State Of The Church
After receiving different mixed comments about this entry I have decided that I should try to make something clear. I have great respect for the pastors put in leadership roles within my church, and have the greatest respect for the youth pastor. I in no way want this to read as an attack at him or the other pastors on staff. I think that the youth pastor is a great man of God and he has had a major influence in my life since I was in seventh grade. I am a much greater man today as a result of his influence and example in my life. What I have written out in this entry are questions I have to patterns I see, and concerns from hearing these questions more and more from various members of the church. I in no way completely blame the pastoral staff for the state of the church. I think as Christians we are all to blame for the poor representation of what the church is supposed to be. I need to work on it, you need to work on it, and only through studying, absorbing, watching, listening, and keeping each other accountable can we ever hope to not feel completely ashamed when God looks at every one of us and looks into our hearts and souls to see how we carried out the great command.In the two years I have been away from home I have had the opportunity to visit a wide variety of churches. I would hardly consider myself an authority on the state of churches, but I do have many questions about my home church that I can not find logical reasoning for. Last Sunday it was announced that my church was adding two new job descriptions that are just rewordings of what are already supposed to be existing jobs, and a new "part time" staff position. First of all I would like to know why we have six people serving under the pastor title receiving full time pay and benefits. Let us take a second and think about this. We have a senior pastor, a seniors and congregational cares pastor, a pastor of student ministries, a pastor of outreach and adult ministries, a pastor of music, a pastor of young families and sports, and a minister of missions and small groups. I hold nothing personal against any of these men and I think they are all men of God, but I don't understand why we have so many pastors that share the same responsiblities only under a different titles and none of these responsibilities are being done. On average our attendence is around the 1000 mark give or take a couple hundred. This makes our church neither a massive church or a small church. However, I don't see the necessity of having six full salary pastors and a minister of missions for a church of this size. This year we have heard over and over that the people of the church need to be more generous in their giving. First of all tithing is supposed to be an issue left between you and God, and isn't supposed to be pressed upon the people by the church. I think it is appropriate for the church to tell us to give and that we should give because its commanded, but if we are giving then the church can't tell us to give more. The church doesn't hold the authority to press the people to raise their percentage tithed. They tell us that we need to be more vigilant of our expenditures and that we are living outside the lifestyle of a Christian. I see nothing wrong in wanting people to lessen their lifestyles for the cause of God's kingdom, but again that is between the people and God and the church has not the authority to press these issues. There are a lot of people who work very hard to get to where they are, and they give a great amount to God, are comitted members of churches, and God rewards them with the things they have. There is nothing wrong with having nice things as long as you understand the responsibility given to you by God to manage that money. I am especially troubled by this pressure to give more because the very church that is pressing us to tone down our lifestyles and live more humbly is not living by their own direction. We are all directed through scripture to be good stewards of our money, and to not live a life of debt. With that said; our church has been in debt for the past six years. I have seen churches of great faith construct great places of worship completely in faith and God has provided the means for them to undertake the building of a new church. These churches did not find themselves in debt because they fasted and prayed for God's providing of the money needed for this undertaking, and God provided after their strong sign of faith and they built a church. After remaining in debt since 1999, our church has continued to add more and more staff members while losing more and more members. We have six full salaried pastors, and what have we done for the kingdom of God as a result of this? We have two church services a week that both take place on Sunday morning and that is just about it. I will say that the childrens ministry is very good. However the strongest part of the childrens ministry I see is Awana, and who oversees Awana? The Awana program has been overseen as far back as I can remember by, not a church pastor, but a member. I think that before the pastors add yet another staff member doing the job that they are supposed to already be doing, we need to see some accountability. I said before the pastors "add" another staff member because bringing this youth minister in not umder the pastor title makes it a "non church voting" issue. The church body is paying the salaries of these men, therefore the church body needs to be included on the hiring of these people. We need to see results of these many pastors jobs, and I think they need to better display for us what it is that they preach. Again I say that I hold nothing against these men personally because I have known the majority of them since I was two years old, and I do believe they are all great men of God. I am only speaking out as a concerned person who is seeing a pattern that is not good stemming with the leadership positions of the church. When the leadership falters, the church falters, the community falters, and before we know it we are looking around at what we are already seeing; hatred of religion by the public, and the downfall of society. We have become so self absorbed as a church that we no longer see the folly that exists within our very walls. All I know is that, now that I am working again and will be tithing, I will be giving my gift of money to the missions fund, so that I know that it is working to bring God glory in the greatest call ever given.
posted by Eric @ 7:15 PM
3 Comments:
eric. i appreciate your transparency and just honesty about what you feel. this is *your* blog, so you can say whatever you want. :)
i don't go to your church. and i understand where some of your frustrations stem from. i feel them too, about the CHURCH..not just one in particular. i'm pretty opinionated too.
hopefully, if a church is asking it's members to be more generous (which I DO think there are times the church has a responsibility to do), it's for the purpose of holding eachother accountable--not to just support it's programs. giving isn't just so that the CHURCH can survive, rather it's so that we can be living a life of gratitude & dependence, recognizing that nothing is our own, and that we owe everything to God-not just money.
i know it's difficult to find balance in how a church should use their resources...trying to be relevent & accomodating, avoiding extravagance, not being wasteful, meeting community needs, being Jesus hands and feet to people. and i think the church misses the mark. a lot.
And i tend to be really critical. i get cynical and angry...when i contemplate these things. Christ's bride isn't the beautiful, radiant, loving, grateful wife she was meant to be...that Jesus died for. the church is more like a broken, sad, impure, lazy, self-centered woman!
But...when i start to criticize the programs and methods of my church, instead of reaching out of myself to meet needs, and serve other people, I'm only contributing to the brokenness...which i do..a lot. and i know you probably ARE reaching out and serving, and i also can tell you really care about this a lot...thus the long ranting post :) i just know my *own* tendencies to criticize.
i've been struggling and thinking about church a lot lately myself.
just know that it will never, in this part of life...be perfect. and it's OUR job, not the pastor's and staff's(no matter how many and how seemingly well-paid they are:) job, to try to make it more whole.
sorry. i'm SO obnoxiously wordy.
wow, ang. that was great. you must have some powerful genes there.
i'm funna write on stewardship in the coming days, i'll probably link this comment if that's okay.
eric. you've been so silent. your readers are waiting. surely there's more to be said.
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