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Since I left full time pastoral work, we have been attending a Church of God that is very close to my home. Very convenient. When we began, we attended Sunday School and they were going through Joyce Myer's book Battlefield of the Mind. Most of her stuff is palpable and I tolerated it. I like the pastor and his wife. I have known them for a few years. He has never preached anything in the pulpit that I would consider WoF. Recently the Sunday School began a study of a book by Kenneth Hagin on prayer. I don't want to go there anymore. I have not really felt a true connection to the church since we began going, but as I said it is very convenient. So, how would you handle it? Would you leave without saying anything? Would you just tell him, we are leaving but not because of anything you have done and make some kind of vague remark? Would you tell him you don't abide word of faith doctrine and can't walk together with the congregation?At times as a pastor, I was very disheartened when people would leave, especially if they didn't tell me why. What would you say? Apparently they(pastor and his wife) believe this way even though he has never preached any of it.

In my experience, it really depends on how far they go with WoF and how dogmatic they are about it. I once had a great pastor whom I still consider a dear friend who definitely leaned WoF. However, when we really discussed one-on-one WoF doctrine, it became clear that he definitely wasn’t hard core WoF at all. I was especially relieved when he said he didn’t believe the ‘Jesus Died Spiritually and had to be born again/Redeemed in Hell’ doctrine.

Hey Bro, I have a question for you: is it really the WoF thing or is it something else?If you were a senior pastor before & you had folks take off for unknown reasons then you already know what I'm going to say ...tell the pastor the truth.Week before Thanksgiving my children's pastor walked in on a Sunday morning, dropped off his church files, laptop & some resources & told me this was his last day & he was gone. Out of the blue, no warning, no explanation, assured me it wasn't due to anything I had done ...yeah right!!! He had even been a senior pastor of a church for a few years & did well. After they resigned & due to having young kids they decided they wanted to do kids ministry ...it was a huge blessing until he pulled this on us. Through the grape vine I heard it was due to me not letting him preach as often as he would have liked to preach here at the church. I'm just asking, is it really the WoF thing or could it be something else?One of my good pastor friends here locally is a WoF pastor & his church is 4X bigger than mine. He's a great guy & we have worshipped together on occasion. Nothing weird has ever happened. There are no

Reasons why I would have to take my family out of a WoF-leaning church, probably after talking these things over with the pastor:1. If they taught the Jesus died spiritually and had to be born again in Hell doctrine—this one is pure intolerable blasphemy.2. If they taught that the believer’s words have creative power similar to God’s words, that one may ‘speak things into existence,’ as they say. Otherwise stated as “You can have what you say.”3. If they taught that a believer, in this life, should rightfully expect to ‘live in divine health,’ (meaning, they would never get sick if they just had the right kind of faith).4. If they taught that it was God’s will for all true believers to have overflowing wealth and riches in this life.

I would agree with most of this but I would tend to believe that our words when spoken by faith in prayer do have the ability to effect change. We have not because we ask not.I would however concede that we don't simply speak things into existence just because it makes things easier on us.I got to spend about 10 days with Fred Price one time & I can assure you he doesn't lift himself up & he uses a lot of common sense teachings from the Word. I know he's big time WoF but God had to do a miracle big time for there to be a Crenshaw Christian Center & for it to be debt free, especially where it is located Empty nest syndrome is for the birds!Email me at: [email protected] planters are focused on just one thing ...introducing people to Jesus!

Re: Word of Faith being taught in Sunday School- What should I do?

Hey Bro, I have a question for you: is it really the WoF thing or is it something else?If you were a senior pastor before & you had folks take off for unknown reasons then you already know what I'm going to say ...tell the pastor the truth.Week before Thanksgiving my children's pastor walked in on a Sunday morning, dropped off his church files, laptop & some resources & told me this was his last day & he was gone. Out of the blue, no warning, no explanation, assured me it wasn't due to anything I had done ...yeah right!!! He had even been a senior pastor of a church for a few years & did well. After they resigned & due to having young kids they decided they wanted to do kids ministry ...it was a huge blessing until he pulled this on us. Through the grape vine I heard it was due to me not letting him preach as often as he would have liked to preach here at the church. I'm just asking, is it really the WoF thing or could it be something else?One of my good pastor friends here locally is a WoF pastor & his church is 4X bigger than mine. He's a great guy & we have worshipped together on occasion. Nothing weird has ever happened. There are no

1. He knows it is going on. He has sat in on a couple of classes. This class is in the sanctuary.2. He hasn't preached heresy from the pulpit. No.3. The one who is teaching is a long term member of this church. Probably more than 30 years. She is well respected in the church.4. She has referenced other books as she teaches (as if she has taught from these books in the past). So it is an ongoing thing.

Good words Dean. You probably know there is always more than meets the eye. As I said we chose this church more out of convenience than anything. I am not looking for a pulpit. No. Never felt like I needed one.

Does your Sunday School have any discussion - or is it really a lecture series - with no class input. If it has a discussion - state your case why it's off base and let the discussion begin. With a Hagin book as your guide - it should be very easy to point out the things that are left out.Now - I usually teach Sunday School - and I am not in the audience very often. But I regularly let those in the audience have input...and I won't attend a Sunday School that doesn't let everyone participate. And they sometimes disagree with me. They know I let them say their opinion - I give mine - and I let everyone else believe whatever they want.I do facilitate the discussion so we don't get bogged down - because I am going to get all my points in that I have planned outside of a clear change of direction from the Holy Spirit. I have Word of Faith members in the class... who stay in the class because I let them state their opinion (which I usually refute - but never in an embarrassing way.)No need to leave the church over it - until they tell you to sit down and shut up.Then you move on