Posted by
Doctor Bart on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:52:25 AM
In my adult life I have regularly attended four churches. One for 15 years, the other three for about 4 years each. The first church we attended as a married couple was pastored by Charles Swindoll, a well known Bible teacher. We stayed because he taught the Bible well. We stayed even when we moved 30 minutes away, because he taught the Bible well. When we left after 15 years it was because we thought our children would do better if they went to a church where they could develop friendships closer to home.
After 10 years and three churches we are now driving back to the original church. Why? Because in all of the other instances we over time learned that the pastors weren't who we thought they were. For one is was doctrinal, there were beliefs about ministry that were controversial. The pastor tried to keep these views hidden early in his ministry, yet allowed them to come out over time. When those beliefs came out, we left. For another church it was relational. The pastor turned out to be superficially good, but in reality he was spiteful, vengeful, controlling and arrogant. As I became more involved in the church these traits became more obvious. When my efforts to approach these issues were rebuffed, we left. The third instance was one where the pastor appeared to get lazy in his doctrine. Over the years the sermons were more agenda driven and less scripture driven. The Bible passages would get tweaked to support his point. Not to the point of heresy, but it was clear there was a lack of diligence. We decided to find a place that honored God's Word more.
All of this to say- people who truly have faith, people who truly love God, people who are truly serious about their spiritual lives, don't tolerate incompetence in a Pastor. We can deduce a lot about Senator Obama from the last 20 years, and none of it is good.