Backdrop: I attend a Souther Baptist Church. We stand on the normal things most baptist churches stand on, i.e. grace salvation, water baptism doesn't save, eternal security, Lord's supper, things like that. However we are different than alot of other baptist churches today which are just as alive as the computer screen you are staring at now. We have a praise and worship team, we have drums in our church (gasp!), we have numerous ministries, we lift our hands during worship and we say Amen alot!
Recently we had a person join, a woman, who came to the church with a wonderful talent for singing and playing lots of instruments. At first glance she appeared to be very spiritual and just seemed to have an awesome heart for God. Also when she mentioned her testimony is was great also. Since no one knows her I can share some. She was at one time in her life a lesbian, but about five years ago, she said she had reformed from that sin and was now a heterosexual. (BTW, I'm not getting into the issue of homosexuality. I know what I believe on that subject of sin. Call it narrow minded, but I call it standing on God's word.) Anyway, she wasn't looked down upon for her past and that was awesome, because alot of people don't want to be associated with people who are or were gay. But in our congregation it was never brought up and in our minds we loved her no matter what she had done.
Enter the devil. This girl was not doctrinely sound. She held tightly to her that women could be called to be ministers or pastors of a church, something like Joyce Meyers. Our church does not hold to this belief and it's in our constitutional bylaws that women cannot hold a position of authority over the men in the church. She tried to be the small leak that filtered through and changed our ways. And some of her doctrine did filter in, but goodness did we pay for it. Everyone knew what she believed, but no one said anything and shame on us for that. Still that wasn't the worst part. The homosexuality she said she had turned from, was in fact a lie. She may have stopped for a while, but nothing what she claimed to be. In the end she ended up having two girls from our church as her partners and one of them was our youth pastors wife! Because of this, he has almost lost his ministry and our church has the largest youth group in the county.
I write this to warn people of how bad too much tolerance can be. We knew how this girl believed and we said nothing. We even let some of her beliefs seep in through the doors and the church suddenly became one of these "if it feels right it must be from God" churches, which is completely a work of Satan. We should have in the beginning told her we didn't hold to the doctrine she did and if she didn't want to hold to what we stand on, that is clearly in the Word of God, then perhaps she might be better suited at another church. But by not doing that, our church almost crumbled, but because most of the congregation decided that we are going to stand on God's word and not worry about if it makes us feel good, God thwarted an attack directly from the devil.
I think change is good, unless it is not from God. Just because other churches want to water down their doctrine just so they won't hurt someones feelings, doesn't make it close to being right. Our pastor said it best when he quoted 1st Corinthians 5:6-8
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whold lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may have a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
This verse implies that even something little can come in to a church and mess up the whole thing. In Joshua God punished the whole nation of Israel over one man's sin. So I say all of this not to discuss homosexuality or a woman's role in the church. I say it so people can be cautious of what they are tolerant of. Basically if it's not according to God's word it's wrong and should be dealt with accordingly.
Recently we had a person join, a woman, who came to the church with a wonderful talent for singing and playing lots of instruments. At first glance she appeared to be very spiritual and just seemed to have an awesome heart for God. Also when she mentioned her testimony is was great also. Since no one knows her I can share some. She was at one time in her life a lesbian, but about five years ago, she said she had reformed from that sin and was now a heterosexual. (BTW, I'm not getting into the issue of homosexuality. I know what I believe on that subject of sin. Call it narrow minded, but I call it standing on God's word.) Anyway, she wasn't looked down upon for her past and that was awesome, because alot of people don't want to be associated with people who are or were gay. But in our congregation it was never brought up and in our minds we loved her no matter what she had done.
Enter the devil. This girl was not doctrinely sound. She held tightly to her that women could be called to be ministers or pastors of a church, something like Joyce Meyers. Our church does not hold to this belief and it's in our constitutional bylaws that women cannot hold a position of authority over the men in the church. She tried to be the small leak that filtered through and changed our ways. And some of her doctrine did filter in, but goodness did we pay for it. Everyone knew what she believed, but no one said anything and shame on us for that. Still that wasn't the worst part. The homosexuality she said she had turned from, was in fact a lie. She may have stopped for a while, but nothing what she claimed to be. In the end she ended up having two girls from our church as her partners and one of them was our youth pastors wife! Because of this, he has almost lost his ministry and our church has the largest youth group in the county.
I write this to warn people of how bad too much tolerance can be. We knew how this girl believed and we said nothing. We even let some of her beliefs seep in through the doors and the church suddenly became one of these "if it feels right it must be from God" churches, which is completely a work of Satan. We should have in the beginning told her we didn't hold to the doctrine she did and if she didn't want to hold to what we stand on, that is clearly in the Word of God, then perhaps she might be better suited at another church. But by not doing that, our church almost crumbled, but because most of the congregation decided that we are going to stand on God's word and not worry about if it makes us feel good, God thwarted an attack directly from the devil.
I think change is good, unless it is not from God. Just because other churches want to water down their doctrine just so they won't hurt someones feelings, doesn't make it close to being right. Our pastor said it best when he quoted 1st Corinthians 5:6-8
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whold lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may have a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
This verse implies that even something little can come in to a church and mess up the whole thing. In Joshua God punished the whole nation of Israel over one man's sin. So I say all of this not to discuss homosexuality or a woman's role in the church. I say it so people can be cautious of what they are tolerant of. Basically if it's not according to God's word it's wrong and should be dealt with accordingly.
