What Can I Do About Bad Doctrine and Family Tensions in Home Church?
My family and I attend an evangelical church whose pastor is teaching the Scriptures in all truth. However, one of the women on the praise team is introducing doctrinally-unsound music and worship styles into our hour-long times of worship. Please understand that this is not about musical styles--I myself do prefer gentler worship, but I've been in rock-oriented church worship services and would never accuse them of teaching unsound doctrine. This woman's "worship"-leading style is being directly influenced by what is called the International House of Prayer (IHOP). This is a known cult that is sweeping through our area--many of its members exert abusive control, speak according to Buddhist rather than Christian teachings, etc. Well, this woman's chanting, un-Biblical song choices, etc. make me and my family very uncomfortable, but when we spoke to the pastor, he failed to see anything wrong. He says that he knows this woman and that she has a heart for God. I don't doubt that--I believe she is a born-again Christian who has been led astray by a musical/teaching style/movement that really does appear deceptively good. Now, your initial reaction is likely that my family and I should simply leave the church--but it's more complicated than that. For one thing, we're charismatic, and teachings on the continued gifts of the Holy Spirit are very important to us; however, most of the charismatic churches in our area are beginning to follow IHOP's teachings. Also, there are some members of my family who appreciate the preaching at our present church and don't want to leave--and it's very important to us that we worship together. I know someone else who doesn't want to offend the Body of Christ, and who feels that leaving would do more harm than good, especially since we really have nowhere else to go. Still others just don't want to change, since finding a church can be exhausting. I would leave myself, despite all these considerations, but my younger sister is already refusing to attend any church at all, and it's breaking my parents' hearts. I don't want them to feel that I'm following in her footsteps. Then, too--if you'll pardon EVEN MORE complexities!--I've been known to be a bit of a naysayer when it came to other churches because I either disagreed with their teachings or because many of the members were overtly shunning and condescending toward me. So, I can't rock the boat without incurring much heartache and wrath. Does anyone have any suggestions? What should I do personally, what should I encourage my family to do, and how do I approach the church itself--whether I leave or continue attending? This has gotten so bad that I find myself dreading church every week, and no Christian should dread church.