Redeeming God

Liberating you from bad ideas about God

Learn the MOST ESSENTIAL truths for following Jesus.

Get FREE articles and audio teachings in my discipleship emails!


  • Join Us!
  • Scripture
  • Theology
  • My Books
  • About
  • Discipleship
  • Courses
    • What is Hell?
    • Skeleton Church
    • The Gospel According to Scripture
    • The Gospel Dictionary
    • The Re-Justification of God
    • What is Prayer?
    • Adventures in Fishing for Men
    • What are the Spiritual Gifts?
    • How to Study the Bible
    • Courses FAQ
  • Forum
    • Introduce Yourself
    • Old Testament
    • New Testament
    • Theology Questions
    • Life & Ministry

5 Theology Mistakes I Made As a Pastor

By Jeremy Myers
34 Comments

5 Theology Mistakes I Made As a Pastor

All of us have major problems with our theology.

And the sooner we recognize that our theology is not perfect, the better off we’ll be.

Of course, the trick is knowing where you theology is wrong.

Though I am certain I have problems in my theology right now, I do not know what these problems might be. If I knew, I would change my views.

This is why it is important to always be talking with others, reading the ideas of others, and thinking about theology and how it relates to life.

As a result of my own theological study and research, a lot of my theology has changed over the past fifteen years. Below are five of the main mistakes I made in my theology when I was a pastor.

1. I expected everyone to study the Bible and read theology.

theology mistakesSince I love to study Scripture and read theology, I believed and taught that every Christian should do the same.

I saw how much spiritual benefit I received from reading and studying Scripture and theology, and I assumed that everyone else would get just as much benefit from these practices as I had.

I also believed that people could not really come to know God unless they diligently studied Scripture and read widely from theology.

Looking back now, I see how wrong I was.

I now see that God has made Himself known to little children and to those who may never crack open a book of theology or read a chapter from the Pentateuch. I have encountered people who know more about God and how He works than I have ever hoped to know of God, and they have never read the Bible all the way through, nor do they even know what the word “theology” means.

I have now come to see that I enjoy reading and studying theology because this is partly why God put me on planet earth. I have gifts, talents, and abilities in the realm of Bible study and theology. But not everyone has these same gifts, and therefore, not everyone has these same interests.

Therefore, not everyone needs to read the Bible or study theology. And even when they don’t many of them will have a better knowledge and understanding of God than I ever will.

2. I took theology and Bible knowledge way too seriously.

I used to think that theology was a serious subject, which required sound thinking, sober minds, and no laughter or joy. I have since found that this is a common disease among theologians.

We tend to think that since we are “talking about God,” we must do so with all seriousness.

Now, however, I sometimes think that God gets just as bored with our serious theological discussions as would anyone else (except theologians). Furthermore, God does not really care for how seriously we take the words that come out of our mouth.

I now believe that we all need to lighten up about our theology.

I sometimes imagine there is a “Comedy Hour” in heaven where God and the angels read through all the things we Christian theologians preach and teach and write about. As I wrote a while back, in talking about God, we are like an oyster on the bottom of the sea trying to philosophize about ballerina knees.

I am not saying that our theology needs to be full of hilarious jokes and creatively told insights and stories. No. Just because Jesus told stories, this does not mean we should as well.

Instead, what it means is that we need to take ourselves less seriously. I need to take myself less seriously.

I know that just as much of what I believed in the past turned out to be seriously wrong, so also, much of what I believe right now might turn out to be wrong as well.

mistakesSo I do my best. I study hard. But I hold my conclusions lightly.

And when I get a chance, I laugh. I laugh at Christianity. I laugh at church. I laugh at myself. Why? Because theology needs more laughter.

3. I thought that truth trumped love

While I always tried to be loving in what I said and did, as I read back through some of my old sermons, I find that I often erred in being so focused on truth, that I was not very loving.

I believed that the foundation for love was truth. And so while Paul instructed the Ephesians to find the balance between truth and love (Eph 4:15), I believed that the most important thing was truth. After all, I thought, it is never loving to withhold the truth.

I thought that it was preferable to speak the truth, even if it hurt, than to withhold the truth in the name of love.

I understand my logic, but I think that I often used such logic to say unloving things and treat people in unloving ways.

Today, while I do not condone falsehoods or lying, I try to err more on the side of love. I have discovered that some truth simply aren’t worth saying.

Besides, I have a view of truth which helps me see truth in almost everything.

I have noticed as well that Jesus wasn’t much of a stickler for orthodoxy. He was more than willing to contradict traditional theology to extend love. I try to follow His example and let my personal theology go out the window if doing so will help me love someone else.

4. I believed truly dedicated Christians regularly attended church

I still remember how I viewed the people in my church who only attended our Sunday morning service. I was grateful they came, but I knew, deep down in my heart, that if they were really devoted to following Jesus, they would also come to Sunday school, the Sunday evening service, the Wednesday evening Bible study, and the Saturday morning prayer meeting.

At least they came to the Sunday morning service though.

Which was more than could be said for the “so-called” Christians in town who didn’t attend any church at all!

There were several families I was aware of who said that they were following Jesus, but didn’t attend any church. I remember thinking how sad it was that they could be so deluded and deceived. After all, nobody could truly follow Jesus if they didn’t attend church!

I now realize how wrong I was.

theology mistakes to avoid

Some of the greatest followers of Jesus I have met over the past fifteen years have not “attended church” in decades. I have now come to see that while church attendance is helpful and beneficial for a good many Christians, it is unhelpful and damaging for a good many more.

This does not mean that those who do not “attend church” are not part of the church; they are. In fact, it may be that many of those who do not attend church might be more active in the church than those who do attend.

Church, after all, is not the event that takes place in a brick building on Sunday morning, but is the people of God who follow Jesus into the world (See my book, Skeleton Church).

Following Jesus and being the church is not about sitting in a pew on Sunday morning (though for many it might include that), but is about being Jesus in the world.

5. I believed the goal of the Christian life was to get rid of sin.

To put it another way, I believed that God was in the sin management business. I believed that God was looking down on planet earth, wringing His hands in frustration (and even anger) at how bad we had messed things up.

I believed that the reason God gave us Scripture, and the reason God sent Jesus to this earth, was to tells us how to live “right.” I believed that God’s primary goal for our lives was to get us to stop sinning.

Today, I don’t believe God is nearly as concerned about sin as we are. I believe that sin is just not that big of an issue for God. If there is something God is concerned about, it is religion, which presents an ugly portrait of God to people and tells us to worship this ugly portrait “or else.”

And while sin is destructive and hurtful, I think that God would rather have us sin a little than live smug religious lives of self-righteous arrogance.

Bonus Item: 6. I believed that God was violent.

I used to teach that everything the Bible says God did is in fact what God actually did.

While I still hold to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, I now view things a little bit differently (I have a book coming out soon which explains more).

I no longer believe God is violent in any way, shape, or form. I do not believe God engages in violence or commands His people to do so. I believe that, if Jesus reveals God to us, then God is, by definition, non-violent.

This understanding, of course, has made me rethink a lot of other areas about theology, including how I read Scripture, but this entire topic is too huge to summarize in this post (which is already too long).

So those are some of the theological mistakes I made as a pastor. I imagine I am making more mistakes right now, but time will tell what those are.

How about you? What theological mistakes have you made in your past? What do you believe now instead and how did the change come about? Let us know in the comment section!

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: bad theology, errors, mistakes, pastoral ministry

Advertisement

I’m so tired of hate speech and guilt trips masquerading as the Gospel

By Jeremy Myers
86 Comments

I’m so tired of hate speech and guilt trips masquerading as the Gospel

angry preachers hate speechI listened to a sermon today in which the preacher (I’m not going to call him a pastor) said these things:

If you are going to follow Jesus, you need to stop hanging out with your non-Christian friends…

Gays are disgusting people…

God has called me to a new ministry…

On that last point, the preacher forgot to mention publicly that he got a $10,000 bonus for agreeing to go to this new area of ministry.

If I were a bolder person, I would have stood up and called him out on these points.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I took notes so I could write a blog post about it…

Look, here’s the point…

If you are going to preach hate, legalism, and self-righteousness, don’t do it in the name of Jesus, and don’t call it the Gospel. Of course, that’s probably asking too much.

When it comes to hate speech, legalism, and self-righteousness, Christianity has a corner on the market. 

The Gospel is good news. The center of the Gospel is the message of Jesus: that God loves everyone, has forgiven everyone, and extends infinite grace to everyone. If you claim to be a Christian but can’t preach that, it makes me think you don’t understand the Gospel.

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, evangelism, forgiveness, gays, gospel, grace, hate, homosexuality, love of God, pastoral ministry, Preaching

Advertisement

17 Signs Your Ministry May Be Rotting

By Jeremy Myers
12 Comments

17 Signs Your Ministry May Be Rotting

Peter FisherA guest post by Peter Fischer. Peter was a Lutheran Minister for over a decade before leaving ministry to become an Employment Counselor. He lives in Vancouver, Canada and is the Writer/Producer of After the Pulpit

Follow Peter on Twitter or like ATP’s Facebook Page

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

Yuck. Smell that?

Something’s off. And it’s not the mushy cantaloupe growing a beard in the back of your fridge. It may well be your, ahem, ministry.

rotten ministryAre you past your pastoral “best before” date? How can you tell?

Here are 17 signs that your ministry may need to be chucked in the compost bin:

1. You only read the bible and pray “professionally”

At home, you’re less likely to cozy up with the Book of Daniel than a Daniel Day-Lewis movie. When you’re paid to be spiritual, prayer and study feels a lot like, well, work. And who’s up for overtime? Not you.

2. When your kids ask you a theological question you tell them to make an appointment with your secretary

Seriously, after a long day wrestling with internet Heilsgeschichte (see #4), the little inquisitors should know better! The last thing you want to do is talk shop with your family. If you can’t let your hair down and be burned out, grumpy and indifferent at home, where can you be?

3. Your holiday plans DON’T include worship

Every Sunday morning while the rest of the world is snoozing, you’re up scouring the web for a children’s message or talking to Ol’ Edith Barkley who calls to beef about the bulletin or the cookie crumbs in the church hall or how much her bunions hurt. On your rare Sunday off, you want to wake at noon and stuff your face with donuts and the NFL.

4. Your most important function as a preacher is “cut and paste”

Everything that could be said about a text already exists somewhere on the web, right? You’re not about to reinvent the wheel. Besides, you can use the extra 12 hours for something more productive (see #6).

5. When you visit shut-ins, you’re thrilled to see them fast asleep

But not dead—that’d be more work. You tip-toe into their room, leave a sticky-note greeting on their night stand, tip-toe out, and chalk it up as a “pastoral visit.”

6. Your Google to God ratio is 20:1 at best

Your office hours consist mostly of meditating on last night’s MLB box scores, playing Farmville, or—plug your ears Edith—watching lesbian threesome videos. Yup, something stinks.

7. The custodian spends more time in your office than you

Hey, thinking about your sermon (or where you’ll steal one) while gardening or golfing is
considered “work” isn’t it?

8. You pray people don’t ask “what do you do for a living?”

You pray! Especially while waiting at the checkout with a 40 oz bottle of Bombay Sapphire in each hand. Truth is you’re not proud of what you’ve become. You’re really not. But there it is.

9. Your book allowance and continuing education benefits are used for non-ministry
purposes

That Amazon order of Dan Brown, Stephen King, and Vegas travel guides? File it under “Clergy self care,” right? And somehow you’ll find a way to spin that NASCAR weekend or your bender at Bellagio’s as a ministry expense.

10. When you read the church budget you only think about your salary and benefits

Is there anything else?

11. Your Doctor (or Drug Dealer) is on speed dial

Most days see you burned out, broken and frail. Medicated or self-medicated, you get by with a little help from your friends.

12. You’re holding your family hostage to your pain

They absorb your stress, heartache, despair. They suffer because of it. It’s not fair. You know this. You hate this. You wish it could change. They do too.

13. You end your sermons early

If you can’t stand to hear another second of your own sermon, you just know your congregation would do cart-wheels in the aisles if you stopped mid-stream. So you do.

14. You’ve lost the Faith

You’ve kicked your faith to the curb and would love to do the same to your ministry if you didn’t have bills to pay and mouths to feed. So you soldier on preaching with your fingers crossed behind your back.

15. Your ministry skills suck

The reviews are in and they’re as cut and dry as the Red Sea under Moses’ command. You’re just not meant to be a man/woman of the cloth. You can’t preach, teach, counsel, or care. It’s alright. You tried (maybe).

16. You’d resign tomorrow if you won the lottery today

Assuming you play. Put another way, if you could snap your fingers and instantly be in a different career, you would. Put yet another way, you’d leave ministry if you felt there was something else you could do.

17. When asked to “share a few words” you’re oh so tempted to share these:

“That’s all folks!” Drops mic, leaves. Forever.

18. More signs? Share yours in the comments below

leaving ministrySo, maybe your ministry is rotting.

It certainly hasn’t been market-fresh for some time.

You’ve tried the usual things—mountain top retreats, “Renew your Ministry Mojo” type conferences, taking a new call in a new locale—but nothing’s taking the stink out.

Is it time to think the unthinkable—chucking your ministry into the compost bin? That’s where it may belong (don’t toss it in the trash—your ministry is not waste).

If so, turn all of your experience in ministry around in the compost bin. Be patient. Allow the bugs and miraculous microbes time to work their wonders. Soon enough, sure enough, your rotting ministry will be transformed into rich, life-giving loam—full of grace and potential.

The world awaits to see what new shoots of life will emerge from you!

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: guest post, leaving church, pastoral ministry

Advertisement

My Life of Regret and Hope

By Jeremy Myers
37 Comments

My Life of Regret and Hope

My life story of regret and hopeSome people think I have lost my faith. I think I am only now beginning to find it.

Parts of my story, my journey of faith, my walk with God (or whatever you want to call it) have been posted in various places online (on Jason Boyett’s blog, for example) and in a book I edited last year, but little of it has been posted here on this blog. Let me summarize some of the highlights.

My Life in a Few Paragraphs

I was raised in a pastor’s family. I had two loving parents, and nine siblings. I loved growing up, going to church, attending school, and spending time with friends and family. I sometimes wish I could go back and relive my childhood.

Upon graduating from high school, I went to college to become a Mechanical Engineer. After my freshman year, a good friend of mine died in a hiking accident, and as a result, I thought that I should reconsider my life goals. So I decided to become a pastor. I went away to Bible college, where I got my degree, and more importantly, met and married my beautiful wife, Wendy.

After graduation from Bible college, I decided to get an M.Div., but after only a year, decided that I would rather just enter into professional, full-time ministry. So Wendy and I went to Montana, where I became the Senior Pastor of a small, struggling church.

I pastored there for three and half years. The church had numerous problems, and I was an inexperienced pastor and so made numerous mistakes. But for the most part, I enjoyed being a pastor, and wanted to do nothing else for the rest of my life. I loved the people I worked with, and loved the community we lived in. I was not the best husband, however, and was too consumed with ministry to help my wife out at home much, or take an active role in raising the two girls that my wife had delivered during this time.

At the end of three and half years, the church could no longer pay our salary. The church was very small (only about 35 people), and I had made some pastoral decisions which had angered the main financial backers of the church, and so they stopped tithing. When the money ran out, the governing board bowed to the demands of the big tither and asked me to resign, which I did.

I then became the pastor of a larger church in a nearby town. This was every pastor’s dream church. Oh sure, there were problems, but for the most part, the people were warm and loving. The services were well-attended. The elders were supportive. The families were active. I loved this church and everybody in it. But I also had a growing sense in the back of my mind that I needed to finish my Master’s degree. So with a heavy heart I resigned, and moved my family to Texas to get a Th.M.

In the process of moving to Texas, I landed my dream job. I got to work with an author and Bible scholar I highly respected, helping him publish his books, plan his speaking engagements, and coordinate various conferences around the country. I even got a few of my own articles published, and was invited to speak at a few conferences and churches as a result of my involvement with this ministry. I was working full time and attending school more than full time (I completed a four-year degree in three years), and so needless to say, my marriage suffered even more than it had before. Then, right before graduation, I wrote a blog post which ended up getting me fired from my job.

regretI sunk into depression. My faith shattered.  Everything I had worked for and hoped for lay in pieces at my feet. I lost my dream job, and almost all of my Christian friends abandoned me. After applying for nearly 60 different jobs, the only job I could get was as a carpet cleaner. I also had pretty much destroyed my wife and my three daughters by ignoring them for most of my time as a pastor and all of my time as a seminary student. It seemed to me that by almost every standard, my life was a complete failure.

Eventually, I found a new job as a prison chaplain in New York. It was not something I ever imagined doing, but it was in my “field” of training, and paid better than cleaning carpets. While in New York, I started trying to rebuild. I sought to rebuild myself, my faith, my marriage, and my family. I changed a lot of my beliefs. My wife and I went to marriage counseling. I started looking for a new way to follow Jesus.

A year ago, we moved to Oregon. I still have the same job, but in a different location. I am still slowly trying to rebuild my life, my faith, and especially, my marriage and my family. There are many signs of progress, but sometimes, I am afraid that sooner or later, it will all come crashing down once again. One of the main things that keep me going however, is hope.

My Life of Regret and Hope

I sometimes regret that I gave up mechanical engineering for pastoral ministry. Though I truly enjoy studying and teaching Scripture, I sometimes feel frustrated that given my current career path, the only jobs I qualify for are in the field of professional ministry. But I am hopeful that God will use my detail-oriented and creative-thinking brain in the field of Bible study and theology to help others see that God may not be like what many of us have been taught, and that the Bible may not say what we have always thought.

I sometimes regret that I left that first church. There are many aspects to pastoral ministry that I desperately miss. I sometimes wish that rather than resign, I had simply taken a secular job in the community and remained on as pastor without taking a salary. This decision would have taken away all the power from the “money” in the church, and would have freed me up to lead the church in the direction we needed to go. But I am hopeful that maybe, somehow, God might lead me into some form of pastoral ministry again, in a way that does not require me to take a salary, and to serve alongside other people who want to follow Jesus into the world.

hopeI sometimes regret that I left that second church to go to seminary. The people there were so loving and kind. I miss many of them desperately. But now that we have finally settled into an area in which we hope to stay for a while, I am hopeful that God will bring more people into our lives with whom we can build friendships, and learn to love. We have been in our current location for just one year, but we already see some of these sorts of friendship developing.

I sometimes regret posting that fateful blog post which got me fired from my dream job in Texas, and which caused a lot of heartache and confusion in the minds of people I worked with or who looked up to me. But I am hopeful, because the experience of leaving that job opened my eyes and mind to a whole new way of viewing people, thinking about theology, reading Scripture, interacting with others, and ultimately, living life. I believe I am now more loving, gracious, and forgiving than I ever was before. And quite a bit more humble. (That’s a joke!)

I always regret the way I treated my wife for all those years as a pastor and as a seminary student and during my years of depression. She deserved so much better. And yet I am more hopeful now for our marriage than I have been in a long time. She has forgiven me, and shown love to me, and we are laughing together and living together with joy in ways that we have never before experienced.

Sometimes Wendy and I ask ourselves if it was all worth it. In so many ways, we see Jesus, we read the Bible, and we understand God so differently than before. We think it was worth it.

I often joke that the “me” of fifteen years ago would consider the “me” of today a heretic. But the “me” of today does not consider the “me” of fifteen years ago a heretic; just somebody who had to learn some difficult lessons the hard way. Though my life is full of regrets (and there will probably be many more to come), I never would have learned the things I know now if I had not experienced what I did. This too leads me to hope.

I hope that the future “me” can remember that when I make mistakes, God can resurrect hope and joy from the ashes. After all, without death, there is no resurrection. So when parts of my life die, whether by design or by poor choices, I must remember that even in the dark despair of the moment, God is at work to bright forth light, love, joy, and hope.


This post was written as part of the November Synchroblog, in which different bloggers write about their journey of faith. Here is a list of other contributors:

  • LoveDay – When God Pulls Your Strings
  • Liz Dyer – Stages of Faith and Beauty In the Wilderness
  • J A Carter – Jesus Christ Superstar Saved My Soul
  • Carol Kuniholm – Stumbling In the Dark
  • Edwin Aldritch – A Journey From Church To Faith
  • Glenn Hagar – How I Became Irreligious
  • DoneWithReligion – My Journey To Leaving Church
  • Kathy Escobar – A Drama + A Comedy = A Dramedy

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: church, depression, Discipleship, hope, life, my story, pastoral ministry, regret, Theology - General

Advertisement

Preaching until we’re Sterile

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

Preaching until we’re Sterile

I remember when I preached my last seminary sermon. It felt so good.

Though I learned a lot about preaching while in seminary, I immediately tried to forget most of it.

If I had to preach for the rest of my life within the box that is the seminary sermon, I would quit the ministry.

Sadly, I think most seminary students don’t understand that what the seminary teaches about preaching is a bare bones template, and we have to add in our own personality and creativity to make preaching come alive. Such pastors who preach predicable three point sermons every week, are boring themselves and their congregations into spiritual sterility.

Seeds of God’s Word are being flung out there, but the seeds are impotent to reproduce disciples.

PreachingPart of this is because too many pastors get their sermons from a can, and present them to a sitting, smiling, and nodding audience (maybe they’re nodding off). Adding more stories and jokes is not going to help. It may help people pay attention, but keeping their attention is not the same thing as making disciples. Some have tried shorter sermons, while others go for longer sermons. Some go for topical series, while others do “exposition.”

None of it seems to be working very well.

It’s a cop-out to say (as I’ve heard some pastors say) that “Results are not up to us. We just need to preach the Word and leave the rest up to God.” This is an excuse to not face the hard questions.

So I wonder if it isn’t time to reexamine “The Sermon.” This is something I fear to do, because frankly, I LOVE to preach. Preaching is one of the aspects of pastoral ministry I enjoy the most. I am not sure I would enjoy pastoral ministry if I wasn’t able to preach (maybe that says something about my heart…).

But I’ll put off that examination until some other time, since I don’t want to face the music today.

2012 update: I faced the music. See my posts about preaching here.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, pastoral ministry, Preaching, seminary, sermons, teaching

Advertisement

Join the discipleship group
Learn about the gospel and how to share it

Take my new course:

The Gospel According to Scripture
Best Books Every Christian Should Read
Study Scripture with me
Subscribe to my Podcast on iTunes
Subscribe to my Podcast on Amazon

Do you like my blog?
Try one of my books:

Click the image below to see what books are available.

Books by Jeremy Myers

Theological Study Archives

  • Theology – General
  • Theology Introduction
  • Theology of the Bible
  • Theology of God
  • Theology of Man
  • Theology of Sin
  • Theology of Jesus
  • Theology of Salvation
  • Theology of the Holy Spirit
  • Theology of the Church
  • Theology of Angels
  • Theology of the End Times
  • Theology Q&A

Bible Study Archives

  • Bible Studies on Genesis
  • Bible Studies on Esther
  • Bible Studies on Psalms
  • Bible Studies on Jonah
  • Bible Studies on Matthew
  • Bible Studies on Luke
  • Bible Studies on Romans
  • Bible Studies on Ephesians
  • Miscellaneous Bible Studies

Advertise or Donate

  • Advertise on RedeemingGod.com
  • Donate to Jeremy Myers

Search (and you Shall Find)

Get Books by Jeremy Myers

Books by Jeremy Myers

Schedule Jeremy for an interview

Click here to Contact Me!

© 2025 Redeeming God · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Knownhost and the Genesis Framework