In my search for a church since I moved here 2 summers ago, I've been to Calvary Chapel Miami more than other churches. Nestled in a residential neighborhood that avoids traffic, it's got a café feel to it with in-house coffee shop and book store, friendly people, yet a traditional church building, all those things that can make church going nice, but don't necessarily mean it's the church to go to.
The times I attended there, each time it was the head pastor preaching. I came to see that when he preaches from the Bible, he leads you to revelation, 100% of the time. You can see because of this he is respected and loved in the church and community. Problem is what makes a church good goes beyond giving revelation to the congregation, for the Bible writes how some people can get revelations that fail to take root and fall away. So here we see that imparting revelation alone won't make a church a place worth attending. And in that time I came to see an issue that made me not want to call this my home church despite the head pastor's obvious gift of preaching with powerful revelations.
And this is that issue: the head pastor's got a case of itching ears if it comes to rebuking the people directly where they might get offended, as in the kind of offense the Jerusalem council had in Acts 7 when Stephen called them out on their sins, & they erupted-in-anger-and-stoned-him-kind-of-offending. See it's not the normal wrist slapping offense we expect like 'don't steal' etc which this head pastor will and does give biblically sound rebukes on, & very passionate, but only the ones it seem that might trigger some kind of offending to the audience. I saw that happen each sermon I attended, not more than once per service, but that it happened consistently, even if only once every service, is too much for me as I want a preacher that won't hold back on godly correcting/rebuking, while I'm on the side of mercy and can benefit from it. I want to get the rebukes that will help save my soul, & to that I say offend away, Man of God.
I didn't know what was going on at first, but every time he would tone it down like this with phrases like "I shouldn't say this" "I shouldn't offend anyone" "people are going to get upset if I say this" etc, I found it a big let down that he would take the role of the blind man's parents in John 9:21-23 who when grilled by the leaders of the synagogue, chose their words carefully not to offend the Jews to protect their place in the synagogue, rather than the role of Stephen in Acts 7 who when questioned by the council, did not hold back giving Spirit-led admonishment that rightly called out the sins of the people there, even though it led to Stephen getting stoned to death.
What if Stephen had said at the point he went full blast to call out the sins of the Jews under the leadership of the Spirit in Acts 7:51, "I shouldn't say this, it's going to offend people," and did a double take and backed off to not displease his audience there? He would have most certainly have displeased the Lord, not yet seen, who stood there waiting in the clouds at this point for him to speak the truth to the Jews, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit to call out that nation, call out that people, even though it turned Stephen into a hated personality, an offensive personality against all those people there who in the previous chapter were noted to see his face was like the face of an angel.
If Stephen had served the god of Nielson rating as it appears to me that Calvary Miami does, he would've like this head pastor does, toned it down before it crossed into offense and kept along the status quo by not ruffling those feathers so he would remain popular by them, accepted by them, and been able to continue on to another Sabbath day speaking before them, and avoided a very brutal stoning that killed him. Stephen would've quenched the Spirit just like I have seen this head pastor decide to do, at the time it came to call out the people's sins so as not to destroy his positive place with them.
The irony of it is in his goal to not offend I find it very offensive he chooses to quench the Spirit in order to please the people and puts not offending them more important than not offending the Holy Spirit that operates in him. That is why having Calvary Miami as my home church is unappealing to me, on top of the fact if the pulse of the worship was measured by a worship physician specializing in the health of worship, even though it is pleasant music, simple guitar, it would be near flat line from the quietness of the audience which is singing but with no fervor, just some blips to indicate, yes, life is there, but so very contained and bound in formality as to be dead, which has made me think this might also tie in somehow to pleasing the god of ratings as far as having a value to stand as a church white-collared professionals would not be embarrassed to go to, where all the p's and q's are kept in place. read more