There are no standard standards in many unhealthy churches. Another way to put it is that standards may change from church to church, group to group and even from area to area. Here is something one man wrote regarding his unhealthy church background:
“Of course, I can’t say the church was all bad. They pretty much blow off all of the UPC standards and do what they want. It was the liberal church in the area after all. The skirts seemed mandatory but honestly it would have been better to just allow pants because any skirt was appropriate (I mean any). This church being completely different than my Uncle’s church also confused me because my Uncle was strict on the standards of holiness. Typically, the guys that were very obedient and religious would say very cruel things about young ladies who wore a skirt too tight or a shirt too low (at my Uncle’s church). But at this new church it was all good or at least I never heard whore and slut being thrown around freely. Though I wasn’t big on the standards this did confuse me because if these standards were somehow guided by the Spirit then did the Spirit change its mind from place to place? Was it a different God? Beards are disobedience one place and not another?”
If one were to never change from one unhealthy church to another and/or never visit another for special services, they may never see that the standards preached in their church are not across the board for everyone everywhere. They do vary and sometimes there is a tremendous difference in what is preached.
Now, some will tell you, as a woman told me and another lady at the Worldwide Pentecostal Fellowship conference one year in Gatlinburg, that there will be variations as each pastor sets the rules for the churches. But is this biblical? Does each pastor have the right to demand 24/7 compliance to their own set of rules? I do not see this taught in the scriptures.
As a for instance, there was a United Pentecostal pastor in Arkansas who had a rule that one cannot be a member if they are male and have facial hair. He would not have fellowship with other UPCI pastors who allowed this. This is despite the fact that the organization does not have a written policy against facial hair and that he himself admitted that the Bible does not teach against it. He would not budge from this position. His views actually created division in the organization because of how he would stay away from pastors who do not feel as he did on the matter. He believed he had every right to do this as the pastor and yet he agreed to not contend for his beliefs to the disunity of the organization when he became licensed.
Do we find any instance of this in the New Testament church? Did Paul demand dress codes that Peter said were not necessary? Did James forbid facial hair on men while John allowed it? You will find nowhere that this happened and none of the apostles or Jesus taught that pastors could make up a list of rules and demand that believers follow them.
The Bible states that God is not the author of confusion. Vastly varying standards from one church to another are confusion. They do cause questions, as the man above wrote, “if these standards were somehow guided by the Spirit then did the Spirit change its mind from place to place? Was it a different God? Beards are disobedience one place and not another?”
But the pastors will say that God has lead them to teach these rules. I think not. God does not continually change his mind from place to place. When he gave the law to Moses, for the Israelites to follow, he did not give one set of rules to some of them and another to others. He did not say that some tribes could eat animals that another tribe could not. He did not say that the elders of each tribe could set up arbitrary standards and demand that all in the tribe follow them.
If you are fearful of a pastor, if you follow standards to please the pastor of the church you attend, you are probably in an unhealthy church. You should not fear a pastor. You do not have to obey standards that he sets up that are not given in the Bible. We actually have an incident in the book of Acts where a group of believers was trying to demand that Gentiles be circumcised. A meeting was held in Jerusalem and this is what was stated in the letter given to all the churches as follows:
“The apostles and elders, your brothers,
“To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:
“Greetings.
“We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
“Farewell.” (NIV – read all of Acts 15 for yourselves)
Think about it.
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