LETTER: A CLUB, NOT A CHURCH

To the editor:

After reading the Associated Press article in the Southeast Missourian about "Steel guitars and country music are in place at this church," I feel that as a minister of the gospel I should at least warn people who might be led into such distortions of the plan of God listed in scripture. The so-called church was listed in the news article as being in Platte Woods, Mo. The article listed several other churches that are practicing the same kind of worship. This might be worship, but it certainly isn't worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ or God the father or God the holy spirit.

We are told in scripture to "try the spirits." I would advise these people to do just that. If they want to find a scriptural definition of such worship, they should read the book of Jude in the King James Version of the Bible.

The Devil has worked feverishly ever since the church was first started to bring the world into the church. The Bible teaches that we are to "come out from among them and be separate" in order to receive God's blessing.

There is nothing wrong with praising God with any kind of musical instrument, but we won't praise him by singing and playing secular music. I played music in barrooms in Detroit, Chicago and Flint, Mich., and a lot of other places, including having dance parties in my own home. But when I accepted God's plan of salvation and was born again of the spirit of God, he made it quite clear to me that I wasn't to play that kind of music anymore. And if he doesn't want me to play it, he doesn't want anyone else to do so. If an unsaved man wants to sing songs that glorify divorce, slipping around and all the other songs that appeal to the flesh or natural man, him do so, because they don't know any better, and that's one of the few things they have to temporarily enjoy. But when a person really gets saved, they want to appeal to the spiritual part of man, and God didn't say to appeal to the spiritual man through stooping to the things of the Devil in order to get people to come to him. The people who use secular country music to point people to Christ are definitely opposing his plan.

When I got saved, my songs changed from "slipping around" and "divorce me C.O.D" to "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me." In the news article, it said people were drawn to the church by the "warm feeling" and by being made to feel comfortable. The Bible teaches that the gospel is "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

An unsaved person can't feel comfortable where the real gospel is preached, but God didn't say to stop preaching it. If the person gets uncomfortable, that's the time for him to get his heart right with God. Then he will want to hear the word of God through preaching, singing, praise and any way he can hear it.

The news article spoke of using different kinds of entertainment for people who think church is boring. That kind of person needs to have a spiritual checkup and find out what the word of God really says. If the pastor is really born of the spirit of God and is called of God to pastor a church, it is his job to get enough power of God in the church that it won't be boring. My wife and I pastored seven different churches, and no one thought the services were boring, because if the power of God is really in the church, every moment is exciting, and miracles happen in the church and in the lives of the people (who are really the church) after they leave the church building. If you don't believe this, go to Blue Star Tabernacle in South Haven, Mich., and you won't have to worry about going to sleep during the church services. We pastored there for over three years and saw so many miracles that the average church person wouldn't even believe them.

The news article referred to the services at the Platte Woods church as a "show," and that's exactly what they have. It also spoke of the pastor having a number of "degrees." I would suggest that he take a course in "kneeology" and get in touch with God and forget all the things he learned in seminary and let God personally teach him from the word of God. From the descriptions of what I read about what was supposed to be a church, I would call it a club. With no scripture readings, no hymns and nothing spiritual, what else could it be called?

EMERSON WALKER

Marble Hill