The sport of ‘Calvin bashing’  seems to be a favorite sport of more than a few professing Christians. More seem to be adept at blaming John Calvin for doctrines he didn’t invent.

I ought to know, because I used to be one. But that was years ago now. I decided to actually study the man, his doctrine, as well as the despised T.U.L.I.P. I figured I owed it to the man. What I knew about him was mostly what others told me about him, and it wasn’t good. So I did my homework, which included analyzing nearly all of the objections to Calvinism. What I learned was for me an eye opener and an occasion for genuine repentance for just having listened and trusted what other ‘older’ Christians had been telling me.

Is it really John Calvin that the Calvin ‘bashers’ hate, or the notion that the human will of fallen men isn’t as ‘free’ as they think it is? 

________________________

Food for thought and discussion on a Wednesday morning.

SENTENCING OF THE PIRATE MAJOR STEDE BONNET

AT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12^TH, 1718

From Captain Charles Johnson’s

“A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates.” London, 1724.

On the 28^th of October, 1718, a court of Vice Admiralty was held at Charleston, in South Carolina, and by several adjournments continued until Wednesday, the 12^th of November following, for the trial of the Pirates taken in a sloop formerly called the Revenge, but afterwards the Royal James, before Nicholas Trot, Esq., Judge of the Vice Admiralty, and chief Justice of the said Province of South Carolina, and other assistant judges.

Here be the Lord Chief Justice’s Speech, upon his Pronouncing Sentence on Major Stede Bonnet.

“Major Stede Bonnet, you stand here convicted upon two indictments of piracy; one by the verdict of the jury, and the other by your own confession.

Although you were indicted but for two facts, yet you know that at your trial it was fully proved, even by an unwilling witness, that you piratically took and rifled no less than thirteen vessels since you sailed from North Carolina.

So that you might have been indicted and convicted on eleven more acts of piracy since you took the benefit of the King’s Act of Grace, and pretended to leave that wicked course of life.

Not to mention the many acts of piracy you committed before; for which, if your pardon from man was never so authentic, yet you must expect to answer for them before God.

You know that the crimes you have committed are evil in themselves, and contrary to the light and law of nature, as well as the law of God, by which you are commanded that you shall not steal (Exo. 20.15). And the Apostle St. Paul expressly affirms that thieves shall not inherit the Kingdom of God (I Cor. 6.10).

But to theft you have added a greater sin, which is murder. How many you may have killed of those that resisted you in the committing of your former piracies, I know not, but this we all know, that besides the wounded you killed no less than eighteen persons out of those that were sent by lawful authority to suppress you, and put a stop to those rapines that you daily acted.

And, however you might fancy that that was killing men fairly in open fight, yet this know, that the power of the sword not being committed into your hands by any lawful authority, you were not empowered to use any force, or fight anyone; and therefore those persons that fell in that action, in doing their duty to their King and Country, were murdered, and their blood now cries out for vengeance and justice against you. For it is the voice of Nature confirmed by the Law of God, that whosoever sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed (Gen. 9.6).

And consider that Death is not the only punishment due to Murderers; for they are threatened to have their part in the lake witch burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second Death (Rev. 21. 8 See Chap. 22. 15). Words which carry that terror with them that considering your circumstances and your guilt, surely the sound of them must make you tremble, for who can dwell with everlasting burnings? (Isaiah 33.14).

As the testimony of your conscience must convince you of the great and many evils you have committed, by which you have highly offended God, and provoked most justly His wrath and indignation against you, so I suppose I need not tell you that the only way of obtaining pardon and remission of your sins from God is by a true and unfeigned repentance and faith in Christ, by whose meritorious Death and Passion you can only hope for salvation.

You being a gentleman that have had the advantage of a liberal education, and being generally esteemed a man of letters, I believe it will be needless for me to explain to you the nature of repentance and faith in Christ, they being so fully and often mentioned in the Scriptures that you cannot but know them. And therefore, perhaps, for that reason it might be thought by some improper for me to have said so much to you, as I have already upon this occasion. Neither should I have done it, but that considering the course of your life and actions, I have just reason to fear that the principles of religion that had been instilled into you by your education have been at least corrupted, if not entirely defaced, by the Scepticism and Infidelity of this wicked age; and that what time you allowed for study was rather applied to the Polite Literature and the vain philosophy of the times, than a serious search after the Law and Will of God, as revealed unto us in the Holy Scriptures. For had your delight been in the Law of the Lord and that you had meditated therein day and night (Psalm 1.2) you would have then found that God’s Word was a lamp unto your feet, and a light to your path (Psalm 119.105) and that you would account all other knowledge but loss in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus (Phil. 3.8) who to them that are called is the power of God and the wisdom of God (I Cor. 1.24) even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world (Chap. 2.7).

You would then have esteemed the Scriptures as the Great charter of Heaven, and which delivered to us not only the most perfect laws and rules of life, but also discovered to us the Acts of Pardon from God, wherein they have offended those righteous laws. For in them only is to be found the great mystery of fallen man’s Redemption which the angels desire to look into (I Pet. 1.12).

And they would have taught you that Sin is the debasing of human nature as being a deviation from that Purity, Rectitude and Holiness in which God created us, and that Virtue and Religion and walking by the laws of God were altogether preferable to the ways of Sin and Satan, for that the ways of Virtue are ways of pleasantness, and all their paths are peace (Prov. 3.17).

But what you could not learn from God’s Word, by reason of your carelessly or but superficially considering the same, I hope the course of His Providence and the present afflictions that He hath laid upon you, hath now convinced you of the same. For however in your seeming prosperity you might make a mock at your sins (Prov. 14.9) yet know that you see God’s hand hath reached you, and brought you to public justice, I hope your present unhappy circumstances hath made you seriously reflect upon your past actions and course of life; and that you are now sensible of the greatness of your sins, and that you find the burden of them is intolerable.

And that therefore being thus labouring and heavy laden with sin (Matt. 11.28) you will esteem that as the most valuable knowledge, that can show you how you can be reconciled to that supreme God that you have so highly offended; and that can reveal to you Him who is not only the powerful Advocate with the Father for you (I John 2.1) but also who hath paid that debt that is due for your sins by His own Death upon the Cross for you; and thereby made full satisfaction for the justice of God. And this is to be found nowhere but in God’s Word, which discovers to us that Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world (John 1. 29) which is Christ the Son of God; for this know and be assured, that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved (Acts 4.12) but only by the name of the Lord Jesus.

But then consider how He invites all sinners to come unto Him and that he will give them rest (Matt. 11.28) for He assure us that he came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19.10; Matt. 18.11) and hath promised that he that cometh to him, he will in no wise cast out (John 6.37).

So that if you will now sincerely turn to Him, though late, even at the eleventh hour (Matt. 20.6, 9) He will receive you.

But surely I need not tell you that the terms of His mercy is Faith and Repentance.

And do not mistake the nature of repentance to be only a bare sorrow for your sins, arising from the consideration of the evil and punishment they have now brought upon you; but your sorrow must arise from the consideration of your having offended a gracious and merciful God.

But I shall not pretend to give you any particular directions as to the nature of repentance. I consider that I speak to a person whose offences have proceeded not so much from his not knowing, as to his slighting and neglecting his duty. Neither is it proper for me to give advice, out of the way of my own profession.

You may have that better delivered to you by those who have made Divinity their particular study and who, by their knowledge as well as their office, as being ambassadors of Christ (II Cor 5.20) are best qualified to give you instruction therein.

I only heartily wish that what, in compassion to your soul, I have now said to you upon this sad and solemn occasion, by exhorting you in general to faith and repentance, may have that due effect upon you that thereby you may become a true penitent.

And therefore, having now discharged my duty to you as a Christian by giving you the best council I can, with respect to the salvation of your soul, I must now do my office as a judge.

The sentence that the Law hath appointed to pass on you for your offences, and which this court doth therefore award is;

That you, the said Stede Bonnet, shall go from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck till you are dead.

And the God of Infinite Mercy be merciful to your soul.”

Near the end of November, 1718, The Pirate Major Stede Bonnet was executed between the tides at the White Point near Charleston, pursuant to his sentence.

“A mind like a steel trap” usually means either:

1. The ability to remember absolutely everything.

2. A characteristic of the mind akin to being ‘rusted shut’.

The former is commendable for the most part but extremely rare. The latter is much more prevalent in the ranks of fallen human beings and a significant hindrance to intelligent dialogue.

Here’s an example of a ‘conditional (hypothetical) expression:

“If I were to ‘feel’ judged by something said that was a general observation/comment that was not personally directed to, or specifically about me by name, “I have a problem”.

To those who have been schooled in the use of the English language, the above is known as a hypothetical, or conditional statement/expression. One purpose of such expressions is to facilitate objective and profitable dialogue. An additional benefit of using ‘hypothetials’ is to try and prevent discussion participants from ‘feeling bad’ because they think they have been personally accused of something or are being judged.

The statement at the top of this post was made in response to a comment implying that it was rude to say something that might cause another person to ‘feel’ judged, even if that something was not directed toward a specific individual. The “IF I” hypothetical was intentionally inserted to express exactly how I would feel about myself under a certain ‘condition’. so that there would be no possibility of my having been judgmental of anyone other than me.

Sad to say, my use of the ‘conditional’ was not received well. Either it was not understood, or the intended receiver of my comment thought I was being intentionally sarcastic. Perhaps both. Anyway, I see only a few options from this point in time

1. Continue trying to explain the use of ‘conditional’ expressions.

2. Express myself using monosyllabic words/terms that are more easily understood. (Kind of a ‘read my lips’ thing. Whoops….do I smell real sarcasm?)

3. Refrain from saying anything that could even remotely result in someone ‘feeling’ judged.

4. Shake the dust off my shoes and move on down the road.

Any suggestions out there?

There are a couple of great conversations located at No Compromise Radio (http://www.nocompromiseradio.com/no-co-ever/ ). The participants are Phil Johnson, Dr. James White, Dr. Carl Trueman, and the host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. The topics discussed revolve around compromises being made in today’s evangelical church.

by Ken Klukowski, Breitbart.com

“Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces.”

Those words were recently written by Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), in a column he wrote for the Huffington Post. Weinstein will be a consultant to the Pentagon to develop new policies on religious tolerance, including a policy for court-martialing military chaplains who share the Christian Gospel during spiritual counseling of American troops.

Weinstein decries what he calls the “virulent religious oppression” perpetrated by conservative Christians, whom he refers to as “monstrosities” and “pitiable unconstitutional carpetbaggers,” comparing them to “bigots” in the Deep South during the civil rights era.

He cites Dr. James Dobson—the famous Christian founder of Focus on the Family—as “illustrating the extremist, militant nature of these virulently homophobic organizations’ rhetorically-charged propaganda.” Regarding those who teach orthodox Christian beliefs from the Bible, Weinstein concludes, “Let’s call these ignoble actions what they are: the senseless and cowardly squallings of human monsters.”

Weinstein then endorses the ultra-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), who publishes a list of “hate groups.” Alongside truly deplorable organizations like the KKK, the SPLC’s list includes a host of traditional Christian organizations (for their support of traditional marriage) and Tea Party organizations (for supporting limited government). Weinstein says SPLC correctly labels them all as “hate groups.”

Floyd Lee Corkins—the first person ever convicted of domestic terrorism in federal court under the laws of Washington, D.C.—told the FBI that he chose his intended shooting spree targets from the SPLC website’s map. Corkins was arrested at the offices of the Family Research Council (FRC) after shooting a security guard in August 2012. His court documents state that Corkins intended to kill as many people as possible.

Weinstein also supports Lt. Col. Jack Rich, the Army officer who wrote to subordinate officers that soldiers who hold traditional Christian beliefs agreeing with organizations on SPLC’s “hate group” list are incompatible with “Army values" and should be carefully watched and excluded from military service.

According to Weinstein, “We should as a nation effusively applaud Lt. Col. Rich.” He adds that the nation should “venture further” than Rich’s recommendations, saying, “We MUST vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose pathologically anti-gay, Islamaphobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are: die-hard enemies of the United States Constitution. Monsters, one and all. To do anything less would be to roll out a red carpet to those who would usher in a blood-drenched, draconian era of persecutions, nationalistic militarism, and superstitious theocracy.”

Many media outlets are silent on this disturbing new alliance between fanatical secularists and leaders in the Pentagon appointed by President Barack Obama and Secretary Chuck Hagel, under which the U.S. military would officially consult with someone with such foaming-at-the-mouth passionate hostility toward traditional Christians, including Evangelicals and devout Catholics. The military—America’s most heroic and noble institution—includes countless people of faith, and this represents a radical departure from the U.S. military’s warm embrace of people of faith in its ranks.

Yet the little coverage this story is getting is positive, such as this Washington Post column that somehow manages not to carry any of these frightening quotes from Weinstein and instead actually endorses the Pentagon’s meeting with him. Sally Quinn’s Post column also approvingly quotes MRFF Advisory Board member Larry Wilkerson as saying, “Sexual assault and proselytizing, according to Wilkerson, ‘are absolutely destructive of the bonds that keep soldiers together.’”

Did you get that? They say having someone share the Christian gospel with you is akin to being raped. Weinstein makes sure there are no doubts, being quoted by the Post as adding, “This is a national security threat. What is happening [aside from sexual assault] is spiritual rape. And what the Pentagon needs is to understand is that it is sedition and treason. It should be punished.”

Another MRFF Advisory Board member, Ambassador Joe Wilson (the far-left husband of CIA employee Valerie Plame from the Iraq War’s yellow-cake uranium scandal a decade ago), said a military chaplain “is to minister to spiritual needs. You don’t proselytize. It’s a workplace violation.”

In other words, it should be the official policy of the United States to decree what a human being’s spiritual needs are, and punish for violations a military officer who is an ordained clergyman who attempts to share his own personal faith with another service member when discussing religious matters. You cannot imagine such a thing ever happening under any previous president.

Weinstein goes on:

If these fundamentalist Christian monsters of human degradation … and tyranny cannot broker or barter your acceptance of their putrid theology, then they crave for your universal silence in the face of their rapacious reign of theocratic terror. Indeed, they ceaselessly lust, ache, and pine for you to do absolutely nothing to thwart their oppression. Comply, my friends, and you become as monstrously savage as are they. I beg you, do not feed these hideous monsters with your stoic lethargy, callousness and neutrality. Do not lubricate the path of their racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Doing so directly threatens the national security of our beautiful nation.

God help us now when someone with such visceral hatred of conservative Christians—literally tens of millions of Americans—who says sharing this gospel is “spiritual rape” is helping develop policies for how to deal with Christians in the military.

Weinstein says those guilty of this “treason” must be “punished.” Under federal law, the penalty for treason is death. And the Obama administration is sitting down to talk with this man to craft new policies for “religious tolerance” in our military.

Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is senior fellow for religious liberty at the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University School of Law. 

The Al Mohler Podcast for today is a good listen.

http://www.albertmohler.com/2013/04/17/the-briefing-04-17-13/

Issues, Etc. also has an excellent program concerning the Juvinilization of Christianity.

http://issuesetc.org/2013/04/16/3-the-juvenilization-of-christianity-dr-thomas-bergler-41613/

L. Nelson Bell

Have Christians forfeited their rightful anticipation of eternity?

Three years ago I had an assignment that took me entirely around the world—first to Japan, then Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, on to Europe, and finally to New York and home. During this trip I did my best to carry out my task effectively. But in the back of my mind there was always a lurking longing for home and for loved ones and friends. I was anxious to get back to the place where I belong, where there is always a loving welcome, where I am comfortable and at peace.

Has the Church lost its sense of home, so to speak—of man’s ultimate destiny? Have Christians forfeited their rightful anticipation of heaven? Are we so concerned about making this world a "better place to live in" that we forget the Bible’s admonition, "Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come" (Heb. 13:14)? Do we think that the Son of God came into this world primarily to reconcile man to man, rather than to redeem man from his sins and make him fit for heaven?

The activities of many suggest that our world is permanent, and that man’s tenancy is permanent. But that is not so. We live in a world dominated by sin and dying of it, and the Christian’s witness is not primarily about what is seen and temporary but about what is not seen and eternal.

"Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly use," we’ve heard. Perhaps so. But there certainly are many others who are so anxious to be where the action is that they overlook the place where the greatest "action" of history took place—the cross of Jesus Christ.

Why shouldn’t the Christian think of and look forward to heaven? The earth and our bodies are temporary; heaven is home. Christ makes it plain that his primary objective in coming into this world was to "save" and to give "eternal life." It is one of the strange vagaries of our day that talk about salvation, heaven, and eternal life is, generally speaking, passé. Could it be that Satan has blinded the eyes of the world to the transience of this present life and to the fact of a life after death to be lived somewhere, eternally?

Jesus said his Father is in heaven. He said that no man can come to the Father but by faith in him. He repeatedly spoke of eternal life and the necessity of being prepared for it. He made it plain that sin separates us from God, now and for eternity. He affirmed that the transition from a perishing state to the possession of everlasting life takes place when men believe in him as the Son of God and Savior from sin.

Why, or why, is so little said about this from our pulpits today?

I have had the pleasure of visiting many places in this world. There are some to which I would love to return—Palestine, for instance. But there is no place in this world comparable to the heaven described in the Bible: "Things beyond our seeing, things beyond our hearing, things beyond our imagining, all prepared by God for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9, NEB).

This is not "pie in the sky," as some derisively say. It is a glorious hope, the hope and destiny of every Christian. Why are we so often silent about such a future?

Jesus tells us that there are many "mansions," "rooms," "dwelling places," in heaven. No matter how one interprets the word, the fact is that our Lord is even now preparing a dwelling place for those who are his own, and that it will be our permanent address.

In an editorial republished in the March 18 [1968] issue of U. S. News and World Report, editor David Lawrence emphasizes "The Illusion of Permanence:" "The North Atlantic Treaty is temporary. The United Nations is temporary. Peace itself is temporary. … Basically, there is only one permanence we can all accept. It is the permanence of a God-governed world. For the power of God is alone permanent. Obedience to his laws is the road to a lasting solution of man’s problems."

Down through the centuries the hope of heaven has rightly been the stay of believing Christians. The Apostle Paul speaks of the bleakness of any faith in Christ confined to this life.

And the Apostle John gives us a vision of what heaven will be like. Obviously, no words can adequately describe it. The new heaven and new earth will be perfect. Sorrow, death, crying, sickness, death, mourning, pain—all these will be gone, and the joy of the Lord will be in every heart.

God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—will be there, and because of his presence there will be no need of the sun. Nor will there be any night. There will be nothing unclean or false, for we will be in the presence of the holiness of God himself.

This is no plea that Christians sink back into a meaningless life of mere anticipation. Our knowledge of such a glorious future should be reflected in the lives we live right now.

Jesus came into the world to make this glorious future possible, and he is coming again to make it a reality. "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command [reminiscent of, ‘Lazarus, come forth’], with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess. 4:16-18).

Surely we should give this hope the emphasis due it. This does not blind us to the necessity of caring for the material needs of the unfortunate; rather, it gives meaning to all acts of Christian compassion, for it looks beyond the temporal to the eternal implications of the Christian faith.

Christians should be in the vanguard of those who are working to alleviate suffering and sorrow; but theirs is a double ministry—to the body and to the soul. They should make it clear that their service is done in the name of Christ and for his glory.

All honor is due those who are personally engaged in human relief. It is the duty of every Christian to recognize such work as both legitimate and essential in the total witness of the Church. But let us be sure that it is recognized as a means to an end and not as the end in itself. The ultimate goal of the Christian lies beyond the horizon of human experience.

I have known some who had everything this world has to offer but who still were utterly miserable. They had no joy in the present, no hope for the future. I have also known many, here and abroad, who had only the barest necessities of life but who nevertheless had joy in the present and complete confidence for the future.

The Church must emphasize this future joy as man’s ultimate destiny, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This article first appeared in the May 24, 1968, issue of Christianity Today. At the time, L. Nelson Bell wrote the column, "A Layman and his Faith" for CT. He was a cofounder of the magazine and also founder of the Southern Presbyterian Journal (later renamed The Presbyterian Journal). He was also a medical missionary and influential leader in the Southern Presbyterian Church. He died in 1973.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today.

This is an article I found at ChurchLeaders.com this morning and what I thought might/or might not be a salient comment.

10 Gut-Wrenching Observations from a Former Church Insider

by Shaun King

A powerful look at church from the outside by a former pastor.

(This post has not been edited for errors.  These are my raw, honest thoughts. In a hurry?  Scroll down for my 10 observations.)

I didn’t grow up in church.

It wasn’t until I was assaulted in high school and required several spinal surgeries that I even knew I needed God.  But from 1996-2011, from the time I was 16 until I was 31, church was CENTRAL to my life personally and professionally.  I became a church insider almost instantly.  Here is a bit of my church history…

At the age of 16 I was baptized @ Antioch Baptist Church in Lexington, KY by my best friends dad, Willis Polk

At the age of 17 I was licensed to preach by Willis Polk at his new church, Imani Baptist Church

At the age of 17 I moved to Atlanta.  My first mentor in Atlanta was Howard Creecy, the chaplain of the city of Atlanta and pastor of an urban church – St. Peter Baptist Church.

At the age of 18 I decided I wanted to be like a man named Dr. Aaron Parker.  I revered this dude.  He was a religion professor @ Morehouse College and a local pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church.

At the age of 18 I started preaching all over the country and became active @ Zion Hill Baptist Church

At the age of 22 I visited Union Theological Seminary in NYC and thought long and hard about going there for my Master of Divinity.

At the age of 23 I started attending Total Grace Christian Center after several friends of mine from Morehouse and Spelman insisted it was an amazing place.  The pastor, Johnathan Alvarado, whom I have since spoken out against very strongly, was actually great to me during most of time there and put me on the fast track to leadership.  I was ordained as a pastor by him, became his personal assistant, and eventually helped launch a new campus of the church.

At the age of 25 I was approved and trained by the Evangelical Covenant Church denomination to become a church planter.

At the age of 28 I was approved and trained by ARC (Association of Related Churches) to become a church planter.

At the age of 29 I launched Courageous Church in downtown Atlanta.  I thought I’d pastor there forever. It sounds crazy to me now, but I loved that church and the people.  I’d do so many things differently if I could do it all over again. We had something special there.

In 2011 I stepped down from my role as Pastor of Courageous Church.  Man that hurt.

———

In the nearly 2 years since then I’ve visited a lot of churches with my family.

We’ve visited churches we’ve heard about for years, places we just learned about on the fly, we’ve sat in the balcony and down front, we’ve been to churches of all cultures and backgrounds, we’ve tried out all of the children’s ministries, we’ve seen church every way you can make it in America.

We’ve lived in California, Kentucky, and New York these past 2 years and have pretty much seen it all.  All of that considered, I have 10 observations that I’d love to share.

I like to always give this stipulation when I offer what may sound like a self-righteous critique of church. I love the Church. I love God. I am flawed. This is not me saying I’m perfect and that the church sucks. With that said, here goes…

10 Honest Observations of Church Now that I am an Outsider

10. This is going to sound terrible, but I’m surprised how little church means to me now that I’m not a church insider.

When I was a church insider, I operated under the assumption that what we were offering people was going to fill some deep gap that they had and knew that they had, but now that I am a church outsider, I’m a perfectly content guy. I don’t feel like something is missing. Maybe it is, but it doesn’t feel that way. 

I think pastors and church leaders too often assume that people that don’t show up on Sunday are lonely or deficient in some way, but it’s just not the case in my world and probably isn’t the case with others.

I listed this first because I think if I knew that people felt that way when I was a pastor I would have offered them something different and talked to them differently. 

It changes everything.

9. Most church nurseries stink. 

I mean like outrageous funk hits you in the face right away type of stink. They smell like crap and instantly make me not want to drop my baby off there.

Listen, I know diapers are changed there, but I’ve seen it done where it doesn’t smell like an old man crapped on the floor. Dropping a baby off to strangers is already a weird and difficult proposition – please dispose of the diapers in a close container and use air freshener.

8. I’ve gotten lost in every church I’ve ever attended. 

I can’t find the bathrooms, I can’t find where to drop off the kids, and when I find the bathrooms and where to drop off the kids, I can’t find my way back to my seat. 

Directional signs are SO DOGGONE CHEAP. You can seriously go as cheap as laminating some paper and taping them on the walls or go super fancy and have them professionally done. 

Just do it.

7. The sermons are rarely memorable.

This is a huge problem because in every church we’ve visited the sermon is clearly designed to be the crescendo/centerpiece of the entire service. 

I won’t tell you where we went last, but I can’t tell you even one sentence from the sermon and I listened the whole doggone time.

6. In my church training, I always learned that parents will go to a church that they like just a little bit if the kids LOVE it…

But that parents will leave a church they like a lot if the kids don’t like it.

It’s true.  I preferred one church in New York personally but the kids didn’t like it at all.

We went back one time. The kids didn’t like it again. I love it. We never went back. 

DOUBLE DOWN ON WHAT YOU DO FOR KIDS. Make it even bigger and better than what you do for adults!!

5. I honestly don’t remember if I acted this way when I was a pastor, but I’ve had a few pastors act really weird over their church members volunteering to help with something I was leading outside of the church. 

Each time it baffled me. Don’t act like you own your members. I’m not going to start a church with them. They can volunteer outside of your church. 

It’s healthy. Don’t be weird and don’t act so insecure fellas.

4. When I pastored Courageous Church we spent an outrageous amount of time on announcements. 

I was slightly aware that we spoke of our announcements too many times. Now that I am on the other end of things, IT IS CRAZY. 

Don’t have an announcement video, then an announcement flyer, then have the pastor restate all of the announcements, then have a host come do it at the end. 

Cut almost all of it out. 

Do it once and have a flyer. If the pastor has to emphasize something, have them only say something about one thing, but my guess is that unless it’s urgent, let the pastor just preach. It goes in one ear and out the other, it drags the service on an extra half an hour, and it’s just not effective.

3. I feel like I’m going back in time when I go to most churches. 

Listen, I know God is unchanging, but the world changes.

I hear pastors make illustrations with references from the 80s that go right over people’s heads. 

I hear music that was popular in the 90s (which is getting to be a long time ago). 

A ton of churches make zero references to social media during the services, but it’s a big part of people’s lives.  I hate to say this, but when I visited some churches, it felt just like it did when I visited them 10 years ago and gave me very little motivation to go back.

2. Most churches have NO IDEA what to do with the true skills and gifts that men and women have…

if they don’t involve singing, doing camera work, or running lyrics on a laptop. 

I rarely feel challenged in church and rarely hear of any opportunities to use any of my skills, gifts, or talents in a remotely meaningful way. I am sure people felt this way when I was a pastor as well, but it totally went over my head. 

Your church is full of smart, experienced, skilled people. It’s OK for them to be ushers and greeters, but if somebody is an expert at something, take the time to figure out how to use that. 

It will engage them on a deep level and make the commit like never before.

1. All of that said, I’m still so proud of you pastors. 

Your work is so important, but so hard and it can be nearly impossible to get outside of your bubble to know what the world truly thinks and feels. 

I am rooting for you in every way!

Keep getting better. Figure out how to have regular, unbiased feedback from visitors or even from 3rd parties that you bring in. It will keep you sharp! 

What I heard in this article was someone who ‘joined church’ and a lot of complaints from a still young man, based mostly on personal preferences\likes being satisfied. Well, I’m not a young whippersnapper anymore. I repented of my sin and believed in Christ as a young teenager, however was a prodigal for nearly 10 years from about ages 18 – 26 having left organized church because of what I thought was wrong with it. God hauled me back in while I was in the US Army Special Forces and I remained within that elite military community for nearly 30 years. I retired about 15 years ago and am still just a regular working man at age 63. But this isn’t about me. I just wanted to provide a bit of background.

I learned about 30 years ago now that locating a church to attend wasn’t a matter of finding what ‘fit’ my personal likes/desires. It was a matter of asking God where he wanted me to serve as I moved around serving in the military (and probably a bit more than the young fellow who wrote the article)  . For that reason, although no church/chapel has met all of my personal expectations, I have always found a place where I could add what talents and gifts I’ve been granted for the building up of the body.

I’ve never been to a regular Bible college or seminary, but I’ve read through and the Bible a few times and did a bit of studying on my own. Because laborers are always in demand, I’ve had the honor and privilege to teach Sunday School and various small group Bible studies, provide a message when all the chaplains have been deployed, be an usher, join prayer teams, cook for lots of people and clean up afterwards.

I’ve heard a LOT of sermons, some from popular, exciting and gifted preachers/teachers, but many more from just ordinary pastors and servants. God has spoken to me in many ways through most of them. If I didn’t hear God speak to me somehow, I probably wasn’t listening.

Along the way, I’ve learned a thing or two about ‘church’ and ministry in general. About churches – they are either founded on the pure unvarnished gospel that Christ died for our sins (built by Jesus), or they are merely works of men, some of whom preach a different Gospel, like Christ died for OUR dreams (that was in actual sermon I heard once). About ministry – all true ministry is God’s ministry, and we still flawed mortals are blessed to help, no matter where we find ourselves on the ‘food chain’.

A last word about this article. The young man who wrote it spent a lot of time talking about himself and his accomplishments, as if he was establishing his credentials, so he could gripe about what he thought was wrong with most churches,the need to ‘get with it’ and then tell young pastors he was proud of them anyway? While it did make a couple of good points, it seemed to be more about churches men build rather than the one Jesus built, and is still building.