Is Narcissism Nature or Nurture?

A View from the Pews

Is a narcissist born with personality and behaviors dictated by genetic make-up; or is a narcissist created by life events and people around him? Not being a psychiatric professional, I can only surmise. Perhaps it is a mixture of both. Either way, a self-absorbed pastor focuses on himself and not on God’s kingdom. “If nineteenth-century…

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Is It about the Money?

A View from the Pews

It’s a bold philosophy to assert that losing hundreds of members in order to gain thousands is a good thing for God’s family of believers. Is it a statement for the benefit of the church body, or is it about the money? “The process of changing the bylaws to the industrial-complex church in the hope…

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Does Your Church Have a Celebrity Pastor?

A View from the Pews

The megachurches that adopt the industrial complex format tend to have a celebrity pastor who surrounds himself with elders tasked with seeing to his needs and protecting him to the point of creating a buffer between him and the church body. The danger of creating a circle of yes men arises when the pastor hand…

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Telltale Signs

A View from the Pews

When you see this happening in your church, and you don’t get reasonable and timely answers to your questions, I’d say there is a problem with church leadership, wouldn’t you? What, then, is an acceptable recourse? Should you become part of the migrant membership to find another church home? If the elders of your church…

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Are Gimmicks Necessary to Make the Point?

Speech class taught me to make my first sentence captivating for my audience. The wow factor gets their attention, and the skill of the presenter keeps it focused until the end of the message. I’ve listened to some sermons that were hard to sit through because of bad public speaking skills. I wonder, though, how…

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A Time for Thanks

A View from the Pews

It’s time for me to express my sincere thanks to all of you who support this project. The amount I will be able to transfer to Safe Connections approaches  $1,000 in royalties to be paid next month. This is for the victims. God continues to do great things through this project. Many have contacted me…

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A View from the Pews

I’m just asking. It seems to me that the members should know if their elder steps down. Isn’t that part of the transparency issue between leadership and congregation? Isn’t that an important piece of information about which the church body should be made aware? “As previously described, the bylaws were changed, and the consternation of…

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What Results from Heavy-handed Discipline?

A View from the Pews

Personality differences are always a struggle in the work place. Job security suffers when one occurs between a boss and a subordinate, and the subordinate seldom wins. So, why the issue here that it had to be handled by a public and lengthy humiliation of the Worship Minister? Was his talent a threat to the…

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A View from the Pews

It is a valid question. Do education and letters behind the pastor’s name mean he is a good shepherd for the flock? I was part of a pastoral search team. It took us a year and a half to find the pastor we felt God was leading to head our church. We studied dozens of…

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A View from the Pews

Luke writes in the book of Acts to remind us of how God instructed the church to be ordered. I don’t read it to mean structure it like a corporate business in which the responsibility of the elders changes from focusing on ministry to the congregation to protection of the lead minister. I don’t understand…

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