Monday, August 15, 2011

In need of some insight regarding church matters?

I've been apart of a church for about 2 years now, and I need some input as far as how this church is ran. I think that the pastor and his wife are beautiful people, as far as them going out of their way to do things for people, but their ministry is a bit demanding. They hold two full services during the week(tues and thurs) and have service on sundays, with the occasional double service. They have two to three weeks worth of revivals at the beginning of every year, the yearly pastoral celebration, which begins with a week full of services, along with a banquet, then theres their annual womans conference, which is a three day event held at an upscale hotel, then theres holy convocation, which is like a week long service, then theres a leadership conference which is a two day event held at an upscale hotel, then theres other banquets and functions held by affiliated pastors in which our pastor deems it mandatory that all members to attend. The church also requires members to never attend service empty handed, having tithes and offerings(and I know about how important these tithes and offerings are to ministry), along with monthly mens dues, womans dues, and leadership dues if you hold a leadership position. Along with the holidays sowing into the pastor and his family with set amounts. It becomes overwelming alot of times. Being recently laid off from my job, and set to attend school for a degree, I feel like crap after every service cause I'm reminded of my current financial situation, when come offering time and folks are asked to dig alittle deeper.And they say every service you should leaved a changed individual. It gets to the point where I never wanna set foot in another church for the rest of my life sometimes. You're drawn in to these churches where they claim to not be traditional churches who only have bible study on wednsdays, and sunday services, yet people I know who attend these churches seem more happy and fulfilled serving God and are able to live their lives. I'm truely not happy here, doing the best that I can. When I started this walk, I used to read the Bible and pray daily, and now everything is just a routine, like I'm a robot going along cause pastor says so, and it sucks. I remember before I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, when I thought that I had a good understanding of spirituality, I felt more fulfilled than I do now, going out of my way to help people, not cause pastor says so, but because I felt it in my heart to do so. I felt more growth in my life as an individual, than I do now. Its like I miss those days, which is like a no-no for born again believers being that Christianity is an exclusive religion, meaning that the belief is that this is the one and only true way. I leave church stressed out. And church-hopping ain't cool, especially cause alot of the pentecostal/evangelical churches that I have visited have the same agenda pretty much. Keeping the people so busy that they can no longer think for themselves. And mind you, I partake in praise and worship, as the guitarist. So you would think that I would be excited to go to church. Any advice about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read.

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