The name has changed to Christ Community Chapel. We recently stopped going here. The people were nice enough, but the pastor (Joe Coffey) is something else. Almost every sermon finds him "humbly" praising himself in one personal story or another. We let it go for a while, at first, but as time went on, we began to be more and more bothered by what seems to be a constant and recurring theme with him - his self percieved righteousness (actually, his huge ego). This doesn't sit well with me. I've never seen such lack of humility in a pastor. Something's not right with that. How can I trust him as my pastor for spiritual guidance and discernment, when I see him NOT exhibiting even a basic of good discernment in this area in his own life?
Do all of us sin? Yes! Are all of us flawed? YES! But if a person is going to strive to be a spiritual leader, they must be held to a higher standard. And the Bible says that God will hold spiritual leaders to a higher standard. As such, I truly believe that a man of God should be humble, not proud.
Not only this, but I strongly disagree with his frequent promoting of his own agendas and/or opinions. It's not that he is being too fundamentalist, it's that he seems to mix his own personal theories/slant in with what is supposed to be a religious sermon. He makes a point to tell us that "this word means this in the original language" and "that word means that", but then after all of his explanations he weaves together an idea that goes like this ...... A + B = C, B + C = D, so ...... A therefore equals D (with D usually being his personal insight or opinion). No it doesn't. Thanks but no thanks for that fuzzy math. And just because he is a pastor, he does not have a free pass to be unquestioned about this nonsense. We people in the pews are not stupid, and we DO search our Bibles and compare what he says to what God says, and we are not confused or distracted by his title. His opinion does not matter to me if it creates an angle in the Word that is not there. It's as if he takes his own personal ideas and tries to find scripture to wrap around them, even if the scripture is out of context. I definitely do not like that. He needs to understand that it's not all about HIM ...... It's about the people he is placed in charge of shepherding. It's about the PEOPLE IN HIS CARE! He needs to start putting these people first. And I do not see him doing that.
Every Sunday it seems is a sermon where he looks good and sounds good, everything very bright, shiny and churchy, but when you dig deeper and really look closely, it's just an appearance. Where is the genuine article? So many questions arise, that point to one answer ...... it all looks pious enough on the surface, but beneath it all, it's just another sunday of the "Joe Coffey Show". I'm just tired of it. It makes me very, very sad. :(
It's a huge church, so obviously there are people there who like it and like him and like his messages. And that is fully their right. But I am not one of them.