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What's So Uncool About Cool Churches
The Gospel Side ^ | September 23, 2012 | Matt Marino

Posted on 08/12/2013 5:32:45 PM PDT by luvie

Unintended Consequences: How the “relevant” church and segregating youth is killing Christianity.

I recently spent six-months doing a rotation as a hospital chaplain. One day I received a page (Yes, hospitals actually still use pagers). Chaplains are generally called to the rooms of people who look ill: People gray with kidney disease, or yellow with liver failure, discouraged amputees, nervous cancer patients. In this room, however, was a strikingly attractive 23 year-old young lady sitting up cheerfully in the hospital bed, holding her infant daughter and chatting with family and friends.

Confused, I stepped outside and asked her nurse, “Why did I get paged to her room?”

“Oh, she looks fabulous. She also feels great and is asking to go home,” the nurse said.

“…And you are calling me because?” I asked in confusion.

The nurse looked me directly in the eye and said: “Because we will be disconnecting her from life support in three days and you will be doing her funeral in four.”

The young lady had taken too much Tylenol. She looked and acted fine. She even felt fine, but she was in full-blown liver failure. She was dying and couldn’t bring herself to accept the diagnosis.

Today I have the sense that we are at the same place in the church. The church may look healthy on the outside, but it has swallowed the fatal pills. The evidence is stacking up: the church is dying and, for the most part, we are refusing the diagnosis.

(Excerpt) Read more at thegospelside.com ...


TOPICS: General Discusssion; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture; Worship
KEYWORDS: christianity; churches; disciples; ministry; worship; youth
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To: LUV W

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

A rabbi, a mufti and a Scientologist walk into a church...


41 posted on 08/12/2013 6:47:56 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: Revolting cat!

HAHAHA!


42 posted on 08/12/2013 6:50:23 PM PDT by eyedigress ((zOld storm chaser from the west)/ ?s)
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To: Revolting cat!

LOL! :D


43 posted on 08/12/2013 6:52:13 PM PDT by luvie (All my heroes wear camos! Thank you David, Michael, Chris Txradioguy, JJ, CMS, & ALL of you heroes!)
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To: SADMILLIE
This isn't about "legalism."

"Cool" churches see the frightening specter of dreaded "legalism" in more corners than even the older denominations do.

If the "cool" churches have inherited anything fronm older churches it is the paranoid fear of "legalism."

44 posted on 08/12/2013 7:04:04 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: esoxmagnum

Willow Creek is mentioned in the article. We’ve got a church kind of like that where I live but not so political. Several campuses; a thousand teens every Wednesday night; endless programs. They seem to hide the fact that they are Southern Baptists and give almost nothing to support any other Baptist organizations. We visited on Easter with some friends and in addition to one of the worst, most vacant sermons I’ve ever heard on any Sunday there was nothing I would call worship.


45 posted on 08/12/2013 7:04:09 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: GeronL

Is a word a symbol?


46 posted on 08/12/2013 7:06:25 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: warsaw44
It's one of the more “popular” suicide methods among young teenagers without access to prescription drugs.

If the anti-poisen measures are not given soon enough, between 15 - 20 pills taken at one time, will cause death, due to liver failure.

47 posted on 08/12/2013 7:06:29 PM PDT by sarasmom (The obvious takes longer to discover for the obtuse.)
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To: wideawake

A word is a word.


48 posted on 08/12/2013 7:09:07 PM PDT by GeronL
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To: GeronL
A word is a symbol.

It is an agreed-upon set of sounds (spoken) or images (written) intended to represent or refer to something real.

The written string of symbols: "s t o n e" is not itself a stone, nor is the verbal pronunciation of those symbols in sounds instead of writing a stone either.

They are both symbols that refer to either an actual stone or a concept that is symbolized by using those characters or sounds.

49 posted on 08/12/2013 7:15:33 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: warsaw44

It happened to my wife at age 36. She was on some medication containing aceitominophin and took Tylenol on top of that. She, fortunately, did not damage her basil cells and her liver regenerated. Its probably better than mine. No, she isn’t a drinker nor a pill popper. She will never touch pain medication again. Some people may have various assumptions when it came to her particular overdose ... I can assure you that it didnt involve any abusive amount. It was the single most terrifying experience we lived through to date.

Some people cannot process that drug. Its a very low percentage of the population. Tylenol overdoses do happen though. I had a flashback to that week reading this article ... I feel for that young woman they described.

The symptoms are similar to so many different illnesses. Her’s were flu like. The strange part was that she seemed disoriented. I took her to the ER ... They ran tests and eventually saw that her liver enzymes were high. At that point, she was jaundice and unable to recognize anyone. She was rushed to intensive care. They were able to neutralize the Tylenol in her system with an antidote. She was put into a coma. They had her on a transplant list at that point. They saw her enzyme count drop after a few hours.

I wish I could go into more details, but I cannot type well on my phone. I just wanted to convey that it can happen and the victim may not necessarily be abusing the medication. Fortunately for her, she made a 100% recovery.


50 posted on 08/12/2013 7:17:28 PM PDT by edh (I need a better tagline)
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To: warsaw44

I always thought Tylenol was so harmless it can’t cure anything, even a headache. That’s why doctors and hospitals prescribe it like candy because they know it won’t lead to lawsuits and the placebo effect usually gives them the results they need.

I think the only way you can die from Tylenol was for someone to tamper with the bottle, which was what led to all the special packaging after someone around 1980 started poisoning bottles and then putting them back on the shelves.


51 posted on 08/12/2013 7:21:18 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Howdy to all you government agents spying on me.)
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To: warsaw44

Also, in the case of my wife, it was an accumulation of the drug in her system vs. taking an overdose. I’m difficult to live with, but not that bad :-). Hopefully a doctor familiar with the drug that resides on FR can provide more insight.


52 posted on 08/12/2013 7:22:16 PM PDT by edh (I need a better tagline)
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To: LUV W

The charismatics have infiltrated our church and have taken control of the music every other week. I don’t go to church to be ool; therefore, I don’t need Guitar Zhero from the choir loft. I hope our new bishop stifles them.


53 posted on 08/12/2013 7:27:41 PM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: warsaw44

A friends daughter took a dozen when she was a freshman in college. She nearly died and has suffered from liver disease ever since. Liver damage is the most widely known effect of Tylenol abuse.


54 posted on 08/12/2013 7:37:29 PM PDT by pgkdan (Marco Rubio can go straight to hell!)
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To: mylife

Cowboy churches are quite common in Texas and they are nearly all very conservatve.

There is a long history of these churches in the West.


55 posted on 08/12/2013 7:38:11 PM PDT by buffaloguy
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To: warsaw44

Happens everyday. That is why max dose is 3 grams per day.


56 posted on 08/12/2013 7:39:40 PM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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To: mylife
Then there are all the Cowboy Churches

There is a Cowboy Church in Meeteetse, Wyoming right where I was born in 1939.

My dad Sold the place about 1950.

57 posted on 08/12/2013 7:46:44 PM PDT by Dan(9698)
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To: Hot Tabasco

Coming Home Network



58 posted on 08/12/2013 7:48:28 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: yellowhorse; Hot Tabasco

The way our Protestant denomination puts it, we display an empty cross instead of a crucifix because “He is Risen”.


59 posted on 08/12/2013 7:51:21 PM PDT by ntnychik
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To: abigail2

I love you man. Jesus died for your sins—past present and future. Give me a list of the things you think you must do to be saved, First, read John 3:16 — then we’ll talk


60 posted on 08/12/2013 7:51:41 PM PDT by SADMILLIE (r)
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