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"10
reasons why your church sucks"
#5
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it's inbred
did you know that a community of 25-50 can not survive
because the gene pool can not stand the inbreeding? a
community that small will soon die-out because it's generic pool
will grow week. in fact, it takes a diverse community of
125 to truly maintain a solid gene pool and a solid future - and
most churches simply do not have the generic material to survive
without becoming inbreed.
i
was excited about the possibilities. i had just
graduated from drew and i left the united methodist
church and was heading back home to las vegas from new
jersey. i was given the opportunity to serve as
the interim pastor with a primitive methodist church,
and i took it. the church was small, but the
position was for only a year and i needed the experience
before returning home - i felt it would be a great
learning experience; one that would help me serve God
and at the same time help me relax and gather my prayer
live to see where God was leading me. as i got
settled in and started to meet people i was surprised to
find out that all - all - the leadership of the church
was related to each other. not one person in the
leadership was unrelated to others in the
leadership. what surprised me the most was out of
the 50 people in the church only one couple was not
related to the others, and they had never been offered a
position of leadership (a small side note is that i
found out that most of the people in the pm church were
related to each other - surprise).
now,
most people in these churches have no problem with the
fact that they are all related, and that is because they
have become their own best listeners. one time,
while serving that pm church, a few friends decided to
pay us a visit and spend the weekend. as we all
went to the church for worship that sunday, my friends
were excited about hearing me teach again. when we
got into the church my friends found a place to sit and
i went down to my office to go over my sermon and to
"get dressed."
when
i got back into the worship area i looked over to my
friend was sitting, and they had moved - i did not think
anything of it at the time. when the service was
over and we all went out to lunch, my friend shared with
me why they moved. as he and his wife were sitting
and talking an elderly women and her husband approached
them and informed them that that pew was theirs, and
they needed to move.
inbreed
communities take on some very distinctive forms.
there is a partial list of some of the factors you will
find in an inbreed church:
1.
people sit in the same place all the time. have
you ever noticed that people in your church always sit
in the same place - and get mad when
"outsiders" sit in "their" spot?
2.
the people in the church are friends with people in the
church, and have no outside friends.
3.
leadership is based on the "big mama" or
"big papa" in the church. voting is done
to give an appearance of "following the rules"
but the decision to run and who to vote for is based on
the desire of the "mother and father" figures
of the church.
4.
decisions are made long before any board meetings.
phone calls are made and vote decided before the meeting
ever takes place.
being
an inbreed church dies not mean everyone in related
either. the church can have an inbreed mentality
without having people being related. it is purely
mindset and a lack of heart set.
Pastor
John
John
O’Keefe is the founder of www.ginkworld.net.
John sees a desperate need for the church as a whole to
change and reach a new people for Christ.
He is straightforward, honest and calls it the way it he
sees it. John is a
graduate of Drew and has been a Senior Pastor and Church Planter
od,
confess you’re a sinner, God will forgive you, but the basic
look will still be the same. I have seen this more times then not. In a reconstruction modern faith we see the fallen lining the
streets of the fundamental/conservative/liberal theology and
mindset (reconstruction modern theology is not necessarily a
“conservative” theology – it cam also be, and often is,
liberal). We need
to keep in mind, what when we are wearing the armor of God the
only part of our body that is exposed is our back.
So, the only time we can fall is by “friendly fire”
– people stabbing us in the back.
Over the past few years I have seen people fall out of
favor with the reconstruction moderns, only to be ridiculed and
insulted for ever – even after seeking forgiveness and
repenting.
Just
a few are Bakker and Warnke.
These men fell out of favor, and remain out of favor for
most, if not all, evangelical reconstruction modern Christians
– the question then becomes, “can a person truly receive
forgiveness in modern reconstruction theology?”
After all, with God it is forgiveness 100%, yet with
moderns it is 60%. I
have heard pastors teach, “God forgives, we remember.”
What makes us better then God?
If God forgives the heart of repentance, who are we to
say otherwise? Who are we to say that forgiveness is or is not granted?
Who are we to say that repentance on the part of one is
right and on the part of another is wrong?
A faith that deconstructs the person brings them bare
before God and God does the work, and we must accept what God is
doing in people. When
we do this, we see our faults and our sins.
When we do this we do so with honesty and with an open
heart. Standing
before God as a person seeking His grace, is far more valuable
then standing before humanity seeking theirs.
Blessings,
Pastor
John
John
O’Keefe is the founder of www.ginkworld.net.
John sees a desperate need for the church as a whole to
change and reach a new people for Christ.
He is straightforward, honest and calls it the way it he
sees it. John is a
graduate of Drew and has been a Senior Pastor and Church Planter
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