Newsletter

Debunked

by Esther on 13 February 2021

    Happy February!! I am doing a longer Newsletter again as the primary focus of this letter is to not really do an update, but rather debunk chaos that has ensued upon us. I hope you guys are doing well. My month was both a fiasco and a fiasco. I am aware I used fiasco twice.

    For the quick update. My grandmother fell. I think I sent the last letter earlier than the second week, so I didn’t even touch on January much. The only major thing that happened was my grandmother fell. She is fine now. Not to alarm you, but she broke her femur and had to get surgery. How she fell, we don’t know all the details and I was the only one that heard it, but I can freely say it was her own pride and ignorance that got in the way of her fall. She wasn’t holding the railing of the stairs cause her hands were full of who knows what. I will be honest, it was kinda expected. The timing was somewhat bad though as we were about to move her back to her place. Now she is in a senior living facility for rehab and she may be moving in permanently. That is really all that happened this month.

    Now for the chaos that I will be debunking. So at our Chinese Church (we aren’t active members, but we do Chinese fellowship with the same group of friends from that church) had a fiasco that came up. I think the first I heard of it was two weeks ago. Well yesterday, my mom finally explained the situation. And trust me there is a lot of faults. I wanted to share this for multiple reasons because there are a lot of churches and churchgoers should learn from this. In short, an elder wanted to renew his eldership at the church; however, the pastor disagreed and told the elder he should resign due to seven letters from six families complaining that the elder was not favoured. This caused the church to divide and the result of the pastor now leaving the Chinese church has caused a lot of division amongst the churchgoers there.

    So first, I didn’t explain the whole case as I don’t want to emphasise how and when each step played out, but rather the statements that caught my attention. The ordering in my opinion is not that important. All my sources for the statements are from what my mom told me. I am on neither side and think that having an outside mind (that would be in this case) is beneficial for pointing out some things wrong with this case. I am also not trying to point fingers at either party for their wrongdoing, rather using this case to explain a bigger picture.

    I think I should speak about the Pastor first as he is the head of the church ladder. I am not familiar with this pastor and his teachings all too well. I have heard a little about him and there are both negative and positive things about him. When he was talking to the elder in their meeting (I assume a one on one private) he said some things that were a bit questionable. He first told the guy to resign because of seven letters of complaint. Then he told the elder to secretly resign. Then when the elder asked what to say when questioned about his resignation, the pastor told him to make an excuse (aka lie).

    The letters. What letters? He said there were seven. Only one was shown to the “public”. That is a problem. The pastor gave no evidence besides this one letter and no source and explanation of the seven letters. I can come up with many ways a letter can erupt. Which also poses, were they letters or emails or both? Who still uses snail mail to complain about something? I understand the six families didn’t want to be exposed and there are many ways to show the six letters without exposing the identity of these six families. You can photoshop the letters. How can I trust the pastor didn’t make up the letter. I mean he wanted this elder to lie about his resignation. 

1. Telling the Elder to Lie. Anyone should have a problem with that. I doubt I need to elaborate, but I will cause why not. I understand if the pastor was telling the elder to lie in say a life-threatening situation; however, this is not the situation. And let’s be honest, even if it is life-threatening, we should still be honest and tell the truth.

2. Lying/Denying and a bit of hate. This kinda goes with the first one, but apparently, in a zoom meeting, the pastor had said something along the lines of, “If he (the elder doesn’t leave, then I will.” When this was brought up, the pastor denied the statement. Two problems with this, (1) why are you saying you will leave if the elder doesn’t and (2) why are you denying it after many people said they heard it. To me, denying he said it sounds like he is once again lying. If the pastor said that, I think he should have fessed up. Once again, being honest is harder than telling the truth, but from the sound of it, he denied it without further thought. And multiple times, as I recall. And the statement makes me wonder if there was already heat between the pastor and elder. Why would the pastor leave if the elder decided to stay? That doesn’t make sense. Now I can also think of the fact that the pastor doesn’t want to lose face and look bad, but he is a pastor… that should be the least of your worries. I also add my theory of pastor hating the elder due to the elder's role in the committee, but I will discuss that next.

The next person would be the Elder. The elder had the role of messenger. Once the committee made a decision on a matter, he was the one to tell the situation to the person or group that needed to know the results of the matter. Now the pastor agreed to resign during the meeting he had with the pastor, but then after discussing with his wife, chose to go back on his word. This caused chaos to really ensue. During a corporate elders meeting, he was voted/resigned out and two other elders left with him. I would say they became nomads during the weeks that this case was happening cause I don’t think they found another church.

1. Letter one. Earlier I mentioned the seven mysterious letters. Well, one was partially revealed and the public could read it. The letter and the other six are assumed to be of the same subject matter was about the removal of the most current (past now) youth pastor. Sixth families with kids had accused the elder of getting rid of the youth pastor. My problem with that letter is, the elder did not remove the youth pastor. The elder committee removed him. The elder could have voted against it, but he is the messenger so it will appear that he removed the youth pastor. This really falls into the pastor category, but it regards the elder. 

2. Going back on your word. The only noticeable fault directly from the elder side is the fact that he told the pastor he would do one thing and changed his mind once he already agreed to his words. I bet this elder is smart, but this action was not the brightest. You shouldn’t have made the decision until you discussed it with your wife for one, and you shouldn’t have let the pastor just boss you around cause he isn’t your boss, God and Jesus are. Also failing to uphold what you said, and then just changing your mind should have been more thought through. The elder should have called the pastor and said something like, “hey my wife thinks I should still continue to be an active elder..” That’s really all I can say. Once again, I don’t know the specific details of how it all played out, so the accuracy is not on par. 

The last group to address is the two elders that sided with the elder and the congregation. I bet there will be people who leave because of this. I know in our Chinese fellowship who is on the pastor's side and is making the excuse of “I need to pray about this” to not come because most of our member are on the elder's side. I am gonna be upfront and say, that is stupid and purely an excuse. If you are leaving the church because of either the pastor or elder, you have been going to church for the wrong reason most likely. Letting two humans be the sole purpose of your sudden decision to switch churches is a bit extra. And praying is not wrong, but the reason why you are praying is. If you are praying to God about whether you should leave with the elder or pastor, God probably won’t care to answer you, mainly cause you know the answer already, and you are probably now in a mode of self-deception. It doesn’t take two weeks to pray over this. Leave or stay and keep humans out of the reasoning. Humans are fallen, including the pastor, elder, and the congregation (you, me, and anyone else who is a Homosapien). That’s why we go to church to worship GOD not man.  

So what is the takeaway from this? Well get your motive for going to church figured out. Is it to worship God or man? If it is for God, then you shouldn’t be affected by a non-life-threatening church case. Now if the pastor is corrupt and you just now realise it, welp… you probably are using the case as an excuse to cover up your own fear of leaving the church. The Chinese church is a bit messed up in philosophy and makes you feel like if you aren’t part of the church then you are not a real Christian. That probably indicates that there are further problems with the church and I won’t be surprised that there is. If you are going to worship man, whether it be pastor, elder, or friend, etc, you probably have been wasting your time waking up on Sunday (or whatever day your service is) to get to a building called church. I think it is as easy as that. Matthew says we can only serve one master, God or Money, and in this case, money is man. Chinese church has a lot to figure out, and Lord help them cause they are gonna need it. Pray for the Chinese church and other churches that they be full of true believers. 

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6: 24 nKJV

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This episode’s rundown

Suggested…

Book	Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid. The book I recently finished. It was pretty interesting as it follows a girl named Annie and her day to day living in Antigua. It tackles the idea of growing up and transitioning from child to adult.
Video	Saved or Self Deceived is a sermon by Pastor John MacArthur. This is part one of his sermon. Are you actually going to heaven? Are you a Christian?
Music	Memories by OVCC one of my current favourites. Thought I would switch it up. I am still listening to a ton of Robin Mark.

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