Let me tell you of a couple of true stories. I’m not going to use names and places to protect the innocent. I just really want to make a point.
I know of a minister and song leader in their 20s at two separate small country churches. Both were just getting started in their ministries. Seems that at some point these people were discouraged at what they were doing…
The discouragement comes from two separate incidents. One had to do with the minister being inappropriately dressed at a high school graduation. He was wearing shorts (collective gasp from you the readers). Now, I am not sure why a minister wearing shorts is such a big deal to some people, but it was at this point, even though I’m sure that there were church members there who had shorts on too.
The song leader himself was discouraged when he expressed his emotion at a baptism ceremony. He clapped. This caused much many people to think negatively of this song leader.
So at some point these people decided to leave their own churches and core beliefs behind. The song leader is now praise team cheerleader at an instrumental progressive church, one very much different than the church he grew up in. The minister himself has recently quit his preaching postion and moving away to a more progressive “accepting” congregation.
Now I’m not sure if these servants were progressive (read “liberal”) all along, or if they turned that way after being discouraged. I would tend to believe the latter.
Sometimes it takes just a few discouraging words to turn someone against their own core beliefs. These discouragements can come in different forms but sometimes unfortunately it comes from fellow Christians who seem to know what they think is right better than the Creator.