Posted by Steven Bowers on Aug 4, 2019 in Philosophy | 0 comments

Being a pastor must be tough, particularly when they are criticized. On the one hand they are criticized a lot, often times wrongly and often times not to their face. However, nobody is perfect and every man makes mistakes. Being a professional preacher or even an honest to goodness, “called by God,” pastor doesn’t make a man immune to getting it wrong sometimes. I think it’s when anyone gets wise in their own eyes that the real trouble comes in. Power, and make no mistake, congregation leadership is a sort of power, does tend to corrupt. Maybe not like we see with Jim Jones types, but in little ways like playing favorites, promoting “Yes men and women,” or just never accepting their own missteps or believing they are beyond mistakes. They can always say, “You don’t know what it’s like to be a pastor,” and that’s very true. I can always quote the late, great Tom Petty, “You know how it feels to be me,” and that’s very true! It’s a tough, tricky to get right job and I wouldn’t want...

Posted by Greybro on Mar 13, 2017 in Philosophy | 0 comments

Firstly, I should point out that I am speaking from general experience which I’ve garnered sitting in a church pew on Sunday mornings since I was a boy. This is not about any one church, pastor, or group of people associated with any particular church. I’ve had to reconcile myself to the fact that not everyone one who truly believes, “God has called me to preach,” has actually been called of God to preach and or pastor a church. This is an ugly thought because that implies that any person who tries to tackle the job has other motivations. I certainly don’t think that is always the case, but being a preacher and or pastor doesn’t make one immune to being a human in full possession of an ego. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found it easier to question this so called, “true calling,” when things feel off with the man behind the pulpit or on the tv screen preaching God’s word. First, let’s address the elephant in the room. They call it, “Televangelism” and it usually involves a very rich man asking for you to send him money so he can ostensibly, “spread God’s word.” Now, I’m no Bible scholar, but I do believe that Jesus himself said, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” In the same vein of Jesus’s use of the  “camel through the eye of a needle” aphorism, other religions also have similar directives.  According to the English interpretation of the Quran: To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin. So, in summary, it’s impossible for a rich man to get to heaven, except through God. It follows therefore that the richer the man, the warier I should be I agree with what John MacArthur wrote about televangelists in 1994. “Someone needs to say this plainly: The faith healers and health-and-wealth preachers who dominate religious television are shameless frauds. Their message is not the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing spiritual or miraculous about their on-stage chicanery. It is all a devious ruse designed to take advantage of desperate people. They are not Godly ministers but greedy impostors who corrupt the Word of God for money’s sake. They are not real pastors who shepherd the flock of God but hirelings whose only design is to fleece the sheep. Their love of money is glaringly obvious in what they say as well as how they...