I wrote this post on 5 November 2012. For whatever reason, I shelved it. About half a year after I wrote this post, I gave notice of my resignation, with the words, "Enough is enough." Then, the Church went into steep decline. It continues today in "maintenance mode":
"I debated within myself whether I should permit determined people to press our Church in a general direction which I feel certain will have me presiding over the decline of “our beloved Church” – or whether I should fight a good spiritual fight, others by my side, for continued viability and vitality. OBSERVATION: I have little regular authority as a Congregational minister, yet have fought spiritual battles in the past for the sake of a thriving Church – which lifted it out of debt, improved its properties, increased its congregations, and deepened its spirituality. My 'debate within myself' led to the conclusion that, while a fight is necessary, it should be without the element of control."
POSTSCRIPT: I predicted at the time that, barring the Lord's special intervention, it would take the Church one full generation to return to a vibrant and (not just by name) Congregational Church. We are now in year 12. Last Sunday, there were 17 regular congregants in the pews, and what seemed to me to be 8 vagrants at the back.
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