Open Letter to my former pastor

[apothanein kerdos]

I had an introduction, but I'm leaving that out for personal reasons, so here is the main body.

To Pastor X,

The first thing a Godly pastor must recognize is the sovereignty of God. This is not merely a catch phrase or a Calvinistic belief; this is a true value within the scripture. A pastor, like all other Christians, must believe that at the end of all things, God is still in control. Whilst He does not force this dominion on everyone (for if He did, none of us would sin) He is ultimately in control. God is patient in His sovereignty, not acting immediately upon what He wants, but delaying His inevitable Will(1) . With this in mind, it is impossible for us to believe that being a pastor or experiencing success as a pastor is brought on through our works. Instead, it is merely God working through us, and when we actively deny this (whether through thought or action) we begin to claim the success of God as our own. God blesses, this is true, but He also works through us. Therefore, nothing is done by our own hand. This means that a pastor (and every Christian) must be on his knees constantly seeking the Will of God. We cannot act on a whim or rely upon our own impulses; instead, we must implore God to reveal His Will. Do our actions reflect glory to God or towards ourselves? As I will show later in this letter, some of the choices Church Y has taken (building a multi-million dollar sanctuary, a seventy foot cross, etc) have been for our own glory and not necessarily for the glory of God. Whilst God can gain glory (ultimately) in man

[MrSealedEternal]

I think this letter just inadvertently encouraged me to do better as a wife and mom.

Mrs. SE

[apothanein kerdos]

Hopefully it will encourage others to do the same

[MrSealedEternal]

Hopefully it will encourage others to do the same

I do hope so .

Mrs. SE

[aaronjm]

wow what courage, did you send this to him?? or does he read this on here? I see the Spirit is working through you wonderfully, keep it up.

[apothanein kerdos]

wow what courage, did you send this to him?? or does he read this on here? I see the Spirit is working through you wonderfully, keep it up.

I sent it to him and three deacons (for accountability's purpose). Unfortunately, it can be seen as "courage." In all reality, it's just standing up for the truth when the truth needs to be stood up for. I guess I wouldn't call it courage....it's easy to write a letter to a former pastor telling him how he needs to change. Changing, repenting of our sin....that's where the courage is.

[Marnie]

Wow! An awesome letter. Bless your heart. We've had our disagreements, but I'd gladly stand with you any time, bro.

[ted]

Ak, are others in the same church aware of the situation and willing to stand with you on this?

t.

[apothanein kerdos]

Ak, are others in the same church aware of the situation and willing to stand with you on this?

t.

That certainly is the question. It really is a problem, because the pastor I'm writing to has the biggest church in the city. He has been in the public spotlight for standing against homosexual marriages and gambling...so if the other pastors took a stand against him, it certainly would be quite the media affair....

[ted]

lol

I was talking about regular members. Even though I read your letter, I had spaced the fact that your church is large enough for several Pastors, and had it in my mind that he was the only one.

Sorry for the confusion.

Anyway, are there regular members that know about this?

Here's why.

I went through a church split a few years ago. We split because, basically, the Pastor was doing things, financially, that he wasn't supposed to be doing. He was confronted in private by a few deacons and they were promptly fired (non-paid Deacons). He then set up names to be nominated that he knew wouldn't make a stink. Bad thing was, these guys were in somewhat of a conflict of interest because their wives worked in the office, in the school, etc. So, there was a bit of heavy leaning going on.

Well, seeing this, a few of the members cornered him in private, still feeling like this was they way to do it. We didn't want to bring it out in public, because he was, and still is, a master of the tongue, when it comes to deception.

The very next Sunday morning was about------go ahead, take a guess.......Yup- Dissension within the body of a church! LOL

He proceeded to rip us apart (no names, of course) from the pulpit. Finally, after two months of this, his time had come. After much prayer, we called for a special business meeting to discuss the matter.

You should have seen that little show!

Sooo...the end result was this: He wasn't going to budge, and half of the congregation didn't want to think that anything was wrong, so we left.

We figured we would find churches and move on. We'll, God had other plans for us, and now our new church, which we started and dedicated to the Lord a few months later, has been going strong for 3 1/2 years now.

But, my point is, if you have picked up on this fact, surely someone else has, also. You really need to gather as many as you can so that, possibly, a paper with their signatures can be brought to him, letting them know that they know, and that they will not accept this behavior from their Pastor.

You are going to come up against a lot of stuff in the near future. Make sure your armor is buckled on tight. It's heart breaking stuff, and will tear you down to your very soul.

In other words, he might just make this as painful as possible for you. It might turn out that you may end up being perceived by the congregation as the trouble maker.

Who can say? Maybe he will accept the fact that what he is doing is wrong, and do the right thing.

He is human, though, and may just end up turning this into a huge mess before he is through.

Take care, and Godspeed to you.

t.