false teachers/teachings

[j102]

Hello everyone. I hope i posted this in the right forum.

i have been wondering if any one here has seen or heard of any teachings that are bibicly incorrect at a church you have been to, and you brought it to the pastors and leaders attention and they did nothing about it.......what do you think is the best way to handle a situaction like that.

[~candice~]

Can I vote yes AND no? I haven't yet found a church where I agree 100% with everything said, and I don't think I will. But does this mean we wage war over trivial doctrine, causing division? Nope! I would make a scene if it were a major issue, and perhaps discuss the minor issues over coffee next time I was talking to the Pastor, or at bible study etc, but I don't feel obliged to bring every single issue of doctrinal disagreement before everyone. If I brought a major issue before the Church, and they didn't change, I'd simply leave.

[Guest shiloh357]

Hello everyone. I hope i posted this in the right forum.

i have been wondering if any one here has seen or heard of any teachings that are bibicly incorrect at a church you have been to, and you brought it to the pastors and leaders attention and they did nothing about it.......what do you think is the best way to handle a situaction like that.

Your question is kind of broad. Some people define "unbiblical" to anything they disagree with. Your question leads to too many subjective and arbitary ideas about what is "unbiblical" and/or what is actually biblical, but may reflect a level of knowledge or a degree of light that some of have not acquired yet.

Can you narrow it down by giving examples of what you mean?

[Smalcald]

I voted resoundingly no.

Congregations that have doctrines open to a vote or public opinion in the pews will never have any settled doctrines but simply bounce and change based on whoever has the strongest personality and thus can garner the most "votes". Doctrine should not change over the generations, we need to know that what I teach my children will be what is taught to my grandchildren and what was taught to my grandparents. Doctrines should also not be dependent on who happens to be in the role of minister, deacon or elder, those offices are called to teach the doctrine which already has been settled.

If a congregation holds major doctrinal points that you honestly don't believe are correct we are called to leave that congregation. Yeah on some minor issues I can see staying, but I still would not be an agitator, we are supposed to be under the spiritual leadership of the Ministers, deacons and elders of the congregation in which we belong.

What happens is that society changes all of the time many times these changes go against scripture, if we don't have an unchanging settled doctrine we will indeed be doomed. Look at how the feminist movement forced churches without a firm settled doctrine to ordain women, look at how the gay rights lobby is now agitating to embrace gay sexual relations as normal or ordain sexually active gay people, some congregations today actually accept and pay for abortions, it will just go on and on.

This is a very important issue.

on edit

I will say that if your congregation is going against its own doctrine then indeed you would be called to speak up against an errant pastor or teacher who was going against the doctrines of the congregation. In that case yes point it out.

[~candice~]

FWIW, I go to a church in which I don't agree with some of their doctrine, and the Pastor knows this, but there is no "bad blood", so to speak. It can be done.

[OneLight]

Your question leaves too many variables unexplained. Sounds like the making of a good thread if tightened up.

[Fez]

Your question leaves too many variables unexplained. Sounds like the making of a good thread if tightened up.

Although I vote yes, I agree with OneLight. My church allows for discussion on anything so I am OK with bringing stuff forward. It is not so much bad doctrine but sometimes someone who is giving the message (we try and allow people who have something on their hearts to speak openly), gets a scripture slightly wrong, or the context slightly out. We have on occasion, with grace, corrected the person at the time by saying, "Great message, but don't you think....".

We have never had a big issue from doing this, as most of the people who are corrected are "new" at doing the talking and are gaining confidence in front of the congregation.

We do this at home group often as well.

The reason we can do this is that as a church we are "family", and everyone knows the motive for this being done.

[Guest]

I voted yes.

No one is ever going to find the "perfect" church this side of eternity, but when its an important doctrinal issue it needs to be brought up.

As an example:

A church I'd been going to for some time decided to go "seeker friendly" and water down the gospel message. They did so to the point that they were not preaching the gospel any more. I brought it up and was told it wasn't up for discussion. I left and never went back. It took me almost a year and a half to find another church where they still preach the Bible, although I don't agree 100% with their views, either.

[Smalcald]

The doctrine of a congregation should not be the preaching of a particular pastor in fact who a particular pastor is and what he believes is not relevant to the doctrine of a congregation. A pastor serves the congregation and the doctrine of that congregation. Sermons are often totally off base, some are good some are not.

The doctrine of a congregation should be enshrined and unchanging as it rests on scripture. So if a sermon is bad you should have an established written doctrine that you could easily refer to showing what is wrong with a particular sermon if it does go against your congregations doctrine. We bind ourselves or join a congregation because we agree with the doctrine, thus there is unity preserved among the congregation.

You should easily be able to determine the total doctrine of a congregation.

But I also agree with some other comments here, yes congregations should bring things forward particularly on the wide range of issues dealing with the day to day operations, finances, style issues, new programs, things that are not working etc., but the basic spiritual doctrines should not be open to debate in my opinion.

[brakelite]

I can very well imagine Paul at the end of every sermon saying, "don't take my word for it, check the scriptures." And the Bereans did.