We’ve unplugged from the Sunday morning go-to-meeting thing for the time being. The straw that broke the camel’s back (a.k.a. “my personal back”) was a sermon we were subjected to about three weeks ago. We had been attending a local gathering off-and-on since moving to our present location. The pastor is somewhere in his thirties and is a very humble and sincere guy. We were impressed by the friendliness of the congregation as a whole and thought we’d give it a try.
So on this particular Sunday an elder gave a message that we quickly discovered was motivated by anger and an apparent frustration with the results of the last election. His prophetic-charismatic worldview seemed to skew the biblical message. We walked out somewhere in the middle of his talk. I didn’t want to condone what he was saying by being present.
When I listen to preaching I want to be reminded of the love of my Father in Heaven. And of Jesus who sent his Spirit as a deposit of what is to come. We preacher-types should remember that anger is never a good apologetic. The only thing anger reveals is our inability to manage ourselves or our circumstances.
I confess that I’ve been attending church out of religious obligation. It appears to me that western Christian culture holds Sunday morning up as the primary means of procuring God’s favor. Sure, part of that is about “not giving up the assembling” which has less to do about fellowship than it does with a 30-minute worship concert followed by teaching. Sunday morning has become the gateway to Christian living. It’s a pity that some of us have replaced the risen Lord with a meeting.
My struggle comes back to authenticity. I want to relate with honesty to Father and my brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to share more than a meeting with the saints. I’d like to get into spiritual conversations that exalt Christ. I’ve expended too much energy being angry at sinners when I could have been enjoying my Father’s love. And I pray that He will help us commend the gospel by our words and deeds.
Jeff ~ I have never been a fan of someone who would stand up front and use the pulpit to convey personal agenda in the name of Jesus. I can totally understand why you have “unplugged”. I have pretty much done the same thing and for different reasons. For certain, losing the mentality that it is wrong has been a hard road.
This is my first time to your blog but I will be back.
“We preacher-types should remember that anger is never a good apologetic. The only thing anger reveals is our inability to manage ourselves or our circumstances.”
Wow. Great observation.
I have pretty typical political leanings for a Christian, but I think we have derailed ourselves by becoming a voting bloc. (Perhaps the way the election actually went was a wake-up call.) At any rate…I agree that we need to get back to “main things”. God bless.
The other Jeff
I can really relate to this and to your about page. I was a pastor for about a decade and stopped being a pastor and going to church more recently for similar reasons.
I long to find a spiritual home, though need to detox.
Hey friends… glad you stopped by. My struggle is to maintain a positive outlook. It’s pretty easy for me to deconstruct and criticize what frustrates me. But I’m doing my best to live the kind of life I believe to be true… to live positively in the love of God. Not easy!
I’m 73 and I’ve never been in a leadership position – but I have been close to leaders who have been disillusioned. Although I still attend church regularly (because my wife wants to)my journey for nearly 40 years has taken me outside the walls of traditional Christianity. To put it another way I have spent a lot of time looking at the goldfish bowl from the outside.
Only very recently have I come to recognise that I am being led to focus on helping others who are new to the room of grace (based on the sermon “True Faced with God” by John Lynch).
This is a new work-in-progress and I’m happy to leave it in Father’s hands, but I would appreciate any feedback from others, whether or not they have held leadership positions.
Something went wrong with the blog address.
If you are now a father or a mother, what is the thing you want to do most? As now I became a mother, I suddenly understand why my father did those things for me.
When I was a little girl, my mother left us for some unknown reason and according to my analysis, I insisted on the result that my father did something wrong to my mother. So I just tried my best to fight with my father. Every day he came home from work late, but he would come to my room and give me a good night kiss. Sometimes I knew he just wanted to tell me something but I kept my eyes closed and pretended as I slept. Every weekend he just tried his best to plan some exciting trips for me. But I always showed no interesting on them. And about four or five years later, one day he brought a woman home. And I realized that he might want to start a new family, so from that day, I refused to talk to him or eat anything. I even pinned the picture of Snow White’s step mother on my door. I thought I did make my statement clearly and that woman dismissed from our life then.
I was a destroyer of my father’s life. When I went to high school, I began to stay outside over night. And I even took part in the parties like anti-parents, also I left the rubber wristband in some place he could see. I just wanted to let him know one thing, I hate him. I did not know why I hate him, maybe just for my mother’s French leaving. I knew it was his fault, but I just did not know how to express my sadness. Then I did not know how to express my sorrow to my father.