Church asking leadership and members to sign lifelong contracts!

[busyx2mom]

There is a church near where I live and the "pastor" has gotten in front of the church, told the leadership, and members of the church that he wants them to sign lifelong contracts that they will never leave the church. :thinking
AND that if anyone has a problem with it, then he can have one of the elders show "their little but*s to the door"!

Does anyone know of another church like this?

[Final Trumpet]

No, but something is definately wrong there.

[CelticMist]

There is a church near where I live and the "pastor" has gotten in front of the church, told the leadership, and members of the church that he wants them to sign lifelong contracts that they will never leave the church. :thinking
AND that if anyone has a problem with it, then he can have one of the elders show "their little but*s to the door"!

Does anyone know of another church like this?
Yes, its in line with the Purpose Driven Community that the author of the Purpose Driven Life is asking all denominations to do. I will get the article and post. I have to find it though... so please don't jump on me if I don't post right away.

[kjlistrom]

Yes, its in line with the Purpose Driven Community that the author of the Purpose Driven Life is asking all denominations to do. I will get the article and post. I have to find it though... so please don't jump on me if I don't post right away.
HEY, where is that post.

sorry


It is in line, and people will fall for it and sign their names for that warm fuzzy feeling that they get.

[Zaphnathpaaneah]

So before you would sign this, you would be absolutely sure that for the rest of your life, God is never going to lead you to a different church, different city, different ministry?

And if this church's doctrine becomes apostate, you can't leave and join another church where the word of God is preached?


Would you be sure this is God's will for you?

[Sing4Him]

Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’  But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne;  nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of rthe great King.  Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." Matthew 5:33


But above all, my brethren, ndo not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment. James 5:12

[CelticMist]

Commitment (Saddleback Church demands signed contracts)

"The process of community-building begins with a commitment -- a commitment of the members not to drop out, a commitment to hang in there through thick and thin, through the pain of chaos and emptiness. Such commitment has not generally been required by the Church. Now the time has come to require. For without that commitment community is impossible." 300

"...the members of a group in some way must commit themselves to one another if they are to become or stay a community. Exclusivity, the great enemy to community, appears in two forms; excluding the other and excluding yourself. ...

"A friend correctly defined community as "group that has learned to transcend its individual differences." But this learning takes time, the time that can be bought only through commitment." 62 [The differences needed for social transformation through the dialectic process are not racial or national differences, but moral and spiritual differences. Again, the aim is transformation: shifting minds from the traditional, factual way of thinking to dialectic thinking with its new sets of values.]


http://www.crossroad.to/Excerpts/books/church-growth/scott-peck.htm
This is just one that I've read about the above mentioned church. I've got friends that live nearby and they don't feel a good spirit coming from it as they drive past it. I think prayer, much prayer, is needed to stop those that are saying the congregation needs to sign a commitment contract. I for one .. would say ... catch the door as I leave.

[Sing4Him]

lifelong contracts :tsk:tsk

[goinghome]

People can't even keep marriage commitments, why would they keep one to a church? Where there is a contract, there are consequences for failing in that contract. So will the members be beheaded if they try to leave? Yeah, I'm kidding..... but it makes you wonder where this is all going.

[Betty]

I would never sign something like that. Churches change. You can have a Church that is on fire for God and in a few years have gone off track. You can also have a Church that has gone off track, that with the dealing of the Holy Spirit can get back on track. It is not realistic to expect a person to sign a contract to never change Churches.