Resignation
Recently I gave my resignation as an elder of a congregation that I am apart of. My wife and I also withdrew our membership.
It wasn’t a total surprise that this decision had to be made. It also wasn’t a surprise that all of the other elders did not even give so much as an email to why I gave my resignation. It has been a week. For they knew why.
I had not hidden what I believed about the way things were heading in our congregation and in the denomination as a whole.
There are many ways in which satan was infiltrating the church but the one that I could not let go is the ecumenical Roman Catholic fruit that was consistently rearing its unmistakable head. Not saying I let the other evil things go.
I was given the opportunity at one of our monthly elder meetings to explain biblically why we could not do ministry with Roman Catholics. From that meeting I was called divisive. I was also asked if I could keep my mouth shut in future meetings (Gag Order). The funny thing is that in the meeting I did not speak out of turn but was specifically requested in that meeting to give the presentation about the biblical faith verses Roman Catholic perspective.
Another outcome from the meeting when I gave my presentation was that one of the other elders resigned because he was in support of doing ministry with Roman Catholics. My response to him was that if we did ministry with Roman Catholics we would be evil workers. He then asked me if I was calling him an evil worker. I responded by saying that if you do ministry with Roman Catholics you would be.
A couple things to note, are that this said elder also had many other issues one of them is having a homosexual son, in which has without a doubt caused variance in his thinking and faith. Secondly, after his first wife died he married a second wife who is a supposed ex Roman Catholic from a Roman Catholic family. It is my belief that she is still very much Roman Catholic.
Other things that brought on my resignation:
-many of the congregations parents sending their children to Roman Catholic schools
-Marrying Roman Catholic wives (the one above not being the only one)
-This year for the first time - celebrating Halloween in a so called christian way
-emerging ideas such as contemplative prayer,
-the church’s present flavor of the week - The Story by Max Lucado
-Billy Graham Association ministries
-Ellel ministries
-having anglicans come and read scripture in the services and in turn reading it in theirs
-seeker sensitive programs
-etc.
It is my hope that the true believers that are still left in the congregation will be bold enough to continue to stand for Jesus and his word. But I have a feeling this church is too far down the slippery slope.
I did not stay silent in this church. We had been apart of this congregation for over 10 years.
I hesitantly became an elder 3 years ago knowing that there would be a reckoning and there definitely was.
During this time I was able to address our denominations university and their propensity to involve themselves with Roman Catholics. Many of their staff have Jesuit educations and Roman Catholic school degrees.
I was able to speak directly to our denominations president about many of the issues I have stated previously. He was very uncomfortable for the 40 minutes that I spoke with him. He is in support of Roman Catholics and our denomination coming together and to lend it credibility he dropped Billy Grahams name. I told him he did not want to go there.
So am I right to have left? I definitely believe it was the right decision not only for my self but also for my wife and kids. I believe we are being obedient to God's word. It is still my hope and prayer that the wolves that have crept into this church will be exposed and that people will be able to see through the Blizzard of Bugs.
