“Want to go to a good church? Don’t look in America.” Eeek! A friend of mine wrote that on his Facebook page a few days ago. His former pastor responded with a “Gee, thanks.” My friend then responded with the most to-the-point and honest (and actually compelling) response I could have imagined. Take a look and please share your thoughts in the comments below:
“Dear Pastor […] I understand why you wrote but I was taking a shot at the church as a whole, not you directly, but you do pastor a church in america so here we are. By and large the church is overly concerned with numbers and programs instead of the edification of those there, preachers conflate the law and gospel (therefore the church knows little difference- totally detrimental), doesn’t discipline, elders fear their own wives more than YHWH, meets once a week for 2 hours (reflecting the same commitment as AA), will not get involved with legal matters because no one is competent (1 Cor 6:1-5) which happened to me, will go into doctrine at a certain level (i asked a pastor a question down here and he told me id know what his church believes by reading the Westminster confession), not interested in prayer meetings (ACTS1), will be a Jesus or a Spirit Church instead of Father Son and Spirit church, the Trinity is ignored because its to heady, even the Son’s eternal generation is not taught though Gill says it “is the distinguishing criterion of the Christian religion.… Without this the doctrine of the Trinity can never be supported.” I haven’t heard about eternal generation at any church I’ve been to, well Joe, people don’t know how eternal generation applies on a Sunday? Bingo, why not? “To the elders and the deacons’ ‘ isn’t a phrase I could write to most churches, the Lords supper is a snack rather than a meal, non of these have been about you but i will be open one time you did a little of what I’m talking about. During COVID I asked if you’d be willing to talk about the gifts because your profile said you liked to talk about the Bible. You said, “not if you are trying to change my mind.” Look back on messenger. That was a big bummer for me. Sola scriptura is pushed aside by cessationist… these are things that are mostly common. You know I’m grateful for you though. I do praise God for the good work you have done. I know I just seem like a jaded baby but this stuff gets to me. The amount of body shaming that happens makes me sick – “we do not need an eye anymore, we do not need ears (1 cor 12-14;shaming those with those gifts- you are not needed).” Write back if you can…”