Observations on WO

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So, the WO controversy continues accompanied by angst over the future of the church. The controversy also seems to have devolved into name calling sessions with one well known historian of the church comparing a leader of the church to Hitler. Especially telling regarding the mood of the people is one WO supportive website's reader comments in their frequent attacks on church leadership.

I believe it would be accurate to say our church is grossly not the same church it was in the days of the pioneers and early church leaders. I tend to think that many men have abdicated their roles as leaders of church and even society and we are seeing the results. We see the results of women trying to run everything. Church is especially at risk from a lack of men participating.

As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. Isaiah 3:12 KJV Isaiah talks about women ruling over the people. Question is, are the women ruling because the leaders failed or are they erring and destroying the ways of their paths because the women are leading?

I hear a lot that this man or that woman was led by the Spirit into ministry. But because someone claims they have been led does that mean everyone else must fall into line? I believe that not every answer to prayer is necessarily from God.

Consider this story from 1 Kings 13 of the prophet who met Jereboam at the alter and Jereboam had his hand withered and restored: 7 And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. 8 And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: 9 For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. 10 So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. 11 Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. 12 And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. 13 And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon, 14 And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. 15 Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. 16 And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: 17 For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. 18 He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. 19 So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. 20 And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back: 21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, 22 But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.

Say it is not so! A prophet lied to another prophet? (A prophet in the Old Testament could be compared to a minister today.) A claim of being led by the Spirit does not always mean the Spirit is actually leading. How many will be led into perdition over this fight in the church today?

One of the issues which strikes me is that so many are saying  that if women are not ordained as pastors, they will not be able to be involved in gospel work. I suspect that is said by those who are not really aware how witnessing works and are also not aware of the wide variety of ways to engage in gospel work today.

I recently found this statement on a men's Christian website, "When a teenager is the first to connect to a church, 3.5% of the families follow. When a wife/mom is the first to connect to a church, 22% of the families follow. But when a man (husband/father) is the first to connect to a church, 93% of the families follow. (This was attributed to Gallup)

My personal experience with this is in my small town, I have run into a number of drug addicted women who are in various stages of court administered rehab programs. One woman with a small child and a husband wished her husband would be more interested in church. He has shown no interest and does not go and neither does she. 

Part of the problem is that churches are not really men friendly places and on average, 60% of a congregation is women and only 40% is men. What the previous statistics show is that if you attract more men to church, they will bring their families with them. Not as likely to happen the other way around. The end result, IMHO, of filling the pulpits with women pastors will be lost souls.

Churches seem to be intent on becoming gynocentric focused, which will result in fewer and fewer men attending. I would suspect many men are not going to want to hang around a female pastored church either. We have weak churches and often we have to endure "Jesus is my boyfriend music." I have heard so much of this type of music that if you just change the name of Jesus to something else, it would play just as well on the Tonite show. This is not going to attract men either.

I recently attended a constituency meeting for my conference. Interesting to hear the Ministerial Director talk about how they were going to move women into every area they could that was allowed by the GC vote (apparently not in disobedience yet!). Then they had the women's ministry director speak about all the programs that were being presented for girls. I heard next to nothing about what they were doing for the boys in the church. The linked website noted this, "As many as 90% of the boys who are being raised in church will abandon it by their 20th birthday. Many of these boys will never return." I have heard slightly less regarding SDA young men. So, what does this mean. These boys will leave the church, most will have families, and few will be back to church. 

http://www.wacmm.org/Stats.html
(There are a lot of sobering statistics on this page)

 

[Kevin H]

This is nothing compared to 1888 and 1922.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cbYaJIRjMk