What do you think of this?

[Book 'em Dano]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

There is some REAL hurt that takes place when one pastor deliberately robs another pastor not only of his church members, but often the relationship that existed between that pastor and the saint.

There are cases when the pastor who is doing the "stealing" deliberately sabotages the existing pastor with innuendos and "backbiting" in his attempts to persuade the saints to go elsewhere, and OFTEN it works like a charm.

Are you actually a pastor, or were you just speaking hypothetically earlier?

I agree, the Kingdom of God should come first, and taking saints from other churches, whether by good marketing or underhanded tactics isn't about the Kingdom of God. It's about a man (or woman) increasing their own personal kingdom or fiefdom.

Exactly. You know it is pretty sad to see on this thread the attacks lobbed at any Pastor whose local church is the target of the active campaign of another church and pastor to approach those saints and convince them they shouldn't be in that church. That is division. The bible says avoid those that cause division.

Yet the voices railing against the UPC pastor and loss of tithes aren't doing so against the church and the pastor who conceivably will reap MORE tithes by absorbing saints from another church.

Why not focus on the lost? Why focus on some other Oneness church if we are all in the same body?

How healthy can a church be if they actively persue such an agenda? If you were a Pastor and there was a church across town with members calling your members and convincing them to leave your church and join theirs would you be ok with that? What if one member of your congregation rises up and gets half your church to go with him across town to start their own church, not on the pretense of spreading the gospel but because his church will be a better church. You, as a pastor, can't see the danger in that? You would not seek to prevent such sectarianism? The bible says to avoid those that do that.

I have to wonder if you that are trying ot turn this on the UPC pastor have ever been in a situation like this and if you did, did you continue to fellowship with that other church, bringing your people into contact with them?

At some point a Pastor has to realize that another church might not be a healthy place to be and needs to protect the saints from becoming the merchandise of that church. That is the problem. Some of you have turned it around. It's the OTHER church that is looking at these saints in that way.

The UPC in question and the pastor has lost members who decided of themselves to leave and that was not a problem. The same church has absorbed members of other churches too. There was always still a working relationship to contact each other and let them know what was going on. But that is far different than a church that sees the saints of your church as thier mission field when there are thousands of unsaved out there. That is not what a church is supposed to be. How can that be healthy?