There are different ways to distinguish a church from a cult. Churches hold to a broad consensus of orthodox beliefs while cults invariably elevate a small number of uniquely unorthodox beliefs. Churches tend to foster a context in which leaders are accountable to their congregations while cults tend to foster a context in which leaders demand mindless obedience. Churches expect loyalty to the word of God while cults expect loyalty to the words of a charismatic leader. And then there is this: Churches tend to reflect unity amid diversity while cults tend to display unity premised upon uniformity.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to transform those who believe it to such a degree that communities structured around it are markedly different from those that are not. When the gospel is honored and valued, it fosters love and unity among people who would otherwise be cold and distant. And in that way gospel communities should reflect a kind of gospel diversity—a community in which a diverse group of people honor, enjoy, and serve one another.
As we look around a church we ought to see people with a wide range of differences experiencing the deepest kind of unity—different races and ethnicities, different ages and socioeconomics, different convictions on politics, different convictions on education, different convictions on vaccinations, and so on. The gospel that was sufficient to bind Jew to Gentile and Gentile to Jew is sufficient to bind any two—or any two hundred—Christians together. The gospel that fostered unity between vegetarians and meat-eaters is plenty strong enough to foster unity between maskers and non-maskers.
Yet a little honest self-examination will probably reveal that we all have a cultist lurking within ourselves. We may pay lip service to diversity, but when it comes down to it we find that our natural instinct is toward uniformity—a uniformity to our own emphases, our own convictions, our own preferences.
We acknowledge that Christians have freedom to disagree when it comes to the ways we educate our children, yet find we look with a disparaging eye at those who have strong convictions that are the exact opposite of our own. We say that we want our church to reflect the ethnic diversity of the surrounding community, but then find that the traditions and ideals of another culture grate against our own. We distinguish between essential and non-essential beliefs—we may even say something like “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity”—yet still find ourselves thinking how much better this church would be if we did not have to love people who believed this or acted like that. Like the strong toward the weak in Romans 14, we can despise people who live by different convictions, and like the weak toward the strong, we can so easily pass judgment on them.
The inner cultist tries to convince us that life would be better, relationships would be easier, the church would be safer, if only everyone was the same—the same as me. Yet such a community would display little of the gospel because it would require little divine grace. It takes no divine power to foster community amid uniformity. But it takes great divine power to bind together those who are in so many ways so very different—those who continue to live by conscience, who continue to value their culture, who continue to hold to their convictions.
So when you look out at your church and see a person whose convictions are opposite yours on a key issue, be grateful that you are part of the same church. When you see a person who places great value on what is so uninspiring to you and places little value on what is so close to your heart, be thankful that God has bound you together. When you look out and see diversity, don’t let your heart long for uniformity. For that would be a longing to be part of a cult rather than a church.

It was one of those little pieces of information that helped clarify so much in my mind, that described through data what I had seen with my own eyes and experienced in my own ministry. It is a piece of information we all ought to be aware of and one we all ought to consider. It warns us that one of the most innocent things a Christian does may also be one of the most dangerous.
Ryan Burge and Paul Djupe spent two years conducting a large and comprehensive study of people who have “dechurched”—who once faithfully attended church but now no longer do. The results were published in The Great Dechurching and were widely reported in a host of media outlets. In one article, the authors list some common misconceptions about dechurching, and it was the very first one that especially captured my attention.
The misconception is this: People leave primarily because of negative experiences with the church. Our assumption as we consider people who have left the faith is that they had a negative experience within the church—that they observed or even faced abuse, or that they grew tired of scandals or politicking in the name of Jesus. Or we could assume that they began to critique their faith, perhaps under the tutelage of the many YouTube or TikTok deconstructionists. Then, as they began to doubt the faith, they began to distance themselves from it.
One of the most innocent things a Christian does may also be one of the most dangerous.Share
But that has certainly not been my experience. I have seen quite a few people leave our church and others over the years, and could count on one hand the number who left because they were revoking their faith. Burge and Djupe’s data bears this out. In fact, they found that the majority of people who have become dechurched continue to consider themselves Christian and continue to affirm a basic confession such as “Jesus is the Son of God”—hardly the profession of an acolyte of Bart Ehrman or Richard Dawkins.
So why do people leave? “Are you ready for the number one reason people stopped attending church? They moved.” The study found that around three out of every four people who left the church “did so casually, for pedestrian reasons including moving, the inconvenience of attending, kids’ sports activities, or family changes like marriage, divorce, or having a new child.” In other words, it was not their convictions that led the way, but their circumstances. They didn’t mean to leave the church, but inadvertently allowed their lives and lifestyles to hinder their attendance. Church got displaced by other priorities until it became little more than an afterthought. They became unintentional deconstructionists.
And this was the “aha!” moment for me because it is so consistent with what I have observed. We have had people join our church after moving to Canada from another country. They arrive with glowing recommendations from their former church. They were active, they were involved, they served in many capacities. But they are not with us long before their attendance begins to decline and we begin to see them rarely if at all. We do our best to reach out to them, but find they have stopped attending not only our church but any church. What happened? They moved, and somehow their faith was not equal to that move.
Church got displaced by other priorities until it became little more than an afterthought. They became inadvertent dechurchers and unintentional deconstructionists.Share
It can happen with former members of our church as well—that they move away, perhaps to study, perhaps to work, perhaps for economic reasons, and when we follow up to try to ensure they are integrating into a church in their new community, we find that they are not attending church at all. They moved and it somehow undid what seemed to be a thriving faith.
Neither of these scenarios is universal, of course, and we have had many people move in and move out who commit to their new church and thrive there. But both of these scenarios are common enough that we need to be aware of them.
Every journey begins with a single step and that is true of so many of those who leave the church. They leave by inches. They leave without meaning to. They leave because they have not been adequately cautioned about the coming challenges—that what seems like a time of exciting new experiences and new starts, may actually be a time of unintentional dechurching and inadvertent deconstruction.
I think the caution for all of us is that moving or other major life transitions can be an unexpected enemy. We need to caution ourselves when we prepare to significantly change our lives and we need to caution others when they do. We need to understand that one of the most common things we do is also one of the most perilous. We need to know that one of the most dangerous things a Christian can do is move.

The Lord be with you and bless you today

Lessons From the Reformation’s Pamphlet War
Carl Trueman: “What made the Reformation a popular success in so many places? There is no simple answer to this, but a key element was the pamphlet war: the production of short, cheap, polemical publications, often illustrated with woodcuts, that served to shape the mind of the populace. Both Protestants and Catholics engaged in this pamphlet war, which was perhaps the first battle for the popular mind in Western history.”
Drinking From the Jug of Suffering: The Steadfast Faith of Sheshi Kaniki
I was really moved by reading this account of a life well-lived. “Sheshi Kaniki loved to dance. Anyone visiting God’s Tribe Church in Tanzania witnessed this pastor engaging in delighted exultation, full-body worship. Always in the front row, next to his wife Trudie, Sheshi danced in praise — that same joy then radiating through his preaching.”
Why Will A Loving God Send People To Hell? (Video)
This video from TGC Africa deals well with a common question.
Bashing Babies on Boulders
“How could a group of people unflinchingly state, ‘Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock’ and then have the audacity to write such a statement down? More to the point, how does a psalm that celebrates little ones dashed against rocks (Ps. 137:9) belong in the same Bible where Jesus says, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 19:14)?”
2 Reasons Why ‘Jehovah’ Should Not Appear in English Bibles
“One of the more surprising truths of the Christian religion is that we don’t know for sure how to pronounce the name of our own God. Good evidence suggests it should be Yahweh, but good evidence is all God has chosen to leave us—not certainty. There is one thing we do know, though: God’s name is not Jehovah. That word is a colossal, unrepealable, European mistake.” Mark Ward answers.
Christian Living Reoriented
“There is a well-worn path in evangelical Christianity. It begins with the presentation of wonderful news – that God has done everything necessary, in Christ’s death on the cross, to make it possible for us to receive salvation. All we have to do is trust in Christ and we are saved. To put it another way, we don’t have to do anything, because Christ has done it for us. The path then makes a surprising turn.”
3 Reasons for Hope in the Face of Grief and Worry
Alistair Begg: “Most of us are a mixture of emotions and experiences. The good, the bad, and the ugly wash over us regularly. The key issue is what we do with these feelings and experiences. How does being a believer shape the way in which we view our world, especially when we’re faced with worries and grief?”
Flashback: Rejoice in the Wife of Your Youth (and Not-So-Youth)
Whether you are a young man, or a not-so-young man, you have the same calling from God: Rejoice in the wife God has given you. Rejoice in his precious gift.

It is quite time we should learn that worrying is neither a grace nor a duty, but rather a most unlovely blemish in a life—a sin that hurts the soul and grieves God. —J.R. Miller