Churches, Working Together or Dividing

In the church that I was a member for over a decade there was put forth and taught a mindset that I have never seen or heard of in any other church that I attended or visited. Members of this church were never to visit other churches unless they were out of town or attending something special with a family member at another church. If a member of my former church visited other churches because they wanted to and it was found out then they were looked upon as traitors. We were taught to look down on other churches because they were not as enlightened as our church and were not as excellent. The pastor professed to know all the truth and, according to him, was always right. Many times he pompously declared from the pulpit that he could wait till we all get to heaven so that Jesus could inform us all that he (the pastor) was right.

This church never joined itself with any other church in our area or city to help anyone or reach out to the community. At one time we had a luncheon with a speaker who was a self made multi-millionaire. The purpose of this guest speaker coming in was to help raise the vision of the people in the church so that they would all become more prosperous and hopefully rich. When a pastor of a neighboring church was invited to the luncheon by a church member the pastor of my former church wanted to know why this neighboring pastor had been invited because we were trying to build our church, not theirs. The pastor never had one good or encouraging thing to say about any other church in our city, on the contrary he constantly criticized other churches and pastors from the pulpit.

Recently, I was totally surprised at something that happened in the church that I have been attending lately. The regular drummer had to be out of town on Sunday morning. The drummer who usually fills in for him had to work. Sunday morning, as I sat in my seat, I recognized someone in the sanctuary that I know personally and I know is a regular attender of a church other than this church. As it became time for the service to begin this individual sat down behind the drums. He proceeded to play with the band and did an excellent job. When the music was over, he quietly made his way to the back of the church toward the door. The pastor stood up and recognized him for being such a blessing by filling in and playing the drums for us, thanked him for his willingness to help and wished him on his way as he went to attend the service at the church where he chooses to worship.

Who would have ever thought that this could happen! Members of the body of Christ, from two different churches in the same area, working together and helping each other with no jealousy, criticism or envy. What a blessing it was! Christians from different churches working together to further the cause of Christ and not their own importance or agenda.

The spirit of separation and division is not of God. He desires His children to work together and help each other. Not separate themselves from other Christians because they don't go to the same church.

A pastor who seeks to divide his congregation from the rest of the body of Christ is operating out of a spirit of fear, pride and selfishness. Fear is the opposite of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. God hates pride. A true christian is not selfish.

If you are in a church where the pastor promotes division from the members of the body of Christ who do not attend your church and not unity he is in direct contradiction of the Bible. Find a church where the pastor operates out of a heart of love and not selfishness. Find a true pastor after God's own heart, and quit listening to one who pulls you away from the heart of your Heavenly Father.

The Drunkard and the Glutton

In the King James version of the Bible the term "drunkard" is used 5 times. Twice it is used in the same sentence with the term "glutton" and once it is used in the same sentence with the term "fornicator". In all 3 of these sentences the glutton and the fornicator are equal to the drunkard.

In these verses that I mentioned, Deut. 21:20, Prov. 23:21, and1Cor. 5:11, the drunkard, the glutton and the fornicator are pointed to as someone who will come to poverty, should be stoned to death as a rebellious son, or someone believers should not even eat with.

In reading these verses the twisted mentality of the leadership of my former church appalls me.

I remember at one time when I was a youth worker a young adult was disqualified from participating in the youth band because he had been seen in a restaurant ordering an alcoholic drink with his dinner. He was not drunk nor was he a drunkard. Just because he was seen ordering and drinking this one drink he was instantly "unfit" for the "excellence" we put forth in ministry. Yet people who were extremely fat to the point of being obese were brought in to minister from the pulpit. There were extremely fat people who led praise and worship and who were youth workers and children's church workers. A man involved in fornication was left on staff until he left town and was still endorsed by the pastor of the church to minister to youth at a youth camp.

How can the leadership of a church pull out the sections of the Bible he wants to use and completely ignore the rest. He can do it when his church is a business to him. He can do it when he is not a pastor after God's own heart. He can do it when his parishioners represent dollar signs instead of the body of Christ. He can do it when he and his family are his number one priority and not the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In this instance a person who loved God was denied the use of his gift to serve God because the church leadership was more interested in an image that what was right. The Bible does not say there is anything wrong with a drink, it says it is wrong to be drunk.

In the other instance a man who was known to be involved in sexual sin was left in a ministry position and on staff. The Bible says not to even eat with a fornicator, much less leave him in ministry.

I'm not saying that I would never eat with a glutton, drunkard or a fornicator. I know that we live under grace and there is forgiveness and restoration for the repentant. The fact is that the qualification to be involved in any ministry area at my former church was that you support the pastor and his family one hundred percent. Right or wrong, whether you agreed with them or not, your total support was mandatory or they found a way to keep you in the rejected group till they found a way to get rid of you.

Beware of the red flags. Don't make excused for a pastor who is ignoring and twisting things in the Bible because he is a good speaker, supposedly "anointed", puts on a good image, or seems to have it all. If it seems too good to be true...... IT IS.

Never Leave Your Man of God

In my former church we were constantly taught that one of the most important things about our christian walk was to have a "man of God" to sit under and to "speak into our lives". Now it was very important also NEVER to LEAVE your "man of God" if you wanted to experience God's richest and best in your life.

In the New Testament, the phrase "man of God" is only mentioned two times. In second Timothy 3:16 the term "man of God" is referring to believers being equipped for every good work. In first Timothy 6:11, Paul is telling Timothy that as a man of God he should flee the things of the world and pursue righteousness.

Not one place in the New Testament is the church taught that they are to focus on ONE "man of God" to lead and guide them and speak into their lives. We have the Holy Spirit on the inside of us to lead and guide us into all truth. We are Jesus' sheep and we follow His voice.

This man made doctrine on "needing" a "man of God" to pledge our allegiance and support and financial gifts to has been put together by men who call themselves pastors and prophets in order to gain financial wealth, material gifts and keep their supporters under their control.

The body of Christ needs to wake up and realize who they are in Christ and realize that God speaks to each and every on of us. He is perfectly capable of leading, guiding, protecting and blessing us without a go-between to tell us what He wants or is saying.

We need to get out from under the control of these manipulative, greedy, materialistic imitations of pastors and find some true pastors with a pastor's heart to hook up with and DO the work of the ministry.

Are You a Tither???

I remember in my former church a common question asked by the pastor, his family, and his staff was, "Are you a tither?" and " Are they tithers?"

If someone asked for prayer for something, someone to agree with them, healing, a situation, or any need they may have the pastor or his family members first response was "are they tithers???" They also claimed what they wanted from God and demanded it because they were "tithers"

At times when invitations were received by staff or the pastor's family members they wanted to know if the one the invitation was from was a tither before they made a decision to go or send a gift.

Many times when people wanted an appointment for counseling, I was instructed to pull up their tithing record so a decision could be made if they could see the pastor or anyone for that matter.

The staff was REQUIRED to tithe in order to be employed by the church. If the pastor or one of his family members became suspicious that a staff member had fallen behind in their tithing, I was instructed to pull up their tithing record and the staff member who had fallen behind was called in for a correction conference.

In reading the new testament and the eye witness accounts of those who came in contact with Jesus I am amazed that he never once asked anyone if they were a tither!!! He only asked them if they believed! Multitudes came to Him.

Some asked Him to bless them.... tithing was not required for Him to give His blessing.
Some asked Him to heal them.... tithing was not required for Him to heal them.
Some asked Him to COME with them and heal or minister to their family members... He ALWAYS went willingly and tithing was not required for Him to go with them.

My former church wanted the congregation to believe that tithing was a requirement in order for you to receive anything from God. Maybe this was because of the luxurious lifestyle they were living as a result of their enormous salaries and the personal things that were paid by the church for them.

Sadly they neglected to put the emphasis on the BLOOD OF JESUS that purchased everything we will ever need from God. Tithing is not required for us to receive everything that God has for us but the blood is what was required.

We should give to God and His work out of a heart of love, not because it is extorted with fear and promises of riches and material things. A person who gives out of a willing heart and giving nature gives way beyond the tithe anyway.

You can't buy God with your tithes. The bible doesn't say that we overcome anything from tithing. It does say ... that we overcome by the "blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony".

That is the blood and believing...... not tithing.

The Flesh Church

I remember sitting in my former church before I knew the truth about all the sin going on for years behind the scenes and wondering why our church never grew. I also wondered why many wonderful ministers that had come in the past never came anymore. I wondered why members and staff members that left on what seemed to be good terms with a wonderful public sendoff never returned to visit even when they were in town. These things really bothered me. Of course the "pastor" always put a spin on how the church was growing and thriving, yet it never manifested. The numbers went down instead of up. The "pastor" would criticize the church down the street that was growing by leaps and bounds. He criticized the things that they implimented such as free coffe, free CDs and other things to be a blessing to their people. At that time my former church was charging 1.00 for an 8oz. cup of coffee and 7.00 for a CD that cost about .50 to make. He called it the "seeker friendly church". Then one of the few traveling "ministers" that still came to the church on a regular basis came up with the name "flesh church". This same "minister" called precious Christians that had left the church "bowel movements". Now these Christians didn't backslide or fall into sin, they just wanted to attend another church. Probably a church that focused on Jesus and people instead of pride in "our faith" and using it to get money and material things.

Now this "flesh church" actually had over 19,000 people come to hear the gospel on Easter weekend. My former church didn't have 600. My former church's vision was for members who PROSPERED and had material things. My former "pastor" said that we were God's garden and if we didn't LOOK GOOD that it reflected badly on God. One important thing on the "flesh church's" vision was to start a medical clinic to help the community and be a blessing to those who could not afford medical care.

I recently had an opportunity to experience the effect of the flesh church's impact on the community when I accompanied someone to their new Medical Clinic. A visit to this clinic is 30.00 if you do not have insurance and 0.00 if you do. They do their best to prescribe medications that are on the Wal Mart 4.00 list of medications. The staff is friendly and caring. They have quality doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and office staff. The facility is immaculate and remodeled. Everything I experienced was excellent.

The pastor of this "flesh church" doesn't stand in the pulpit and boast about his airplane, fancy suits, his anointing, his great gift of teaching or his BMW faith. He is too busy doing the work of the ministry, carrying out the great commission and doing something to help and impact the community. When you go to the clinic, the doctor doesn't even ask you if you are a tither before he prays for you.

It is a good thing that there are "flesh churches" that are doing something for Jesus. My former church is too busy trying to keep the former executive pastor from spending 10 to 20 years behind bars for the impact he had on the community.

That's Not Grace!!!

The other morning I heard a message by a wonderful pastor that I love and respect very much. The message was about Elijah and some of the miracles that God had performed in his life. As I was listening to the message, I began to think back on many of the messages that I heard at my former church. Many of these messages were about what I had to do in order to get God to move on my behalf. I was instructed to "Sow a seed if I had a need". We were always hearing about what we were supposed to do in order to move the hand of God. If we needed a financial miracle, we were to sow a huge financial gift into the church, if we needed a personal miracle in our lives we were to serve and serve in the church, and things like that.

In the course of this message, the pastor brought out the fact that God performed miracles and provided supernaturally for Elijah even when he was not moving in faith. God didn't look at Elijah and say, "Well if he does this then I will provide a way for him", that God moving on our behalf is not contingent on whether we tithe or not or whether we "do" something to earn it or qualify for it. That's not grace!!!

The dictionary defines grace as the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God. This grace comes to us not because of any thing we can do but because of the blood that Jesus freely and willingly chose to shed for us when He chose to make the ultimate sacrifice and gave Himself for us. Grace does not mean.... "if you do this, then I will do this"!

Since the time that I left my former church, God has done so many awesome miracles in my life and blessed me so abundantly it is almost beyond belief. Yet I did not do one thing to merit or deserve any of these miracles or blessings. I actually made it a point NOT to do anything that I had been taught I was supposed to do in order to be blessed by God because I needed to remember the God that I knew before I allowed myself to be manipulated into trying to be some kind of "faith giant" in order to receive from God. He does it because I am His, because He loves me, because I know Him and because my savior, Jesus, purchased it for me with His blood. I asked Him to forgive me for ever belittling what was purchased by His blood by thinking that I could get something from God because of what "I" could do. Thank goodness I realized that I don't have to perform my way through life, I can just look to Him and live a life more wonderful than I could have ever hoped or imagined.

Dentist Drama

Today I was remembering an incident at my former church where a staff member gave a testimony that occurred at the dentist office. This person went to the dentist and was so consumed with the realization that they had a "pastor" that they began to cry in the dentist chair. The testimony centered around how awesome the pastor was and how they were moved to uncontrollable tears at this realization. This person cried so much that the dentist ( unable to do any work on this person at this time) had to wait till the deluge of tears subsided before they could continue the appointment. All this over the realization that they had a pastor?????? I found myself wondering if they had ever had to delay a dentist appointment due to tears over the realization that they had a SAVIOR?????

I began to think back on how twisted the priorities at mfc were. There were many services that centered completely around the pastor! Not Jesus! The pastor's, achievements, anointing, family problems, successes, desires and agenda. There were many services that people walked away having never heard anything about Jesus, just about the pastor.

Many church members now sport bumper stickers on their cars supporting the pastor. Not one of these has a bumper sticker supporting JESUS! WHEN DID THE PASTOR BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN JESUS?

It sickens me to realize that I was drawn into such a farce and allowed myself to be so monumentally deceived! I have my focus on track now and Jesus and righteousness are number one! If you are in a church that "promotes and pushes the pastor" get out. The church should be promoting one thing, JESUS!