How to wreck your church in three weeks
Week One: Walk into church today and think about how long you’ve been a member, how much you’ve sacrificed, how under-appreciated you are. Take note of every way you’re dissatisfied with your church now. Take note of every person who displeases you.
Meet for coffee this week with another member and “share your heart.” Discuss how your church is changing, how you are being left out. Ask your friend who else in the church has “concerns.” Agree together that you must “pray about it.”Week Two: Send an email to a few other “concerned” members. Inform them that a groundswell of grievance is surfacing in your church. Problems have gone unaddressed for too long. Ask them to keep the matter to themselves “for the sake of the body.”
As complaints come in, form them into a petition to demand an accounting from the leaders of the church. Circulate the petition quietly. Gathering support will be easy. Even happy members can be used if you appeal to their sense of fairness – that your side deserves a hearing. Be sure to proceed in a way that conforms to your church constitution, so that your petition is procedurally correct.
Week Three: When the growing moral fervor, ill-defined but powerful, reaches critical mass, confront the elders with your demands. Inform them of all the woundedness in the church, which leaves you with no choice but to put your petition forward. Inform them that, for the sake of reconciliation, the concerns of the body must be satisfied.
Whatever happens from this point on, you have won. You have changed the subject in your church from gospel advance to your own grievances. To some degree, you will get your way. Your church will need three or four years for recovery. But at any future time, you can do it all again. It only takes three weeks.
Just one question. Even if you are being wronged, “Why not rather suffer wrong?” (1 Corinthians 6:7).
1 comment:
I agree with the general idea of this post but feel there needs to be some clarification. If people are upset about something trivial like music choices, carpet color, or even personality conflicts they should be quiet. On the other hand, there are issues that must be addressed, Scripture calls us to contend for the faith, to uphold the standard, to rebuke, exhort, admonish, etc. When you have leadership willfully sinning, God does not want you to be silent (He gave us church discipline for a reason). When there are spirits of self-righteousness and pride thriving in your body, you should not be silent. Sin and error must be confronted and corrected. So, I agree, if you have personal issues with things, keep it to yourself, but if there is unchecked sin, if your church's practices are not aligned with God's Word, stand up for the Truth!
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