Dear Slavic Christian pastors

Dear Slavic Christian pastors, 

Why are you preaching the wrong Gospel and telling people that they’re saved by what they do, wear, and look like instead of being saved by accepting the love and righteousness of Jesus through the Cross alone?

Preaching about anything besides God’s love, grace, forgiveness, identity, purpose, and authority keeps people in bondage instead of living like the righteous sons and daughters that were bought by His blood. 

Why are my people, God’s people, more excited about sins exposed in the church instead of receiving hope to heal those wounds?

This is the reason.

Leaders and shepherds of the flock don’t preach messages of grace and righteousness because they may have not tasted or accepted it themselves.

If they had, they would’ve been screaming from the pulpit, “God loves you! You’re forgiven and free! Stop trying to earn His love and just accept it.”

The problem with this gospel of freedom and love is that pastors fear the congregation will have “permission to sin.”

Let me be frank: one doesn’t need permission to sin. It’s freely chosen BECAUSE people don’t know that another option exists (and also because we live in a sinful world). They think, “God is angry and hates me because my pastor constantly makes me feel that way from his sermons.

“God won’t forgive my sins because my pastors threw me out when I was in my pit of sin and despair, and I needed help the most.

Why would I want the God they preach about if I’ll never be worthy of His love?”

A leader’s job is to point people towards their Savior instead of turning them away from Him. That’s why they’re in that role.

Your congregation takes everything you say from the pulpit as law and strives to live according to your rules. The problem is that many of the rules set in church are not Biblical but are completely man-created. Matthew 23:4 says, “They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”

This is the reason why so many young people have left the church.

It’s why so many Slavics live in sin instead of freedom in their identity in Christ, let alone walking in their purpose.

It’s why healing, demonic deliverance, and reaching out to the local community have stopped.

It’s why women are silenced and repressed instead of celebrated like Jesus loves them.

It’s why kids are a commodity that we use for our pleasure and entertainment instead of treating them like future prophets and evangelists.

Dear pastors, please seek the Lord and accept His love so you can better lead His sheep. At the rate we’re going, the Slavic church doesn’t look much different from the world. Our community will be a light in the darkness again if we humble ourselves, repent for our sins, and seek His face as His children.

Dear pastors, when you understand how much you’ve been loved and forgiven, you can preach the same and see the fruit of righteous living in your flock.