Divisiveness in the Congregation

Childish games

From experience, I can tell you that the unity of a local church is paramount except for theology and doctrine that is unBiblical. There is no excuse, no excuse whatsoever, for childish games to be played over music, style of preaching, who is on a committee, who got a certain job, or any other area of non essential. If there is a difference of opinion, everyone should be mature enough to maintain unity until through prayer and/or the leadership of the church, the answer from the Lord becomes apparent.

My opinion is that local churches and members who engage in power plays over nonsense issues are engaged in blatant sin as much if not more than adultry, drunkedness, and other vices that everyone always harps on. To take a house of worship and turn it into a zoo, well, that would be one of the last things I would want to be involved in.

Childish games include sacrificing unity over Biblical issues that are not essential like translations, free will, and the like. For those who take it to the extreme of trying to get this or that leader pitted against another in a local church, may God have mercy on you. And by the way, deacons are not a governing authority. They are servents.

 

1 Cor. 11:1

They should be, that's true.

That's right, and in nonessential matters Paul sought to please all men. 1 Cor. 10:33.

That's exactly right, which is why I admonished Joshua to quit causing problems.

 

This question was asked of me recently:

"CCC has people who don’t enjoy the repetition and “theologically weak” choruses as well as those who don’t relate to the language and subject matter of traditional hymns.
We have people who are terribly offended when men wear hats in Sunday morning services and men who wear hats in Sunday morning services.
There are those who feel that it is permissible for women to serve in a variety of leadership capacities and those who feel that leadership is biblically mandated for men only.
There are those who believe that prayer is more effective when we stand and hold hands and those who will stand but won’t hold hands.
On a typical Sunday morning there are some who clap, bow, wave their hands, and even jiggle during worship.
How do we get all these people to gladly worship together and not let their differences divide us?"

Two weeks ago our preaching pastor gave a great sermon answering the question:
Crossing Community Church Resources <<LINK>>

Listen to:
One Anothering with Unity (10-18-09) 9.4mb - 31.5 minutes

We are to have a unity of purpose and a unity of mind.
Not conformity or uniformity.
We were each made differently, specially and with a purpose.

Rob

 

A previous pastor, in one of his last sermons spoke about words that kill a church, 'we've always done it that' and 'we've never done it that way before'.

 

This leads me to believe that in the absence of a pastor, someone is implementing change. That is always a very touchy thing to do in an established congregation. Even new pastors who assume the leadership role should not be implementing major changes until they have established a good reputation and relationships within the church. Such changes should come from within the body of the church and not at the direction or decision of an individual or unit within the church. You lead sheep and herd goats. I am not astonished that changing the type of worship from traditional to contemporary would cause criticism. I would be amazed if it did not. This is something that should be gradually changed over time and not implemented. I do believe that this would also effect the attitude toward the leadership and stability within other areas of the church.

So if you decided in the absence of a pastor to change the type of worship in the service (add contemporary music) and expect all to run smoothly, then I think you got your hat on backwards.

 

it's amazing how much folks are assuming...

 

I think folks assumed that the music could be the problem because of the divisiveness they have observed either while going through a shift from traditional music to contemporary music or have gone through it in the past. Our church is going through it now.

 

It sounds like one of the dissenters in your church must be named Aaron.

Unfortunately, there is often a small group who instead of joining in to worship the Lord find reasons to complain. It is doubtful that anything that is done will satisfy them since these groups are usually more concerned in stirring up controversy than they are in being in holy fellowship.

Probably the only thing you can do is establish that you are serving God with a pure heart and not worry about what complainers are saying. To attempt to pacify these people is like a dog chasing it's own tail.

 

We would gladly have Aaron in our church.

Many of our Christians are hindered from worship and irritated by the rock beat in our song service. Most of these are very faithful in supporting our church with time and money.

Some of these supporting Christians are skipping the song service and only attending the preaching part. I suspect that number will grow as people's patience grow thinner.

 

Aaron would also certainly be welcome in our local church. While we disagree over some of the threads, he is not the type of person to throw a monkey wrench into church unity. The person that would not be welcome is someone who would complain and cause disunity in the church over music, in either direction. At the present time, with the advanced average age in our church, it is mostly traditional. No doubt, as time passes, we will be going through the same thing some of you all are now. We will treat those who disrupt the church if the will of the church is ever contemporary the exact same way.

 

I don't know if anyone has suggested this yet, but I would recommend talking to those who complain, listening to their suggestions and asking them to be part of the solution by incorporating their ideas. If you give them a chance to make what they want happen, and they refuse to get involved, they have noone to blame but themselves.

If the issue is style of music, offer to let them plan and lead a worship one Sunday the "old way" and see how they respond. If they respond well to it and so does the rest of the congregation, you can make it a regular occurrence like once every two months or something. In the process, you've involved some more people in serving the church.

 

Sometimes, when a church has problems, you need to look outside for help. The problems may be spiritual and worship-related, but they may also be about how people get along with each other and how they perceive that decisions are being made. When our pastor retired a few years ago, we did not get into a big hurry to find someone new. He had been with us for 31 years. We knew things were going to be different with whoever our new pastor would be. We used resources we found at the Center for Congregational Health. It was very helpful for us. We formed a Transition Committee with members from all the age groups of the church. My wife was the chairperson. The congregation was divided up into groups. We had several times for discussion of various topics. Every comment was written down. The results were tabulated and made available to every person and every committee of the church. By the end, everyone had had an opportunity to participate and express their opinion. No one could say that they had been left out. In the end we found a new pastor. He has made a lot of changes which we have gone along with. I think some of them may have been made too quickly, but we have been getting more visitors, and people have been joining the church. He is a good preacher, and he does a wonderful job ministering to the needs of the congregation. I would recommend that you look into this web site and see if they have anything that you think would help your church get ready for your new minister.

Tim Reynolds

 

Everyone is welcome at my church. But we're not going to change our worship style or type of music for you.

 

One thing for sure, change will happen. Some I'm for at times and some I'm against at times.

Sometimes I dream of things like they used to be in church and life. Church was Sunday, Wednesday night, Thursday night and Saturday night. Preaching was better (longer) music was better (1 to 3 hymns) and all was great. Then my wife brings up no A/C and the funeral homes fans, our member made plank pews (hard on the rear and sometimes they would bite). Then she points out three or four church splits at her home church in Ky., maybe we all didn't get along. Then she pulls out some of my old sermons, maybe the preaching and teaching wasn't as good as I dream of.

I think what causes trouble is change, as a rule change is enjoyed the most by the ones who caused the change, good or bad. As one grows we have more knowledge which causes trouble if we don't know how to use the knowledge. I don't think their is anyone I agree with a 100% on theology, not even myself in the past, God has been teaching me continually. But when we have wisdom we are able to use that knowledge
as we should. Prayer and study helps our wisdom to be used for His glory, not our.

 

I am Seventy six years old and prefer traditional music but I must accept change ( as long as it is not the scripture) . As long as the lyrics are scriptural I participate in the traditional music. I read music and miss the four part singing. I have made several observations and these are my opinions. !. I believe that if the church was given a choice of more music and less of the word the majority would vote more music. Also If you turn the sound off and listen to most contemporary music you could not determine whether it is secular or Christian. I believe we try to imitare the world instead of setting orselves apart.