Kumbayah continued....

It has been suggested that I post the link to the entire post from the Pastor in order to read it in context, I have decided to put it here and respond to each of the "Spiritual Gifts" he doesn't seem interested in, even asking that you not to come to his church if you pocess one of these annoying attributes. So, let's get started...the original post begins with...

There are always going to be "those kind of people" and I know that. I think I've also identified a few of the "gifts" that make them so especially annoying and tough to tolerate and I've concluded that I don't want their "spiritual gifts" that they seem so intent on exercising in the church and for the supposed glory of God. People who have these "gifts" are constantly exercising them and putting them to "good use." In fact, they often don't recognize that they have these "gifts" and using them is natural and like second-nature. I hope you don't have any of these gifts, but if you do, I hope you stay far, far away from Discovery Church and also keep them hidden and unused at any church.

Are you okay with that? What kind of person would you not want to be in your church? As far as I can tell, there are only two kinds of people in the site of God. The saved members of His body, and those that need to be. If they are saved members, why wouldn't they be welcome?. If they are unsaved, don't they need to be there in order to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel whereby they can make the decision to believe and be saved ? or to reject the Gospel and remain unsaved? Either way, wouldn't it be a good idea to have the audience that requires edification or the audience that needs salvation? There must be another group of folks I am missing, oh yeah, it's "those kind of people". What are these amazing "Spiritual Gifts" that are so difficult to tolerate?...Let's get some insight on these "especially annoying" gifts.

The "Spiritual Gift" of 'Well I think..."
A person with this gift loves to share their thoughts, opinions and ideas with everyone. They always have a better way of doing things and can tell you story after story of how something isn't being done right. Of course they also have an acute understanding of why all these problem exists in the church, and of course, how they would fix it - and most sentences start with, "Well I think...." Thoughts are often devoid of any biblical wisdom but loaded with plenty of personal pride.

Well I think...just kidding!. This point can be looked at as a good one if you are active in an assembly that puts on a show week after week. People are responding and commenting with thoughts and opinions on what? the doctrine? the Bible translation? the plan of salvation? or is it something else? Are these thinkers coming to your assembly for edification or are they there to be entertained with some rock and roll Jesus music thinking they are doing God's will? It could well be the problem has much deeper roots stemming from the modern church machinery giving folks what they want rather than what they need. Since these thinker folks are often with the lack of "any Biblical wisdom" , it only follows as the night to day, they need to be where they can be stablished in right doctrine and NOT asked to stay away, or am I just being too critical? What do you think?

The "Spiritual Gift" of Criticism
These people can not sit through a service, attend any function or serve well in any ministry because they always see the glass as half empty. They look for every little thing that's wrong instead of celebrating the things that are right. They are constant initiators of disagreements and dissatisfaction because they often work behind the scenes pointing out all that's wrong without ever lifting a finger to fix it. They can do this up close, but they often choose to work from a distance, jump to conclusions and use limited knowledge. Their criticism is often communicated either anonymously or through emails, letter, blogs, wall posts or other impersonal means

How dare they!! These annoying intolerable folks just need to go somewhere else. Well of course they do. They need to go where the focus is not on "things" like haze and lights and jitterbug for Jesus music ( reminds me of another post a while back) but instead the focus is seeing souls saved and saints edifyed with the right doctrine from the right book, rightly divided of course, with the right heart. Instead of the importance to right doctrine being the focus, it has taken a back seat in this emerging church movement. The focus is all about the how instead of the what. The problem isn't the "gifted" people, it is the ungifted ministries. On the other hand, you better expect criticism, because you are going to get it. Use it to benefit yourself and the critical one. Criticism is a tool to gauge the effect you are having on folks. Could it be you aren't able to recieve it and deal with it in a proper manner? Am I? I certainly hope I've done my homework. The underlying factor could very well be you are dealing with an unsaved self sanctified church goer. So what is the problem?...they need to be saved before you in any way can expect them to grow. There are way too many unsaved folks sitting in churches and serving in ministries the way it is, time to change that don't you think?

I 'll end this here and pick it up where I left off. Let me add this statement in order to "Justify" myself here (You will get that lil joke when I continue in the next post). I have never met this Pastor personally and he may very well be the nicest guy you will ever meet. But, I am not dealing with personallity issues in any sense, it boils down to the doctrine. The importance or being on the same page with God as to where we go for our marching orders goes past our salvation and into all matters of faith and practice. This Pastor doesn't know it, but I admire him greatly for starting a church and making it a success. My only intention is to engage and challenge folks in the things that matters more than Ipods, Macs, Twitter, lights and haze, if the music was too loud, Easter eggs and candy, and the such. What matters is the doctrine we abscribe to ,,,Yes, it is that important. So important you soul's salvation depends upon it.