Floating church

The floating church? Yes, it exists and it is growing very fast. It is a church made up of members who are tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Its members have many different characteristics. Some of the members are church-hoppers. Yesterday they were in a mainline church, today they are in a protestant church, tomorrow they will be in an apostolic sect church. And the cycle continues. They are always visitors wherever they go.
 Some of the members do not go out for church services; they sit back and watch TV ministers and they get “blessed”. The other members of the floating church claim to belong to one established church but they rarely go there because the pastors or priests there are “cold”. So they are for the meantime going to ‘hot’ interdenominational gatherings, prestigious churches or new ‘powerful’ ministries.
One sister once said, “I sometimes go to Methodist church for church services but for extra lessons I go to UFI.” The underlying factor about the floating church is that its members do not belong to one specific, fixed church. They are always on the move or they belong to many churches at the same time.
Are you a member of the floating church? Well, you are if you identify with the above characteristics. Additional characteristics of a member of the floating church is that he or she invites a pastor from one church for family weddings, invites another pastor from another church for funerals in the family and invites yet another pastor from yet another church for advice and counselling. He or she does not have a specific spiritual leader or father.
But why exactly do we have the floating church? The reasons could be many but one thing is certain. Childishness or spiritual immaturity is the root cause why one becomes a member of the floating church. Spiritual babies want to be bottle-fed or spoon-fed.  They are too lazy to read or study the Bible on their own. They are passive in church.
They have itching ears that desire to hear the latest, new things. They are very eager to hear secret things or prophecies about their future.
They do not want to personally seek God on their own and hear His voice. They are heavily dependent on the pastors for their spiritual growth. If the pastor is away they do not attend church services. They let friends, relatives and fellow church members make decisions for them about which church to attend, and when to attend, and what to absorb from the preacher’s message, and what to ignore as garbage. They are very unstable and indecisive about anything.
What is the cure of this lack of spiritual growth that cause people to become members of the floating church? It is a consistent and active intake of spiritual food. In the natural realm, babies grow from one stage to the other through proper feeding. Physical growth is so important to parents, guardians and doctors that a child growth and development chart is checked and monitored carefully to determine whether there is a steady, normal upward growth curve on the chart.
Likewise the same chart is required in one’s spiritual growth but you need to be rooted and grounded in the word of God if true growth is to be achieved.
The word of God consistently received, meditated upon and applied is the answer to spiritual malnutrition. It is shocking to discover that many members of the floating church are very ignorant of the word of God. All they talk about is the greatness of the man of God they are following at the moment. They talk of what have been prophesied about them and what they have dreamt about.
They talk about the in-thing; the doctrine of prophecy, the doctrine of prosperity, the doctrine of deliverance, the doctrine of dangerous prayers. They are so devoted to the in-thing as if the rest of the Bible should be torn off. No wonder why they are carried about with every wind of doctrine.
Spiritual maturity means rootedness and groundedness in the word of God. And to achieve this rootedness in the word of God, rootedness in a specific church is a necessary condition.
Supplementary feeding here and there is necessary but being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine is a tragic position to find yourself in. Be responsible for your spiritual growth and maturity like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who received God’s word with readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily to see whether the things Paul taught them were so.
 Such diligence will not fail to grow you spiritually and to hedge you against deception of false teachers and con artists.
-Pastor Mairos Mubvumbi is the founding pastor of Hope In Christ Ministries. You can send your prayer request to him on 0772889766 or mai                  ros78@yahoo.co.uk