This is tough, but God may Bless anyway.
Talking with someone is a dialogue-this isn't going to be one of those. I have no interest in
back and forth, argument, all of that stuff. I'm going to said my said, and after that, I may say some more.
I see problems in my church, and I'm speaking up because our leadership is mostly absent right now-our pastor isn't getting needed feedback, and it is hurting our assembly.
I know that this will seem like a personal attack, and I fully expect the pastor to get defensive and possibly attack me back. Not looking for a fight, just want things to get better.
First issue-last year we began taping our services to play on local cable access. I don't know if there was any discussion in the body or if the elders simply agreed to it.
Church is personal, and since they began taping, it has felt like an invasion of our privacy. I know that I no longer wish to do anything in the service, and when we have a sharing time, I and most of the congregation sit on our hands. It doesn't even matter to me if they shut the camera off-it's still there, and I want it gone.
Now...I'm about to get into hotter waters.
Our pastor has begun 'playing to' the camera in his sermons, and the sermons of late have been erratic, all over the place. He's not preaching to us, he's preaching to cable access.
I've also noticed that rather than simply expositing Scripture, he's padding the sermons with a lot of unrelated nonsense. Last Sunday he forced Attention Deficit Disorder into a sermon from Jude.
We've also heard about blood pressure, seen sermons/displays on different types of swords, secular surveys(?) of Christians and others in our country that show nothing and have nothing to do with us.
If we lose the camera, and if the pastor would focus on Scripture, I think that our church would be in better shape.
I'm not against anyone talking about worldly subjects-I do it all of the time. But I'm not a preacher. Scripture CAN illuminate worldly topics, and here's an example:
The theme of this last sermon was Jude warning against false teachers.
I would have appreciated if that had been a springboard for our pastor to warn against the false teachers of our generation: T.D. Jakes with his Modalism. Rick Warren watering down the Gospel. Rob Bell and others who teach a different Gospel, the disgrace which is Joel Osteen, etc. That would be helpful.
If Jude had been sitting next to me last Sunday, he might have asked, "Doug, what is ADD? Some new heresy?"
I think I've done enough damage for today. If our elder board were in place, I would have brought these concerns to them.
I believe that it would have been foolish/futile to bring my concerns to the pastor, as he is the one that I am taking issue with. That would have led only to argument and back and forth that I want to avoid.
