Sawyer Highlands Church

This seems at first like it would be a place to go; they say all they right things and the worship and preaching are enticing. They have many, many church based programs that will also attract you. Once your are in, as a member, however, the leadership have an all-controlling roll and the members are not allowed to question the leadership. This seems similar to many sects or cults.

Please be very cautious and realize that your spiritual life is in jeopardy when you make a decision as a Christian to cast aside your intellect for you feelings, the feelings of being loved and accepted.

I totally agree with that. But I also want to say they are loving members. Just "cult" like.

This church states it believes in the biblical eldership model. To address one point, I think that the qualifications for teaching, at the very least, are not met by several elders, including B. Klint (he defers any teaching; if you ask any honest members they would say he is not a teacher), L. Klint (they say that he teaches by example; is that really what the Bible is discussing regarding qualifications for leadership?), J. Moline (he will play some videos or something like that; in many years I have never seen him teach), and more. This is not to say that these are not "nice" guys, it is just simply to say that when the Sawyer Highlands (Baptist) Church states it is basing its leadership on a biblical model, it is only fooling itself. More to be posted at a different time.

Having looked at the comments made so far about this church, I have a few comments to so. I have attended Sawyer for at least four years and have been involved in several levels of service, which include, among others, leadership and teaching.

I sadly agree with what The_Sky_is Blue says about the elders mentioned. Having seen the interactions of the elders at large, however, I think that the problem is more to do with the fact that the pastor (J. Dryden) has a power over these men. He is able to convince, or "shmooze" these men. He is very slick in his presentation. The elders are supposed to have equal authority, but I have seen that they all submit to him. In the church of Christ this is very dangerous. What a sad representation of leadership; how sad a representation of being a shepherd.

Somehow, God will, by His goodness and kindness, restore all of us to Him in heaven. Hallelujah!