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10 Ways to Hinder the Church
November 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I came across this video post over on Christian Theology and its called 10 ways for church members to hinder the church. I believe its tongue in cheek humour but at the same time trying to make a point about what is evident in church gatherings today.
Below I have outlined the video points.. Remember this is what the guy said not me lol. My comments to what he said are in RED after his in Black.
1. Church is about you and what you get out of it, its there to serve you - Ok my reply: Yes .. I agree that its not there to serve people and people who go in thinking only to get something are going to set themselves up for disappointment, but on the flip side of the coin, church gatherings should not teach and place so much emphasis on what goes on in the church as being so important as that in itself can be the reason why people come thinking to get. Their should be more teaching to new christians about how they can develop their spiritual walk with God outside of church, instead of using the whole.. " if you dont show up, you are backsliding " that is a guilt trip and a nice way to keep people coming and tossing money in the pot!
2. Show up when its convenient to you : Ok my reply: No .. I disagree with this.. No one is under obligation to show up at a gathering, the scripture which is so often taken out of context or interpreted to keep people doing the same thing over and over is the whole " Dont give up the fellowship " well this only refers to fellowship not where or when. In fact if people want to use this for SUNDAY only then it can always be applied to midweek where people neglect relationships with one another outside of church meetings. Now the other side of the coin is that its not about convienence being the reason for showing up or not showing up, its a desire to mix with other christians which incidentally you can do that anywhere its not confined to a 2hr slot
3. Its the church responsibility to get your heart ready for worship : Ok my reply : Yes : I entirely agree with this, yet at the same time the way worship is being taught in church today no wonder people have a mentality that church on a sunday is about watching the SHOW.. as most churches wouldn’t dare think about putting their worship team behind the people or off to the side.. no they have to be fron and center facing the people and of course there is countless scriptures they can whip out to defend their reasons. We have to break out of the mentality of worship is singing
4. Realize that you know more than what your leaders know in your church, the sole purpose of you having that knowledge is to critize the church and let everyone know what that church is doing wrong, thats why you have that knowledge So use it in that way : OK my reply : Umm I get where hes coming from with this but lets see it from the other side. Pastors and leaders today not all of them but many of them come across to people as knowing more and they might know more ( then again they might not ) but that doesnt mean they UNDERSTAND better what they are trying to teach. David said he had more understanding than his teachers as he meditated on the word. Sure its not much point critizing but the same applies the other way.. pastors and leaders critizing their church folk for not doing this or that when they themselves are not doing it.
5. If your pastor or leader makes a mistake, you must let everyone know, but dont go and talk to them privately as that might not cause the embarrassment thats always helpful in hindering the church My Reply : I agree with this totally, if people have an issue go to the pastor or heck even if its nothing to do with christianity, just deal with the person in question going to others does nothing more than create more harm. Jesus works in straight lines. As it says if you bring your gift and remember you have an issue with your brother, go directly and resolve it with him or her.
6. Always be concerned about recognition and position instead of the furthering of Gods kingdom on this earth. When God moves sometimes God gets the credit for it.. make sure you get your credit for what you do.. and if they dont give you it.. Never help again. My Reply : A lot of this stems from the structure that is in place in churches today. We have allowed people to be elevated each other so it becomes nothing more than a pecking match of who is the best. Their needs to be more teaching on that the mission field is outside of the church walls not inside.
7. You must remember Doctrine divides, what you dont want to do is study it at home, dont let the sunday school teachers talk about. .when they talk about it.. scoff and roll your eyes.. then let your pastor know that they are not free to do a lot of doctrine.. nice stories are what you should demand from your church and pastors.. Avoid doctrine. My Reply : lol I thought this was a funny one I can see where he is going with it and I have to agree but I would take it one step further instead of just giving a new christian a bible and saying read this and listen to the guy up the front yacking every sunday morning. Teach them about where the bible came from, why there are so many version and translations today, allow them to ask why they should base their lives on the bible, allow them to ask questions about where is the backing for the doctrine you want to teach them.
8. You must keep in your mind that there are other churches out there for you to go to.. church hopping is always an option and if the church leaders wont do what you want, remind them that church hopping is always an option. They are committed to you, you dont have any commitment to them, so dont stay through rough times, so just git if you dont like it. My Reply : Ok I know where hes going with this and Sure there is going to be the group of people out there who are going from one church to the next becomes they have a " WHAT CAN I GET OUT OF THIS " mentality but labelling everyone in that same group wouldnt be fair. There are many reasons why people move on from church gatherings just because they stepped in your door 4 sundays that doesnt mean they are under obligation to stay there. We have to be wise and discern what are the foundations of the place and how it functions. Life is short and there is no point wasting it in a place which is going to stunt you and your familys growth. A better thing to do is to ask them " WHY? " they have moved on vs labelling them.. And be ready to hear something which may have a portion of truth in it.
9. If you are convicted of sin in the church service you must be very quick to call that church legalist My Reply : I agree not everything we are going to hear should tickle our ears it can really be helpful to hear things that make us question how we are living our lives yet lets also realize that the church today has had a history of being legalistic and manipulating people through sermons to keep people in a place of guilt, fear and feeling powerless. Not everyone but a huge majority still are doing this today.
10.You must always demand an emotional experience the reason why is its a true test of whether the church is really doing what its meant to do. That is it! My Reply.. Well The question is. What is the church meant to do? As from one person to the next people have differences of opinion on that. I agree it should not be about an emotional experience but lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater and remove or suppress a very part of our being which are the emotions. Again the way church gatherings today are structured no wonder we have people showing up expecting or demanding.. maybe its a wake up call that we should start looking at other ways of being the church.
10 Ways to Hinder your church was written because he says that he has been guilty of all of these. He calls them snares that are setup by satan so he encourages everyone to be strong, active and involved in their church and we will be the salt and light to this earth that we are meant to be. My Reply : I would say be less involved in your church and more involved in your community as we are not called to be salt and life inside 4 walls, doing that only leads to these 10 things becoming issues that we have to even talk about
If you liked that check out the 10 ways a Worship leader can Hinder the church
