10 Toxic Traditions That Are Killing the Church

We see the church as a building and not the people.

If when you hear the word ‘church’ you immediately think of a location and a building, that’s a toxic tradition. The church has never been the building. It’s always been the people. Why is this tradition toxic? Too many churches think that if they have the building paid off and enough money to pay the light bill, they can have church. When you think of church as a location, it tempts you to act holy inside a building but then do whatever you want outside of it, because you’re not ‘in church.’ If we understood that the church is the people, then it forces us to put more value on people then we do on buildings. And that doesn’t always happen. Too often buildings and architecture come before people. Early in ministry I had a sweet group of little old ladies that would come into the sanctuary on Thursday mornings after we had our big youth services the night before. They were looking for scuff marks on the pews that they could charge me for. For them, was the church the building, not the people.