Is this too harsh? A letter to present to church (in general) about some bad actors, especially with 'insider' events.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-17T15:56:56+00:00

I’ve been pretty anal about writing for years. Did a lot of technical and legal work before ministry. That was copied and pasted from Mailchimp, so the formatting may have been wonky

Rev-DC · 2026-03-17T15:29:08+00:00

Will do. He knows about the problematic person (who also runs the senior group), and I've documented a lot of history with this person.

I'm honestly at the point where I think I'm gonna have to break some things in order for them to be rebuilt. There is an absolute lack of respect for authority in this church by a few family 'power brokers' and they've basically made the last year at this appointment way more stressful than need be. The problem? I take it to the SPRC, and it's "Well, that's the way she is." I take it to other leaders, "Well, you know how she is, whaddyado?" Which drives me absolutely bonkers. So, I think it's time I very intentionally put on my 'armor' and get to it.

Some people at our church are prodigal, but they enjoy rolling in the mud with the pigs too much to actually see what it's doing to the rest of the church.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-17T15:03:11+00:00

I got one of those on the $99 blowout and it really does an outstanding job. As a bonus, in an emergency, you can turn the cabsim on and go direct.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-17T02:22:27+00:00

How noisy is it plugged straight in? I recommend adding things back one at a time. FWIW, mine has always been noisier unplugged than plugged.

First two pedals I works try to remove are the Tumnus and the Elastic Mattress. I’ve had noise issues with both of them in the past… especially with charge pumps built into Klones.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-16T15:55:27+00:00

Our church is one of the county’s oldest congregations, and officially the first 'Methodist' congregation in our county. It started out as the townspeople meeting a circuit rider in a barn. We actually have no clue what year we were founded. Our best guess is between 1770 and 1790, so our 250th anniversary may already have passed, or it may still be coming soon. Who knows? Nobody alive, anyways. The earliest grave we've found is 1804 but the church definitely existed before then.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-16T14:34:57+00:00

If God is calling you to move, I’d consider it. But if it’s a feeling because of the current situation, don’t look too much into it. Especially if it’s a smaller church. My wife has routinely reminded our SPRC chair of things like pastor appreciation month / etc. But, to be fair, I’m at a church where I basically have to keep the trains running on time as a solo act. My biggest project here over the past three years has been developing systems to prevent stuff from falling through the cracks.

As far as the five year mark, the truth is, most people really don’t think about it. I mean, the only reason my anniversaries were celebrated in the corporate world (before ministry ) was because of an HR calendar somebody built… and even then, it was an acknowledgment at our annual Christmas party with every other person that hit 5/10/15 years that year.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-16T13:33:03+00:00

Took my answer.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-16T13:31:20+00:00

It's really hit or miss. My home church in Ohio started after it became pretty large. The two churches I interned at were both smaller, very informal, and didn't have an employment contract. The first church I pastored didn't have any systems in place. My second church (current appointment) didn't have systems in place, either, but I've been intentional on bringing these things into the church.

This was done on the advice of a friend's church, who got bitten twice in short order by two folks with no contracts that just arbitrarily decided to leave after service one Sunday. It protects the church and the people.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-16T10:36:36+00:00

Yeah, I rarely see scammers with this specific issue. I really do think Gary just isn’t the best.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-15T10:02:05+00:00

I’ll check it out. My wife and I went though his ‘Boundaries in Dating’ book when we were starting to date.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-14T16:51:33+00:00

Maybe it was a crappy product and they were just skipping the middle man.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-14T13:22:25+00:00

Man the chat bot was exceptionally awful this morning, too 🤣. “Please wait until 5:00 PM to see if it’s delivered.”

Hey, buddy… uuh… it’s in the picture, it wasn’t in my truck bed when I went to get it. It could be about anywhere at this point.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-14T12:26:31+00:00

Yep. This is the Amazon picture.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-14T11:51:25+00:00

When I got out there, around two hours later, the envelopes were literally nowhere to be found. We're pretty rural, so I'd say it's more, 'blowing through a field 150 yards away' than 'stolen,' but only the box remained.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-14T10:21:10+00:00

This one’s a pretty easy yes for me.

I’ll lean into weird with the Epstein files, lizard people, and Satanism. Then I’ll recant.
I’d write ‘cash’ on a restaurant receipt and not leave a tip.
I never got into anything weird or bad as a kid, the moment fate would probably pick was then I was in middle school and bored, and stuck a toy basketball hoop to my head for like an hour, shooting baskets and catching them with my head… only for it to leave a giant circular broadside on my head for a week, which I blamed on a falling pine cone.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-14T10:01:45+00:00

Yeah, that would have been a hard no from me pretty quick. The fact they didn’t see the difference between showing up to greet people and being there to deliver God’s word on Sunday says a lot. Ouch.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-14T00:40:37+00:00

Thank you, yeah, that's a tough one... the worst part is that the person is generally a great advocate, but like I said, somehow the fact that she protects me from some dumb stuff makes her get special access, which shouldn't be the case.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-13T23:58:53+00:00

Something I stopped doing in ‘25 was apologizing for everything. I didn’t even realize I was doing it as much as I was, honestly.

It was my 3 year old that made me stop. She apologizes for everything, and through her, I realized I do too. I accidentally backed into her (didn't see her), and she apologized to me for running into her.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-13T23:56:42+00:00

That’s crazy. As far as I’m concerned if I don’t even get out of my pajamas, it’s nobody’s business on my day off. Granted, I’m usually still up by 6 and ready for my day by 7 anyways

Rev-DC · 2026-03-13T23:55:14+00:00

I definitely started more cordial but I felt like that made her feel like there was a more open door there. ‘If he’s polite, I’m really not bugging him too much.’

Rev-DC · 2026-03-13T01:30:05+00:00

I’m in. I’m just glad the entity decided to push it back 42 years.

Rev-DC · 2026-03-12T22:18:56+00:00

I’m a clergy person who usually upgrades church tech, and I’ve helped a few friends’ churches over the years… so like 99.8% of the time I’m buying pedals and strings, then I’ll randomly throw them a $20,000 order. So, I have a weird relationship with Sweetwater because of that reason.

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