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As I think back about how all this came about, I feel it looks like a ball of twin becoming unwound.
About two years ago, when our church had two pastors, they suddenly took a dislike to each other. Never mind the fact that they had been in the same church for more than 10 years and had known each other before that. They were, supposedly, close friends.
The stated point of disagreement was worship style. Now, the style of worship in our church had been unchanged for several years. One pastor, the older one, preferred the more traditional worship music. The younger one, the one responsible for putting the musical program together each week, preferred and used the modern “praise” music.
When the fracas began, the younger one, fearing he might soon be out of a job, started surreptitiously circulating his resume. That activity did not stay secret very long. When it became public knowledge, he was fired. There were many in the church that liked the younger pastor.
The result was, more than one third of the congregation left the church. These people approached the just-fired pastor and asked him to form a church. He agreed. After all, he had recently purchased a house and had three children and a wife to support.
There was enmity between the two churches. Members of our church that attended services at the new church were severely admonished and told they had to make a choice of which church they wanted.
Doesn’t this all sound like the actions of good Christians?
Karol and I both considered finding a new church. But I figured most churches probably suffer from the same sort of problems. That's because all are staffed by sinful people.
The remaining pastor struggled on for another 18 months. But I don’t think his heart was in it any more. As I think back upon his sermons, what I remember most is his frequent castigating the congregation on their treatment of him and his family. Maybe he was treated poorly. I don’t know. I as never witness to any of it. I did hear frequent criticism, but I took that to be a response to his beating up the congregation. When you tell someone how bad they are, don’t be surprised if you don’t get a favorable response.
At last the pastor threw in the towel. He was offered a teaching position. He said that God had called him to this new position. Maybe so. I’m always a little suspicious of people who claim God talks to them. The bible does not take such claims lightly.
Since last Christmas another pastor, a woman, has been preaching from the stage. Although I complain that her sermons are too long, I cannot fault her hard work and enthusiasm. She has been a rock. No matter, what happens, I never see her get down. She is always upbeat and brimming with energy. I always felt she is so energetic, that if the church ever had a power failure, we could just plug her into the grid and her energy would light all of Vineland.
Although she has been doing well as acting senior pastor, I always felt she was more like a caretaker pastor, until we got a permanent one. The church board was supposedly been looking for a new pastor, but the board changed in April, I think. I have a very low opinion of committees and didn’t really expect to see any decision to come on a new pastor until the end of the year.
Now the board has selected this particular individual. I recently was told; the first board rejected him. But when the board changed in April, he resubmitted his application. Two other things changed. The board went from 12 members (nine elected and three appointed) to nine members (all elected). In addition, one of the members was this applicant’s wife.
This fellow has preached before in our church. When the two pastors were going through their divorce, he preached for several weeks.
It was brutal. Forty minutes of being yelled at. I don’t know why he uses the mike. Most of the sermon is to castigate the audience. I doubt her ever read Dale Carnegie.
When I review all the history, it seems as if the church as been on a suicidal path for over two years. I don’t know why I should care so much. After all, no one forces us to go to this church.
It is a sad sad situation.
Posted by Ted at August 2, 2003 9:47 PM