I was talking with a fellow pastor, a friend last week. We were speaking with one another concerning the trend we both have noticed. There seems to be in almost every church an unsettleness in people. They can’t seem to be happy or satisfied in the church they attend. This got me to research the word of God were I found were Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3,4 “For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths.” (NET)
Upon reading this text I began to think about how so many people are not planted in any church but they go from one place to another. When we read the word of God and see these things it seems strange when we they start to happen. Yet it has been written about over 2000 years ago. When we planted the church in Laveen two years ago I never imagined what we would encounter. God has blessed us to have some great relationships with those we pastor. Yet along the way there have been those who came into our lives briefly and moved on elsewhere. I cannot help but to wonder why there is this unsettleness in people. I for one grew up in a church from the time I was a child until I was a young adult about 21 years of age. In that time there was very little movement of people from one church to another. Loyalty is a rare quality today. We have examples of not staying in jobs, sports, churches, etc…. It’s not like it once was where you went to one store, stayed banking at one bank, and your children attended one school.
Our society is so transient today in everything. So it’s no wonder it’s that way in the church. As I write this I myself have gone through a lot of transition in my own life in the last few years. This is the fabric of the world we live in today. Everything must change nothing stays the same. This is the one reason we must learn the term ”flexibility.” We must be flexible in everything we do or we will break. I had a tie pin that I was wearing that was crooked. I tried to straighten it out but when I pulled it to one side it broke. There was no flexibility in that pin. We are much the same, when we are off course and a pastor or leader will try to help us by nudging us back on course we break. Which leads us back to 2 Timothy 4 where Paul talks about people will not be able to tolerate sound teaching. The inability to be flexible causes so many to leave churches today. We disagree with one or two things and we’re out of there! We can learn to be flexible so that when things happen we can bend but not break.
Samuel King, Senior Pastor
Christlike Life Church, Laveen, AZ
