Analysing...
Wow, I'm still getting emails over the church issue.
Thank you for all the encouragement and support extended to me. Having blogged out all my frustration and cried out all my pain in church on Sunday, I'm back on an even keel again this week. (Now, if work would just cooperate, everything would be perfect! LOL)
At this time I seem to need a place to rest, and Soulcare seems to be it. I'm reminded that not only does God go with us, He goes before us, searching out the places for us to camp! (Deuteronomy 1:33)
Jon Davis writes that he is angry, "because I can't seem to find a place of worship where materialism (including the focus of funding a new church building or equipment or changes to the existing buildling) is not being the matter of focus, or where egos are not being stroked".
I don't think I was ever angry, just hurt, upset and disillusioned. I still worry about my former church, because of what is being taught and practiced there, and how it will affect the members especially young Christians who don't have the foundation in the Word to be able to judge for themselves whether or not what is being taught is actually biblical. Do I have a mandate to let them know what I think? I'm not sure. It would also depend whether they have a maturity or strength to handle what I say. I do know that three of my cell group members saw my deleted post before it was taken down, and none of them agreed with anything I'd written.
One was worried that church members who had read it might decide not to give to the building fund, and thought there might be a need to implement "damage control" measures. Another said, "Well, I am very loyal to the church, so of course I see nothing wrong with it." (Implying that I was a traitor!) She went on, "At first I was angry because you said bad things about something so dear to me, but then I decided that you're not wrong it's just your view. You have your opinion and I have mine, that doesn't make you wrong." The third person echoed this. "You've got a right to your own opinion," she magnanimously told me.
It's frightening how relativism is creeping into the church these days. Sorry, but there is NO place for relativism when it comes to the Word of God! If the Word is clear, it is clear, and it is ABSOLUTE. End of story! No such thing as, "You can think what you want to think and I can think what I want to think; no one is wrong, we just have differing opinions." Rubbish!
Anyway, from the way the three cell group members reacted, I get the feeling that most of the church members wouldn't be able to handle the truth right now. I really don't know. But I'm not going out of my way to tell them why I left they would probably discount it as sour grapes anyway. I can't win; if I had said it while I was in the church, they'd have said I was sowing dischord and disunity among the members. If I say it now, they'll say I'm spreading slander and trying to bad-mouth the church. So it's best not to say anything, I guess. Not that I'm being given the chance to say anything in the first place no one has called me to ask me what happened. I wonder what explanation the leadership gave for my sudden disappearance.