MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

“Loud, Rude, and Obnoxious” Church

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Tue, August 21, 2007
Viewed 143
(21) comments so far

“For whatever reason Compass Point has received the scorn of other Lakeland churches and pastors since we began. In our early days a local pastor actually preached against us from his pulpit. When I asked him why he said, “Because Compass Point is loud, rude and obnoxious!” I totally dug that...it made me feel like a member of Motley Crue or Guns N’ Roses! You know, he never said we were unbiblical. He never said we weren’t reaching people for Christ. He never said we weren’t missional...he just said we were loud, rude and obnoxious. As a fan of pirates, hard rock and rebellion I like that assessment of us. Loud, rude and obnoxious has worked pretty well in reaching other loud, rude and obnoxious people for Christ...I think we’re going to turn loud, rude and obnoxious up a notch!!!”

Chris Elrod, Pastor of Compass Point Church

SOURCE

Here's a quote from Chris Elrod, Pastor of Compass Point Church. Some 'unnamed' website has picked up on this quote and written Chris up pretty badly. I'm wondering about what you think about the quote... Take a read and let me know!

Comments

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Chris Elrod on Thu, August 30, 2007

While I am thoroughly enjoying watching the comments here (Leonard & DanielR I owe you a meal)...no one has really asked the right question. That would be…why were we (my church and I) called “loud, rude and obnoxious” and by whom? James, I think the answer would be shocking…but I’ll let you chew on it for a while. http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/grin.gif
James on Fri, August 31, 2007

Normally, I try to keep my responses to no more than two posts, but I have to say something here…

“Wow, James, you’re making some pretty big leaps there. You’ve gone from a church being called loud, rude and obnoxious and added that they are foul-mouthed drunkards. Bravo for being more discerning than me, I had no idea they were also foul-mouthed drunkards.”

I did not in anyway ADD that the “loud, rude and obnoxious church.” These were two separate comments. the first (r,l&o;) being that of (not BY) Elrod’s church, and the second (the foul-mouthed drunkard statement) being the logical extension of Yaconelli’s comments. I never in ANY way said that because a person - or a church collectively - is rude, loud and obnoxious that they are also foul-mouthed drunkards.

Moreover, Leonard said, “I was loud, rude and obnoxious as a kid BECAUSE I invited lost people to Christ.” [emphasis mine] I think that might be a leap. Maybe it wasn’t BECAUSE you were doing it, but the way in which you did it. Just a thought.

In closing (for real this time) I apologize if it seems that I, at ANY time, attacked Elrod’s person, character or church. That was not my intent or purpose. Instead, the idea was to focus on this prevelant notion of rebellion as an idea worthy to be embraced. This idea was best implied by Yanconelli’s quote (i.e. “I know a woman who curses like a sailor, but she’s the most holy woman I know. She is! I’m not kidding. We’ve created this image of what holiness looks like that’s just nonsense. Good holy people probably drink too much some times, and have colorful language, and there’s plenty of room in the Bible to see people like that.”). Affirming a view such as this - whether, as Leonard said “I really doubt the foul mouth drunkard sees these comments as permission. If you think that then you might not know enough foul mouthed drunkards.” (Just a side note, a have ginormous hugantic family full of foul-mouthed drunkards who constantly espouse ideas such as Yanconelli’s - i.e., “I can worship God just as easily at home watching the football game and drinking a beer as I can in church.” among ridiculous others) - without question paves the road for people who are nominal Christians to make no effort whatsoever to seek or pursue, much less desire, sanctification.

That’s all I have to say about this subject.
DanielR (a different Daniel) on Fri, August 31, 2007

James, take a deep breath and relax. I think you’ve taken this post and comments WAAAYY more seriously than either Leonard, myself or Chris has.

You seem to have a serious problem with what you see as (bad) rebellion. Trust me, the rest of us do too. I think we just beleive there is (bad) rebellion and there is rebellion that is seen as (bad) rebellion by some but is actually just innovation or other things some people don’t like.

Have a nice weekend.
Rev. George Blackwelder on Sat, September 08, 2007

I’m known as a Confrontational Christian. I believe too many times opportunities are presented to Christians who because they have heard the “tolerance” cry so many times have become weak in presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to unbelievers. I agree, we should stand strong wearing the armor as this war rages on, but to consider “loud, rude and obnoxious” as a compliment to a Christian is ludicrous. Jesus emptied a temple with a whip of ropes, but He did it because His Father’s temple was being defiled. Calling a woman who curses like a sailor “holy” leads me to believe ‘Yaconelli’ has truly lost his way. A review of the acidity of some of the above comments between posters also leads me to believe it might be a good time to bath this subject in prayer. God Bless.
Garry Mullen on Sat, September 08, 2007

I think we are all making some huge assumptions on why a church would be called Loud Rude and Obnoxious. Any counter cultural group, which is what we are, could recieve that label by simply not upholding the cultural norm. I get criticized for simple things like saying that gossip is wrong - let alone on my disagreement with culture on the big ticket items. Chris, if you are still watching the feed - I’m asking. Why did they label you this way?
Chris Elrod on Sat, September 08, 2007

Gary - Thanks for asking. Lakeland is a rapidly growing town and has a high rate of unchurched people. In the area of town where Compass Point planted you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a church - most are traditional Baptist or AOG mega-churches. For years Lakeland has seen mainly transfer growth from one “flavor of the month” church to another…nobody really seeking out the unchurched and attempting to reach them. When we (and several other local church plants) began…we got so much flack from the established churches because we were trying to “steal their people”. The problem with that argument is that 91% of our people had no church experience before Compass Point. When this came out several churches began to look for other reasons to down us. One local mega-church got really ticked because we were going into area parks and handing out free bottled water on hot afternoons - no advertising just water. Apparently they had some of their folks there for a “closed event” church picnic and came back commenting on how great it was to see a church reaching out with water instead of concentrating on inreach with a “closed” picnic. I got the most interesting phone call from one of the pastors telling me “not to ever do that again” when their church was in the PUBLIC park. He also told me that I needed to quit speaking out from my pulpit about “prosperity preaching” not being Biblcal. He realized that I never mentioned a church by name when I did this…but it was causing their people to question the leadership. I thanked him for his phone call…politely told him I’d not be able to follow his “rules” for us…and offered to have lunch sometime around his schedule. He hung up and began to bash us to the congregation whenever the opportunity arose. “Loud, rude and obnoxious” are just a few of the things we’ve been called by that church’s staff.