I need a new church home, and a pastor that's not a fiery preacher, but one who sermonizes to nurture and edify true believers, and whose motive is solely to build strong believers in the Lord. I don't want to leave church every Sunday feeling discouraged like my heavenly Father's mad at me. Please pray God will lead me to the church that's for me, so when I leave church I will feel uplifted in spirit, and not discouraged. >>Dee Richardson
I also may have to decide where to fellowship if I take a position out of town now available.
I gather from your posting that your current church preaches with great conviction and I would guess with bombastic shouting.
What you don't want to do is end up somewhere where a half truth is preached just to make people feel better. Open rebuke is better than hidden love.
If you are walking as you should and the gentle spirit and kind words are given a harsh response then indeed it may be the preacher is too hard hearted to continue. I would attempt to discuss with the Pastor your decision and be honest that he is avoiding showing the love of Christ and self control if indeed he is and suggest that he would consider being more balanced.
He may need to be confronted on a pride issue as well. This of course would be especially helpful if there were others; along with men of God that would vouch for that statement if fellow brothers and sisters are repeatedly having their character attacked without cause. The question is if the scriptures are directed or implied toward anyone specific or it is just a sermon giving harsh warnings as a general message. It also needs to be evaluated as to the emphasis; if it is to bring newcomers to the fear of the Lord which is actually a good thing in some ways with many of the "seeker friendly" churches that do more harm than good. Again; if he can't grasp that the love of God constrains us ( 2 Cor. 5:14) that isn't right. If he on the other hand is showing partiality toward those who are longer term members in either a positive or negative manner as compared to newcomers that isn't good either.
I am just concerned that you go from bad to worse. I pray that you have wisdom and discernment where to go before cutting all ties there and burning bridges. I have seen personally someone who a couple years ago was in training as a pastor in a church where the Pastor was arrogant and softened somewhat after being challenged.
I am so grateful for your response. It has evoked a deeper consideration of my prayer request. I am a true Christian, and love the Lord with all my heart and soul. To nudge me toward greater maturity does not require bombastic shouting, nor fear of the Lord. Just nurture my willingness with the truth and I will move in that direction. Fiery preaching affects my relationship with my heavenly Father because I feel He is often angry with me and yelling at me through the preacher every Sunday morning.
I'm reminded of the verse in Ephesians 6:4 that says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." I can be easily nurtured into righteousness because of the deep love I have for my heavenly Father.
I taught Sunday School in this church for a long time, and have often been bombastically corrected from the pulpit. Instead of having a face to face with me, they wanted to make sure everyone was aware of their interpretation.
The purpose of sermons is to help us gain maturity and grow in the Lord, not to exasperate and provoke us to anger every Sunday morning. Ephesians 5:1 says to be imitators of God as dear children. That's my motivation to be a dear child. I follow about seven other preachers closely online because I love the word, and I'm not ashamed of being corrected when it is done in the right way.
I have already resigned my membership and sent the pastor and his wife a very lengthy email concerning my personal experiences going back some years with examples. I've attended once since then and we all hugged tightly and I felt their love.
I love that you said open rebuke is better than hidden love. I am going to add that to my sermonic prayer so I enter the sermon with the right mindset. Thank you for replying to my prayer.
I gather from your posting that your current church preaches with great conviction and I would guess with bombastic shouting.
What you don't want to do is end up somewhere where a half truth is preached just to make people feel better. Open rebuke is better than hidden love.
If you are walking as you should and the gentle spirit and kind words are given a harsh response then indeed it may be the preacher is too hard hearted to continue. I would attempt to discuss with the Pastor your decision and be honest that he is avoiding showing the love of Christ and self control if indeed he is and suggest that he would consider being more balanced.
He may need to be confronted on a pride issue as well. This of course would be especially helpful if there were others; along with men of God that would vouch for that statement if fellow brothers and sisters are repeatedly having their character attacked without cause. The question is if the scriptures are directed or implied toward anyone specific or it is just a sermon giving harsh warnings as a general message. It also needs to be evaluated as to the emphasis; if it is to bring newcomers to the fear of the Lord which is actually a good thing in some ways with many of the "seeker friendly" churches that do more harm than good. Again; if he can't grasp that the love of God constrains us ( 2 Cor. 5:14) that isn't right. If he on the other hand is showing partiality toward those who are longer term members in either a positive or negative manner as compared to newcomers that isn't good either.
I am just concerned that you go from bad to worse. I pray that you have wisdom and discernment where to go before cutting all ties there and burning bridges. I have seen personally someone who a couple years ago was in training as a pastor in a church where the Pastor was arrogant and softened somewhat after being challenged.
I'm reminded of the verse in Ephesians 6:4 that says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." I can be easily nurtured into righteousness because of the deep love I have for my heavenly Father.
I taught Sunday School in this church for a long time, and have often been bombastically corrected from the pulpit. Instead of having a face to face with me, they wanted to make sure everyone was aware of their interpretation.
The purpose of sermons is to help us gain maturity and grow in the Lord, not to exasperate and provoke us to anger every Sunday morning. Ephesians 5:1 says to be imitators of God as dear children. That's my motivation to be a dear child. I follow about seven other preachers closely online because I love the word, and I'm not ashamed of being corrected when it is done in the right way.
I have already resigned my membership and sent the pastor and his wife a very lengthy email concerning my personal experiences going back some years with examples. I've attended once since then and we all hugged tightly and I felt their love.
I love that you said open rebuke is better than hidden love. I am going to add that to my sermonic prayer so I enter the sermon with the right mindset. Thank you for replying to my prayer.
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