Handling Divisions in the Church

In my church, we had a situation, where God sent us a pastor. The man truly loved the church, and preached the Word.

There was a group of people within the church who did not support him. Very begrundegling came to church, said alot of negative things out in the community about the pastor and the church in general. Needless to say this has done a lot of harm to the church, and the pastor and his family.

These people were mad basically because they didn't get their way, and lost control in the church.

They made life miserable on the preacher, and another family who was close to him and supported him. Becasue of this man's devotion he stayed with the church, preached the word, and he and the officers did everything they could to unite the church.

However, this past week, God told him that it was enough. That he couldn't do anymore and it was time to leave.

I feel like Jerusalem. I feel that God sent us a prohpet with the word, the people were stiff necked, did not listen to HIS message and obey. So now God has took his man away.

How can one deal with people like this, who simply won't listen to the word of God, and cause problems for the church, also harm good Christian people in the process?

Also, these people doing this damage are supposed to be mature Christians.

__________________
"These Things I Have Spoken Unto You
That In Me Ye Might Have Peace. In the World Ye Shall
Have Tribulation, But Be Of Good Cheer; I Have Overcome
The World" -- John 16:33

Well , the simplest answer would be to leave . If your whole group is not functioning as an entity and one goes to others such as this forum instead of having open communication , then your group doesn't appear to based on anything that could solve your problem .

I do have several problems with your concept of the Lord bringing someone to your group and then taking that person away because of a few people . First of all , doesn't jive in any way with the stories that you are discussing . Those stories dealt with a vast majority of the people and they usually killed the person instead of the Lord taking them away .

I also have a problem when people need a Moses to tell them what the Lord is saying . The writing called "Hebrews" discusses that this no longer is needed . The Lord is still with you . He has a relationship with you .

If you desire to be in the group , you could bring up some additions to your bylaws on how to vote members out of the group . That is one way to deal with these propblems . Of course , that could eventually be used in a very negative way . But , it at least gives the group power to rid itself of trouble-makers .

Still , the best way to keep these things form happening is to make sure that the group looks at itself as a communiity of people and actively becomes a part of everyone else in the group . In that way , there would be access to discuss these problems with people as friends and they would be able to change .

It made me sad to read this post. I have no advice, but will pray that God will help guide you to do what is right.