Five Mistakes Most Christians Make
This week I celebrate thirty-five years as a minister of the Gospel…thirty-two of those as a pastor. I have obviously seen and learned a lot during those years, and I have witnessed some pretty clear patterns of behavior in Christians.
Today I thought I would share some of the common mistakes I have seen Christians make over the decades. I pray you can learn from the experiences of others and apply these lessons to your own lives.
Mistake #1—They Delay Baptism. This is a trend I have witnessed more in the last 15-20 years at Austin Christian Fellowship. While we have seen hundreds and hundreds of adults embrace Jesus, we have also noticed a significantly smaller number of them follow up that decision with baptism.
I have found two common myths about baptism among our people: One is that they have to have it all together before they get baptized, the other is that their baptism as an infant is enough. Neither is true.
I plan to write about this more in the future, but suffice it to say that baptism is a sign that you do not have it all together—thus your need for the Savior. Beyond that, your infant baptism was for your parents, not you. You need to update your baptism to reflect your decision, not your parents’ decision.
Beyond that, God honors obedience…and baptism is an act of obedience. You can do the math.
Mistake #2—They Have Irregular or Nonexistent Quiet Times. This is a major cause of the struggling and powerless lives so many Christians live today, and it is one that is easily fixed. Bottom line: it is impossible to grow as a believer without regular times of Bible study and prayer.
Many of us are more committed to our personal training or watching our favorite television shows than we are meeting with Jesus…and our lives reflect it.
If you are serious about walking with Jesus, then regular times of sitting at his feet and listening to his Word (see Luke 10:38ff) have to trump everything else.
Mistake #3—They Do Not Tithe. This is a real head-scratcher for me. The data is in and the testimonies of those who give are too many to number. Bottom line: God honors giving. And yet, the typical American Christian gives away only 1% of his or her income.
Tithing (giving the first 10th of your earnings to your church) is a spiritual discipline that is accompanied with multiple promises in the Bible. It is also the only discipline that God dares us to test Him in. He basically says, “Hey, try this and see if I won’t just blow you away with blessing.”
I have been tithing since I was a kid. Now, Susie and I tithe to ACF and give beyond our tithe to other ministries. It is part of our financial strategy. And it works. We have always had enough, actually more than enough.
Too many Christians do not know freedom in their financial worlds. The reason? They don’t tithe. However, just like the rest of these common mistakes, it is something they can fix today.
Mistake #4—They Live in Isolation. Many Christians stall out in their Christian lives because they don’t get the full benefit of being part of the overall Body of Christ. They don’t let believers with differing spiritual gifts speak into their lives. They don’t have any accountability. They don’t have anyone watching their backs.
And like a burning log that is taken out of the fire, their flame eventually goes out.
Christians need community. We need intimate, authentic and accountable relationships. It’s like competing in a triathlon, climbing Everest or riding in the Tour de France—each is impossible without a good support system. And consistently living the Christian life is harder than a triathlon, climbing Everest or riding in the Tour.
Living in Christian community is not optional in the Bible, and yet many believers are flailing in their respective Christian walks because they are living in spiritual isolation.
Mistake #5—They Church-Hop. This one really breaks my heart. I saved it for last in case I break out in a rant about it.
My pastor friends and I frequently lament this ever-growing trend. It is sheep choosing shepherds and alternating pastures. Some sheep even decide not to connect with a shepherd or stay in a pasture at all.
It is the simple habit of church-hopping, and it undermines the stability and ministry effectiveness of many a church’s ministry. It also keeps church-goers at a comfortable and even stagnant level in their maturity.
People leave and change churches for all types of reasons, few of which have anything to do with the call or assignment of God. In the last decade, we have seen the largest exodus from our church when we, as leaders, have made changes or decisions that asked more of our members. In other words, when we have called out sin and called for repentance, when we have tweaked or done away with ministries we have deemed ineffective, or when we have basically taken steps to nudge our people off the pews and into greater levels of maturity, some or even many of our people have chosen to leave. We have even seen people make a change when a nearby church gets a new pastor or builds a climbing wall or gets a flashy new building.
As a pastor, I have been on the giving and on the receiving end of this pattern, and neither has benefitted ACF or the greater church at large. I have found that if people join or leave our church for frivolous reasons, they will repeat the pattern in the future. It is just a matter of time.
The result is a Body of Christ in a city that is underfed and undisciplined. It results in Christians who are allowed to continue in their sin because they just change churches (or quit going all together) when a small group leader, a pastor or a group of elders calls them out. It results in warped “church growth” numbers, as leaders in churches are basically counting the migration patterns of believers and not the amount of unbelievers who have been miraculously brought into the fold.
It makes the church about the flashy and the trendy and the material and the convenient and the culturally cool, and not about discipleship and evangelism. No wonder our churches and nation are in trouble.
(Sorry, I warned you I might rant a bit.)
Find a church that God has called you to, commit to it, and take leaving it off the table. (Yep, it’s kind of like a marriage.)
So, are you making any of these mistakes? The good news is that you can address the common areas of spiritually poor judgment today. Will you?
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