Rev. Bob Counts
Pastor Bible Baptist Church
12626 First Ave
Victorville, California 92395
Dear Rev. Bob,
Thank you for your letter of welcome to your church’s service on November second. After holding membership and attending regularly at the Apple Valley Church of the Nazarene, I was led to make a change. In that effort I am visiting many churches in the high desert to refine this search.
Overall the service was a blessing. I’m old enough to really enjoy a piano on the platform and a man leading the singing from a hymnal. Thank you! However I believe it was wrong of me to attend just a few days before the presidential election. It was obvious that the sermon was more a political rally under the guise of prophecy than a few needed moments of worship and seeking the reality of God’s will in our lives.
Speaking bluntly, your methods are wrong. As a country we are in the most severe recession in the last eighty years but the Church of Jesus Christ in America really has a problem. Can we change or will we be progressively relegated to irrelevancy? Shall we be a spiritual sepulcher akin to Europe? In my humble opinion confrontation does not work, waving banners on the street corner and antagonistic utterances are just as divisive. These tactics inflame and motivate the opposition, convincing them that the church is all about condemnation of their lifestyle. Let’s get real with a quiet confidence that God is in control, that the church is called to love not condemn.
As you well know, the prophet Jeremiah faced a similar circumstance. All the tradition biased prophets of Israel were exhorting the people to resist Babylon and to fight convinced that God would surely win the victory. Jeremiah took his marching orders vertically, his God recommended surrender and faith that Judah would be restored. These whimpish words were misunderstood by the people of Israel. However one commentator expressed it this way, Jeremiah was “ a man who loved his own people too much to stand bysilently and watch them destroy themselves.” ( TNIV Study Bible, p.1234)
The bottom line is that the God for whom Jeremiah was prophesying is all about mothering his people despite their constant rebellion. This love is almost impossible for we humans to understand. The prophets of tradition were regular antagonists of another prophet.
Surprise, surprise ! ( Gomer Pyle) Out of the tribe of Jesse, because Jeremiah preserved his people under the direction of his God, walked Jesus the fulfillment of at least sixteen centuries of our journey. The prophets of tradition were constantly harassing him. Therefore the prophets of tradition are not to be trusted,we must seek to hear from Him as we prophesy into the twenty first century. What will the current method-ologies look like? I am not sure but surely, if past revelation is akin to the present, it will not come from the majority. Church, listen up!
Thank you for giving me this opportunity, knowing that you surly didn’t ask for this opinion. Mom tells me you have been by the house a couple of times, you are definitely “old school” like my father and I respect you both. We may make connections in the future days, I hope so.
Seeking Him,
Glen Goslaw
(There has been no response)
