Pettiness

Pettiness - even the word causes me to cringe.

Petty people are not very good looking people. How do I know if I am a petty person?

If I have lost my vision for the non-churched I am a petty person.
If I have turned my eyes away from what matters and focused, instead, on what doesn't matter, I am a petty person.
If I am obsessed with the insignificant - I am a petty person.

In Dwight Pentecost’s commentary on the book of Philippians he refers to an occurrence of a church split in Dallas Texas.

The church split was so bad that it involved a legal suit of one side of the church against the other over who rightfully had the right of ownership of the church property.

The case went all the way to the State Supreme Court.

The case was a dismissed on the grounds that the State Supreme Court was not going to deal with inner church issues but would have to be dealt with by the denominational church governing body.

The matter was finally settled with one side given the ownership rights to the property. During this period of time a local news paper reporter did some investigating on what was the cause of this church split. He discovered that it all started during a church dinner.

Apparently one of the church elders was offended when his portion of food given him was not as large as a young person next to him.

Yes you heard correctly. This whole church split started because someone was offended over such a petty thing. It is no wonder that the world looks at churches and never wants to have anything to do with them or Christianity.

I would trust that you are in agreement with me that it's time to rid the church of pettiness. And...it is time that we refuse to be mugged and beat up by petty people. It's time we stop ignoring pettiness. It's time we stop pretending it doesn't matter. It does.

It's a disease, a sickness that can rob a church of its health.

Pettiness can cause division and discord.

As one author states, "Petty people are dangerous people because they appear to be only a nuisance instead of what they really are -- a health hazard."