It’s intriguing to see how encouragement and ministry happens over the Internet. When I started sharing North Side’s journey of uniting our church concerning worship styles, services, and preferences, I mainly was attempting to share our thought process with the people of North Side. Along the way, I began to receive correspondence from other pastors desiring to unite their churches but were afraid of the fallout.
We are still in awe of how God is doing more than we could possibly imagine during this time of transition in our church (Eph. 3:20). Sunday was our 7th united worship service schedule, and attendance is up. Involvement is up. Excitement is up. Of course, there are people who are not raving fans of the changes, but it is very minimal. God is challenging all of us to strive for a united church. It’s been a great thing.
I was asked last week by a minister in another church: “What do you do with disgruntled worshipers? They are boycotting the music. We have members waiting outside until the music is over to come in. Some cover their ears. Some refuse to sing certain types of songs. Some won’t even stand up and sit there with their arms crossed. It’s offensive to me. What should I do?”
My first word of advice: “Stop being offended because those people’s actions are not against you. They are against someone else.”
Read MoreWorshipers on Boycott
Travis Agnew serves as the Senior Pastor of Rocky Creek Baptist Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Wiki God.