I am in agreement with the article 100%, I would like to comment that I beleive there must be a balance of what was presented with the fact that people perish for lack of knowledge.  The Body of Christ is to be matured by the teaching of the apostles.  In Acts we see the apostles did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ(5:8) and that the new believers continued meeting house to house. Acts 2:42 tells us they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine.  There must be knowledge of the Gospel preached and doctrine taught.  How harsh was the Annias and Sapphira episode? But the motive and root of it all must be love.  Correction, reproof, rebuke, and instruction in righteousness is the Word to Timothy..we can’t escape it.  People today do not abide these teachings of the word, and I do agree people are being beat up with the letter of the law.  There must be balance.  Correction must be received as the Wisdom to make one wise. If we truly love Christ we will receive even correction with grace for we know it is love.  I have experienced the abuse personally from those who are self-righteous, that is what kills, there is no love in that word but self love.
Self-righteousness bases my standing on it’s scale of balance not our Heavenly Fathers.

I have been save by the grace of GOD,now for over 20yrs. i was called to preach the word of GOD at the age of 21,And now at the age of 48,i have also seen and heard a lots about people getting hurt in and by the church,cause i was one of those people.But what happen to the church is the church has lost it real meaning. The english word church is the translation of the greek word (ekklesia)which means"called out"The church is the mystical body of christ.of which he is the living head and (regenerate)believers are the members. A church is a body of baptized believers gathered together by the holy spirit for the purpose of carrying out the principle and precepts of GOD’s word. But what happen now in a lots of our churchs they have lost sight in what Christ came to do,His love is not in many of our churchs,and everthing else is in,and were Christ love is not,much hurt come in.

Wow...somebody’s got it right! I have nearly 30 years of church experience as well and have seen the same thing. There is however, one other thing that I would add. The other thing that people don’t like about church and that I hear used as an excuse more than any other reason is that “the church is full of hypocrites”. A hypocrite is someone that says one thing then does another. Too often that is the case in any and all churches. As Christians we must do what we say...we must live out our faith before people. We must love and serve all just like Jesus did.

I remember one time when I was in youth ministry, I was really upset and complaining to the Lord that the kids just were not getting it. I was pouring the truth into them, but they were not changing the way that I thought they should; Jesus simply asked me “do you have the power to save and change lives” to which I had to answer no! He then said that is right; you love them and I will do the rest! That is exactly what we must do...we must love them and show them in a practical way the love of Jesus Christ!

Thank you for the comments made today. Pastor Susan Hans has truth to share.  Thank you for sharing scripture references.  Indeed, Love is the one command given by Jesus that we all agree on… the greatest is LOVE.  My desire is to have wisdom (God’s wisdom) so that I will discern all the knowledge these men and women of God share with me on Monday Morning!  Thank you Brother Todd!

My wife and I spent six years in a church like this! There was so many things going on and hugs and love that it was masked, but every Sunday or Weds. night the message was intertwined that “we are the truth, or if you leave here, you are leaving God.”

When we finally felt it was time to leave, it felt as though we had jumped from a plane with no parachute.

That was a megachurch. We left and wound up in a smaller group of people (<200)and started to feel better. We had more opportunites to serve and we were not forced to get involved.

Twenty years later I am pastoring a small church myself. My wife oversees the womens ministry and worship, not because she has to but because she feels that is where she belongs.

Now we truly feel free! Free to worship, serve and follow Jesus wherever HE leads!

I recently resigned from the church I served as pastor for nearly ten years.  We ministered to many who suffered church abuse and then came to our church for healing.  It was wonderful seeing these lives re-redeemed, if you take my meaning.  Then I was forced out by those who were afraid of the upward trajectory of the church.  Now what happens to those re-traumatized believers who need healing all over again?  Will they find it in another church or will they give up on church altogether.  One victim recently told me, “I still believe in the Kingdom of God.  It will grow in spite of the church.” His tone didn’t show much hope for the church.

I was surprised that my blog article was in the Morning Insight on “Why I Don’t Like Church”.  Just to clarify a bit (for those who are concerned about imbalance), the preaching of Truth is obviously important.  But we’ve lost perspective and are undermining the very reason for our existence (preaching Good News).

I think if we would scrutinize the typical evangelical church we’d see that we function like information saves us.  The love of God, shown in Christ’s death saves us.  God ACTED out the truth of his love. Truth became incarnate.

That’s my point.  God didn’t just give us the information...I love you.  He showed us.  So preach away but back it up with more than a potluck after the service.  There’s no excuse for the thousands of people left in the church parking lot gutter (so to speak) because of the harsh condemnation they received in the church.

We are often less the community of God and more a religious school.  Our notebooks are full of facts but our hearts are dry and lonely.  We can do better.

The job of the leadership in the pulpit is to give the truth from the scriptures and to place it in today’s context. So many Pastor’s and Messianic rabbi’s are sugar coating the message for the bratty American public. If we look at history through the scriptures we see when God’s chosen people (And the Jews still are) would make mistakes He would chastise them. When the rabbi’s would follow the writings of the rabbi’s over the Torah they would get chastised. Now in Messianic Hebrews 13 it says (Heb 13:8 Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah is the same yesterday, today, and forever.) So did God change to different standard today? And before you start going down that silly road of “were under grace” thing, first think this…was Adam and Eve under law or grace…was Cain and Abel under law or grace…was Noah and the world under law or grace? We need to get back to following the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). When Christians divorce rate is higher than those of secular society. When pornography is in higher use than ever before. Gay marriages and gay clergy. When 86% percent of America says they are Christian but United States likely experienced its 47 millionth legal abortion at some point in 2005. When all this and much more is going on, we the people in the pulpit need to let ALL those in the USA and around the world know this. That this is the Titanic and there is an iceberg DEAD ahead.
Those of us who call ourselves Believers need to look at our old Jewish brethren and learn from there mistakes. They were so rapped up in there own pre-laws (writing of the rabbi’s) that they could not even see there own Messiah. The Church needs to wake up and stop crying! It is simple if the Disciples did it, If Yeshua (Jesus) showed us how to do it, And the Father commanded us to do it forever (Or throughout your generations) than follow Messiah and not man made things.  The Lord wrote the whole bible every word, 66 books, 40 authors ONE GOD!

Thanks Remy for clearing up some of my concerns about balance. But there is still the issue with saying that any time a preacher preaches hard / passionately against sin that he is being “judgmental” and “mean-spirited”. I know that those are not words that you used but that seems to be the jest, at least the way many of the posts above have taken what you have said. The idea that we must “love” without any condemnation of sin just doesn’t seem to equate with my understanding of scripture.

Yes, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with all that we are and the second is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. But I am not convinced that boldly speaking the truth is not at times the greatest act of love we can perform. Jesus is the supreme example of love and yet we see Him calling the Pharisees “white washed sepulchers”. In other places He referenced people in equally strong language. I am not saying that I have liberty to call folks I don’t know or don’t agree with names, but I do believe that we must boldly proclaim the truth of God.

My desire is to never purposely be offensive in the pulpit but yet I balance that with the knowledge that when the truth is preached that it often time offends those in sin. The church I serve gives me great freedom to preach in the pulpit and the reason for this I believe is because they know I love them.

God bless!

Unfortunately, this article gives the church very little edification It is obvious we are to love others, even when it is difficult.

I think I will stick to the Word of God and not feelings, as to the remedy for a sin.

2Ti 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
2Ti 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
2Ti 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Luk 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luk 8:12 The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
Luk 8:13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
Luk 8:14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
Luk 8:15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Luk 8:16 “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
Luk 8:17 For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.
Luk 8:18 Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

Preach the Word!

I’m in total agreement with the ariticle. I believe the church does need to be be more balanced between it’s responbility to present the truth as they see it and their obligation to those who receive their presentation of the truth. I believe the church has left a trail of “abused” church members (I call them aborted church members) who because of the “attitude” of the church, have left the church, possibly never to return.  As a pastor for over thirty years, I look back at my own attitude toward the members of my church and of those who served on my staff and realize that I hurt members of my staff and church members in my pursuit to build a successful church. Most pastors that I know want to build a successful church..but at what cost? One respected pastor of a “mega” church said the main issue for the 21st church should be “church health” not church growth.  I believe we need a new definition of what constitues a successful church. A church is not necesarily healthy because it’s growing, or in a building program, on television, or any number of the traditional signs most look at to identify a healthy church. I believe the apostle Paul touched on this very issue when he admonished believer in I Corinthians 4:14-16 to be imitators of his life of “being a spiritual father” rather than just being a teacher..."a dispenser of truth”. I believe a church is healthy when people are receiving the love from leadership that has a true “spiritual fathering” heart and sees them as more than someone to fill a seat or a resource to help the church meet its goals of success. When asked the question by his disciple, “show us the Father”, Jesus was able to say, “when you have seen me you have seen the Father”.

It is delusional thinking in a fallen world to ever think that any church could be what
it should be!  Even those that get it mostly right have those areas in which they
miss it...because it is a volunteer organiztion full of messed up people from the top down.  My gripe is with church hoppers and shoppers who never find the
perfection they seek and flit from church
to church, eventually settling for worship
at home which is contra-biblical if it intentionally isolates them from community
that is available in the “imperfect churches”. I speak as a pastor who has been
financially devastated by a bad church
experience, but even I have not written off
church!

That’s my stand,
Dr. Ed Hill
CrossPoint Church
North Georgia