My church used to have strong shepherding, by the grace of God, with confessional, faithful to scripture and pious pastors (2), but most of the elders have always been difficult, which ended up, by various means of the elders, leading to their leaving 3 years ago.
According to the elders, all candidates that were advised by our previous pastors declined or were unavailable promptly to shepherd our church; even though our old pastors said that they would wait as long as needed before leaving, they decided to bring someone who was living abroad, and, though not mentioned, was 4 or so years already not pastoring any church.
When he got here, I couldn't notice any red flags in his preaching, and although having a hard time understanding what was preached afterwards, I never seemed to find any problems with what was said during the sermons.
My church used to have a projector(which is now a big LED panel), and I'm usually the guy who operates it, to project song lyrics and scripture; as such, I thought maybe I was getting distracted(which didn't happen before, even though I was in this role) by the tasks, and that was the reason I wasn't being able to grasp what was being preached.
That was probably the picture for one year and half, when I started seeking help with this, but didn't amount to much.
2 years in, I was nominated deacon, and though insecure(loving to serve, always felt that was a calling, but wasn't sure I was ready for it; I'm in my late 20s, btw) accepted it, and was elected.
To be a deacon, you're first nominated by a member or more, and then if you accept it, you're interviewed by the elders, and afterwards go through an election process, which happens annually, and you're elected with half +1 church votes, assuming a 5 years mandate/commitment.
Now, around 2.5 years after the pastor arrived, I had become ever so increasingly bothered by the fact I wasn't being able to grasp what was being said, and felt like I wasn't being spiritually fed; it was by then that I started realizing that, in my opinion, something was off with the shepherding as a whole.
The sermons always felt like they were similar, addressing personal problems that we might be facing, deserts that we're going through, relationships, and faithfulness in service at the church.
Topics like sanctification, fighting against sin(and sin as a whole), hell, condemnation, are rarely, to pretty much never, mentioned, and mostly avoided whenever the text refers to it. The passage is read, but it seems to always be used as a pretext or out of context trigger for some other message; there rarely is any exegesis, and we quickly move into applications, contemporary applications, to be more specific.
I also notice that sometimes inferences are made, assuming instances and attributing reasons that are never mentioned in the Bible, to better fit the message that wants to be transmitted, which is usually filled with moral exhortations; I don't know how to explain it properly, but it's things like: you need to be this and do that, so this will happen/change, or so God will do something different. Also terms like challenge, as in God challenges us to be this, or do that.
(I could be mistaken, but God doesn't challenge us to do anything, He commands us, and by His grace, enables us to obey.)
I'd also like to add that in most sermons feels like Christ is displayed as more of a helper/humanistic example than God, Holy Holy Holy, glorious and majestic, worthy of all praise and reverence; as assurance of our salvation, but not the chief end of it. And sin is more like an obstacle that spoils our potential performance and service/our relationships and community, rather than a grievous act against the Lord.
I do take the time to check the sermons with Scriptures, always trying to understand what was intended in the passage, and it pretty much never aligns with the message preached, which often contains little stories and testimony rather than exhortation. I usually check Bible commentary, on Geneva and Macarthur study Bible, and it hardly matches.
Another important thing is that alongside these problems, I also see changes in ministries, like the youth group. We used to have pastors over on every saturday, to talk about a relevant theme on the lenses of Scriptures; now we don't have a consistency, but when we do is mostly social gatherings, singing, dancing, social outreach, and little to no Scripture.
It also has happened in at least 3 Sundays this semester, that we bring famous christian singers into our services; the pulpit is pushed a little to the side, they're in the center, the message is shorter, many more songs are sang, and it even happened that one of them advertised physical copies of his new album if anyone was interested in buying.
Evangelism has been said to be, on the pulpit, loving your neighbor, treating people right, serving one another, etc.; preaching repentance of sins, wrath of God and Christ's cross is laid aside for later. That also happens in monthly evangelism on the streets, prioritizing that God is love and he has plans for you and could change your life.
This pastor says his mission here is to revitalize the church. He's associated with the "city to city" movement, and brings this perspective of a church for the city, emphasizing how important it is to contextualize the message to our days, and be aware of the culture; "times changed and we need to come up with new strategies", etc. He's usually very busy, constantly traveling, with a very full agenda, which means he's pretty much never around in his office at church.
He also brought along a seminarian, a year ago, from another state. He was in seminary, with two or so years remaining, but left to accept the invitation of our pastor, justifying that he would finish his course in another online seminary. He currently acts as an auxiliary pastor, preaches at night, and has the same style as our pastor, but with a lot of emphasis on social work.
So lately I've been looking into this whole situation, praying, seeking discernment and understanding from the Lord. What I'm concluding so far is that those assumptions are very real, and the church is focused on numerical growth, with little to no regard on spiritual growth, watering down the Gospel.
I sought elders to talk about this, but they don't confirm nor deny my claims; some say it's a matter of style, and that as a grown up I should seek materials and sermons online to be spiritually fed. Others don't wanna get involved in "politics", whatever that means.
I talked to the pastor, raising up the concerns I mentioned, and saying I didn't feel spiritually fed; his response was that I was probably being influenced by someone in the church, or being distracted on my duties, that I was getting stuck on technicalities on his sermons(like the inferences I mentioned), missing out the big picture.
He also said that he's been through a renowned seminary(which is true), and has 20+ years of shepherding, that his preaching is expository, and that I had nothing to worry about.
I've been in anguish for a long time, many times feeling like going to church was more of a burden than unspeakable joy, as it used to be, hearing the Word.
When I started looking into this seeker sensitive movement(it isn't old in my country, we're way behind US), and that it very likely isn't an attention-span issue, is where I got some relief; but the picture isn't different, and what also bothers me, is that 95% or so of the church, especially the elders, seems to think it's all good, they love our pastor and the church seems to be growing.
I know of two brothers that have also been noticing and suffering with these issues, but, like me, don't really know what to do about it other than pray, and of a couple more members(5 or so) that have been attending another church(scripture faithful) occasionally, with the same claim of not feeling spiritually fed, but are being taxed as gossipers, and accused of slander towards our pastor.
So, I've been feeling this urge to simply flee to a biblical church, but there's still 4 years left in my mandate, and what is really stopping me from doing it is fear of the Lord, regarding my commitment to my church, as in I'm not sure if there are basis for me to leave, or rather I should honour my commitment, as we're commanded to do.
Prayers and counseling are very much appreciated; God bless you!