Canadian MP’s not web-savvy – The Hill Times
Billy Graham’s grandson survives congregational vote at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.
(69% voted to keep him on)
The next step is a formal disciplinary hearing for six congregants who oppose Tullian Tchividjian.
Update: The music director, organist and some choir members resigned yesterday. Tchividjian has an interview in Christianity Today. The church website appears to be under construction, with no music or personnel pages.
MBA and NFL athletes burn through salaries – How and why athletes go broke.
My question is, what inspirational movie did Rocket Ismail invest in?
78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.
Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke
In a true house of God individuals should have the right to oppose the ruling hierarchy without formal disciplinary hearings. Love is the gold rule and leaders are to rule by example not force. The bible says: Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 12:10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 12:11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
1 Peter 5:2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; 5:3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
Anyway the local church is not to be run like some worldly corporate structure. And in the bible there were many instances when the majority were wrong and the lone prophet such as Jeremiah was right
No wonder most people don’t go to church if it’s run by benevolent dictators who rob, rape and use the sheep!
This is an older congregation Walter.
A lot of seniors used to having things a certain way.
They don’t like the fact this guy tossed the TV show, added a set of drums to the singing, ditched the robe and said no to preaching politics from the pulpit.
The only minister the congregation has had was Kennedy.
It’s possible Tchividjian could quit, depends on whether 69% is a positive or 31% is a negative.
I think a disciplinary hearing is cool – the vote on whether or not to turf him was monitored, now the 6 who tried to oust him get an opportunity to make their case.
Kennedy is dead, while a congregation collectively grieves and while anger is part of grief, at some stage you got to lay some things down. If members can’t, there are other churches.
I can appreciate dissents sense of loss may be too much.
At least a disciplinary hearing gives participants an opportuntity to look at whats and whys. Some of the accusations against him are patently false and this will be the avenue to address them.
It’s an opportunity for truths to be weighed and mutal decisions made.
Seems fair to me.
31% is a negative in my eyes, although anyone following in Kennedy’s footsteps would be in trouble.
We just had our pastor forced out, and a large part of the issue was that people were still longing for the former pastor. Add to the mix that the former pastor here was one of the bulkiest heavyweights in the theocon ranks and Tchividjian was in a no-win situation.
You don’t want to win a no-confidence vote in a church 70-30; that means that a third of the church doesn’t want you there. Looking down the barrel of a 60-40 or so confidence vote had my old pastor throwing in the towel and seeing that he wasn’t welcome.
However, Coral Ridge may have to go backward to go forward; if he has a strong nucleus of 70% of the church, he can grow from their and appeal to folks looking for a solid Reformed theology but one that is looking forward to the 21st century rather than looking back to the mid-20th.
Read your former ministers blog Mark, and liked that baseball story.
Glad he got a job quickly.
Walter – here.
http://www.notconformedthoughts.com/displayone.cfm?docid=3931
The political battle is over, now the battle for the soul of the congregation begins. That means members and leadership listening, praying, teaching, and perhaps bringing in outsiders to help people deal with grief and change.
This remains a split congregation generationally, and I understand that several ministers approached to pastor the place would not. The odds of a mega church where the founder vacates by death surviving a split are not good. The odds of merging two different generational churches is not good. It takes more than a vote and presbytery structure to heal hearts.
I’m not sure if this is wishful thinking on Tchividjian’s part, but he mentioned on his blog that a lot of that 31% were members who hadn’t shown up since he’d started brought in for the vote. If that’s true, and the turnout of the pro side was low, it may have been more like 85-15 among active parishioners.