Foundations - Church

Being a part of a local body of believers is part and parcel of being a Christian. Most of the New Testament letters are written to and for churches. Join us today as we discuss some of the basics of ecclesiology.

[@robanybody3363]

Great sermon pastor Cody

[@scattergun2317]

I have serious doubts that this sermon can truly be comprehended without living through what happens when church leaders are confronted with things in their church body such as a family beating their 3 year-old child, a married elder who gets drunk with other couples from the church and has an affairs with the wives, or pastors teaching what clearly is not Biblical. These are but a few of the things I felt that i had to speak up about over the years. (I'm 65 and accepted Jesus as a child) I was told that I was a trouble maker and that the Bible says "love covers a multitude of sin" and that I was unloving and being divisive to the body. This is a but small sample. I wasn't being a jerk, I didn't scream from the rooftops, I simply brought it to the attention of leadership. Similar things have happened at virtually every church that I became part of. This led me to believe that the body part that I am, is the A-hole. Sorry for the language but there was no other way to make my point. I promise you, nobody wants that body part around, so I stopped attending live and now attend online churches. I'm not here commenting to tell you that you are wrong about anything with one exception: my reason for not attending is not because I'm stupid.... you actually said that, go back and listen. All in all I love your teaching and will continue watching and listening from here where i am. So again, I'm not here to beat anyone up. I just offer another perspective based on my experiences. God bless you and keep up the good fight because we need people like you who are called to lead.

[@timberhillministries7311]

"The part of the body I am is the A-hole" lol. I seriously laughed out loud at that. We may have that in common. My point with the stupidity comment is not that those who do not attend church are stupid people. Rather, that much of the reasoning for why people don't attend is. And I do stand by that, our personal experiences do not alleviate us from biblical commands. By this reasoning, if someone were persecuted for evangelizing they would have good reason to stop. Or if going against evil has caused us or our families harm, then it would be ok to go along with evil to avoid suffering. Quite simply this argument makes our own feelings a greater authority than Scripture which is not a good argument. That said, I absolutely agree with you that there are many wolves in many churches. It is for that reason that we need more "A-holes" in the churches. I want more men like you in my church!

[@timberhillministries7311]

By the way, I do know what it's like to confront church leaders for behaving wickedly because I have done it. In fact, the whole reason we planted this church is because I was driven out of my last church for church leadership teaching that if you wore the mask and got the vaccine during Covid that meant you were "loving your neighbor." Perhaps predictably it did not go over well. But I don't regret it.