I thought this could be a good discussion. What is life like in other churches?

I went to church this morning, something I don't do on a regular basis. I was able to hear a guest speaker, Gene Habecker, President of Taylor University out in the Hoosier State. He's one of these guys with more degrees than a thermometer, including one in Law from Temple Universtiy. He's on the Board of Directors of Christianity today and a former President of the American Bible Society.

His Topic: Reconciling Broken Relationships. He used Paul's letter to Philemon and from that made these 5 points:

1. In repairing a broken relationship you can always send a letter if you don't want a direct confrontation.
2. Christians are positive people and should try to see the glass as half full.
3. Reconciliation and forgiveness are part of the Christian life, as we have been reconciled and forgiven.
4. Don't play the Authority Card in reconciling a relationship either directly or as a third party. These Authority Cards include Pastor, Husband, and Employer.
5. Be willing to offer restitution or help out in any way you can as Paul did when he offered to pay for anything Onesimus owed Philemon.

When the message was over NO ONE clapped. I guess not cheering for the message is standard practice, instead one of the elders got up and led a closing prayer.

I enjoyed it...

Is it fair to say that these men handled the scriptures carefully?

This Sunday I slept in, missed church, and didn't even feel guilty about it...

This doesn't have anything to do with church attendance at all. I just have to tell what just happened to me though. Bare with me.

A girl (woman now) from our old BS church just called me. My memory of her is when she was a teenager of course. She's in her early 30's now.

She told me how much our example and of course others example helped form her very formative years. Now that she is a 'woman' she would like to know what happened to change our church and split up relationships. WOW! Sorry for that word. I can't think of a better one.

She also wanted to know if we would be interested in getting together with some of her friends from the church and talk about it. She pointed out that none of them know anything at all. It's something they would like to understand.......now that they are women!

I can't tell you in words how thrilled I am to hear that and to actually get together with them. Not to slime anyone but telling the truth should not do that. Should it?

She told me her memory of our church was that we loved one another. Honestly, that is my memory. Also my heart felt pain when I think of how we ended up separated.

Another thing she asked of me was would we be willing to meet with her parents. Of course we would! I can't describe how much I want this to happen. Her parents stayed in gg and we left. They continued to serve selflessly in a branch ministry until something happened and now they are out.

My point is- to me, this is church. This is redemption and reconciliation. This is where I want to live. This is how I want to be known.

Fortunately, this is going to happen for us. We will get together with the young teens from our church who are now in their 30's and we will get together with this girls parents. I KNOW it will be good. I feel confident about that.

Right now, church services don't do much for me. This does.

Lee,

I'm not the weepy type, but I'm just about in tears to hear this.

AB

That's great, Lee.

Hodeuon

It is better to have a close circle of Christian friends to fellowship with you, support you, and accept you as Christ created you than to regularly attend with a large group in a building with a steeple where nobody really wants to get to know you or support your needs or accept you as you are. Having a good church home is a great blessing but having a bad church home is worse than not having one at all!!!

The best thing about the other churches I've been a part of is that none of them completely brainwashed people to worship the pastors as some infallible go-betweens with absolute delegated authority between people and the risen Christ. None of them carried such an "us versus them" attitude to the rest of the body of Christ like their group had a monopoly on truth and the rest of Christians didn't know much at all. Some were quite grace oriented and didn't put extraBiblical rules on people. People were allowed to think for themselves and hold viewpoints that differed from the pastor's without being persecuted for it in some of the churches as well. And none of them used their pulpits as a platform to openly spread lies about people to turn others against them.

However, while I still believe there's some good churches out there, they can be very hard to find sometimes. While none of the other churches I've attended we're cultic like GGWO, there were plenty of other problems. Many were very legalistic with their own sets of extra-Biblical rules. Quite a few of the pastors were power hungry (not to the extreme of CHS) and rejected people that disagreed with them. They also encouraged their insider groupies to reject those who disagreed with them as well. There was often a clique system in the churches were people had to fit in and be cool and conforming enough in order to get attention and "love". People with deep emotional scars, demonic problems or other serious needs were often rejected and ignored instead of helped. One extremely depressed lady in a past church of mine was ignored and neglected by the church so much that she snapped and commited suicide. Of course the pastor whitewashed the whole thing and then this person was quickly and quietly forgotten. In another case, a pastor looked the other way when one of his biggest tithers was continually abusing his son leaving suspicious bruises on him that the youth leader noticed. When the pastor refused to intervene for the boy and hindered chances to further investigate the incidents, the youth leader quit the church in protest. The pastor valued his money over kids in his own church!!!

As far as doctrinal issues go, many false teachings exist in churches today. One paramount heresy is the teaching that a truly born again Christian can lose his/her salvation and ultimately end up in Hell if he/she doesn't get re-saved in time. Either salvation is by grace alone or it isn't. There is no such thing as someone getting saved by grace and then having to stay saved by works. Either salvation is a grace system all the way through or it isn't. At least CHS had that one right even if he twisted it into a license to sin. The Prodigal Son backslid into some really nasty sin but was always still a son. He came back to his father and was welcomed back as a son who was a son all along. Jesus plainly taught that His followers would never die and nobody could pluck them out of His hand. More of course could be said about all that. But sadly, quite a few churches believe that Christians can lose their salvation by not following Christ closely enough or failing to meet some other works criteria. Often these churches are not up front about these teachings and it can take months to find out what they really believe on this issue sometimes. Churches like that are the ones I don't want to waste my time with. Unfortunately late last April, I found out my home church was one of those types of churches. I have not gone back there since!!! For now, I'm not attending any church but will attend again at some point in the future. I'm not in a big hurry and would rather do more thorough research before settling down in any church in the future. To me, having close fellowship with close Christian friends that will stand by you no matter what is much more important.

Lee,
that's good news to hear and I'm with you on it being "church".

That's real and live.

Incense on the alter for that rejoining of "members in particular".

Good news, really good news.

Great testimony Lee. You're truly doing the right thing. God bless your efforts.

SIDETHORN

The church embodies a radically peculiar social order that incorporates vastly dissimilar people.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/june/22.50.html

Great Story Lee, I hope you'll let us know how it turns out.

6-22-08

People were late, no one yelled at them...

Speaker was a former US Senate Chaplain. The subject was prayer. (Do all Presbyterians sound like D.James Kennedy? lol.)

"It has to happen TO You before it can happen THROUGH you."

"Be a source of encouragement to those you are praying for."

And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

Hi guys,

sorry for my bad english, i did not need to use it in the last years.

I came to christ on one of the european GGWO/TBS conventions in Arnhem NL, was is 83? I had great years. I left the church for personal reasons in 1993. I went back here to the normal world here in europe, studied, learned, worked, lived my life for the last 15 years now.

And now with all the expierience,education,success, after all, i still have a big need for this lost community i´ve had. I NEVER found anything like it again!

Mindcontrol , may be
Cult may be...

I plan to visit a IAGM church one day... and may return.
Do not judge me for that ,sorry but that is the way Iam!

God bless Sabrina

PS
Pastor passed...., life is so short. Do somebody knows how ist Pa. Robinson doing?

Sabrina, nice to hear from you. Scott Robinson is working for a law enforcement agency in southwest Florida. I believe he's a sheriff's deputy.

Our pastor spoke on the need for vacations this Sunday. There has been a lot of activity in the church with vacation Bible school and other things and he encouraged people to take some time for their families as well.

Hallo Mace!

It good to hear that he is still fine, thank you mace! Sheriff Deputy, thats so funny,really !... I guess in the states is that huge change quit normal :-)))

thank you and BE BLESSED

Sabrina