(ThyBlackMan.com) In light of mega-churches, 60 million dollar jets and mansions while church members struggle to pay rent and make end meet, it is time that we all examine what has gone wrong in our churches of today. So you say you have been taught to believe to keep the pastor accountable is judging and you are not to touch God’s anointed? If you believe that completely, you have been brainwashed. So you say you don’t know enough of the Word of God to correct the pastor? Then you are ignoring God’s directive to study to show (shew) yourself approved so you will not be ashamed because you will be able to rightly divide the Word of truth. Or maybe you even say the materialism and worldly thinking of the money-changers in the church today does not bother you. Then you fail to realize I Corinthians says we are all members one of another. And if we are, than what one person (pastor) does clearly affects the Body of Christ as a whole. Or finally, maybe you believe the deception that a pastor is not to be corrected. Wrong.
Accountability is for everybody – yes even your pastor. He (or she) is not just accountable to God. He is accountable to the Body of Christ, the church God has entrusted to lead. No pastor is above correction. And if you are in a place of worship where the pastor is not corrected when he or she deviates from the word of God, you are in a dangerous place. A pastor is a leader and a shepherd – not a god or a king. The pastor is not better than you. He does not walk on water.
You gotta ask questions. Questions are not negative criticisms and asking questions is not judging. Ask how much your church brings in. Ask what the money is used for or where it goes. Ask how much the pastor makes. Ask about the process of helping people as God’s word says – giving, not loaning people money. Ask about the protocol for correcting Biblical errors from the pulpit. Instead of asking and speaking up, when many people discover major errors or false doctrine, they leave the church and the deceptions continue to go unchecked. Sometimes people leave because the pastor has strategically placed people in place to counter even legitimate objections, making them seem like the ramblings and gossip of troublemakers. So watch out and expect legitimate objections to be met with resistance.
You gotta study for yourself. If you do not study for yourself, it 
will be all too easy for a pastor to teach you false doctrine and make it believable. An uninformed sheep can be the victim of deception just as quickly as a deer at a waterhole becomes prey for a hungry cheetah. Therefore you have to double-check the scriptures and context the pastor uses. Yes this requires study just like when you were in school because the Bible tells us to study – not just to read it, memorize a verse a week, read a passage before bed at night or blanketly accept what the pastor says as the complete truth.
One of the deadliest false doctrines to hit the Christian church is the “Prosperity Gospel’ – a scripture-twisting doctrine that some mega-pastors use to promote materialism while they get rich but most of their members never will. I am not saying we are to be poor, but promoting worldly riches, buying Rolls Royces and Leer Jets does not represent the biblical prosperity that tells us to place our treasures in Heaven – not on Earth. Another deadly doctrine is the Christians have to pay tithes. This doctrine is used by many pastors to count on and gather money to advance their own agendas and by other pastors because they cannot distinguish between Old Covenant paying of tithes vs. New Covenant guidelines for giving (Luke 6:38, II Corinthians 9:6-7). For more information and biblical proof on this topic, email your request to me at brainstormonline@yahoo.com.
People are being deceived in many churches all over this country because of two primary reasons. The first is because they do not or will not study for themselves. Maybe some of you have not been taught to STUDY the bible, but instead only to read it. The second is because many Christian people have a sincere desire to trust their pastor, to hope he/she is teaching the right thing. But nobody is perfect, errors from the pulpit can devastate family after family and YOU have to know the bible for yourself in order to live it. It’s time to wake up and stop being brainwashed. How did Christ do so much without private jets, mega-sanctuaries or taking up tithes (He didn’t collect any and neither did the Apostles)? This is your wake up call to stop being gullible, tricked, deceived, manipulated, used and made to feel guilty. Study to shew yourself approved and you will be able to spot false doctrine.
Staff Writer; Marque-Anthony