 |
Pastors, Degrees & Mega Churches
Posted on Thursday 7 June 2007 at 9:22 AM in Bible - Post Comment
Ya know, since I've been a Christian I've been annoyed with the fact that pastors MUST go to college to become one. It just seems wrong to me. I've always felt that the roll of a pastor was not just to shepherd the flock, but to help raise up other leaders. If someone is called by God to be a pastor, they should study and apprentice under another pastor. Isn't it better to learn by doing than by sitting at a desk studying how to manage a church? I might be wrong, but isn't that what Paul did? Well, Steve Camp posted a very thought provoking post along those lines: http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com/ He spells it out much better than I can.
Another thing that annoys me is this "mega church" syndrome. The thought that if you don't have a gazillion members in your chuch, something is wrong. To me it would make more sense that if the church was starting to bust at the seams, and the pastor is helping to raise up leaders...that at some point they would plant a new church. The local church is supposed to be a strong member in the community. When the church starts to see more and more members from outside that community...wouldn't it make sense to start thinking about planting a new church in their community? Why do churches have to grow so big that they have to meet in a stadium type building? How can a church be a close community if their all going to a handful of different church services? How can they be a close community with thousands of people? Am I making sense?
Untitled Comment
Posted by Jonash2004 on Thursday 7 June 2007 at 12:10 PM - Link
I could not agree more. Great post. So many times in the Bible God just called someone, and they didn't go to college first. :)
Ashley
Because it "feels" good!!
Posted by gokings13 on Thursday 7 June 2007 at 1:11 PM - Link
To answer your last 4 questions?
Because so many people are playing church. It feels good to play church. It feels good to be seen by SO MANY people on a Sunday morning. See, look how holy me and my family are.
Jesus has this to say:
Matthew 6:1
1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Matthew 23:27-28
27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Revelation 3:15-18
15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
17 "Therefore come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you."
18 "I will be a Father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
? Last Page :: Next Page ?
|
|