In my experience, to many congregations are now led by spiritual cowards, elders and preachers alike. They are afraid of losing attenders by standing for truth. I have not heard teaching or preaching about the homosexual or transgender issues at all.
I share your frustrations, but I encourage caution in how we speak (especially publicly) about those in leadership. My fear is that most don't do what they should because they don't even know they're supposed to. That'll be the focus of an upcoming article.
Hi Mr. Wilkie, You say, 'With Strange Church, everyone who’s there knows what they signed up for and is already committed. They know that venturing off the beaten path is part of the deal from day one.'
I'm not sure what you mean by this. I faithfully attended a church that I assume you will call a 'Strange Church'. For years, I was unaware of some of the 'Strangeness' practiced, advocated, and taught by that particular assembly. And it was because of some of its leadership's ways that I ultimately could no longer conscionably attend that assembly.
Only afterward did I find out about some of the other elements of its particular strangeness to which I already was opposed. I shall call these particular elements 'harsh elements'. It turns out that I had begun attending that assembly out of pure naivety, and had kept assuming that the very few instances I had seen of these 'harsh elements' were strict exceptions to that assembly's ways. After I finally left that assembly, I found out that these instances were standard in that assembly: that what I had seen was actually approved of by the assembly's entire leadership team. I was shocked and surprised at this, since the elder leadership had not at first been that way toward myself. I had been assuming that their treatment of me was how they treated everyone. It turns out they were just playing favorites, and that I had been their most favorite.
In my experience, to many congregations are now led by spiritual cowards, elders and preachers alike. They are afraid of losing attenders by standing for truth. I have not heard teaching or preaching about the homosexual or transgender issues at all.
I share your frustrations, but I encourage caution in how we speak (especially publicly) about those in leadership. My fear is that most don't do what they should because they don't even know they're supposed to. That'll be the focus of an upcoming article.
Hi Mr. Wilkie, You say, 'With Strange Church, everyone who’s there knows what they signed up for and is already committed. They know that venturing off the beaten path is part of the deal from day one.'
I'm not sure what you mean by this. I faithfully attended a church that I assume you will call a 'Strange Church'. For years, I was unaware of some of the 'Strangeness' practiced, advocated, and taught by that particular assembly. And it was because of some of its leadership's ways that I ultimately could no longer conscionably attend that assembly.
Only afterward did I find out about some of the other elements of its particular strangeness to which I already was opposed. I shall call these particular elements 'harsh elements'. It turns out that I had begun attending that assembly out of pure naivety, and had kept assuming that the very few instances I had seen of these 'harsh elements' were strict exceptions to that assembly's ways. After I finally left that assembly, I found out that these instances were standard in that assembly: that what I had seen was actually approved of by the assembly's entire leadership team. I was shocked and surprised at this, since the elder leadership had not at first been that way toward myself. I had been assuming that their treatment of me was how they treated everyone. It turns out they were just playing favorites, and that I had been their most favorite.
Cliques are often a challenge for churches, and should be avoided, but I'm not sure how that ties in to the Strange Church idea.