Eastside Baptist Church

Great music and love the people

For the last year-and a-half, I've seen the way that this church operates and got to interact with its leadership. Forty years ago, the church split from another because the people wanted more control than they had. Over the course of the last forty years, the pattern has been the same. The church would grow, there was a power group in the church that would force out a pastor, and the church would lose people. There are some people in the church who I think love Jesus, but choose to overlook this dangerous pattern. Most people who genuinely love Jesus don't stay.

I give this church two stars because it is not interested at all in following Jesus as a whole, but there are a few people who would like to see the church thrive in Christ. The core members of the church mainly gossip and slander others during the Sunday School hour. Ironically, these are the members who claim to have the most loving church in town. For any pastor thinking about pastoring at Eastside, the power group will tell you that they want change and that they want to follow Jesus, but as soon as you try to introduce a new direction, they will shut you down and force you out. At the mere mention of evaluating how the church operates according to Scripture, the power group forced out the church's last pastor.

Before my wife and I visited, we heard rumors that the church was a preacher eater, hated young people, and was stuck in its ways. Every rumor was confirmed for us when it comes to this power group (but not every member was this way). The core group always complained about younger generations and poor people. They always complained about past pastors. The average pastoral tenure (mode) is about 8 months.

I have not given the church only one star because there are a few in the congregation who want to follow Jesus. The church also does well taking care of its homebound members and those who are already a part of the church. The church complimented Biblically centered preaching (for the most part), it just did not desire to actually abide in God's word.