In an effort to keep from losing his congregation to Rehoboam, Jeroboam implemented idol worship and rejected the Levites from serving as priest to the LORD. (1st Kings 12:27-33, 2nd Chronicles 11:14) In doing so, he weeded out those who were spiritually strong. (2nd Chronicles 11:15-16) The ones who stayed, at the very least were willing to tolerate the worship of golden calves for convenience sake and at worst, saw nothing wrong with it. By purging out the righteous he left himself with the spiritually apathetic and slothful. Consider planting a garden and plucking out the vegetables, yet leaving the weeds. Jeroboam eliminated that which was nourishing, adversely affecting the Northern Kingdom through its bitter end.
When a church decides to introduce something unauthorized in order to be accommodating with the times, spiritual growth is impossible. Numerical growth may occur, however numerical growth and spiritual growth are not the same.
The fruit of departure from truth is a continued road of apostasy that leads to captivity. The only thing that will stop a departure such as this is a return to the word of GOD. Jeroboam crippled the northern 10 tribes in such a way that they never recovered. Over and again throughout the history of the Northern Kingdom, Jeroboam 1 and his decision is used as a measuring stick for the wickedness of future kings. The sad end to the story regarding the Northern Kingdom was Assyrian captivity. (2nd Kings 17:21-23) If we follow in the footsteps of unauthorized, irreverent, accommodative worship, should we expect our story to end differently?
Prospering Pathway 
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