Pretty much describes my church. We started a conversational service which became the local “gay” church. Small groups started up under the direction of a leader. Then came the collapse. New pastor came in. Members started “seeing other churches” and discovered what they had been missing. Finances dried up.
Sounds like what David Cloud (whom I admire) has been saying forever. It’s like what happened to the Hyles church in Hammond Indiana-the focus became on big numbers, and “easy-believism”. I think Hyles began with a true calling, but the huge growth went to his head.
As far as preachers/evangelists go, Lester Roloff will always be my hero (and no I don’t put the man on a pedestal as perfect, he’d be the first to dismiss that idea. And before someone brings up all the dirt about his youth ministries, I was a Bethesda girl for a year, at the home on the outskirts of Hattiesburg MS, and never did I experience or witness abuse. They were very strict, but we weren’t a collection of choir girls either). I got licks, the same as I got in school a few times, and that was the worst of it.
On another thread, I posted this:
Dare I say that before America turned away from God, the church did?
And I’m not referring to the liberal church. I’m referring to the “evangelical, conservative†church. How so?
By being as worldly as the world - especially leadership - who looks no different from the world’s leadership - seeking power, position, authority, fame and MONEY......men seeking to build their own kingdoms (e.g., the megachurch)
- all the way down to those men who feel called as “Pastors†to start their own little church (one a day I suspect, just in USA) - because no one has ever “done church rightâ€, but they, in their puny arrogance, do know how, and they are gonna show the world how it should be done.
As the leaders have gone, so have the congregations - looking no different than the world - all focused on themselves and “building†their local church- which is really just a Christian club.
ping
OH! MY!
Mike Adams “gets” it!
Today’s “evangelical take-away” quote?
:: the empire-building pastor cannot risk being quoted when expressing his true beliefs on the issue ::
Cletus says: Those that have ears...let them hear.