BEWARE-5 Ways that Satan Will Viciously Attack a Church that Reaches Out

I love sharing the gospel, seeing people come to faith, equipping others to reach out, starting missional movements within a congregation. I hope that, no matter your gifting, that is something that you want to see happen too.

While this is the church that God calls us to be--we are fundamentally a church on mission--this is not the church that Satan wants us to be. And he will viciously attack any church that begins to reach out to the community, bring people to Christ and into the kingdom of God. Then his kingdom is threatened, and his attack is frighteningly fast and furious. I have seen this happen time and time again.

Even Jesus went through this. What happened immediately after Jesus' baptism? He was led out into the desert, and Satan through out temptation after temptation, mocking Christ, and seeking to thwart him from his mission. And he does the same when we begin to live on mission and reach out.

How does Satan attack? In many ways:

  1. False Accusations - Satan literally means "the accuser." One way that Satan attacks is that he starts stirring up trouble and making false accusations against people. Motives are assumed and hearts are judged--despite God's clear warnings about doing such. 

  2. Lies, Dishonesty, and Distortion of the Truth - Satan is called the father of lies. He uses lies and distortions of the truth against churches and church leaders. People justify their lies and other sins

  3. Gossip and Slander - As the book "Gossip and the Gospel" indicates, the Greek word for slander comes from the word diabolos. Gossip and slander is truly Satanic, as it destroys church leaders and churches and causes members and church leaders who get caught up in this to miss where God is at work, destroying the lives of others.

  4. Robbing of Joy and Focus on the Wrong Things - Satan does not want churches to rejoice when lost people come to faith. The church is a social system, and like most social systems, what gets celebrates gets imitated. So the best way to cut that cycle is, rather than rejoicing at changed lives and conversions, have the church focus on the wrong thing. Financials, petty issues, personality differences-anything that Satan can use distract us and have us harm others and ourselves 

  5. Fear - Fear, we are told, is not of God. Satan uses fear to paralyze church leaders. All it takes is one or two people to make a complaint, and church leaders can imagine that there is a crisis--and then make decisions (or do not make decisions) out of this fear.  

    Fear prevents people from going to those that they need to talk with about some issue or sin that has been performed against them, allowing the relationship to continue to suffer, causing people to assume the worst about one another, and creating more division. Fear causes churches to not make tough decisions, tolerate bad behavior, and shrink back from decisions that can help churches grow and reach the lost. Fear prevents us from sharing the gospel.

    Note these verses:
    "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18)

    "... for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7).

    "8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid" (Mark 16:8).


    Let's not let Satan win. Let's not fall into his traps. Let's not unwittingly, like Peter when he rebuked Jesus about going to the cross, be used by Satan by evil. And let's certainly not do these things that we know are wrong. Let's encourage. Let's lift up, not tear down, let's not assume false motives, but believe the best of one another. Let's not run others down but build one another up. THAT is godly. The other behavior is Satanic. It really is.

How do you see that Satan attacks churches or individuals who seek to reach out and reach people for Christ? How do we defend ourselves, churches, and church leaders from these attacks?

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Comment by Jayaraj.E on September 9, 2014 at 9:33am

Amen! great article! Thank you for sharing this.

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