Archive for January, 2007

When is it ok to leave your home church, and begin attending another one? What are the “things” that give one freedom to move on?

This is a question that I have been struggling with for almost two years. Our church has been thru some major changes and strife. It’s reformed and confessional in nature, and would be considered “traditional” in it’s worship style. We recently called a new senior pastor after being without one for three years. He’s nice enough, but I’m just not gelling with his messages.

Now, here comes the hard part. I know that my new pastor is not on a popularity contest; he is called by God and by our church to preach the Gospel. I know he doesn’t give a rip about what I think about him; that’s cool. Please hear me; I love this guy, and have been praying for him and our church. I’ve been praying for me that God would change my heart; that I would begin to love and enjoy being a part of corporate worship at our church once again. But right now, the feelings aren’t getting those answered prayers.

So, do we leave? I know many people that have. Many have gone to a new church start in our same town, that is contemporary, rocking, and seems to be “spirit filled”. “I like the new church”, says my kids. (we visited two or three times this summer. I guess I’m just bad).

Right now, I have no biblical reasons to stay at our current church, but then again, I have no biblical reason to leave. Our church preaches the Gospel! It’s just boring! My wife and I teach Sunday School for middle schoolers, so we want to stay involved in these kids lives.

There will be more on these stations. But for now, we are staying, and praying for our obedience to be turned into joyful worship.

If anyone from our church reads this, I’m more than happy to discuss. But, overall, I want you to know that I’m praying for our pastor, our church, and our lives; that God would break us (mainly me) and help us to be more like Christ.

Well, the work keeps coming, and we keep on plugging away. In my new job as a video production manager, I get to try and keep producers, editors, camera people, and crew moving forward toward production targets to complete video projects for my employer. The challenge is when the target keeps moving.

Everyone wants to get their project done first, on time, and on budget. Then, leadership and management get involved to add their editorial comments, and it goes back to the editing suite. We try to set some “false” deadlines for ourselves to allow for changes, but it never seems to be enough. You allow two days for changes; it takes three. You try to give four days for a project to edit; it takes six. You give two days for reviewal, someone takes three, and then wants the whole video fixed.

I know the bosses will want to make changes; I’m ok with that. Just give us time to complete the changes in an orderly fashion, and then leave it alone. Or, if it’s still not right, give time for more changes.

Truth is, my bosses do give alot of time for changes. I just hate change. So I get yet another chance to exercise my reliance on God Almighty.

Hey, it beats wandering around in the wilderness.