Fact Checking your Pastor/Priest

[Lamb]

How often do you fact check your Pastor or Priest during bible study or his sermon/homily?

 

[Faith]

How often do you fact check your Pastor or Priest during bible study or his sermon/homily?

Very, very rarely. Only if they say something that doesn’t sound right to me. Once our deacon said something during his homily that was clearly wrong….i forget now what he said, but I chalked it up to him just misspeaking. Seemed like an honest mistake. And he’s getting up there in years.

 

[Lamb]

Very, very rarely. Only if they say something that doesn’t sound right to me. Once our deacon said something during his homily that was clearly wrong….i forget now what he said, but I chalked it up to him just misspeaking. Seemed like an honest mistake. And he’s getting up there in years.

You did the right thing by giving him the benefit of the doubt

There have been times when I hear something and because of the wording, I'll take it one way and then wonder why my pastor said it that way. We all have our own way of communicating, and sometimes that's based on our culture or where we grew up at.

 

[WandererAtHeart]

Only if I have questions about something that I haven't heard before or that seems a little off. Yesterday one of the associate pastors of our church (we're not members but it's where we go) was saying that he could sense angels waiting to be released on our group lol I did some quick fact checking because I didn't think there's anything in the Bible that gives us authority to release angels. This dude went on to pray and to command the angels to release NOW in the name of Jesus...sigh. And the pastor was all for it. I'm glad we won't be there terribly much longer.

 

[Lamb]

Only if I have questions about something that I haven't heard before or that seems a little off. Yesterday one of the associate pastors of our church (we're not members but it's where we go) was saying that he could sense angels waiting to be released on our group lol I did some quick fact checking because I didn't think there's anything in the Bible that gives us authority to release angels. This dude went on to pray and to command the angels to release NOW in the name of Jesus...sigh. And the pastor was all for it. I'm glad we won't be there terribly much longer.

Yeah, I don't remember us having authority over the angels since they obey God and are at His command.

 

[Frankj]

Yeah, I don't remember us having authority over the angels since they obey God and are at His command.

Angel worship is the up and coming thing now, in New Age thinking, in the New Age Churches and in the growing Church of Accommodation, the one that only teaches things that won't offend those living sinful lifestyles and that seems to be the the fastest growing segment of Christianity across the board lately.

 

[NewCreation435]

If I feel like a pastor is making a lot of mistakes I don't think I could stay in a church like that. I have visited churches where it didn't seem like the pastor prepared well and I just didn't go back.

 

[Faith]

Only if I have questions about something that I haven't heard before or that seems a little off. Yesterday one of the associate pastors of our church (we're not members but it's where we go) was saying that he could sense angels waiting to be released on our group lol I did some quick fact checking because I didn't think there's anything in the Bible that gives us authority to release angels. This dude went on to pray and to command the angels to release NOW in the name of Jesus...sigh. And the pastor was all for it. I'm glad we won't be there terribly much longer.

Is your church a New Age-y church?

 

[WandererAtHeart]

Is your church a New Age-y church?

They're non-denom and kind of Pentecostal/Charismatic but not over the top at all, not chaotic or wild and crazy. But they do seem to believe in these kind of new agey kind of things, it comes out once in a while.

 

[Faith]

They're non-denom and kind of Pentecostal/Charismatic but not over the top at all, not chaotic or wild and crazy. But they do seem to believe in these kind of new agey kind of things, it comes out once in a while.

I went through a period when I was reading New Age books and dabbled into meditating with crystals….that sort of thing, but that phase of my life didn’t last long.

 

[WandererAtHeart]

I went through a period when I was reading New Age books and dabbled into meditating with crystals….that sort of thing, but that phase of my life didn’t last long.

This is a little off subject, but do you see any similarities between new age stuff and what's in some of the modern evangelical churches of today?

 

[Faith]

This is a little off subject, but do you see any similarities between new age stuff and what's in some of the modern evangelical churches of today?

Not among the churches I visited. Before I returned back to the Catholic Church (was a cradle Catholic, left, returned, left, returned) I went to a United Methodist church once, three non denomination churches, the UCC, and a Lutheran church for awhile. None were New Age-y that I noticed.

 

[VeritatisVerba]

How often do you fact check your Pastor or Priest during bible study or his sermon/homily?

Every single sentence he speaks!

I know I have to be weird when it comes to this but I am filtering every syllable of every sermon I ever hear preached. I detect every premise, follow every argument. I watch for any contradiction whether it be related to a previous point in the sermon or scripture or of some other point of sound doctrine.

Whether or not I bring such issues to a preacher's attention depends on a lot of factors but I never simply sit and absorb whatever someone behind a pulpit is saying. I give no one carte blanche influence over my mind.

There was one pastor who I definitely had come to trust almost implicitly. I so rarely found anything he said problematic that the rare instances when it did happen, I would immediately go to him and ask about it because it was so strange that it was impossible to let it go. It was never anything major but I still had to understand it. I think the only doctrinal thing he and I ever disagreed about had to do with the age of accountability and even that wasn't a strong disagreement. He passed away a few years ago of Covid

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Didn't have to do that as my pastor is my father in law.

 

[Lamb]

Didn't have to do that as my pastor is my father in law.

Everyone can err, even family members.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

Everyone can err, even family members.

True but I actually talked to him before I met my husband. My father in law told me about him when my husband was in Iraq. Me and my father in law were admins on a Christian website.