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One of my favorite things about Greg Surratt, my pastor at Seacoast Church, is that he doesn’t spend his time dogging other churches or pastors.
Is anyone else tired of hearing pastors talk about why/when/where/how “church X” spends their money, or how “church Y” invests too much time into resource “X” and not enough into resource “Y,” or how “Pastor Jones” preaches too much of a “feel good” message.
If you believe that things should be done differently, do them differently. Right? Aside from blatant disregard/misuse of God’s word, is there really any reason to invest so much time into other churches or pastors?
If I’m ever in a position of leadership, I hope I can remember this.
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As long as the [entire] Gospel of Jesus Christ is the center of what is being taught at a church, then I don’t think the ‘way that message is presented’ really matters too much.
I do however see a huge danger in how a lot of churches are running their “shows” today, and looking at some of the recent polls taken in the evangelical church today, it is obvious to see that the watered down messages which are being taught in quite a few churches are having a serious and damaging effect.
That, in my opinion, is something we should not tolerate. Read 1 Corinthians and then tell me that we should simply allow people to do church in whatever way works best for them.
How much ‘misuse’ of scripture is too much? What constitutes misuse? Is leaving out hard or convicting scriptures misuse? At what point is it OK to point out when a pastor or a church is missing the mark or misleading people along the way?
If these evaluations are done in love [not doggin out a church or its pastor], then we really shouldn’t have a problem being corrected or rebuked. It’s accountability and it’s what keeps us all humble. Everyone runs the risk of going off track from time to time, but one of our roles as the body of Christ is to ensure that we are rightly dividing the word of truth.
Although I think we would fall on different sides of this argument, I really appreciate this post. =d>
For His Glory,
Jason
I don’t think it’s ever okay to badmouth the body of Christ in front of anyone’s church. Although I do think loving rebuke to the pastor/staff is absolutely what God would call us to do.
I’ve heard the words “show” and “rock concert” used so much lately in these types of discussions. I attend a megachurch and I’ve visited two others. I’m either lucky or I’m missing something cuz I haven’t seen the validity to these words/statements. What I’ve seen is passionate worshipers of Christ who are humble and fear the Lord, admit their mistakes, and pursue our God with all they have. In all honesty, I’ve never seen humility like I’ve seen from our staff at Seacoast. Huge church, 12 or so locations, thousands of members, the “rock band” as I’m sure many would call it, and humble as I’ve ever seen, no exaggeration. Do they make mistakes, of course. Everyone does. Can their preaching be critiqued and criticized? Sure, just as anyone’s can.
I’ve also spent many years in smaller churches where, aside from the attendance number and smaller facility (and all the things that come along with that), I haven’t seen too many other differences, both good and bad.
If I were a pastor, I’d have to recognize that there’s a group of Christians out there who I could never please. My preaching style would be too ___. Our worship band/music selection would be too ___. My usage of scripture would be too ___. I’ve just come to realize that these are the people that I’m not interested in investing any of time my in.
Jason, I bet you and I see more eye to eye on this than we might think.
Tiffany, I agree with what you said, in the rare exception of blatant ERRORS, not opinions.
Bill:
I have no problem at all w/ Mega Churches that keep things in the appropriate perspective. In fact, I attended one such church (The Rock San Diego) that was such a blessing. They had the resources to truly make an impact on the community, and they used them for that very purpose. What an amazing thing.
Also, I am the worship leader at our church and I don’t have a problem with a rockin’ worship band. In fact I [personal preference] find it a lot easier to sing praise songs when there is good music to go along with it. Many older hairnet-sportin’ grannies our congregation would disagree…I’m just happy it’s me and not them leading worship.
Bill, I think we are all aware of the difference between worship and a rock concert and unfortunately I have been to several rock concerts during church services. I understand that it all comes down to the heart, but when “In the Secret” has a 3 minute guitar solo with a spot light on the guitar player who’s doing his best Will Smith (getting’ jiggy with it impersonation) – followed by a 1 minute drum solo…I have to question what we are finding glory in at that moment. But then again, maybe that can simply be chalked up to a personal problem.
My point is simply this…As long as the message is not being watered down (a’la Joel Osteen - oops I mentioned a name) or the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not being distorted (a.k.a. Kenneth Copeland - shoot there I go again) then it doesn’t matter if your church has 10 people or 10,000.
But if you are doing things like the pastors mentioned above, and are leading people astray by false doctrine or half-truths then shame on you. And I hope people call out these false teachers who are tickling the ears of the unsaved.
The worst thing imaginable, in my opinion, is for a person to have just enough ‘religion’ to pacify their conscience…Not knowing that they are being deceived by the ones they’ve entrusted to bring them truth.
2 Tim. 4:3
That was my only point!!!
Thanks bro,
Jason
Awesome. We do agree. I didn’t know that you’re a worship leader. How awesome! I wish I had a musical talent.
One word, Bill: YES, we have GOT to stop playing the hating game.
Criticism is fine as long as it is both accurate and constructive. If you are going to say that a speaker is too quiet for example then you should tell the speaker first. Criticism is worthwhile because it allows us to learn and improve.