Two of the churches "biggest problems?"

Are you sure your references are correct?

 

From my perspective 2 of the biggest problems in the church are pride and apathy.

 

Paid pastors are not the problem, but perhaps the clergy/laity distinction could be causing problems.

Sermons are not inherently the cause of boredom in church. I would contend that often it is the way sermons are done. Sermons must adapt to the culture. You don't preach in a country church in Alabama in the same manner you would preach in a large cathedral in Berlin.

Perhaps for contemporary society, the formal sermon is losing effectiveness, but there are other methods. Small groups and house church discussions can contain just as much proclaiming (preaching) of the Word without a formal sermon. In fact, I rather dislike preaching sermons; I'd rather work with a discussion group and proclaim the Word interactively.

 

Two biggest problems - neither paid pastors, nor boring sermons, but apathy in the pew and "itching ears" on the Christian, both of which are predicted in the New Testament.

This book sounds like it isn't worth the paper its printed on and the author hasn't got a clue.

 

Too, the two biggest problems in church----ignorance and apathy!!!

"Who is Jesus Christ?"

"I don't know(ignorance) and I don't care(apathy)!"

Pride and hedonism are the parallelling brothers to ignorance and apathy!!!

Bro. David

 

I would say two of the biggest problems in Christianity are one on each side of the spectrum.

1. Lack of doctrinal consistency on the left

2. Politics/in-fighting on the right

 

A response to Ulsterman and his post dated June 12 @ 2:07 A.M.

You stated: "Two biggest problems - neither paid pastors, nor boring sermons, but apathy in the pew and "itching ears" on the Christian, both of which are predicted in the New Testament."

In my opinion, the problem can be found BOTH behind the pulpit and in the pew. John Wesley said to preachers to "Put fire in your sermons or put your sermons in the fire." Everything still does repoduce after its kind. The noodle-spined, effiminent, wishy-washy pastors speaking from the average pulpit nowadays breeds the same in the pew. When a ministerial student asked C.H. Spurgeon how to keep a person in the pew awake, Spurgeon replied "Wake up the preacher!"

On the other hand, the daily walk of the Christian (and I am speaking of genuine Christians, not false Christians) has become so worldly that they definitely don't want to be preached to...but simply scratch their ears with TEACHING:
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

Lack of Holy Spirit fire in the pulpit, and lack of Holy Spirit living in the pew -- a deadly combination to a church.

 

Might I suggest the problem might be too many ungifted pastors offering up poor excuses for sermons?

I think too many men find themselves behind a pulpit that have no business being there: neither the gifting or the apparent effort to rightly handle God's Word.

Find a church where the is a gifted and trained expositor giving the sermon and you will realize it's not the paid preacher or the sermon that's the problem.

 

I read part of Rutz's book years ago. It's in my library. There is some good stuff in it BUT mainly it's watered down Christianity not worth 2 cents of your money.

 

Hmmm, two biggest problems in the church? Male sinners and female sinners?

 

My two cents:

The biggets problems are:
1- apathy from Christians and
2 - lack-of-apathy from the non-Christians who want a social club instead of a bible-believing-Church.

The only people I've run across, so far, who are into the "don't pay them," and "get rid of sermons" and such theories are very young, and tend to be young people who resent the authority of the elder / senior pastors. I'm not saying everyone with that view is like that, but the ones I've run into are.

 

Interesting, Texas. Most of the young adults in the congregation are really into the message, and it's a few of the older folk that are looking at their watches during the sermon.

Just goes to show that people are different and churches are different.

 

USN -

Oh, the young people who do the complaining around me are into the message, and are very active in the church. They also are the ones that object the most to not having a "bigger voice" in the church.

Some of them are young deacons, some of them are ministerial students.

It isn't that they don't care.
It is mroe that they are so excited about getting things done, that they all have their own ideas about how it should be done, and when they hit the roadblock of "organization" and "authority" they cry out, "That's not biblical."

 

Texas, et al,

I think the point is being missed. Rather than talking about what we think the 2 biggest problems in the church are, I'm concerned about what we are going to do about it???

Texas, you use the word "deacons" in your last post. Why? According to Rutz that is just another pagan title. For you to adhere to such a title and teaching is pagan. And the leaders of your church who support deacons and elders are pagan as well. How does that sit with you? I don't know about you, but it offends me.

And what about those of you who teach or listen to sermons? Are you a teacher of paganism (pastors) or a follower of pagan teachings (congregation)? I mean, really, does this offend anyone besides me?

Listen, this is a man who is actively seeking to pull people from sound doctrine and induct them into myths. Are we not warned about this in Scripture? If so, what are we told to do?

(2 Tim. 4)

Wait a minute! Preach the word? Oh no, no, no, no, Paul. That would be some sort of a sermon, yes? That's paganism. We can't do that. Teach and defend sound doctrine??? Oh no, no, no, no, Paul. That would mean teaching, i.e. sermons. Sermons are paganism. More, to do so would be to take on the role of pastor. There are no such things. Scripture NOWHERE teaches this, according to Prophet Rutz.

Kerry, I stand with you. I understand that we MUST do something about this. I'm sending e-mails. I'm calling people. I'm willing to do whatever I can in any situation that God brings my/our way.

So, rather than us talk about what the 2 or 3 biggest problems are (which are great to discuss and prompt action on in another thread), let's talk about what we can DO in this particular situation.

In Christ,

Dustin...

 

Bridgeway, I sent you a pm. I am close to relocating to San Antonio (Randolph AFB).

My opinion regarding problems in the church is one simple word that overlaps everything else mentioned and then some:

SELFISHNESS