Being Hurt by the Church Part 1

 These true stories are about being hurt by church people.

THE HURTFUL DOINGS OF HOLINESS PEOPLE

By Duane V. Maxey

Written September 29, 2010

"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.." (Isaiah 11:9). "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 65:25).

"The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service" (John 16:2).

Thank God, in heaven, none of God's people will ever hurt one another -- not by mistake, and most certainly not on purpose!

However, in this world, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, sometimes even genuinely sanctified people DO and SAY things that hurt others in the body of Christ -- and again, believe it or not, SOMETIMES even sanctified people can "think they are doing God a service," when in fact mistakenly they are misjudging and/or mistreating another Christian, and SO HURTFUL is what they DO and/or SAY that it can prove FATAL to the one they have misjudged and/or mistreated!

It is true, probably, that in most cases the "hurtful doings" and words of one professing holiness are those of one who is actually carnal, and not genuinely sanctified.

During my years of pastoring, I was deeply hurt more than once by one or more that I strongly suspect were carnal, and not genuinely sanctified. For examples:

1) One Sunday morning during my first pastorate part of what I said angered one of the women members.  So disgruntled was she with my message that as folks were beginning to leave the sanctuary she came up to me and adamantly declared, with plenty of volume: "Was you tryin' ta skin me this morning!!?" I was taken aback by such a public display of anger from one professing holiness. As I recall, I think I may have asked what she meant, only to have her reply with the same tone and volume -- right in front of everyone: "Was you tryin' ta skin me this morning!!?" And, even that did not satiate her display of displeasure with my morning message, and as we went outside, she said, "I don't think preachers should preach that way!" I had felt a coolness from this woman from the first day I got into the town, when the District leader had me stay in the home with her and her husband. Her husband had been filling in since the last pastor had left, and she wanted her husband to be appointed pastor. She was the church pianist, who sometimes would not show up for services, and her husband, the want-to-be pastor, was the church treasurer. I felt and endured their coolness toward me during my time there -- a coolness that, in her case, I believe was from a carnal heart, and a coolness from her husband who, sanctified or not, felt hurt that I, and not he, had been elected pastor. I was hurt too, by their coldness and antipathy toward me, and how much better the work might have been with their love and support!

2) In my second pastorate, during a pastoral visit, one of the women members who taught Sunday School really "lit into me," saying: "WE (she and her husband, who was the church boss) do not think of you as "Reverend" Maxey; to US, you are ONLY DUANE! Whereupon, she told me how her class of Sunday School children did not want to come out of her class and sit under my preaching! But, as she continued to glower at me and excoriate me, with a loving spirit, I looked right at her and asked: "Sis. _____, do you have Perfect Love?" She seemed rather stunned by my question, following her hateful diatribes. She did not answer my question, I strongly suspect, because she could not do so in the affirmative! Through my question, the Holy Ghost had nailed her! She knew her spirit was wrong! But, sad to say, the spirit of her husband was just the same. One night in prayer, the Holy Spirit, to my surprise, made it clear that that I was to immediately resign that church and go to a campmeeting in Entriken, Pennsylvania, where I would be asked to pastor a church in either Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Later, what the Holy Spirit told me came true, exactly as He had told me. But, when I announced my resignation in a church meeting, her husband blurted out, "I know, you've been planning this for a long time. You've been bouncing around like a rubber ball that is flat on one side." I told him that I loved him, but that he was wrong, for it was only a few nights ago that God had told me to resign. The carnal hatred of this couple hurt during my time there, but again, I lived through it. God had also shown me that within about 6 months that church would be closed -- which it was. Both in 1 Chronicles 16:22 and Psalm 105:15 we read God's warning: "Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." He does not take it lightly when carnal people disdain, excoriate, and mistreat his God-called ministers! Those who ignore these duplicate warnings, do so to their own eternal endangerment!