Phenomenon of church hopping

Changing churches often is typically called church hopping. Pastors sometimes refer to this process as sheep swapping.

There are two kinds of church hoppers. There are those who join a church and put down roots and become very involved. Then every few years, they repeat the process. On the other hand, there are those who never join any church.

They treat church attendance like a cafeteria, sampling this and that from various churches.

Every church is made up of imperfect people and will have issues come up. Some choose to leave that church with its set of problems and join another church — which, you guessed it, has its own set of problems.

There are legitimate reasons to leave a church such as a failure to teach and preach the full truth of the Bible. Another legitimate reason for leaving a church is when it teaches that Jesus is not the only way of salvation. There may be other reasons but before you hop from one church to another, be sure there is actually a legitimate reason.

Chip Warren
Ministry leader