Letters From Leavers

These days, people are used to long commutes. But a commute of 20+ miles to church doesn’t facilitate lots of church involvement, so we chose to find a congregation closer to home. We settled on one that looked good and tried to establish some roots. After over a year of this, and an increasing sense of discouragement and apathy, we made the tough decision to start over again, again. Worship services were not easy to participate in fully. Music was hard to understand, and therefore hard to learn (without music). Teaching was lightweight, politically left-wing(often as part of the sermon!), and not very Christ-centered. The congregation seemed to operate more like a business than like the warm, hospitable family the church is to be. The minister seemed to alienate people, and not just those who are easy to alienate. There did not seem to be a spirit of humility, nor an attempt really to serve. From what I saw, the minister (who was more of a CEO than usual) lacked the spiritual gifts important for a local pastor to have. Deciding that the problem was far too large for us to solve, and hearing that others who disagreed had been told to leave (!), we looked for a healthier church. Any congregation led by an autocrat without a genuine calling to serve the church is not going to do well in the longterm.