I was having a conversation with a brother the other day, and we were talking about Churches and Christians that exhibit some bad traits. Sometimes, we just plain get it wrong. Unfortunately, I am not talking about the truly heretical churches or people, but churches that look pretty normal and Christians that act pretty spiritual. Those who from a distance don’t appear to be that different from us. This is a hard post for me to write, because I don’t want it to be taken out of context, or to be read in a judgmental, critical way. I want each of us to be introspective, about ourselves, and the church we currently attend. I want each of us to take time to discern our own personal status, and that of our church. The point is not to point the finger outward, but self-evaluation.

With that disclaimer, here are some cult-ish behaviors:

1) Exclusivity – within the universal (catholic) church, when one denomination, congregation, holds itself to have superior position because of something. When the traditions, doctrine, theology, gifts, behavior, liturgy, biblical scholarship, programs, etc that we hold valuable, becomes an obstacle to the truth, and our fulfilling the great commission – then we should be concerned. – isn’t this exactly what our Lord himself railed against the religious people of his day (excuse my paraphrase – Matthew 23) “…you have all this stuff that makes you feel so superior, but it doesn’t actually help you or anyone else get closer to God.”

2) Focus on Appearances – there are churches (and people) who are so focused on the outward facing aspects of our faith, the “do’s and don’ts” if you will. You must dress a certain way, pray a certain way, worship a certain way. Must refrain from certain public activities (movies, dancing, drinking, etc). It creates an atmosphere of judgment that focuses on meaningless external signs, but allows people to feel secure regardless of their inward attitudes. It also creates a separation between Christians and their neighbors, so that our faith appears unattractive. Our focus on behavior becomes a barrier to our own growing deeper in the Lord, and to our ability to engage our neighbors with the good news.

3) Focus on Brand – when the congregation or denomination sets up a brand to distinguish itself from other churches, and the brand becomes important. I have said this before – any church whose brand is prominent runs the risk of setting itself up in competition with Jesus’ own brand. This can also be expressed as the brand of the Lead Pastor – so is closely related to “cult of personality”. If you find yourself thinking that the church would collapse if the pastor left – this might be a problem.

4) Narrow Focus – when a congregation or denomination focuses on some aspect of Christianity making it important to the exclusion of others (i.e. certain spiritual gifts, bible, evangelism, prophecy, social justice, community service, etc). Any time a church tends to value one spiritual gift more than others, it is dangerous. God gave all different spiritual gifts to build His body. When the church is focused on body building, more than outward facing mission, that is dangerous, as is the opposite focus. We need to consciously guard against a narrowing of focus because it is the natural tendency of human leadership to focus on their own strengths and interests.

Conclusion
I think these conditions in the church are like human neuroses or eccentricities. They are extensions of normal human tendencies, and so can creep in subtly without detection. They feel normal, and can get quite out of whack before they feel “weird”. Yet when we gain a little distance from our current situation, it becomes easier to detect because we have a different perspective. I believe that this is something that every church leader must be conscious of, and consciously evaluate – because one of the easiest ways for the enemy to destroy or discredit an effective ministry is to take it too far in any one direction.