I’ll never get those 40 minutes back…
Posted on December 11th, 2006 by catalyst into the Uncategorized categoryGiven recent developments, I have to come to the belief that Wendell Smith of the City Church in Kirkland, Washington is not a very good pastor. To recap:
- Via MFI, he tried to bully a local church into keeping their abusive pastor, offering veiled threats if they failed to do so.
- When that local church stood up to Wendell, he cut off their food program, taking his anger out on the poor in that region.
- Wendell decided to start a church in Washington DC. However, unable to find an available pastor, he took the pastors of a local church in Northern Virginia.
Not a very good track-record. However, since I haven't listened to many of Wendell Smith's sermons, I thought I would listen to the one he preached this Sunday. Just to get a better feel for his pastoral abilities.
To quickly summarize the sermon, Wendell preached that God answers prayers in his own time, and sometimes he answers them in a way that you might not have expected. Hmmm… I'm pretty sure Garth Brooks preached the same thing in his song Unanswered Prayers. And I think it only took Garth 4 minutes to get his message across.
I'll give Wendell credit for actually using the Bible in his message, which is something a certain Bible Church in North Portland often forgets. But as someone who grew up in the church, I've heard this message probably fifty times.
I still remember Sunday School when I was five years old, and I made Traffic Lights out of cardboard paper. The Red Light stood for God saying "No" to your Prayer. The Yellow Light meant "God Wants you to wait for an answer to prayer" and Green meant God saying "Yes."
There was nothing really wrong with Wendell's sermon. It was alright. But it wasn't particularly challenging or insightful.
I have a lot of friends who are 20-somethings like myself, who grew up in the church. And who attend church only sporadically. They all say the same thing, "I've heard that sermon twenty times." And it's true. There is a reason they call Mega-Churches doctrine-light. It's because they aren't really saying anything meaningful. They don't treat you as an intelligent thinking human being with real questions about Faith. They treat you like a five year old cutting out traffic lights.
Wendell, ended the sermon telling us that God would answer our prayer no matter how many mistakes we have made in our lives. And being an extremely flawed human being, I took his advice and said a quick prayer.
"Dear God, please show Wendell Smith your divine love and grace, and please show him that taking his anger out on the poor in Gray's Harbor is not honoring Christ. In your name, Amen."
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December 11th, 2006 at 9:45 am
That may be the most profound thing you’ve ever written on this blog. Good work.
December 11th, 2006 at 9:52 am
And that may be the funniest thing you’ve ever written…
December 11th, 2006 at 11:51 am
However, unable to find an available pastor, he took the pastors of a local church in Northern Virginia.
It pays a little better to be closer to Caesar than it does to be closer to Christ. Mortgages don’t pay themselves, you know.
December 11th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
And Garth’s “Congregation” is in the millions…
And let’s not forget that M.F.I.’s own rules say that they do not interfere with local governance of churches. RIIIGHT!
And it’s not just the poor people at CLF that are affected by pastor wendell smith’s actions. CLF was distributing that food to several other churches around Grays Harbor.
I am also not overlooking the presumed complicity of Doug Cotton in the action taken by pastor wendell smith. Doug Cotton must have known that pastor wendell smith was going to cut off the food supply to “The Lord’s Pantry”. Did Doug Cotton go to pastor wendell smith and beg him to not deny the poor and hungry the food?
If he did not, that says volumes about Doug Cotton’s unsuitability for the position of Senior Pastor.
December 11th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Oh man.. on the MFI site there is a photo of bishop dick… it looks like a coffin shot
December 11th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Oh yeah, straight from the M.F.I. pages:
Sounds like pastor wendell smith needs to revisit that rule about “a high regard for the autonomy of every local church”, instead of attempting to pressure CLF by cutting off food to “The Lord’s Pantry”.
December 20th, 2006 at 7:38 am
[…] I had pretty much sworn off all City sermons after the last couple I listened to condemned single fathers, put a dollar amount on faith and ripped off a Garth Brooks song. […]