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[tmscrapbooker]

Just had an extensive conversation with mom (actually I called to let her know I was alive to try to prevent the late night visit that I got last Saturday).  She was updating me on the happenings of the week, and I was doing the same for her.  It's not been a good week, all the way around.  Things are falling apart at church and we're all concerned

Comments

[tmscrapbooker]

No we're not small, we've got 250 members. And it's not the attendance that's the problem either. Unlike most churches, our preacher isn't the "leader" of our church. We have elders who make the decisions. We have three, and apparently some people have become disgruntled with things they've done and there was a men's meeting on Monday night. All three elders resigned. It's just a bad situation.

[ithoughtsheknew]

Oh, hon. Our former congregation split over some things going on in with the leadership (eldership). It was bad. We had one of those meetings but the entire congregation was invited to it. Mark went and I watched a tape of the meeting. It was a fiasco...you could finally see the true colors of many of the members. When things finally spiraled out of control we had 8 elders and the three oldest were pretty much forced into resigning due to the issues. What surprised me about the congregation was that these three men had over 80 years of leadership between the three of them and one of our pulpit ministers had more than 30 years...that's more than 100 years, not counting the deacons that turned in their resignations. Even with all that experience leaving, the majority of the congregation chose to stay with a very dangerous new leadership and pulpit minister. About 80 of us left last March and it was the hardest, most wonderful thing we ever had to face. I'm so glad we did it

[tmscrapbooker]

Thanks. We just don't really know what to expect. The three agreed to stay on until March so other elders can replace them, but honestly I can't think of who that would be right now. There's just not too many men in our congregation that I feel would be qualified right now. My dad's one of them and he has been an elder before in the church I grew up in and has said he will never do it again. There were things that happened then that soured him on the position. My dad said that meeting was a nightmare. I'm actually glad I wasn't there.

[ithoughtsheknew]

We had men jockeying in to position for eldership even when they weren't scripturally qualified. It was crazy...they even allowed a man to become a deacon when he wasn't qualified.
Just go back and study Timothy and Thessalonians then pray hard that God will put qualified men in place. Don't forget He's in control during these trying circumstances and, in the end, what is best for the congregation, will happen. Keep me posted, okay?

[tmscrapbooker]

I forgot to update you after the announcements were made on the 8th, but it's okay because it's all changed again today. On the Sunday after this all happened (the 8th), they announced that there would not be any change in eldership at this time. They did open it up for suggestions for more elders and deacons, but they made it sound like none of the current elders would be leaving. This morning, they announced that they would not be renewing the preacher's contract. They are in the process of speaking with the men who were suggested for eldership, and they should be put before the congregation next week. If there are no scriptural objections, they will begin serving on March 15th. At that time, two of the three current elders will step down. It's gotten so bad that when that was announced, someone actually had the gall to applaud about one of the men leaving. It's been a rough morning. I just don't know what's going to happen now. I really think this will split the church. There are a lot of families who are very close to