In How to transmit “morality” we will explore some “secrets” of how to “transmit morality”, i.e. make real Christians.
Introduction for How to transmit “morality”
My idea in this topic is how do we truly make real Christians? In other words, we can easily offer incentives (like give-aways, esteem type rewards like offices and other “perks” to people to get them to attend and supposedly “be loyal”, but that is not making real Christians. The problem with these things is that their loyalty is “skin deep”, and as soon as somebody offers them something better, they jump. How to transmit “morality”
I have presented the position that it is just, fair, and biblical for a church to pay their minister/pastor a fair and just wage. Others have taken the position that the ministers of a church (pastor, deacons, elders, teachers, etc.) should never accept money for their labors as a minister. I do not think in most cases, we can extend this sharing in the financial burden of these men of God down to Sunday School teachers, but at least the pastor of a church should be full-time in his service for the Lord, and the church people should pay this.
Summary: This post Minister’s Riches Rejection explains how a minister must reject riches as a foundation of his spiritual mindset towards the ministry, the people of God, the church, and what his part is within all of that.
When it comes to a pure discernment ability, most believers have a very hard time understanding what is a false prophet from what is a man of God. They both “sound the same”. Often the false prophet actually sounds more convincing that the real man of God. The issue here is simply this, if you are a consumer of doctrine or a teacher of some doctrine. If you are a teacher of a doctrine, you are studied enough to know what is good or not. But if you are not at that level, then you are a consumer, and you are following other people’s teaching because you “are not there yet” yourself.
Whereas a good church is a pretty focused thing, a bad or unbiblical church can take many different forms. Because of this we need to divide our study into areas. First of all, we need to separate what would be a “church” from a sects, cult, or false religion. Although really there is not much difference between them, I would consider a “church” that would identify itself with solid biblical doctrine something different from a cult. Some “Fundamental” or “Baptist” churches would officially hold to correct or biblical doctrine, but actually practice or secretly believe in unbiblical things. There may also be some groups that would do things as a biblical church would do them, but they hold tightly to some doctrine that is not biblical. Usually these groups always have some defective concept concerning salvation. So these characteristics are a composite of a whole bunch of bad and erroneous churches, sects, abusive churches, groups, etc.
The list of marks of a bad church (Marks of an Unbiblical Church) on this page therefore should be understand as a bad church can have this or that characteristic or mark, but it is defined as bad by any one, and not necessarily by all. Also let me add that some good churches are good on most things, and they may fall into one or more of these marks of a bad church. I do not pretend to know all churches, all situations, and how a person should act or the decision a person should take in such cases. I think soul searching your own heart in order to find what God wants you to do is most important in any situation, and it is essential in these cases. See my thoughts on Getting out of a Bad Church.
What to do after you make contact with a candidate
The best way to deal with a pastoral candidate is with being direct and having an abundance of information both from him, and given back to him. That means you need to supply the candidate with a lot of information about your church. Here a church history, recent events, and lots of photos help the pastor to know who you are. If you feel you do not want to “print up” so much information, open a page on some website with photos like flicker (free), and upload church photos of the people, the buildings, outings, etc.
