A couple of years ago I preached a sermon called "AIDS: the Judgment of God" that brought the wrath of the Sodomite community down on our church. They went on a campaign to attack our church in many different ways, and one of the things they did was call down the list of the churches that we recommended in our church directory and complain about our church being so harsh to the "LGBT community." This prompted several pastors to write to me and tell me that they wanted to be removed from the directory because they did not want to be associated with that type of preaching.
The same week I received an email from Pastor Chris Corrigan of Sligo Baptist Church asking to be removed from the directory without stating a reason. I wrongfully assumed that he was one of the pastors who had a problem with my preaching against the Sodomites, and included him in a blog post listing pastors who had discouraged me during that time of persecution. It turns out that he was asking to be removed because of an unrelated incident that had happened in his church where someone who listened to my sermons online had been causing problems. The timing was coincidental, and I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and lumped him in with the others who stated why they wanted to be removed. I apologized to Pastor Corrigan for my mistake.
Another moral of this story for those who listen to my sermons is that you should try to be a blessing in your local church and not go in there expecting it to be identical to Faithful Word Baptist Church. If you want to go to FWBC, then move to Phoenix and go to FWBC. If you attend a different independent fundamental Baptist church, then you should respect that pastor's authority and get on board with the program of that local church. Don't just march in and start handing out copies of "After the Tribulation." Focus on what you like about the church and the things you do agree with, and let that church be a place for you and your family to grow, and thrive, and serve the Lord. Over time, you can be a positive influence in that church, but make sure you have the right attitude and are not filled with pride. Also keep in mind that you are not the pastor of the church.
Here is a blog post on 3 Ways to be a Bad Church Member.
Here is an old sermon from many years ago that I preached called "Too Puffed Up for Church."
5 comments:
Dear Pastor Anderson,
I'm a member of a church that I consider to be too liberal and "worldly", but that's still the best church far and wide (I live in Western Europe, so finding a good church isn't easy).
I've tried to make the best out of the situation, and it worked pretty as long as I was single and only responsible for myself. But I got married and we will become parents soon, and I'm not so sure how I should handle the doctrinal differences when it comes to teaching my future children. I don't want them to learn false doctrine, but I don't want them to get confused and insecure about what they should believe either when their parents and their Pastor will be telling them different things.
What should I do?
Kind regards
Alex
I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude or anything like that, but why someone who does fear and cannot preach against fags and cannot understand a simple thing as time of rapture, why ? WHY would they become pastors? They are not shepherds, I know they are our brothers and we should love them and we do, but these are basic things, I don't know maybe FWBC made us think these are easy, doctrine of reprobate might be hard for them and their flesh prevent them to do the right thing after understanding it because of fear, but rapture is the easiest thing, first time I was reading my Bible, I saw it, all those after , after these things, could not be more clear, they are indeed saved if they have believed, but they ARE INDEED not disciples , if it's about Spirit, we all have Him! So why cannot they see it, if they are so worldly, why they become Pastors? Pastors are prophets of God not ...I love them as brothers, I must.But they better sit down and stop talking! disciples fall down but they stand up again, disciples get bombed but scream again.
Alex, it depends on how big the doctrinal differences are. A church needs to use the KJV, have a soul-winning program, and teach salvation by grace through faith, plus nothing minus nothing. If you can't find a church that meets those criteria, you should move, and raise your family in an independent fundamental Baptist church. For now, make sure your child listens to good preaching and good music while still in the womb (if your wife is already pregnant.) Even if a good church is an hour or more away, it is worth making the drive.
OK but moving is not always an option. Like, Alex says he lives in Western Europe; he didn't say which country but the situation outside of America is horrible. For example, The Netherlands has ONE IFB church in the whole country, and it's pre-trib. Their soul-winning consists of basically street preaching in Amsterdam (which I can confirm, having been to the city hundreds of times, makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like a Baptist convention). They just about have the right Gospel and Bible, and that's about it - but it's also situated in a small town (Almere) and you don't just get jobs there or get to live there. Or in Belgium, there's a fellow who is from there and active on Fagbook, and he too battles as there's basically nothing. Me, I'm in South Africa (an extremely evil nation) and there are a handful of so-called IFBs but they're nowhere near being fundamental and almost all are Calvinist, add works to salvation somehow (commonly "faith alone but if you haven't had a visible change..."). We were lucky enough to live close to one and go there, but the new Pastor for the past year is a "repent of your sins, love the fags, invite them into the church" false preacher and the congregation was too laid back and lukewarm to even notice the difference. Then what do you do? Move? Moving would mean emigrating and that's really difficult. I'd love to go to church again but frankly I've given up on SA and given up on finding a good church, because even the deal breakers "KJV only and faith-alone" are non-existent here. Forsaking the assembly is wrong, but the only options here are fake churches = assembling with false converts. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I miss church badly.
But I'd say, Alex teach your kids the truth. It may cause confusion later on when going to the church, but teach them the truth no matter what. Let them learn that they need to rely on the Bible for truth, not a man.
The real concern, of course, is exposing your children to false teachings or dangerous teachings. Even if you are saved, your children are not.
I respect Pastor Anderson highly. I fully understand that we cannot abandon assembling, especially at end times. I am not in favor of house churches substituting for church.
But I respectfully suggest that it might be helpful for Pastor Anderson--with his large Internet following--to take it one step further and discuss the strategies that folks should take if forced to attend a church that is KJV, soul-winning... but is 99% "love," pro-Bible College, pro-homo agenda, pro-women working (praying for women to find jobs even), pro-school, pro-Israel, and merely gives lip services to certain sins buried within Paul Chappell-promoted sermons, adding in that all sins are equal (specific quote "if you are a liar, don't think you are any better than a homosexual"), etc.
I can stomach the pre-trib stuff. I can stomach minor doctrinal differences.
I can probably stomach all of the major differences too. But can my wife and children? If the church is virtually indistinguishable from the world, the issue becomes not just how can you grow within such a church, but how can you avoid becoming softer and weaker yourself??? I don't take my family to bars and movies to test them. This is not about sheltering my family. This is more about being deluded into thinking that a house missing 95% of its roof is going to prove shelter from the elements... just because it is the best house around. If the only two beams are KJV and soul-winning... that is not much of a roof. Maybe I need to build my own roof. But hanging around with a carpenter who does not know how to fix his own roof is not going to help that much. John MacArthur preaches harder on sin out of his corrupt NIV bible than many KJV and soul-winning churches. Summing it up--are we getting to the point that using the KJV and soul-winning is not the true litmus test anymore because the bible colleges have corrupted the current crop of even fundamental independent baptist pastors?
Also, it would be great if Pastor Anderson could also figure out a way for folks that are following him and his pastor tree to communicate together. Maybe there is someone 50 miles away who thinks the same way... and would be better for actual fellowship. Perhaps a forum or something. Just an idea.
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