“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)
Church is a place that pushes for conformity to the will of God. The church wants Christians and others to see that conforming to the world is essentially conforming to a life of sin, degradation, and eternal damnation. Oftentimes, the church places judgments upon its members that the biblical texts never truly interjects. All one needs to do is read the verse of scripture in the entirety of the text to understand the true context and meaning, but this often does not come with true clarity when one sits in a narcissistically empowered church.
In narcissistically empowered churches, the above scripture has hidden meaning because the church itself is seen as a god in the lives of its members with pastors and members of leadership wielding the power and control. Conformity to a narcissistically empowered church usually means conforming to the plans that the church wants for its members’ lives with the expectation that members will follow suit. Believe me, members will follow or find themselves to be in direct opposition to the gods of the church.
The Pressure To Conform
Narcissistically empowered churches apply pressure to members so that members follow certain standards of doctrine created by the leaders of the church. These churches want the appearance of godliness, but they deny the true godly power that is needed to exercise changed lives. Just like a narcissist who likes to copy and paste themselves into the lives of their targets, narcissistically empowered churches like nothing better than to have carbon copied members who follow the same application of doctrine no matter how phony this doctrine is in terms of truth.
These churches pressure members to conform in a number of ways, and the tactics they use fly very much under the radar of detection but are often in the members’ faces so that if complaints are ever lodged against members of leadership, those same leaders can feign their own ignorance and lack of accountability for the ruse. For the most part, these churches simply want power over their members and control over the members’ lives in ways that are not even deserved, certainly not warranted, and have no business being the case.
These churches do not allow for members to stray away from the carefully drafted script. Everyone has a part to play. Members are to play their parts blindly and without question. Members should not be free thinkers and should never exercise the extent of the brain that requires any logical or critical thinking. If the leaders say the sky is pink, then the members need to prove that pink is what they see.
Being a member of these churches is not about the members at all or even about God; it’s about the leaders and their agenda. The egos of leadership must be stroked because they manage the church. For these churches, conformity has very little to do with sin. Conformity is more about doing what the leaders tell members to do and believing that the leaders know best for members’ lives. Biblical passages are used as a guide for teaching members how to lead their lives, but these passages are often twisted to fit the agenda the church wants for members.
The leaders in these churches control everything – all activities. There is even a measure of control that they attempt to establish in members’ outside-of-the-church lives. Of course, they will use as many bible verses as possible to justify this as if somehow giving alms to God is giving alms to them. This twisting of the scriptures is how so many members are deluded and deceived by the leadership’s continued domination even at the members’ own detriment.
Sadly, many members never find out they are being fleeced by these leaders until it is too late. Too late is when members have been ravaged for their financial net worth, tossed here and there with prophetic musings and words designed to tear them apart, and battered about leaving devastation for years to come to their families. It is the conformity to these churches’ ways of life that has distanced many members from wanting to have anything to do with the church or God.
Essentially, these churches do not practice what they preach. Despite their teaching not to conform to this world, they more often conform to a demonic world. Members and onlookers cannot always decipher if these churches really replicate a church that spreads the message of the Christ that they speak of so highly. Instead, these churches would rather their members not renew their minds with the word of God but more renew their minds in the false words that the leaders speak to them. It is best to avoid becoming a member of these churches at all, and if you suspect that you are a part of this type of church, find yourself walking out of the nearest exist never to return.
My Voice Unchained 