Personality or Problem?

Its all very well and good talking about spiritual abuse, and stating that if it feels wrong to up and leave. I'd heard the stories about people who didn't like the direction the church was heading in, didn't like the fact that their giftings in a particular ministry weren't officially recognised, or perhaps they simply didn't like what the pastor was preaching so decided to pick up their toys and go and play in another sandbox.

I was determined that I wasn't going to become just another church hopper, someone who went to different churches when something happened they didn't agree with. So this comes back to the question of this post. How do you tell if its a clash of personalities, or are the problems more deeply rooted than that?

Through out my time at City Impact I had met many people that had been at City Impact and for one reason or the other had left, some citing spouses coming to faith and wanting to find a place more suited for both of them, others citing a plethora of reasons. I started talking to them, asking them about why they had really left and asking them to be straight up with me. The more people that I talked to, the more I realised that this problem wasn't just mine, and that perhaps the church that I was in wasn't the most healthy of places to be.

Now you may ask, why didn't I go to someone i trusted within the church and you would be right in asking that question. The truth is that I'd tried on several previous occasions to address areas of concern only to be fobbed off and given answers that did everything apart from answering the questions asked. I had been told that parking ones brain at the door wasn't a requirement for salvation yet it seemed that I was getting penalised for using my critical thinking abilities.

I ended up talking with about 15 people, some who knew each other, some who didn't, however kept getting the same answers which included


1. Over emphasis on tithing, the use of scripture taken out of context in order to justify the weekly extortion.

2. The unquestioned idea that one man could be anointed of God, and so infallible that they don't answer to any other person. None of us actually disbelieved in the idea of God anointing people and raising them up for a specific task, however the reality is, that this side of the grave, we are all still very much human, and very much still able to get it wrong and stuff up. I forget exactly what C one of the pastors said, but it was the equivalent of even if PM or BM were wrong then she wouldn't correct them because it wasn't her place to do it. I mean heck, if a senior pastor is not open to correction from one of his elders, then that's just scary.

3. The idea that we need an intermediary between us and God. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as a Comforter and a Counselor, and what good is a counselor if they are not allowed to counsel.