Does God ever break up churches? This is an important question for the Church to address.

In the first article in this series on The Great Migration, “A Growing Hunger for True Church,” we discussed how many people in the Body of Christ are leaving organized church in search of Acts chapter 2 “authentic church.” Today, let us examine whether or not this movement could possibly be from God, even though it goes against what the religious community has built in our nation for hundreds of years!

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I challenged you in the first article to read Ezekiel 34. Did you do it?

If so, you might have been surprised to find that God was exceedingly angry at the shepherds of Israel when He spoke the words of that chapter. His anger raged hot against them because:

• They were feeding themselves, instead of feeding the sheep;
• They were benefiting personally from the ministry without making sure the sheep were taken care of;
• They were not strengthening the weak;
• They did not heal the sick;
• They did not bind up the injured;
• They did not bring back those who had strayed from the flock;
• They were not seeking the “sheep” who were lost; and
• They were ruling “with force and harshness” (see Ezekiel 34:4 ESV).

In Ezekiel 34:5-6, the Lord specifically states the sheep were scattered because they had no shepherd—and that none were searching for or seeking out those scattered sheep.

Then, in verse 7, we see the glaringly tough edict of the Lord.

It’s an edict we might never imagine that the Lord God, the Founder of His church, would issue:

Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them (Ezekiel 34:7-10 ESV, emphasis mine).

The Lord actually says in this passage that He will require His sheep at the errant shepherds’ hands.

Wow.

That’s heavy.

Friend, if you apply this Scripture to today—and you can, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He still cares for His sheep today the same way He always has—you come face-to-face with an extremely harsh reality:

If pastors don’t shepherd their sheep the way Jesus wants them shepherded, God will take the sheep away from the pastor.

So does God ever shut down churches? Yes.

Is God responsible for shutting down XYZ Church? I don’t know. But let’s consider:

• Did the pastor feed the sheep—or feed themselves?
• Is the pastor building a big ministry and focusing on personal promotion, while the sheep are starving for leadership, mentoring, and authentic community?
• Did the pastor notice the missing sheep and seek them out, not notice at all, or notice and choose to take offense?
• Did the pastor pay attention to individual needs in the flock, such as the needs for emotional healing and practical mentoring? Or, did the pastor ignore or criticize those sheep in crisis?
• Does the pastor lead as a servant, growing in grace and godliness, or with force and harshness? (This most often is displayed in the church office rather than the pulpit.)
• Does the church have a rotating door? Do people leave as fast as they come in? Has the pastor ever been humble enough to ask those people why they left, looking for feedback that would help keep the sheep from being scattered?

Friend, the sad fact is that if any pastor or leader of God’s church allows the sheep to become a prey, putting themselves first instead of the needs of the sheep (the real needs of the sheep, not the pastor’s perception of the sheep’s needs), God will remove those sheep from their leadership.

So yes, God does remove people from churches.

God sees what men cannot:

• He sees the secret abuse of the church staff behind closed doors.
• He sees how volunteers are treated.
• He listens to secret conversations.
• He sees the tears wept by those abused in church.
• He sees those who battle spirits of death and suicide because of loneliness, isolation, and pain from problems in a church.
• He is with the lonely in cliquish, unfriendly, legalistic churches without true mentorship or discipleship.

If you keep reading the rest of Ezekiel 34, you will see that God’s judgment is quite harsh upon the pastors—the shepherds. He judges the pastors harshly because His heart is tender toward the sheep.

And God’s heart is just as tender toward you and your family today as it was toward the Israelite “sheep” those thousands of years ago.

God does remove sheep from bad shepherds. It’s not even about a total lack of shepherds; the shepherds on the receiving end of the Lord’s wrath in Ezekiel 34 were present in place, doing something with the sheep.

But it was what they were doing, what they were not doing, and the way they were doing it, that sealed their doom.

So does God shut down churches? Yes.

Does God tell people to leave churches? Yes, under certain circumstances.

Does God take people out of the ministry—even people who “look” so good on the outside that they have celebrity reputations?

Yes, sometimes. The Lord looks at the heart, not at celebrity status, when qualifying a shepherd to keep a flock on His behalf.

Is God the Author of a church’s revolving door?

Possibly. If a shepherd is unworthy, then YES: the Lord will deliver hapless sheep out of that shepherd’s hand as soon as the sheep will listen to the Spirit’s promptings.

Is it possible for people to leave a church for merely fleshly reasons, and it not be the Spirit of God?

Yes, and we’ll talk about that in a future article.

However, for now, although it goes against our American religious traditions, I pray that you will see based on the Word of God that our great Shepherd of the sheep DOES require His sheep from the hands of unworthy shepherds.

When He removes them, He does it so He can heal the sheep. He personally takes them under His wing and heals the damage created by undeserving shepherds. Isn’t that just like our God? His kindness, goodness, and mercy endure forever!

So could the mass movement of people OUT of organized churches and INTO micro-churches and home churches actually be a move of God? YES. Yes, yes, and a thousand times yes.

In the next article in this series, we’ll explore when leaving a church might be a reaction of flesh, instead of a movement by the Spirit of God. Between now and then, I urge you to read Acts chapter 2. In that chapter, note the differences between the Acts 2 church that Jesus built compared to your experience in what we call “organized church” today.

Have you seen the Lord removing sheep from undeserving shepherds? Are the words of Ezekiel 34 resonating with you today? If so, leave a comment below!

Jamie Rohrbaugh is the founder and CEO of From His Presence. She is the author of Victory In the Camp of the Lord Volume 1: Healing from Fear. Her resources have been published by YouVersion Bible Plans, Charisma Magazine, The Elijah List, Spirit Fuel, and various other ministry outlets. You can find free mentoring on her podcast, Take Your Territory with Jamie Rohrbaugh, which is available through your favorite podcast streaming app. Download her free prayer tool, Praying the Names of God: 555 Biblical Names of God and How to Use Them in Prayer and Worship, here. Photo Credit: Canva.