Thank you to ProjectWatpad for talking about this topic in your book and of course, thank you Jesus for teaching me this lesson.

I decided to break this into two parts due to the length of what Jesus taught me. It would be too overwhelming to teach all this information in one part.

Did some edits too.

Arkada, what is the meaning of your odd title?

Many people are unfamiliar with the term, "Churchianity." The sad truth is that many of those who identify as Christians follow this practice, rather than true Christianity.

Churchianity is the practice of believing that church teachings and practices are the only way of following Jesus. It's the practice of being too focused on church, and not focused enough on Jesus.

The problem with Churchianity is that it guides people down a false path of faith in Jesus. There are many churches that teach ridiculous but relatively mild rules, like which musical instruments are unfit for praising Jesus or which types of clothes best show respect for Jesus. But these small claims are still dangerous to the true faith of Jesus. By obsessing over morally neutral things, such as clothing or musical instruments, people start to think these silly, untrue ways are the only ways to worship Jesus. Unfortunately, these people have made following rules more important than following Jesus. They have traded their Jesus-given freedom for a church-given set of rules to follow.

The problem escalates when they try to shove these false beliefs down other people's throats. Non-believers may look at following Jesus as simply a pile of irritating rules to follow, rather than the way for true salvation. The message of the freedom Jesus has given to us by dying on the cross becomes hidden by man-made rules and requirements.

New followers of Christ are also soon to be turned away from the constant waves of rules and laws, preventing them from experiencing the true glory of Jesus Christ. They may question why we subject ourselves to outdated traditions and ridiculous rules, rather then devote our time to worshiping and following Jesus. Followers who stick to these man-made routines will end up conforming to the ways of the world, instead to the ways of Jesus.

There is no rule created by man that has any worth to Jesus. We are flawed beings, and by choosing to create our own laws and force them upon people, we convolute the true message of Jesus and confuse those trying to follow Him.

We become like the Pharisees, which Jesus saved his harshest teachings for. Even though the Pharisees were religious figures, Jesus could not stand them, saying that their ways were worse than the ways of tax collectors and prostitutes. This was because the Pharisees developed their own ridiculous rules about becoming closer to God, instead of having a strong relationship with Him. By creating these rules, they forgot what truly mattered to God and instead focused on the efforts of man to get into Heaven. This contrasts completely what Jesus wanted for us. He did not want us to be uptight, joyless followers that focused on their own efforts to get into Heaven. Jesus wanted us to depend on Him and love Him with everything we had.

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."
(1 John 15-17)

But the true danger of Churchianity stems from Church itself. Many churches teach watered-down, non-offensive messages about being a follower of Christ. Many churches teach simple and easy parts of the Bible for the sake of maintaining a comforting environment. They ignore the difficult messages in the Bible, and when these difficult topics arise, they cover them up with half-truths and misleading explanations. Being truthful about the difficult sections of the Bible would make the church unpopular, turning away followers used to the simple half-truths they learned about following Jesus.

Rather than teaching how to repent sins, churches have taught how to tolerate sins, without making any changes. Rather than focusing on the uncomfortable and necessary Bible verse of Luke 9:23, churches have focused the inviting and comfortable Bible of John 3:16. Rather than showing what a true relationship with Jesus looks like, churches have showed the easy, comfortable path to being a half-follower of Jesus.

Instead of creating true Christians, churches have created good people that associate
themselves with Jesus. Because of these practices/teachings and many others, half-followers of Jesus, instead of complete followers of Jesus are created.

By no means am I advising not to go to church. If you don't rely solely on church for your relationship with Jesus and follow him every day outside of church, you likely won't be affected by Churchianity. However, relying on your church for your relationship with Jesus and focusing primarily on church teachings often leads to these issues.

In the next part, I'll go into more depth about the people affected by Churchianity.
Thank you for reading this far, and stay tuned for a solution to Churchianity and how it ties in with the Great Commission. Leave your thoughts in the comments if you'd like. Thanks!