 years old...or maybe before I was born (i don't remember ) my mom and i started going there when they got a new pastor and i was 8. I think there had been some serious issues with the pastor...and in circumstances where a pastor is beginning to go astray and the board won't hold him accountable...sometimes you have to leave. It's preferable to not if it can be helped, but better to leave than wage war inside the church where no solution is available.

SoccerLOTR wrote: I think there had been some serious issues with the pastor...and in circumstances where a pastor is beginning to go astray and the board won't hold him accountable...sometimes you have to leave. It's preferable to not if it can be helped, but better to leave than wage war inside the church where no solution is available.

THIS. This is currently the dilemma I am having with my own home church, and though I am leaving because I am moving out of town, I think even if I wasn't moving I would have left by this point. (For more details on that, loook on the thread in the Prayer Closet entitled "Spiritual Warfare").

The only other time when leaving a church should be a goood idea is if Biblical truths are being distorted or are simply no longer being taught. If the church bases their foundation on anything other than the Word of God, then I believe that the spirit of antichrist has entered that church, in which case it is no longer a church.

Anything else can be worked through.

I've never attended a single church long enough to know if they've had a split or not >_>

Sherlock wrote:My current Church is owned by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX)

No one can own a church.

Could you expand on that? Unless you want to meet in a public park, which is owned by the state, you meet in a building that is owned by either the congregation or the denomination.