I am a member of the Wesleyan Denomination, for those who do not know it is a Christian denomination in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Asia and Australia., who's religious beliefs are evangelical,holiness . The church is part of the holiness movement and has roots in the teachings of John Wesley. The church is Wesleyan and Arminian in doctrine.
In the past two years I have been taught that they expect the congregation to be a good steward of God's money and live on a budget while the Denomination Leaders,District leaders,and local church and leaders(not all leaders) do not.
I spent several years in business as a manager,owner of my own business and pastor of a small church and during this time I had to read a profit and loss statement and if it wasn't in the budget you didn't purchase it, or build it.
Some churches( not my current church) have done away with van ministry because it is not profitable,it costs money to run the van and the church says that those people do not help pay for the church and then they turn around and purchase or build a new church building even if they don't have a budget for it and expect the congregation to make up the differences with challenges to pay more than 10 % tithes or building pledges by saying God deserves better or people with good income who never come to know Christ because they never here a sermon about sin so they wont be offended and leave with their money.
Yesterday our Denomination's district voted to merge with another district in our denomination because by doing so it wold move them up a few spots in the statistical department in attendance,church income and total churches .They are two districts who are very weak and all they did were to combine two weak districts without solving the problem as to why they are weak. Yes we gained in numbers in attendance but that is not the solution.The solution is winning more to Christ,then teach them about tithing,and witnessing.
It seems the denomination has lost it's focus,it is seems to be concerned about attendance numbers,and income and are willing to over look being a steward of God's money in which the congregation has tithed to the local church ,and winning souls to Christ to filling a church up to pay for a building it can't afford than winning souls to Christ.This does not mean that we don't keep our present churches up or if we out grow them not to build, but it means that we are to be good stewards of all God gives us.
It seems to be a thing now to change the name of churches ,we drop the word church,or Wesleyan from them because we almost don't want anyone to know what we stand for.Instead of preaching about sin and the consequences of it, we teach and preach feel good sermons and mention very little or any at all about sin so we won't offend anyone (you know those worship attendance numbers that pay for a church you can't afford). This happens in other denominations also, not just ours.I am only talking about my denomination today.
It is not the name church or Wesleyan that needs to be dropped it is the legalistic and liberal preaching that needs to be dropped. Do we need an encouraging sermon?Yes, but not every Sunday,sometimes you need to here about sin and what happens if you do not come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and legalistic preaching will not win someone to Christ either,it is not a sin to listen to contemporary Christian music,or wear jeans to church or let the youth go bowling together or read from the NIV or NKJV or some other bible translation,this type of preaching is as dangerous as not preaching about sin.
The Bible tells us to be a good steward of what God gives us. Jesus went to the tax collectors and had dinner with them,drank from the well with a woman who was living in sin came upon the rich ruler or the thief on the cross.He could had just gave them a feel good sermon and used their money or friendship,or not told the thief the truth to support His ministry but he was obligated to tell them the truth .Some came to know him and others walked away.
No comments:
Post a Comment