A few years ago, my wife and I visited the church her brother attended at the time. It was my first time to this church, and will probably be my only time there.
Things were rolling along smoothly in the service until the pastor, in his message, took time to directly bash another local church in the same denomination, calling them by name to his congregation. Something in my gut tightened up, and I might've even thrown up in my mouth a little.
The negative words he spoke toward that other church did not match that other church's history or current activities. Ultimately, I was able to read through the sermon spatter, and recognized this man was a) upset that some in his congregation had probably went to that other church, and b) jealous of this other church's success.
Fortunately for me, those words birthed a distaste in my soul for churches (and their members) verbally attacking one another.
Fast forward to the present day. The church I attend is now one of those that are being verbally attacked by other Christians. The reason: we don't do church the way they have always done church...and its working in our community.
This past week, a friend of mine overheard another pastor giving a devotional that called our church out by name, and blasted some of the sermons we had preached.
There are two problems with Christians bashing the things other Christians and/or churches are doing.
- When you attack another Christian or church without just cause (just cause being that they no longer preach/teach the Bible and do not adhere to the Nicene Creed.), you only serve Satan's purpose of dividing the Church and bringing mockery and scorn to Jesus' name.
- If God is really behind the things you openly oppose, then you are fighting God.
That last point is very important. in Acts 5:29-41, Peter and John are hauled before the religious leaders of their day, because they were teaching about Jesus. After being ordered to stop preaching in Jesus' name, Peter and John refused to deny the call of God on their lives.
This infuriated the religious leaders so much that they wanted to kill Peter and John. But, a Pharisee named Gamaliel calmed the crowd and pointed out one very important truth. If God is not behind what the apostles were doing, they would eventually fade away like all the false prophets and false teachers eventually do.
Gamaliel pointed out, however, that if God was behind these men, there was nothing the opposition could do to stop this new movement. His words of caution were that not only could you not stop this movement, but you could also find yourself fighting against God.
The point here is this, if you see a church and the Christians there doing things that make you upset or uncomfortable, examine thouroughly what is going on there. Be very cautious about portraying them negatively.
My experience from the two churches I have witnessed being attacked by others is that God is doing incredible things and changing lives through the different methods these churches are using. You don't want to be on the wrong side of a work of God.
I spent most of last week at the National Religious Broadcasters annual meeting. The keynote address on the last night was delivered by Insight for Living's Chuck Swindoll. Here are some notes from his address.