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Jim McCrory

Why Is My Congregation Not Feel Right?

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Thursday 7 August 2025 at 11:09

Why Is My Congregation Not Feel Right?
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” — Micah 6:8

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I recently began watching Abide In Me ( A.I.M ) Radio on YouTube. The Christian sister there speaks my language.

There has never been a time when my congregation felt like a living body. A place where kindness lingered in the air like incense, and where humility walked in quietly, not needing to announce itself. 

We gathered not just to be counted but to count for something; to bring warmth into one another’s lives and to worship the God who sees the heart. But something changed. Something vital slipped through our fingers as we became more obsessed with numbers, growth, and headcounts.

Micah 6:8 is both a rebuke and an invitation. It's not a complicated verse. It doesn’t ask for doctrinal gymnastics or constant updates to theological policies. It simply asks for three things: justice, kindness, and humility. In that order. A moral taught us to be human in a Godly way from the days of the Hebrew prophets. But somewhere along the way, those words became too soft, too subtle for a culture chasing measurable success and sweeping organisational sin under the carpet. Numbers became our proof of blessing, our evidence of truth, our substitute for Micah 6:8.

The more we clung to outcomes, the more we forgot the inward journey. I saw elders grow sharper in discipline but duller in compassion. I watched brothers speak of “God’s arrangement” with an icy detachment that betrayed no love. I heard phrases like “theocratic order” used not to inspire but to silence. And yet, the poor, the doubters, the wanderers—those Jesus would have met on the road—were quietly pushed out or told to sit down and “be obedient.”

But obedience without love is just performance. And a performance will eventually wear thin.

What Micah reminds us of is that God doesn't change His standards. Not these ones. He doesn’t measure our righteousness by the number of hours we preach or by how well we enforce rules. He looks for the fragrance of mercy in our dealings with each other. He watches how we treat the ones who’ve fallen behind. He listens for humility in our speech, not just in our prayers.

I must ask myself: is my congregation lost in numbers because it fears the uncertainty of grace? Grace doesn’t tally. It doesn’t rank. It flows. It's dangerous to institutions that rely on control, but it is the very thing that makes us human in the sight of God. It’s dangerous to Christians to worship the organisation and pay lip service to God like company people.

Micah’s call is not just a warning—it is a way home. “Act justly.” Not when it’s convenient or aligns with policy, but always. When it hurts. “Love mercy.” Not tolerate it. Love it. Seek it like treasure. And “walk humbly with your God.” Not ahead of Him, dictating the terms. Not behind Him, reluctant and self-righteous. But with Him. In step. Like Enoch did.

So many congregations today have become administrative machines rather than spiritual families. That is why people leave—not because they lack faith, but because they no longer recognise the God they came to know in Scripture.

I am one of them. Not faithless, but heartsick. Longing not for a religion of reports, but a faith of radiant mercy. And I know I’m not alone. There are others who still believe in Micah’s words, not as a slogan, but as a heartbeat. Who know that true worship isn’t measured by volume or speed, but by the presence of justice, mercy, and humility among us.

God is not interested in our ever-changing metrics. He’s not impressed by our spiritual spreadsheets. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever—and He calls us back. Not to performance, but to personhood. To being truly human. To walking again in the dust of the prophets, in the footsteps of Jesus, and into the arms of the Father who never stopped caring about how we treat one another.

Micah 6:8 is not a verse to recite. It’s a mirror. And if we dare to investigate it, really look, we might just find our way again—not as an institution, but as a congregation of the heart.

 

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Jim McCrory

Walking a Different Path: Spirituality in a Changing UK

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For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth,

to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (BSB).




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It's often said these days that the UK is becoming a secular place, what with so many churches closing and religious attendance dropping. But I think that story misses a bigger picture. You see, I've always felt that religion, at least the way it's often practiced now, isn't quite hitting the mark. It's become a bit too much about itself—its buildings, its routines, its politics—and less about the core of what it means to really live a Christian life like they did back in the first century.

I'm not alone in this feeling. Many folks are getting "churched out," as I like to say. They're tired of the institutional grind that seems to forget the heart of the Christian message—love, kindness, and community. Instead of sitting in pews, they're rolling up their sleeves and doing God's work directly. They're out in the community, volunteering at charities, helping where the need is greatest, living their faith through action.

I know this because wherever I go—whether I'm taking a stroll through the woods or just out and about—I end up talking to people about this very shift. There's a real movement of people who are finding their spiritual fulfilment outside traditional church walls. Nature often becomes our contemplative escape; the open sky, a vaulted ceiling that inspires more awe than any stained glass ever could.

This isn't about abandoning faith. Far from it. It's about rediscovering it in its most basic and beautiful form. It's about going back to what Christianity was all about in the beginning: not the trappings or the power structures, but the simple, profound act of loving and serving others.

So, even though it might look like the UK is turning secular, I think it's more accurate to say that spirituality is just changing its address. It's moving out of the old structures and into the streets, Online meetings, into the homes, into the places where people really live their lives. And I find that incredibly hopeful. Because no matter where we are—surrounded by nature or just doing our bit in our corner of the world—we're part of a community of believers walking this path together, sharing and rediscovering what faith really means in the process.

 

 


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