Michael Welty

Review of Bayside Church

Conflicted. I ve been attending Bayside for 4 mo...

Conflicted. I ve been attending Bayside for 4 months and attend pretty much every week. I love the worship which is very inspiring and up-lifting and really is the best part of the service.

The sermons are generally good but the last three weeks have been centered solely around fundraising. I have been donating monthly to the church even though I m still evaluating whether this is the right church for me.

Yesterday though was a bit troubling to me and is why I m conflicted. In the weekly materials they had a pledge card for their Motion fundraising drive. The sermon was centered around the pledge card. Pastor Ray spoke about his $100,000 donation as did the other pastors on stage. I thought this was odd. They suggested through prayer God will open our heart to give. I agree with this that through prayer God speaks to us. And I do realize Bayside does good in the community.

What ultimately blew me away was at the end of the fundraising plea Pastor Kurt told everyone to take out the card and take out your pen and make your pledge, 3 minutes to do so even though minutes earlier they spoke about through prayer God will open your heart to help determine your gift. I know for me God speaks to me through prayer in stages, it is not immediate. It is a reflective process, not immediate. The method of their request seemed very high pressure to me.

So the whole thing was very awkward and revealing to me. Pastor Ray even made a comment something to effect that he can refer you to 7 other churches, insinuating Bayside is only for those with deep or very generous pockets. It was very disappointing to me as a renewed Christian looking for a home.