Help Me Develope A Message To Promote My Book (part 6 – the church)
Posted By Aaron Marcelli on April 18, 2010
I highly appreciate all the feedback I have received over the past several posts. As I said before, I am developing a message that will go along with my book that I can use at churches or schools to give a thirty minute snapshot of the contents of my book.
Having studies out and hearing your comments on issues like guilt, repentance, and forgiveness has given me a better understanding on these issues. Though I desire to be a person who shows grace and forgiveness to others, my experiences cause me to wonder how well the American church as a whole is at exercising these Christ-like traits.
For some reason, churches and their members seem to have an unbiblical, hypocritically high standard for their congregation. I fear some of our congregations see their mission as being moral police who have a political agenda of outlawing anything they consider sin and monitoring bad behavior without giving any concern to the heart of the people they are trying to convict.
Though preaching such a message in most US churches would get me labeled a heretic, I do hope to encourage most church members to quit relying on their church for their individual spiritual growth. It took a moral failure and loosing my ministry position to drive me to a place of seeking intimacy and restoration with God on my own. I believe most spiritual steps will be taken by a believer on their own with the church hopefully serving as a source of encouragement and empowerment. Though the church does a great job of telling us not to sin, they do a horrible job of caring for and advising those who have fallen.
How have your experiences with the local church affected your attitude toward those who have failed and are in need of restoration?
Do you view the church as a hospital for the sinners, a place of acceptance and evangelism, or a cozy place of worship for Christians?
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It is always pleasure to read your blog, will back here soon
Again, what you consider a “moral failure” I consider being human – we ALL have such failures. How has the church affected my attitude…? Well, since you asked, the church puts more stock in the words of Paul than in those of Jesus. I am not diss’n Paul by any means, but things that happen to people as people before a relationship with Christ (re-birth?) are held against them in the body of the church. Ironically, it is the same group as you experienced – and I will leave that there. So, I want to know what makes Paul so much more of an authority on how those in certain positions can/should be held to a level of morality? Who decides which sin ranks where? How accountable must a person be? If all were extrememly truthful, then no mere man could serve in any position in our church – just my opinion. You see, I had a “moral failure” at eighteen years old that still follows me. Although all the parties involved realized in short order the mistake that they had made, that mistake still follows me and taints my life, my witness, my being. Although Jesus forgave me, (I John 1:9), men – the church – cannot. Actually, I don’t think they care about my transgression as much as they need it. I know, it sounds a bit bitter, but think about it. There are those PEOPLE that need others to have airable dirty laundry. With such, those folks can justify their own downfalls. “At least I didn’t …. fill in the blank.”
I do not wish for nor seek a position of authority in my church. I sometimes wish to give up where I now serve for a more qualified and deserving person, but those that fit the criteria will not take over… You see, I was forced to tell a certain comittee about my past when they simply would not accept that I simply did not want to be in the position for which they thought I might have an interest in. Interestingly, once my past was flapping in the breeze, no one has approached me about doing anything else..
That is the long and short of it. That is also why I am interested in supporting your church plant plans. I am not in a place where I can condemn anyone for any mistakes made – prior to or after their own salvation. 70×7..
Jeff, thanks for your words and your insight. I also enjoyed talking a little about this over the weekend.
I have no problem with you calling a moral failure “being human”. I don’t allow that incident to label me or consider myself worse than others, just as i would not think those things of someone else, or you for that matter, but desire all to find hope and constant forgiveness in Christ – though this is rarely the message of the church.
So that is my point when I talk about these things. That is the point of my book. It was actually when hanging out with you guys and in those Bible studies that I heard stories from people my age that left me feeling like they thought they were second class for “being human”. I hated feeling that way, I don’t want others to feel that way, and it’s a relief to know God doesn’t want ANYONE feeling that way.