r/Protestantism

I am a Christian in Asia, a country in SEA.

I was a Buddhist before but converted to Christianity for nearly 9 years now. I was first a Pentecostal for 2 years then got lost in the faith due to the way members treat some other people they consider sinful. I seek truth from Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana), Hinduism, Taoism or even Islam but did not find anything to comfort me except Jesus. I love this man so much and truly believe he is the Son of God. I devote myself to Christianity again after those seeking time and became a Lutheran.

I am in this church for 3 years. First year it was full of joy, I saw a loving congregation, people love each other and accepting everyone's flaw but not affirm. I saw it as a true church which will lead me to God once again after all those years. I felt so happy and want to come to church every week. I want to start my bible reading which I finished a year later. I look forward to becoming a Lutheran pastor, but things slightly changed during the second year of mine.

I need to state first that my church does not have a pastor for all these years. Never have a permanent one, the pastor will only come for once a month and a missionary pastor also. So only 2 of 4 weeks that we will have a pastor and that would be different people. The members started to treat me as a preacher as I understand the bible more than anyone and I tried my best to learn by myself through Dr. Jordan B Cooper. I learned to use exegesis way of preaching and recently started to teach the Bible class. My church does not have many adults, only 5 people who are very weak at their faith. Two of them are Christian for decades yet never finished their bible, they are couple who live together in the church but do not marry each other. Another two also never finish, one of them do not even want to read the bible. I am the only person who encourages them and tried to make them understand what is meant by the scripture. Other than adults are 5-10 children who elder brought them to 'evangelize' though she cannot teach them any bible class. She put everything on my back; preaching, church keeping, bible study and many more things according to her will.

Although the church situation is not quite good, the church body cannot do anything much. The bishop might come to our church and praise our work, but it's just that. He won't take anything further action, and I cannot ask for anyone's assistant. The church body is heavily lacking the pastor. We have 5 districts throughout the country, yet they cannot make anyone a pastor. The Luther Seminary was closed last year, and I am the last generation. The church body was full of corrupted news from the past two years, financial corruption and previous bishop's adultery. Although the missionary from Norway and Finland still give the support, they won't take any further action as they want the local people to deal with their problems.

After taking everything on my back too much, I cannot handle my mental condition anymore. I got angry easily and it affects the work at the church on Sat and Sun as the children in my church are from slums and their behaviors are beyond imagination sometimes. I cannot blame them but as the elder wants to bring them all to church, she does not have the capability to take care of them, yet she asked everyone to take responsibility, and she will drive her car to somewhere else every time with her boyfriend when the children got out of hand. The adults are very irresponsible here even though I talked with them through.

We have less and less people and the church is super chaotic as we cannot control the kids anymore. They took over the church, and it is not a safe place for everyone anymore. They are from slums which they took their culture; cursing, fighting, stealing and many more. The elder brought them without thinking about the consequences. Now she cried but never saw that she is the only person who took them in due to her savior complex. I won't say anything about how she brought her bf into the church, but they sleep in the same room without marrying. They could do that outside, rent an apartment or something, but she chose to do that in the church. Moreover, it is the way that she hurts her boyfriend both physical and mental. There is violence when there is nobody in the church though sometimes, she confessed to me, but she will do it again when time passed.

This is very chaotic and I really want to go back to temple sometimes. I will be a M.Div. student next year, still on my path to be a pastor. Yet I am so hurtful with the thing that happen to the church according to some people's decision and irresponsibility.

I just want to put it down somewhere and want to be heard for my uneasiness. Thank you for reading and listening. At this time, I do not have Christian friend to share my feeling. This is the only space for me. I want to leave the church for years, but I still care for the teens in the church so that's why. Gladly, next year all of them will graduate and will leave the church. One of them cannot stand the elder anymore. I know it might be a sin that I talk about her like this, but I do not know what to do anymore.

How to pray as new Protestant

Hi! I'm sorry if this comes off as inflamatory but it's a pretty confusing detail for me that gives me reservations. If the councils that compiled the bible and determined orthodox theology like the trinity were by the church, for the church, and supported the united church with the ancient patriarchs, why would a Protestant say 'Their decisions were done with the proper authority but now the Catholic/Orthodox church has no authority"? I hope I'm not strawmanning Protestantism on accident, I realize a variety of positions exist so perhaps the question is poorly formulated.