My good friend Stanley has just introduced me to this band. Saying that they are good might be an understatement. :) Enjoy!
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Clazziquai - Dance
Church Disagreements
I don’t think it is wise to write all these down here, but I have to vent and it is my blog after all. So I feel I have the right to vent here. But I fear I might influence the people who read this in a negative way so I think it is wise for me to put a disclaimer. In this post, I will be critical of the church as an institution and its leadership. If you feel uncomfortable with the topic in any way you should stop reading now. For all the non-Christians out there reading this now, I hope you understand that this is not how it was suppose to be. But we humans have a nasty habit of screwing things up.
Okay, so here goes.
The end of the year is upon us again, time for us to take stock of our experiences and the lessons we have learnt. One of the major lessons I have learnt is a sad one. For me, things in church have deteriorate to an extent that makes it very difficult to repair, I truly feel very tired and jaded not to mention very disappointed. I have always taken the church “party line” when it comes to people who leave church. I have always believed that those people are seduced by the world, taken in by the all that it offers. These church leavers have “backslided” they have crossed over to the dark side. Now I am beginning to think that that is not the case anymore.
Recent personal experiences and experiences shared by my church friends have changed my point of view. Although I acknowledge that there are people to leave church that are “seduced by the world.” I feel that there are others the church has willfully pushed away. The scary thing is that it seems to be done in a manner similar to a premeditated murder. There seems to be a plan to it, an overall agenda to be fulfilled and a reason why the person being pushed away does not fit into the agenda. Either because they disagree with the leadership of the church or for other reasons I cannot begin to fathom.
Disagreements in church and among the Christian community are a dime a dozen. If Martin Luther did not disagree with the catholic establishment about the selling of indulgences, I will not be here writing this post. The question is to what extend do we allow these disagreements to form bitterness, anger and division within the church. We are all now bible reading educated Christians, we read the bible ourselves, form our own opinions and have valid biblical concerns about certain issues within the church. Differences of opinions are sure to abound, so what do we do?
When there is a disagreement will the leadership of the church quietly “spirit away” the disagreeing party or will they hear their concerns? Will those that are not happy with the church choose the proper forum to air their concerns? I might be taking the analogy a bit far but I see the things happening in my church right now as nothing better than one of Stalin’s Great Purges. That is why I am turned off, because the church has become no better than the world. I see good people leaving the church, those that really love God but are turned off by the church. What makes it worse is that due to the circumstances surrounding my church. These are the people that decided to stay and stick it out with the church in these tough times (people in my church should know what I mean) and the same church is pushing these people away just because they disagree with how certain things are. Thus creating bitterness, anger and I would go as far as to say a certain sense of betrayal
So the conclusion is this, if my church leadership wants a “yes pastor” kind of congregation then I think I am in the wrong church. A church that does not listen to its people… well that is a misnomer really. A church should be supportive of its people and listen, especially if it is about the future of the church and their concerns are valid. A church should attract all kinds of Christians even those that question the leadership. A church should not turn Christians off, I guess that is my point, if even Christians get turn off from church then how about the non-Christains we are trying to reach out to? Food for thought.
Okay, so here goes.
The end of the year is upon us again, time for us to take stock of our experiences and the lessons we have learnt. One of the major lessons I have learnt is a sad one. For me, things in church have deteriorate to an extent that makes it very difficult to repair, I truly feel very tired and jaded not to mention very disappointed. I have always taken the church “party line” when it comes to people who leave church. I have always believed that those people are seduced by the world, taken in by the all that it offers. These church leavers have “backslided” they have crossed over to the dark side. Now I am beginning to think that that is not the case anymore.
Recent personal experiences and experiences shared by my church friends have changed my point of view. Although I acknowledge that there are people to leave church that are “seduced by the world.” I feel that there are others the church has willfully pushed away. The scary thing is that it seems to be done in a manner similar to a premeditated murder. There seems to be a plan to it, an overall agenda to be fulfilled and a reason why the person being pushed away does not fit into the agenda. Either because they disagree with the leadership of the church or for other reasons I cannot begin to fathom.
Disagreements in church and among the Christian community are a dime a dozen. If Martin Luther did not disagree with the catholic establishment about the selling of indulgences, I will not be here writing this post. The question is to what extend do we allow these disagreements to form bitterness, anger and division within the church. We are all now bible reading educated Christians, we read the bible ourselves, form our own opinions and have valid biblical concerns about certain issues within the church. Differences of opinions are sure to abound, so what do we do?
When there is a disagreement will the leadership of the church quietly “spirit away” the disagreeing party or will they hear their concerns? Will those that are not happy with the church choose the proper forum to air their concerns? I might be taking the analogy a bit far but I see the things happening in my church right now as nothing better than one of Stalin’s Great Purges. That is why I am turned off, because the church has become no better than the world. I see good people leaving the church, those that really love God but are turned off by the church. What makes it worse is that due to the circumstances surrounding my church. These are the people that decided to stay and stick it out with the church in these tough times (people in my church should know what I mean) and the same church is pushing these people away just because they disagree with how certain things are. Thus creating bitterness, anger and I would go as far as to say a certain sense of betrayal
So the conclusion is this, if my church leadership wants a “yes pastor” kind of congregation then I think I am in the wrong church. A church that does not listen to its people… well that is a misnomer really. A church should be supportive of its people and listen, especially if it is about the future of the church and their concerns are valid. A church should attract all kinds of Christians even those that question the leadership. A church should not turn Christians off, I guess that is my point, if even Christians get turn off from church then how about the non-Christains we are trying to reach out to? Food for thought.
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