When the pastor announced he was leaving our church after 14 years, having been the music minister during his tenure I was actually excited. Not because I did not love and respect him, but I was excited about where God was going to take our church family. Quickly upon his departure a team of ministry leaders of our church got the local southern baptist association involved who with a spokesman came to the church with a DVD about the Lifeway transitional pastor program.
I tried to find any information I could about Lifeway from the internet and there is very little available other than their site and pastors who are their trained transitional pastors. It is nearly all sales of the program. Here is my concern: I watched that program destroy a church. I am not saying that it will be a bad thing for all churches but if you view their DVD you will see a sales approach aimed at convincing you that your church is a great risk if they do not go with that program.
A bigger concern is that you cannot find anywhere on the net where individuals from churches can say anything negative about the program or even get churches to strongly pray and consider other options before jumping into that program. The rules of most forums would not permit speaking out against the denomination that runs the forums or it's programs.
My biggest regret is that I did not speak more boldly (though I did speak out) when the program was being considered even though as many of you know, if a church committee recommends something it nearly always (in my experience always) passes.
I know this is already offensive because I am questioning a program highly endorsed by the southern baptists. It feels a bit like walking into a bar and talking about alcoholism. If you believed there was truth about this program that should be considered by the church body before going into it what would you do? How would you get the word out?
I tried to find any information I could about Lifeway from the internet and there is very little available other than their site and pastors who are their trained transitional pastors. It is nearly all sales of the program. Here is my concern: I watched that program destroy a church. I am not saying that it will be a bad thing for all churches but if you view their DVD you will see a sales approach aimed at convincing you that your church is a great risk if they do not go with that program.
A bigger concern is that you cannot find anywhere on the net where individuals from churches can say anything negative about the program or even get churches to strongly pray and consider other options before jumping into that program. The rules of most forums would not permit speaking out against the denomination that runs the forums or it's programs.
My biggest regret is that I did not speak more boldly (though I did speak out) when the program was being considered even though as many of you know, if a church committee recommends something it nearly always (in my experience always) passes.
I know this is already offensive because I am questioning a program highly endorsed by the southern baptists. It feels a bit like walking into a bar and talking about alcoholism. If you believed there was truth about this program that should be considered by the church body before going into it what would you do? How would you get the word out?
