June 20, 2025 • 39 mins
🚫 Skip the church-hopping cycle and get rooted in purpose. When you’re always moving, you miss the growth that comes from staying planted. God's design is for you to flourish—not in a pot, but in rich, life-giving soil. True spiritual maturity happens when we submit to godly leadership, endure pruning, and grow where we’ve been placed. Don’t shop for comfort; dig in for transformation. 🌱
Scripture References:
Psalm 92:13
Jeremiah 17:7–8
2 Timothy 4:3–4
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro, light humor about mugs
03:15 – Question: Teaching vs. Preaching explained
07:20 – What is church hopping and how did it start?
10:30 – The danger of not being planted
13:00 – Biblical principle: being planted vs. being potted
16:00 – Accountability and pastoral guidance
21:15 – Avoiding spiritual consumerism
25:40 – Signs of loyalty and commitment in a church body
29:00 – True spiritual growth requires pruning and permanence
33:10 – Scripture foundations for staying planted
35:50 – Closing encouragement: Get rooted to grow strong
Host: Pastor Ryan Brister
Co-Host: Brenden Bass
Producer: Joey Doherty
REACH HEAL SERVE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the Ocala Churchpodcast with Pastor Ryan
Brister. You know, today we were shopping
around for different topics and we came across the idea of
church hopping. All right, welcome back to the
(00:29):
Ocala Church podcast. We are excited to be here today
for another podcast. So I'm very much looking forward
to the topic of the day. And before we get into it, we
wanted to plug a few things. Absolutely.
First, if anybody wants to send donations to get a right-handed
(00:51):
mug, Pastor Rooster, he's been struggling with the left-handed
mug for a while. I really have.
I just built this twice today. Yeah, left-handed coming around
the mic stand. It's rough y'all.
It really is. Plant to see now.
Lord help. Us man, things are good at the
(01:12):
Ocala church. We're blessed and it's, it's
been incredible. Ocala coffee coming in as
always. Amen.
Well, that's another. We're not standing on holy.
Grail. We're sipping on the Holy Grail
word. Combined with the espresso of.
The local church so. Mix and mix together.
(01:36):
We, we have been seeing an increase in an incline on some
of our viewership. And so thank you all for tuning
in, comments, reviews, everything that you've been
doing for all the algorithm stuff.
It's really only one way to go up a go from here.
I think there's one way. We're either flat, SO or right.
(01:57):
No way. Say no.
To the plot, so. Amen, right.
Come on with somebody. So we are.
We're done. That was all we need to do.
It's not. Mine.
I think it's Cody, Mark forever.So man, back on track, Church.
(02:21):
Hopping and shopping. Church hopping and shopping is
our topic of the day and we are before we get into that, we did
have a question come through. Do we want to throw a quick
answer to that one? I guess.
I guess we had, we had an anonymous question come through
the podcast through our e-mail podcast at Ocala dot church.
(02:44):
So if you're wondering how this got here and why we're answering
this today is because somebody emailed in to podcast at Ocala
dot Church with a question for us at all People.
What? Was the question.
All right, sorry. The question was what is the
difference between teaching and preaching I?
(03:04):
Think Pastor had an answer? Yeah, y'all want to take a stab
at that. I think the main difference
between teaching and preaching is when you preach the first
four rows get spit on and when you teach the first two rows.
So it's really the the difference between teaching and
(03:26):
preaching is volume. Volume and then if you get in
that category of treaching, it'srow 3.
So it's kind of the in between. Yeah, I think, I think really
the difference between teaching and preaching is preaching is
proclaiming. And, you know, in the Apostolic
tradition, preaching is done with a lot of passion, and it's
(03:48):
many times very, very. Exuberant.
Exuberant but inspiring and veryevangelistic at times.
Then also it can be, you know, conviction.
Teaching is more of a laid back.Doesn't mean it's boring, but
(04:09):
it's more of a laid back setting, going line upon line,
precept upon precept and breaking down biblical truths
verse by verse versus expository.
Yes. Verse by verse analysis, Yeah.
So basically, the scope of preaching is much wider than
teaching. Teaching is more about being
grounded. Yeah.
(04:31):
And so preaching can be expository, obviously, but in
the Apostolic tradition, preaching just more volume, more
cowbat. That's a very oh, Jesus,
tambourine. Y'all pray for me when you pray.
(04:58):
But it it, it's that is a very, very rudimentary answer to the
question in this 32nd slot. But that's the basics of it,
yeah. Yeah.
So I would say preaching is moreon the inspirational side of
things and teaching is more on the informational side of
(05:20):
things. Yeah.
So that's good. That's good.
So all right, I hope that answers your question.
If you have more, if it wasn't good enough, you don't let us
know. We'll do a podcast about it or
something. Leave a.
Review about it, but make sure it's five stars.
Five star review how good it was.
(05:40):
And so our topic today is about church shopping and hopping.
What what is it? Look, what even is this?
Some people might not understandwhat What does it mean to church
shop? So I would say that you kind of
have to back up, you know, 40-50years.
(06:05):
You know, this has always been athing.
But 40-50 years ago, I would say, especially in the part of
the country that I grew up in, it was very, very common for
people to attend the same churchcongregation for generations.
(06:31):
You know, grandparents, great grandparents, children,
grandchildren, great grandchildren, all, you know,
grew up going to the same churchand they were very faithful to
that church, very loyal to that church.
And with the advent of really the Internet where church became
(07:02):
commercialized, a lot of church,what I call church shopping
started happening to where people were exposed to every
flavor of church imaginable across the board.
And so you can go on now nowadays, you know, everybody
(07:25):
has a live stream, everybody's on the Internet, every church
is, you know, has put themselvesout there.
And so you can go on Facebook live every Sunday and shop like
your window shopping for clothes.
You can shop your favorite brandof church.
(07:48):
You know, you can find what fitsyour your likes, your dislikes,
your preferences, style of worship, the style of preaching.
And so a lot of people are shopping for their preferences
when it comes to church instead of growing up in a, you know,
(08:12):
one church setting for their entirety of their life and then
their kids grow up in that church.
And so that is, and then and then the, you know, church
hopping come from, you know, this idea of a person goes to a
(08:32):
particular church and then something is said or preached or
taught or something happens in the church.
Somebody says something they don't like and they just go down
the road to another church. This is very prevalent in the
United States of America becausethere's so many churches, less
prevalent in other countries because there's not as many
(08:56):
churches to go around, but church on every street corner.
Yeah, especially in the southernpart of the United States.
I mean, churches are in abundance in every flavor you
can think of. And so, and then, you know, a
man will or a man or a woman will, you know, leave that
(09:17):
church, go to another church. And then that church, eventually
they're going to say something that they don't like.
And so they hop to another church and then they hop to
another church. And they never and here's the
keyword and never get planted anywhere right though not.
Necessarily the fact that they moved, it's the fact that they
haven't been planted. Yes, yeah.
(09:39):
I mean, because the moving churches is not necessarily a
sin and that ought to get a response from some people.
But moving churches is not necessarily in itself wrong, but
(10:00):
it can be wrong if it's not donefor the right reasons.
And there is something to be said.
There is a Bible principle of being planted, people being
planted, and you can look at Psalms chapter 92 and verse 13.
(10:24):
Says Those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall
flourish in the courts of our God, Yes.
So you, you think of this as like you're planting a fruit
tree. Yeah.
And if you want a fruit tree to flourish and grow and produce
(10:46):
fruit, you've got to get it in good ground and leave it.
Now. There has to be watering done,
there has to be cultivation done, there has to be wedding
done, there has to be pruning done.
But there's only so much transplanting that can be done.
(11:11):
And so that is that is the concern of mine is not
necessarily that a that a tree is transplanted from time to
time. My concern is when you make it a
habit the roots can't take. Right.
And the tree can't grow, therefore it never produces
(11:34):
fruit. I mean you, you show me.
Just I mean our audience. You can think about this, but
you show me anybody that you canthink of that is that fits the
description of a church hopper. Where, where is the fruit in
their life? Are they a soul winner?
(11:57):
Are these people usually people who are very effective in in
developing other people in the church?
But rarely, and I would, I don'tknow of anybody that that is the
case where they're just hopping from church to church, that
they're really effective in any area in the Kingdom because you
(12:21):
have to get in one spot and get planted to be able to grow.
And so the idea is that is to beplanted, not potted.
That's good planted, not potted.So God's not in the business of
potted plants. Wow, wow, that's good.
(12:45):
We have some, you know. Bible bombs up there, right?
Now, I'm sorry, we'll get some of those.
We got to. Build that up.
We have some potted palm trees on our church property.
(13:08):
You're we're in Florida, so we have palm trees.
It's it's like something you have to do.
It's a legal. Requirement, actually, yeah,
regulations. Yeah.
So, but if you'll go out there and look, we have, we have
potted palms and we have palm trees in the front of our
building that are planted. Yeah.
Which one's bigger? Plant.
(13:29):
We got those planted palm trees there, pretty tall.
They've grown about 3 feet sincewe put them in last year.
Wow. Wow.
And so the potted plants haven'tgrown at all?
No, the potted palms, they're the they're literally the same
type of palms. They're all queen palms.
(13:51):
Wow. But they, the potted ones, can
only grow to a certain extent. If they're going to go further,
they've got to get planted in the ground.
Planted in a space that doesn't have them moving all the time,
Yes. Well that's why we put the
potted ones in pots, so we can move them, but in the moving we
(14:14):
have decided that these plants will never grow to their full
potential. Wow, it's pretty rude of us to
do this to these palm trees. Not.
Very root. It's very root of us.
This is This is getting bad. Well, I've heard it said, I
(14:38):
forget the exact quote, but something along the lines of
like wisdom is planting a tree, understanding that you'll never
get the shade out of it, but thenext generation will, yes.
And so that's very good. If you have a a tree that's
rooted and planted, it can grow to that point.
And so it's kind of, I mean, youcan't speak for our situation,
but deciding to be planted is something that's going to help
(15:00):
the next generation. It's looking in the future and
deciding I'm going to do this for somebody else and not for
myself. Absolutely, that's very good.
So in order to grow a, a tree must have constant in the early
(15:26):
stages. It must have constant
supervision and care. This is why Hebrews 13 and 17
talks about yeah, obeying them that have the rule over you
(15:46):
submit. Yourselves and submit.
Yourselves to a watch for yourself get planted in their in
their life. You need to you need to where
are you going Kevin? Just put him on his.
Face my God, we preach. Kevin under conviction, he just
(16:12):
put his ears right in my shot. It's a.
Move him a little out of the shot.
It's so good. He's going to always be.
That's a little better. I hope our audience is still
with us through all of that. Anyway, the the you've got to
(16:32):
get in the care of someone that you can trust, that will nurture
you so that you can grow. The Bible says that God gives us
pastors according to his heart and they feed us with knowledge
(16:57):
and understanding. They give you what a what a
pastor is supposed to be doing is giving you and feeding you
with what it will take for you to grow into your full
potential. Well, he can't do that if he
leaves you in the pot and treatsyou like you may not be here
tomorrow. That's.
(17:17):
Good treats you like. He could if he needs to.
He can move you over here one day.
No, he's got to treat you like you're a fixture here in order
for you to grow. And so spiritual accountability
is such an important thing in the life of any Christian.
(17:42):
And you, if you, if you're constantly bouncing around
trying to find just someone who will tell you what you want to
hear, right, Right. They may not be telling you what
you need to grow because most ofthe stuff that caused me to grow
(18:04):
in my walk with God was stuff I did not want to hear.
Yeah, just because you. Have a pastor doesn't mean it's
the pastor. God has given you after his own
heart, Yes. Yes, it has to be God's will.
And so church hopping, really, at the core of it is really what
(18:30):
it's doing, is avoiding accountability.
Church hoppers never stay in oneplace long enough to be held
accountable for anything. And the moment someone tries to
hold them accountable, they hop.They start shopping, and then
they hop. They get on Facebook, they find
(18:52):
the next church that has a pretty good music program and
the preacher preaches pretty good and they're on to the next
thing until they get confronted again.
And that is the spirit behind church hopping is it is I am I
am not going to be head accountable, held accountable.
(19:15):
But if the if the husbandmen of the garden does not hold the
plants accountable, they can't grow.
And so constant movement prevents pastors and leaders
from truly knowing and guiding you.
(19:38):
You need a pastor that knows you.
Because if you've got to build arelationship with someone, it's
not. I'm not talking about somebody
being a buddy with your pastor. I'm not talking about going and
playing golf with your pastor every week.
I'm talking about a pastor that has been around you long enough.
(20:00):
That He knows you spiritually and he can speak to you
spiritually and he can hold you spiritually accountable.
It church hopping creates a spiritual loophole where
correction is dodged and discipline is always avoided.
(20:25):
And so you need to ask yourself before you make the move, I'm
not, I'm not talking against moving churches.
Again, sometimes it's necessary.But before you make the move,
you need to ask yourself, am I doing this because somebody
tried to hold me accountable? Or am I doing this because this
(20:46):
is the will of God? Am I doing this because I got
offended or am I doing this because this is the will of God?
Am I doing this to avoid correction or am I doing this in
pursuit of comfort? Or am I doing this because this
(21:08):
is what God is leading me to do?And if you've got a praying
pastor and if you got a spirit LED pastor, most of the time
he'll know if it's the right thing.
He may not like it, but he'll know it's the right thing.
(21:36):
So let's, let's, let's look at the dangers of the consumer
mentality for a minute. Yeah.
So Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse #3 and four it says for
the. Time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
(22:00):
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables. So man, is this not applicable
to our current culture, the Internet?
And I'm not speaking against it.We're on it right now.
(22:25):
Hello. Hi.
What the? But the Internet has made it
possible for people to turn church and pastoral
personalities into commodities to be consumed.
(22:50):
And so we get on. And we have turn the church into
something that we shop instead of something that is to change
us. Churches, church is a community
(23:11):
that once you find a community of truth preaching, truth,
believing Saints and pastor, that you plant yourself with
them and you grow with that congregation and be loyal to
that congregation. Man loyalty is so absent in our
(23:39):
culture today and we are so quick to jump bandwagons.
It's a thing. It is a thing.
Outside. Church inside church people,
just whoever's on top right now will go.
Yeah, yeah. We'll do that.
When you talk about the consumermentality, it's a huge market is
being pushed for. Just lease this car.
(24:01):
You don't have to keep it and you can get a new one in another
two years. You can get a brand new car next
year. Just just test drive it, see how
you like it, lease it. If you don't like it, switch it
out in a couple years and just go to something new.
You can do it every two years. Yeah, we.
Well, we don't even we don't even keep our spouses very long.
(24:23):
We and. And I, you know, I, I'm saying
that it's kind of tongue in cheek, but it's a, it's a
symptom of this idea that we're,we're not loyal to anything
anymore. And if you're.
Not then what? What are you?
Yeah. Can you identify yourself as
something if you're not loyal toanything?
Yeah, you can't. You can't.
(24:47):
So you know, we have got to heedthe warning of Paul not to be on
the Internet shopping around forwhatever scratches the itch in
our ears. I, I, I'm, I'm going to say some
things that's going to get me introuble.
But I have, I have experienced as an evangelist traveling
(25:10):
around the country preaching forgreat, great men of God and have
somebody stand up in that congregation backing me up while
I was preaching. And I could tell in this, the
spirit behind there, a man was off.
(25:32):
And I come to find out that theyfelt like I was challenging what
their pastor had been telling them.
Wow. And they were rooting for me to
side with them over their pastor.
And I had no idea they're doing it with their Amen.
And I knew something was weird when they stood up and they
(25:55):
responded. The way they responded, it's
like finally somebody's in theirmind, somebody's saying what
I've been trying to get across to my pastor.
Well, no. If I'm saying something that is
contrary to what your pastor is telling you, I'm wrong and he's
right. Because he's.
(26:16):
Been the one here cultivating you and watering you and feeding
you with knowledge and understanding.
I don't even know you dude. I.
Don't know your situation. No, I don't.
Have a clue and people can. People are looking for any
chance that people with this kind of spirit are looking for
(26:39):
any chance to twist. Even people with good motives
twist what they're saying to scratch the itch of what they
want to hear. And if people can find somebody
that'll preach what they want tohear, they they'll move Slam
across the country. No loyalties, no strings
(27:02):
attached. Don't even feel bad for leaving
their church and their pastor high and dry.
And we can't, we can't do that. We have got to learn to be loyal
again, man, if if and we'll get into it.
But you know, there is there is scriptural precedence for, you
(27:26):
know, if your pastor is in doctrinal error, you need to
have a conversation with him. But that might be grounds to
leave if if your pastor or leadership is in moral error,
right? They fall into sin egregiously
and something crazy happens, that might be grounds to leave.
(27:52):
But man, all of this just Willy nilly walking out on our
churches and walking out on our congregations and walking out on
our pastors and walking out on the vision of the church without
any kind of feeling of remorse because of our lack of loyalty
is, is a tragedy. And it went if, if, if God is
(28:16):
calling us to move, if God is through a, a marriage situation
or a career change situation or whatever it might be.
And it needs to be done with a whole lot of prayer and fasting
and counsel from people that won't just tell you what you
want to hear. But before you make a move like
(28:38):
that, you need to ask somebody that's not a yes man.
You need to ask somebody that's told you no before.
Wow. What we do a lot of times is we
we go to all the people we know will agree with us and ask them
what they think like you. Mentioned before we just you
(29:00):
said there's a safety and multitude of counsel, but people
will go to enough people until somebody says what we want to
hear. You didn't say a.
Multitude that can't be numberedyou.
Just said a multitude. Just a multitude.
Well, it's based on the. Average answer more so than the
isolated answer of what we wanted to hear well.
God's probably put the right people in your life already to
(29:24):
counsel you. And there's a reason why you
don't want to listen to them. If you don't want to listen to
them, yeah, it's probably because you've already made-up
your mind of what you're going to do.
And then you will. You.
We we will search to find somebody that will agree.
(29:44):
Yeah, right. Right.
But you know, I I wanted to lookat the book of Acts chapter 2.
We are. Looking at 42 says and they
continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and
(30:07):
fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
So he he says back in Second Timothy 4, he says they there
will come a time when people will heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears. But in the first church they
continued steadfastly in what they were taught and in
(30:32):
fellowship with one another. And man they went through,
pardon my pardon the expression,but they went through hell
together. They went through tribulation
together and the one of the A good question to ask yourself
(30:58):
when you are looking to make a achurch change is am I looking to
carry a cross or am I looking for a show?
Am I looking for a place that I can get under the burden of
something and push towards a vision?
(31:21):
Or am I looking to attend an entertainment gallery that's
good? What's the heart behind what
you're doing? Yeah.
What's the? Motive behind what you're doing
to be honest with yourself. Yes.
Yes, and that's a hard thing to do.
It is. If you're.
Not if you're not praying and your spirit is not under
(31:42):
subjection to the Spirit of God.It is a very, very easy thing to
get to the place where you can lie to yourself without knowing
it. Oh yeah, yeah, deceiving your
own selves. The Bible says so they they they
continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and in
(32:04):
fellowship. Second Second Timothy 310
through 15. But thou has.
Fully known. My doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions,
afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at
Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the
(32:24):
Lord delivered me keep. Going.
Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution, but evil menand seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which you have learned and has
been assured of. Continue.
In them knowing of. Whom thou has learned them, and
(32:45):
that from a child you have knownthe Holy Scriptures which are
able to make the wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus. They learned these things from
Paul their their apostle, their pastor.
They learned these things from Paul and he said that they grew
under his leadership and they grew under his mentorship after
(33:13):
being faithful over time. And so, you know, one of the one
of the issues that a lot of people have coming into the
churches, you know, they live in, they live completely opposed
to the ways of God for a majority of their life 20-30
(33:35):
years. And then they come into the
church, and if God don't fix every detail of their life in 20
minutes, they're looking for something else.
Well, it it don't turn over overnight.
God saves you in a moment, but building a life takes time.
(33:58):
Yeah, it. Does building a life?
That is fruitful and that is that has the blessing and the
favor of God that on it that that is something that takes
place through the process of time as you submit yourself to
godly loving leadership that youallow them to have access to
(34:21):
your spirit. Somebody who can fertilize and
also prune. They they.
Can cut away things that need tobe cut, but then when
fertilizing is to happen for quick growth and for.
Giving. They know what the plants gone
through. They know what's happened to
that, They know what this specific case needs.
(34:41):
Yeah. Well, the pruning process is
something that when, when a, when a pastor, a husbandman of a
of a church starts pruning people, that is a very, very
difficult thing. Yeah, for a lot of people,
because they've gotten used to those branches, right?
(35:03):
And it. Feels like you're cutting me
down to size. I've gotten you, you know, the,
the tree feels like it's gotten really big because it's got
these limbs and all of a sudden the husbandman's coming through
and he's cutting them back 3-4 feet and you're like, what are
you doing? I mean, I, I, it took me a long
time to get this big, right? What they?
(35:25):
What they don't understand is itif, if you don't let the
husbandman prune you, you can't get any bigger than what you've
already gotten. He's cutting you back so that
you can get bigger. But what trees develop is,
there's a, I'm sure a scientificterm, but I grew up in the
(35:46):
middle of nowhere and we called them suckers.
These dead limbs that over time cease to be fruitful, but
they're still attached to the tree and they're sucking
nutrients from the tree. And if if a if a husbandman or a
gardener that knows what they'redoing don't go in there and cut
(36:06):
those dead limbs off, they will stunt the growth of the tree.
That's good. Yeah, man, many.
Times people want decide it's time to transplant because the
pastor's coming in and cutting all the dead stuff out of their
life that they need to get rid of.
He's trying to help them go to the next level.
(36:26):
All they see is the knife in hishand and they're ready to get
out from under the knife. And it takes a lot of faith and
a lot of confidence and a lot oftrust.
And the only way to have have the kind of trust with a pastor
to let him cut on you like that is you have had to have built a
(36:47):
relationship with him. And he's proven himself that
he's got your best interests at heart.
He's not about to chop you down.He's just going to cut you back
so you can come back better thanwhat you were.
You have built roots. Yes.
(37:08):
So, so I, I guess we'll, we'll end it here, but Jeremiah 17,
seven and eight might. Have been Jeremiah 17. 17-7 and
eight. All right, let.
Me. Let me pull this up, Jeremiah.
(37:31):
You said 17. Jeremiah, if you're listening,
this one is is for you. Yeah.
I always find. It funny when one of the
ministers in our church, BrotherMark Risley, preaches out of the
book of Mark. Yeah, you couldn't pick another
you. Do this on purpose.
(37:51):
Blessed is the. Man that trusts in the Lord, and
whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when the heat cometh, but her leaf
shall be green, and shall not becareful in the air of draw,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
(38:13):
Yeah, so, man, if you want to beblessed, then you need to put
your faith and your trust in God, and you need to get
somewhere and get planted. You need to get planted by
rivers of living water. Yeah.
You need to find a church that not only has good soil.
(38:36):
Yeah, but the Spirit flows right.
And if you can get in a, in a tree, in a, in a vineyard that
has good ground, truth is being preached and the Holy Ghost is
moving and get in that ground, put roots down and refuse to
(38:57):
move and God's blessing and favor will be on your life and
you will grow into something beautiful for the glory of God.
God bless you and musicians come.
Welcome back to the Ocala Churchpodcast with Pastor Ryan
Brister. You know, today we were shopping
around for different topics and we came across the idea of
church hopping. All right, welcome back to the
(00:29):
Ocala Church podcast. We are excited to be here today
for another podcast. So I'm very much looking forward
to the topic of the day. And before we get into it, we
wanted to plug a few things. Absolutely.
First, if anybody wants to send donations to get a right-handed
(00:51):
mug, Pastor Rooster, he's been struggling with the left-handed
mug for a while. I really have.
I just built this twice today. Yeah, left-handed coming around
the mic stand. It's rough y'all.
It really is. Plant to see now.
Lord help. Us man, things are good at the
(01:12):
Ocala church. We're blessed and it's, it's
been incredible. Ocala coffee coming in as
always. Amen.
Well, that's another. We're not standing on holy.
Grail. We're sipping on the Holy Grail
word. Combined with the espresso of.
The local church so. Mix and mix together.
(01:36):
We, we have been seeing an increase in an incline on some
of our viewership. And so thank you all for tuning
in, comments, reviews, everything that you've been
doing for all the algorithm stuff.
It's really only one way to go up a go from here.
I think there's one way. We're either flat, SO or right.
(01:57):
No way. Say no.
To the plot, so. Amen, right.
Come on with somebody. So we are.
We're done. That was all we need to do.
It's not. Mine.
I think it's Cody, Mark forever.So man, back on track, Church.
(02:21):
Hopping and shopping. Church hopping and shopping is
our topic of the day and we are before we get into that, we did
have a question come through. Do we want to throw a quick
answer to that one? I guess.
I guess we had, we had an anonymous question come through
the podcast through our e-mail podcast at Ocala dot church.
(02:44):
So if you're wondering how this got here and why we're answering
this today is because somebody emailed in to podcast at Ocala
dot Church with a question for us at all People.
What? Was the question.
All right, sorry. The question was what is the
difference between teaching and preaching I?
(03:04):
Think Pastor had an answer? Yeah, y'all want to take a stab
at that. I think the main difference
between teaching and preaching is when you preach the first
four rows get spit on and when you teach the first two rows.
So it's really the the difference between teaching and
(03:26):
preaching is volume. Volume and then if you get in
that category of treaching, it'srow 3.
So it's kind of the in between. Yeah, I think, I think really
the difference between teaching and preaching is preaching is
proclaiming. And, you know, in the Apostolic
tradition, preaching is done with a lot of passion, and it's
(03:48):
many times very, very. Exuberant.
Exuberant but inspiring and veryevangelistic at times.
Then also it can be, you know, conviction.
Teaching is more of a laid back.Doesn't mean it's boring, but
(04:09):
it's more of a laid back setting, going line upon line,
precept upon precept and breaking down biblical truths
verse by verse versus expository.
Yes. Verse by verse analysis, Yeah.
So basically, the scope of preaching is much wider than
teaching. Teaching is more about being
grounded. Yeah.
(04:31):
And so preaching can be expository, obviously, but in
the Apostolic tradition, preaching just more volume, more
cowbat. That's a very oh, Jesus,
tambourine. Y'all pray for me when you pray.
(04:58):
But it it, it's that is a very, very rudimentary answer to the
question in this 32nd slot. But that's the basics of it,
yeah. Yeah.
So I would say preaching is moreon the inspirational side of
things and teaching is more on the informational side of
(05:20):
things. Yeah.
So that's good. That's good.
So all right, I hope that answers your question.
If you have more, if it wasn't good enough, you don't let us
know. We'll do a podcast about it or
something. Leave a.
Review about it, but make sure it's five stars.
Five star review how good it was.
(05:40):
And so our topic today is about church shopping and hopping.
What what is it? Look, what even is this?
Some people might not understandwhat What does it mean to church
shop? So I would say that you kind of
have to back up, you know, 40-50years.
(06:05):
You know, this has always been athing.
But 40-50 years ago, I would say, especially in the part of
the country that I grew up in, it was very, very common for
people to attend the same churchcongregation for generations.
(06:31):
You know, grandparents, great grandparents, children,
grandchildren, great grandchildren, all, you know,
grew up going to the same churchand they were very faithful to
that church, very loyal to that church.
And with the advent of really the Internet where church became
(07:02):
commercialized, a lot of church,what I call church shopping
started happening to where people were exposed to every
flavor of church imaginable across the board.
And so you can go on now nowadays, you know, everybody
(07:25):
has a live stream, everybody's on the Internet, every church
is, you know, has put themselvesout there.
And so you can go on Facebook live every Sunday and shop like
your window shopping for clothes.
You can shop your favorite brandof church.
(07:48):
You know, you can find what fitsyour your likes, your dislikes,
your preferences, style of worship, the style of preaching.
And so a lot of people are shopping for their preferences
when it comes to church instead of growing up in a, you know,
(08:12):
one church setting for their entirety of their life and then
their kids grow up in that church.
And so that is, and then and then the, you know, church
hopping come from, you know, this idea of a person goes to a
(08:32):
particular church and then something is said or preached or
taught or something happens in the church.
Somebody says something they don't like and they just go down
the road to another church. This is very prevalent in the
United States of America becausethere's so many churches, less
prevalent in other countries because there's not as many
(08:56):
churches to go around, but church on every street corner.
Yeah, especially in the southernpart of the United States.
I mean, churches are in abundance in every flavor you
can think of. And so, and then, you know, a
man will or a man or a woman will, you know, leave that
(09:17):
church, go to another church. And then that church, eventually
they're going to say something that they don't like.
And so they hop to another church and then they hop to
another church. And they never and here's the
keyword and never get planted anywhere right though not.
Necessarily the fact that they moved, it's the fact that they
haven't been planted. Yes, yeah.
(09:39):
I mean, because the moving churches is not necessarily a
sin and that ought to get a response from some people.
But moving churches is not necessarily in itself wrong, but
(10:00):
it can be wrong if it's not donefor the right reasons.
And there is something to be said.
There is a Bible principle of being planted, people being
planted, and you can look at Psalms chapter 92 and verse 13.
(10:24):
Says Those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall
flourish in the courts of our God, Yes.
So you, you think of this as like you're planting a fruit
tree. Yeah.
And if you want a fruit tree to flourish and grow and produce
(10:46):
fruit, you've got to get it in good ground and leave it.
Now. There has to be watering done,
there has to be cultivation done, there has to be wedding
done, there has to be pruning done.
But there's only so much transplanting that can be done.
(11:11):
And so that is that is the concern of mine is not
necessarily that a that a tree is transplanted from time to
time. My concern is when you make it a
habit the roots can't take. Right.
And the tree can't grow, therefore it never produces
(11:34):
fruit. I mean you, you show me.
Just I mean our audience. You can think about this, but
you show me anybody that you canthink of that is that fits the
description of a church hopper. Where, where is the fruit in
their life? Are they a soul winner?
(11:57):
Are these people usually people who are very effective in in
developing other people in the church?
But rarely, and I would, I don'tknow of anybody that that is the
case where they're just hopping from church to church, that
they're really effective in any area in the Kingdom because you
(12:21):
have to get in one spot and get planted to be able to grow.
And so the idea is that is to beplanted, not potted.
That's good planted, not potted.So God's not in the business of
potted plants. Wow, wow, that's good.
(12:45):
We have some, you know. Bible bombs up there, right?
Now, I'm sorry, we'll get some of those.
We got to. Build that up.
We have some potted palm trees on our church property.
(13:08):
You're we're in Florida, so we have palm trees.
It's it's like something you have to do.
It's a legal. Requirement, actually, yeah,
regulations. Yeah.
So, but if you'll go out there and look, we have, we have
potted palms and we have palm trees in the front of our
building that are planted. Yeah.
Which one's bigger? Plant.
(13:29):
We got those planted palm trees there, pretty tall.
They've grown about 3 feet sincewe put them in last year.
Wow. Wow.
And so the potted plants haven'tgrown at all?
No, the potted palms, they're the they're literally the same
type of palms. They're all queen palms.
(13:51):
Wow. But they, the potted ones, can
only grow to a certain extent. If they're going to go further,
they've got to get planted in the ground.
Planted in a space that doesn't have them moving all the time,
Yes. Well that's why we put the
potted ones in pots, so we can move them, but in the moving we
(14:14):
have decided that these plants will never grow to their full
potential. Wow, it's pretty rude of us to
do this to these palm trees. Not.
Very root. It's very root of us.
This is This is getting bad. Well, I've heard it said, I
(14:38):
forget the exact quote, but something along the lines of
like wisdom is planting a tree, understanding that you'll never
get the shade out of it, but thenext generation will, yes.
And so that's very good. If you have a a tree that's
rooted and planted, it can grow to that point.
And so it's kind of, I mean, youcan't speak for our situation,
but deciding to be planted is something that's going to help
(15:00):
the next generation. It's looking in the future and
deciding I'm going to do this for somebody else and not for
myself. Absolutely, that's very good.
So in order to grow a, a tree must have constant in the early
(15:26):
stages. It must have constant
supervision and care. This is why Hebrews 13 and 17
talks about yeah, obeying them that have the rule over you
(15:46):
submit. Yourselves and submit.
Yourselves to a watch for yourself get planted in their in
their life. You need to you need to where
are you going Kevin? Just put him on his.
Face my God, we preach. Kevin under conviction, he just
(16:12):
put his ears right in my shot. It's a.
Move him a little out of the shot.
It's so good. He's going to always be.
That's a little better. I hope our audience is still
with us through all of that. Anyway, the the you've got to
(16:32):
get in the care of someone that you can trust, that will nurture
you so that you can grow. The Bible says that God gives us
pastors according to his heart and they feed us with knowledge
(16:57):
and understanding. They give you what a what a
pastor is supposed to be doing is giving you and feeding you
with what it will take for you to grow into your full
potential. Well, he can't do that if he
leaves you in the pot and treatsyou like you may not be here
tomorrow. That's.
(17:17):
Good treats you like. He could if he needs to.
He can move you over here one day.
No, he's got to treat you like you're a fixture here in order
for you to grow. And so spiritual accountability
is such an important thing in the life of any Christian.
(17:42):
And you, if you, if you're constantly bouncing around
trying to find just someone who will tell you what you want to
hear, right, Right. They may not be telling you what
you need to grow because most ofthe stuff that caused me to grow
(18:04):
in my walk with God was stuff I did not want to hear.
Yeah, just because you. Have a pastor doesn't mean it's
the pastor. God has given you after his own
heart, Yes. Yes, it has to be God's will.
And so church hopping, really, at the core of it is really what
(18:30):
it's doing, is avoiding accountability.
Church hoppers never stay in oneplace long enough to be held
accountable for anything. And the moment someone tries to
hold them accountable, they hop.They start shopping, and then
they hop. They get on Facebook, they find
(18:52):
the next church that has a pretty good music program and
the preacher preaches pretty good and they're on to the next
thing until they get confronted again.
And that is the spirit behind church hopping is it is I am I
am not going to be head accountable, held accountable.
(19:15):
But if the if the husbandmen of the garden does not hold the
plants accountable, they can't grow.
And so constant movement prevents pastors and leaders
from truly knowing and guiding you.
(19:38):
You need a pastor that knows you.
Because if you've got to build arelationship with someone, it's
not. I'm not talking about somebody
being a buddy with your pastor. I'm not talking about going and
playing golf with your pastor every week.
I'm talking about a pastor that has been around you long enough.
(20:00):
That He knows you spiritually and he can speak to you
spiritually and he can hold you spiritually accountable.
It church hopping creates a spiritual loophole where
correction is dodged and discipline is always avoided.
(20:25):
And so you need to ask yourself before you make the move, I'm
not, I'm not talking against moving churches.
Again, sometimes it's necessary.But before you make the move,
you need to ask yourself, am I doing this because somebody
tried to hold me accountable? Or am I doing this because this
(20:46):
is the will of God? Am I doing this because I got
offended or am I doing this because this is the will of God?
Am I doing this to avoid correction or am I doing this in
pursuit of comfort? Or am I doing this because this
(21:08):
is what God is leading me to do?And if you've got a praying
pastor and if you got a spirit LED pastor, most of the time
he'll know if it's the right thing.
He may not like it, but he'll know it's the right thing.
(21:36):
So let's, let's, let's look at the dangers of the consumer
mentality for a minute. Yeah.
So Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse #3 and four it says for
the. Time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
(22:00):
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables. So man, is this not applicable
to our current culture, the Internet?
And I'm not speaking against it.We're on it right now.
(22:25):
Hello. Hi.
What the? But the Internet has made it
possible for people to turn church and pastoral
personalities into commodities to be consumed.
(22:50):
And so we get on. And we have turn the church into
something that we shop instead of something that is to change
us. Churches, church is a community
(23:11):
that once you find a community of truth preaching, truth,
believing Saints and pastor, that you plant yourself with
them and you grow with that congregation and be loyal to
that congregation. Man loyalty is so absent in our
(23:39):
culture today and we are so quick to jump bandwagons.
It's a thing. It is a thing.
Outside. Church inside church people,
just whoever's on top right now will go.
Yeah, yeah. We'll do that.
When you talk about the consumermentality, it's a huge market is
being pushed for. Just lease this car.
(24:01):
You don't have to keep it and you can get a new one in another
two years. You can get a brand new car next
year. Just just test drive it, see how
you like it, lease it. If you don't like it, switch it
out in a couple years and just go to something new.
You can do it every two years. Yeah, we.
Well, we don't even we don't even keep our spouses very long.
(24:23):
We and. And I, you know, I, I'm saying
that it's kind of tongue in cheek, but it's a, it's a
symptom of this idea that we're,we're not loyal to anything
anymore. And if you're.
Not then what? What are you?
Yeah. Can you identify yourself as
something if you're not loyal toanything?
Yeah, you can't. You can't.
(24:47):
So you know, we have got to heedthe warning of Paul not to be on
the Internet shopping around forwhatever scratches the itch in
our ears. I, I, I'm, I'm going to say some
things that's going to get me introuble.
But I have, I have experienced as an evangelist traveling
(25:10):
around the country preaching forgreat, great men of God and have
somebody stand up in that congregation backing me up while
I was preaching. And I could tell in this, the
spirit behind there, a man was off.
(25:32):
And I come to find out that theyfelt like I was challenging what
their pastor had been telling them.
Wow. And they were rooting for me to
side with them over their pastor.
And I had no idea they're doing it with their Amen.
And I knew something was weird when they stood up and they
(25:55):
responded. The way they responded, it's
like finally somebody's in theirmind, somebody's saying what
I've been trying to get across to my pastor.
Well, no. If I'm saying something that is
contrary to what your pastor is telling you, I'm wrong and he's
right. Because he's.
(26:16):
Been the one here cultivating you and watering you and feeding
you with knowledge and understanding.
I don't even know you dude. I.
Don't know your situation. No, I don't.
Have a clue and people can. People are looking for any
chance that people with this kind of spirit are looking for
(26:39):
any chance to twist. Even people with good motives
twist what they're saying to scratch the itch of what they
want to hear. And if people can find somebody
that'll preach what they want tohear, they they'll move Slam
across the country. No loyalties, no strings
(27:02):
attached. Don't even feel bad for leaving
their church and their pastor high and dry.
And we can't, we can't do that. We have got to learn to be loyal
again, man, if if and we'll get into it.
But you know, there is there is scriptural precedence for, you
(27:26):
know, if your pastor is in doctrinal error, you need to
have a conversation with him. But that might be grounds to
leave if if your pastor or leadership is in moral error,
right? They fall into sin egregiously
and something crazy happens, that might be grounds to leave.
(27:52):
But man, all of this just Willy nilly walking out on our
churches and walking out on our congregations and walking out on
our pastors and walking out on the vision of the church without
any kind of feeling of remorse because of our lack of loyalty
is, is a tragedy. And it went if, if, if God is
(28:16):
calling us to move, if God is through a, a marriage situation
or a career change situation or whatever it might be.
And it needs to be done with a whole lot of prayer and fasting
and counsel from people that won't just tell you what you
want to hear. But before you make a move like
(28:38):
that, you need to ask somebody that's not a yes man.
You need to ask somebody that's told you no before.
Wow. What we do a lot of times is we
we go to all the people we know will agree with us and ask them
what they think like you. Mentioned before we just you
(29:00):
said there's a safety and multitude of counsel, but people
will go to enough people until somebody says what we want to
hear. You didn't say a.
Multitude that can't be numberedyou.
Just said a multitude. Just a multitude.
Well, it's based on the. Average answer more so than the
isolated answer of what we wanted to hear well.
God's probably put the right people in your life already to
(29:24):
counsel you. And there's a reason why you
don't want to listen to them. If you don't want to listen to
them, yeah, it's probably because you've already made-up
your mind of what you're going to do.
And then you will. You.
We we will search to find somebody that will agree.
(29:44):
Yeah, right. Right.
But you know, I I wanted to lookat the book of Acts chapter 2.
We are. Looking at 42 says and they
continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and
(30:07):
fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
So he he says back in Second Timothy 4, he says they there
will come a time when people will heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears. But in the first church they
continued steadfastly in what they were taught and in
(30:32):
fellowship with one another. And man they went through,
pardon my pardon the expression,but they went through hell
together. They went through tribulation
together and the one of the A good question to ask yourself
(30:58):
when you are looking to make a achurch change is am I looking to
carry a cross or am I looking for a show?
Am I looking for a place that I can get under the burden of
something and push towards a vision?
(31:21):
Or am I looking to attend an entertainment gallery that's
good? What's the heart behind what
you're doing? Yeah.
What's the? Motive behind what you're doing
to be honest with yourself. Yes.
Yes, and that's a hard thing to do.
It is. If you're.
Not if you're not praying and your spirit is not under
(31:42):
subjection to the Spirit of God.It is a very, very easy thing to
get to the place where you can lie to yourself without knowing
it. Oh yeah, yeah, deceiving your
own selves. The Bible says so they they they
continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and in
(32:04):
fellowship. Second Second Timothy 310
through 15. But thou has.
Fully known. My doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions,
afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at
Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the
(32:24):
Lord delivered me keep. Going.
Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution, but evil menand seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which you have learned and has
been assured of. Continue.
In them knowing of. Whom thou has learned them, and
(32:45):
that from a child you have knownthe Holy Scriptures which are
able to make the wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus. They learned these things from
Paul their their apostle, their pastor.
They learned these things from Paul and he said that they grew
under his leadership and they grew under his mentorship after
(33:13):
being faithful over time. And so, you know, one of the one
of the issues that a lot of people have coming into the
churches, you know, they live in, they live completely opposed
to the ways of God for a majority of their life 20-30
(33:35):
years. And then they come into the
church, and if God don't fix every detail of their life in 20
minutes, they're looking for something else.
Well, it it don't turn over overnight.
God saves you in a moment, but building a life takes time.
(33:58):
Yeah, it. Does building a life?
That is fruitful and that is that has the blessing and the
favor of God that on it that that is something that takes
place through the process of time as you submit yourself to
godly loving leadership that youallow them to have access to
(34:21):
your spirit. Somebody who can fertilize and
also prune. They they.
Can cut away things that need tobe cut, but then when
fertilizing is to happen for quick growth and for.
Giving. They know what the plants gone
through. They know what's happened to
that, They know what this specific case needs.
(34:41):
Yeah. Well, the pruning process is
something that when, when a, when a pastor, a husbandman of a
of a church starts pruning people, that is a very, very
difficult thing. Yeah, for a lot of people,
because they've gotten used to those branches, right?
(35:03):
And it. Feels like you're cutting me
down to size. I've gotten you, you know, the,
the tree feels like it's gotten really big because it's got
these limbs and all of a sudden the husbandman's coming through
and he's cutting them back 3-4 feet and you're like, what are
you doing? I mean, I, I, it took me a long
time to get this big, right? What they?
(35:25):
What they don't understand is itif, if you don't let the
husbandman prune you, you can't get any bigger than what you've
already gotten. He's cutting you back so that
you can get bigger. But what trees develop is,
there's a, I'm sure a scientificterm, but I grew up in the
(35:46):
middle of nowhere and we called them suckers.
These dead limbs that over time cease to be fruitful, but
they're still attached to the tree and they're sucking
nutrients from the tree. And if if a if a husbandman or a
gardener that knows what they'redoing don't go in there and cut
(36:06):
those dead limbs off, they will stunt the growth of the tree.
That's good. Yeah, man, many.
Times people want decide it's time to transplant because the
pastor's coming in and cutting all the dead stuff out of their
life that they need to get rid of.
He's trying to help them go to the next level.
(36:26):
All they see is the knife in hishand and they're ready to get
out from under the knife. And it takes a lot of faith and
a lot of confidence and a lot oftrust.
And the only way to have have the kind of trust with a pastor
to let him cut on you like that is you have had to have built a
(36:47):
relationship with him. And he's proven himself that
he's got your best interests at heart.
He's not about to chop you down.He's just going to cut you back
so you can come back better thanwhat you were.
You have built roots. Yes.
(37:08):
So, so I, I guess we'll, we'll end it here, but Jeremiah 17,
seven and eight might. Have been Jeremiah 17. 17-7 and
eight. All right, let.
Me. Let me pull this up, Jeremiah.
(37:31):
You said 17. Jeremiah, if you're listening,
this one is is for you. Yeah.
I always find. It funny when one of the
ministers in our church, BrotherMark Risley, preaches out of the
book of Mark. Yeah, you couldn't pick another
you. Do this on purpose.
(37:51):
Blessed is the. Man that trusts in the Lord, and
whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when the heat cometh, but her leaf
shall be green, and shall not becareful in the air of draw,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
(38:13):
Yeah, so, man, if you want to beblessed, then you need to put
your faith and your trust in God, and you need to get
somewhere and get planted. You need to get planted by
rivers of living water. Yeah.
You need to find a church that not only has good soil.
(38:36):
Yeah, but the Spirit flows right.
And if you can get in a, in a tree, in a, in a vineyard that
has good ground, truth is being preached and the Holy Ghost is
moving and get in that ground, put roots down and refuse to
(38:57):
move and God's blessing and favor will be on your life and
you will grow into something beautiful for the glory of God.
God bless you and musicians come.
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