I hope and pray that our next pastor will not see us as spoiled rotten members, only here to get our way but as compassionate and loving-willing to do what is asked of us to further the work of God.

When was the last time you met with a group around the flag pole? Have you had lunch with your child this year in his or her school lunchroom? Do you bless your food-even when you go out to eat? Have you ministered to a person in need–hugs go a long way when a person is lonesome.

Be a blessing to someone today you may need one tomorrow :love U

Love you,

Nancy

Bro L,

It seems we may go the same church. Your response does not surprise me either. Please come talk to me in person. I am not who you evidently think I am.

Love you all

I love you and Tammy very much and I think I understand how you feel. I have seen people come and go and I jave seen how some are treated. I have heard my own children talk about how someone said something to them that was actually none of their business or out of line. I don’t know if we think that because we are in a church building we have the right to say and or do anything we feel lead to do (some are lead by self more often than the Holy Spirit). I myself have had comments directed to me from individuals that if I wanted I could have taken offense and maybe even left the church. I tell my kids and myself, we do not attend a perfect church. The church we attend is a huge part of our life (mine especially). We go to assemble together with like believers-even though some react with more passion. Jesus was filled with passion. Passion for the lost, passion for the Word of God, passion against highmindedness. He truely showed love. He was eager to teach and reach out to the unloveable. He did not tollerate injustice. He was meek and understandable. He did not have a problem getting his message across. It is too easy to let our own personality bleed over into the message we bring however God knows this. Your passion somethimes comes across as anger and those who know you can filter it through our relationship with you.

Ever since I read the first response this morning I have been upset. This whole blog post has been sitting here waiting to be posted or not be posted since last Thursday. I know that I have been a little negative lately but as one who actually was held back for years because of the hypocrisy and unloving attitudes of those Christians I watched, I am getting really frustrated that I still see it. I know we are not perfect and some of these same questions I ask others you can be assured I ask myself.

I also found a group of people that loved me when I joined the COG at Alabaster. But I have to admit that I don’t see it for everyone. I looked right. I was clean, had a job and wore a suit every Sunday. And most of all, they did not have to come get me, I came to them.

I want to see a church that is so hungry to reach out and bring others into the Kingdom that they are willing to sacrifice something. But sometimes it seems that I see no one really willing to sacrifice anything.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the people at Alabaster. I love all the people that comment here. I know that sometimes it might not read that way but I do. Nothing I write on here is directed at any individual, it is directed across the board and not even just at COG folks.

The thought of leaving the COG is heavy on me and has been for a while. It is not because of anyone else but because of my own convictions. I got saved seven years ago and as a babe in Christ I joined. I did not fully comprehend a certain doctrinal commitment the way it is written with which I now cannot in good conscience believe. It actually comes down to a word that points to a conclusion that I do not find in the bible. I have been wrestling with this for three years and do not know if I can keep on. I feel like I am lying. I am not just ready to throw it away. That statement about leaving is wholly because of my own convictions.

I know we are not perfect. I am far from it. But I am driven in my desire to reach out in love to others instead of what we seem to mostly be doing. I try my best to reach out to those I know in love while at the same time trying to be vocal about where we are going wrong. I am praying for all of us, you can be sure. I have six kids and none of them are serving Christ. It is mostly my fault but it is also their own and even partly an unyielding church.

I don’t want to just keep on and on but yes, I am frustrated. With myself first, then my church, then my denomination and finally the body of Christ. Thanks again for your visits here, your post and your concern. And please comment some more.

Love you

You don’t know me, but I am a friend of Shannon & Dee who lives in Cleveland Tennessee. I have visited your blog site on several occasions and I have got to say it is quite impressive– both visually and more importantly in terms of its content. When I read your blog entitled “We must wake up,” I realized that you and I share some common views as it pertains to the church and its purpose in the world.
In 1975 I surrendered my life to Christ and immediately realized that I would need to leave behind the only religious affiliation I had ever known–Catholicism. When I came into the Church of God, I guess you could say, I felt like I had “arrived” at some spiritual promised land. The church I attended was a very loving and caring group of people. I had never experienced such intimacy and support in the Catholic church which I had attended from the time I was born until age twenty.
I wish that I could say that is how the story ends, but I simply can not. So as to not bore you with all the details let me say that after a period of time I began to realize that I was not living in God’s Camelot, but rather I was sharing an existence with brothers and sisters who had weaknesses and flaws (spiritual warts). Then, worst of all, God felt it necessary to make me look in the mirror of His Word and there I found out I wasn’t as “good looking” as I thought. It turns out, that the look in Gods mirror was absolutely the best thing that could have happened to me.You see, when I began to discern the things which I felt were contrary to the Will of God in the lives of others (including leaders in the Church of God), I quickly became disillusioned with the church. Which eventually led to severe spiritual frustration, and when I could not reconcile what I was seeing in the church with God’s Word, it eventually caused me to question the validity of my own salvation experience. Afterall if they weren’t exactly what they were suppose to be then maybe I wasn’t either. You might be asking yourself right now, exactly how was this the best thing that could have happened to me?
It was at this point of convergence (their warts and mine) that God was able to make me realize the depth of His grace and mercy. It is woven throughout scripture and throughout the history of His dealings with humanity–He is so patient and longsuffering towards us! It was demonstrated in the life of a person like Abraham who tried to make happen himself (Ishmael) what only God can and should bring about (Isaac); and in David,who surrendered his moral integrity to the lust for Bathsheba and yet God spared his life and his kingship; and also in the failure of a man called Peter, who in a moment of great doubt and fear, surrendered his devotion to Christ for the purpose of self-preservation.Yet each of these individuals experienced the restorative power of Gods grace, mercy, patience and longsuffering.By showing me the extent of my own failures, as well as the significantly greater extent of His grace and mercy towards me, God taught me to be more patient and longsuffering toward others–particularly toward those in leadership positions who were often targets of my consternation and ridicule (even if it was intended to be of a “constructive” nature),as well as targets of the one (Satan) who desires to destroy their influence .
Lest anyone think that I feel that I have arrived at a place of great spiritual inner harmony, let me assure I still struggle with times of great distress and frustration about where the church is headed. However, it is then that God reminds me of this lesson taught,if not yet fully learned. Then I find myself enabled again to seek Gods forgiveness for my judgemental determinations, whether right or wrong. In turn, I am able to pray for those over me in the Lord and for those in my local fellowship who’s warts might be painfully evident.

To be honest with you Sonny, I became distressed in my spirit when I read your statement that you “might have to leave the Church of God.” Distressed, not because there would be one less head to count on the COG membership roll, but simply because there would be one less prophetic voice in the church crying out to God for His hand of mercy and grace to be extended to us.
Moses is considered to be the greatest of the prophets,and while he did spend some time condemning the actions of a “stiffnecked” people, the greatest display of his love and passion was seen in his times of powerful intercession before God on behalf of those stiffnecked people. When Moses stood before God and asked Him to take his own life if God was going to destroy Israel (and he sincerely meant it-he wasn’t pulling the greatest bluff in history), I believe it was one of the greatest examples of a Christ-like life ever displayed by a mere human being. We need all the Moses’ that God has gifted the church with, to be crying out to God in behalf of the church.

Change will not come by leaving the church, (which I at one time intended to do) but by remaining within the confines that God has placed us. When the children of Israel came to the river Jordan, but refused to believe God and cross over into the Promised Land Moses, Joshua and Caleb would have been justified to say “We are out of here”. However, they knew that the promises of God were given to all of His people and their directive from God was to lead the people. So, instead they chose to stay with and lead a stubborn and unbelieving people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. As imperfect and downright frustrating that the church can often times be, it is the vessel God has chosen to demonstrate His grace and mercy through. Do we fall short? Yes. Is there a need for the church to grow up? Absolutely. Will we get it all together in this life? Not likely. However, it is of utmost importance that we faithfully and with Christ-like love and compassion fulfill our role within the body of Christ–as imperfect as it is.

I have said all of this to say I hope that you will continue to cry out to God in behalf of His people there at Alabaster, and that you not become discouraged or “weary in your well-doing.”

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

p.s. since you don’t know me I want to assure you that I welcome your being honest and candid in your response to my post–should you choose to respond.

This does sound more personally aimed at you Justin than I intended. It was meant as a representative statement about a lot of people that I do not think are even aware of what some of their stances are doing to keep the unchurched out of the church.

“You wrote:
“I am also humble enough to actually admit that I might not see the truth of an issue yet.”
Thank you for giving me hope. I will keep working on it.”

I suspect this is true even if I did use some strong language to get my point across. I also will keep working on it.

A appreciate our discourse and probably should not try to come across quite so strongly. I do forget myself that more than just you and I are reading this.

Thanks Justin and I hope you realize nothing in my comments are to personally offend. I feel strongly about things as you do. You might be right, I might be right, or we might both be wrong. But one truth is definitive, we are not both right.

Love you all

You wrote:
“I stand for truth but that the most important thing is to reach the lost and bring them in and keep them long enough for me to reach them with that truth…”
I also think the most important thing is to reach the lost. I don’t think reaching the lost and truth are mutually exclusive.

You wrote:
“You want every thing and everyone to be as literal as you are and maybe be an expert at all things or shut up”
How did you get the idea that I think anyone should shut up? I thought we were discussing an issue. I welcome a response as always.

You wrote:
“I am also humble enough to actually admit that I might not see the truth of an issue yet.”
Thank you for giving me hope. I will keep working on it.

The reggae issue was, I thought, an interesting bit of trivia. I didn’t think you were suggesting we convert to reggae. I’m not backing down on the squirrel issue, though. I think that is important.
As I wrote in my original response, I agree we need to do more to reach the lost. I am looking forward to our new pastor and I am interested in giving him a chance. Hopefully everyone will retain their interest and we can go forward.