Find a Church (Article)

dang alistair, i figured you would have people all over this one. no wonder you have no cofidence in the idea of transcripts. i tend to agree with you that your sermons would not be the same in written form, but this right here jumps off the page just fine. i'm sure people are just too busy to sit down and comment on this.
i should be cleaning the house or something, but i feel that i at least owe you a comment or two in order to help keep your self-esteem up out of the dregs in exchange for that splendid time i had at the listener weekend this year. in all seriousness though, this is an excellent, excellent article. i really am surprised to not see any comments on it yet.
this seems to be the hot topic of the day. i hear about it so much in christian programming on the radio now. my church is also struggling with this issue as well. the leadership had this profound moment of enlightenment in which they decided that we should be reaching out to all of the folks in our county. i'm not sure what steps they took in figuring out how to undertake this endeavor--or as you scots might prefer, endeavour-- but i get the feeling they went and grabbed a self-help book off the shelf at the local christian bookstore. it is all very touchy feely stuff that they have bought into for sure.
i'm not trying to add to anything you're saying on here, because it is all perfect exactly as it sits. i do have one thing to say for the folks that fall into the entrenched category. if you find that your church is veering from what it once held dear, or possibly through alistair's messages you have come to find that they never were quite what they should have been, pray... pray... pray. examine the Scriptures for yourself daily. learn how to be that which is so easy to point at someone else and say that they should be. i found myself in the very difficult position of knowing the truth of these things that alistair has said but not knowing how to convey them to others properly-- especially to the leadership of the church. to my shame it resulted in me running my mouth about the leadership of my church. i am correcting that in myself now, and in God's mercy, he is showing me how to do so through the Scriptures.
if i have stepped beyond my bounds here, feel free to take it off. grace and peace alistair and all of the wonderful people at Truth For Life.

Thank you again for a wonderful article. that is my current "endeavor". how difficult has been to us to find a church that has the simple basics of the Acts church. We have relocated from Puerto Rico to North Florida and the Hispanic community is quite large but the essence fo the real church is missing. Our main language is spanish so we are looking for spanish churches in the area. We have visited more than four hispanic churches and all of them have one or more of the basics principles missing. We stayed for 18 month in one church, but the simple calling for Salvation was always missing , not to mention preaching was projected on the wall as a conference with one or two verses from the Bible to accomodate the pictures on the projector, one time the communion was dome with cake and cola from a birhtday celebration, That was the tip of the iceberg for us. Even though we approach the pastor with our concerns, since the beginning , no changes occurred.Then we started looking for "other". Oh my is very frustrating. This other we visited the pastor was very focused on selling his sermons and studies and wanted to be a mega church. Another so focused on the mortgage of the church every month and the little tithes he had, but on the other hand he lacked of humble traits. Another also interested and focused on the debts and how were they going to pay their mortgage too that the sermon started ok and then it was detoured to the money issues, never regaining the original theme again. We all are going through rough times but we cannot forget the principal objective of the gospel preaching and change it for a conference on how to support the church only. Well, finally we got to this humble little church , the pastor is a woman, (surrounded by all this chauvinists pastors that have her watched, just because she is a woman) But we have found all the basic principles you stated on this article in that church. This article is quite a guide to apply to our churches to see if we are really pleasing God as a church. I am providing a copy of this to her for support.

i personally want to thank you for the article it has shed some more light for me personally, i have been looking at this particular text for a little while now with the intention of shearing it in one of the service. i am a pastor in the cayman islands grand cayman to be exact,i listen to truth for life daily and find alistair sermons to be a rich source of blessing and endeavour to get to that place with the spirits help and deligent and persistent work.i am a young minister and find that a lot of the churches are more traditional than doctrinal and therefore i see a high turn over rate in churches rather than having churches with believers who are scriptually sound

It breaks my heart to share this tale, but it rings to the truth of what you have said and left unsaid. Ten years ago I joined a wonderful church after interviewing the pastor for nearly two hours regarding the teachings and practices of the church. This medium sized church had been around for about twenty-five years. The spirit and fellowship were much as I imagine the early church was. What a joy to participate in the baptisms of my wife and three of my chidren. In 2005 I became sick just after we began building the new church structure. Before I fell asleep for two years, I heard that things were not going well. Bitterness, backbiting and gossip had taken control of the congregation, Part of me is glad I missed the disaster, but most of me regrets that I had not been there to support those who sought God's hand in the matter. I have never known a church so committed to the Gospel, Christ and our Christian fellowship. One person got bitter over an imagined slight. Another was angered by deserved discipline for in your face sinful behavior of a sexual nature. When I awoke in June of 2008 I discovered that I might walk again and talk again and that the church I loved no longer existed because they failed to adher to the principles upon which their local church had been founded. The new structure now stands as home to a church that preaches the prosperity gospel and seldom mentions Christ except as their personal servant.

I moved to another community recently and am now searching for a new church home. Sadly it is difficult. Although I am now walking a little, I have not begun driving. The churches nearest my home are either prosperity gospel based or so political they resemble a party meeting more than worship. I am still looking. I know I will find a church home as I did before. I look forward to increasing that body as it follows the teachings you outline here. We all need to pray for our brothers and sisters who are being pulled aside by a confusion over faith and politics or faith and personal desire. It's supposed to be about Jesus and only Jesus. One false teaching no matter how small can bring the whole house down to the great sorrow of our Savior Who loves us so much. Thank you, Alistair, for bringing that point home, not just here but nearly every time you teach.

It's been about four years when I walked out of my local Church of 10 years. In 1996 I was just leaving prison (spent 8 years in a Japanese prison, where I gave my life to Christ), when my missionary friend whom was able to make visits with me once a week told me that the CHurch's are not what they are suppose to be. I had no idea there was Church's that excited in any other way. For the past 8 years I was holding prison church swervices and bible studies with the other inmates. After I expereiced a little reality from attending this particular church I then knew what my Missionary Brother was trying to inform me about. I can recall the fund memories of our "Prison Church"; we had everything in common and we never went without. We supported each other in our time of need for prayer and counseling. We worshipped in adoration and humility becasue of the sins of our past was wiped clean through the lovfe of God by sending His Son to pay our pentalty. We are criminals in the eye's of man but son's in the heart of God. After about 1 years of becoming a member of this Church I wanted to attend a Bible College, beliving God is calling me into the ministry addicitons and prison, My Church felt it was neccesary to exclude me from any position in the Church. I noticed then that the politict where real and the teachings where to ease the weak minded followers for finacial support for the new building project. What really got my attention was one of my Classes I took was Church History and Church Growth. I am suprised how we tend to repeat ourselves, not learning from the past and the process they are using for growth is not by building another addition but by the working of the Holy Spirit fron the inside.. How can they be so blind? I have much convictions about Church now, and I pray that the Lord will lead my wife and I to a Bible teaching Holy Spirit filled worship Church. With the denominations and the back talking these Church's do to each other I am compeled to study even deeper for Truth so that too will not fall victum to false teachings and politics within the Church. I am blessed to have in my life a few great mentors whom I counsel with on these matters. I asked them; 'How can you be part of something you do not support?" The answer was, not to my supprise, to worship in Truth and study to show yourselfe approved unto God not religion. These men are there to support any oportunity to share Truth to individuals and to confront heries that are in the pulpit. They do not get involved with Church issues. So I will follow my mentor counselship and the leading of the Holy Spirit. God will one day bring the deeds of darkness to light. Amen!

God Bless You Alistair