Posted on 01/16/2016 8:51:09 PM PST by TBP
“It’s hard to demonstrate love from the institution now,†says Jimmy Wolfe, a pastor and married father of four who lives near Atlanta. “But in a relationship, I can live out love: If I have an opinion about same-sex marriage, and I’m talking with someone who has same-sex attraction, then I’m able to figure out what’s in their heart.... And I can share what I think God shows me in Scripture, and be open to go on a journey with them whether I’m right or I’m wrong.â€
Mr. Wolfe left the institutional setting of church but still ministers to people in informal settings – coffee shops, gatherings at his home, and through his relationships in the inner city of Atlanta, where he visits a former foster son and his family regularly.
Some people say that institutions aren’t working for them because of a lack of open debate about beliefs.
“We found time and again that people were leaving not because they couldn’t find agreement – in fact, many were leaving because they couldn’t find disagreement,†says Packard, who recently published “Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People Are DONE With Church but Not Their Faith.†“They would tell us that God is bigger than any one person can understand. How can I possibly understand God and hear just one perspective?â€
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Because they’ve met Fundamentalist?
I’d say the churches are well rid of guys like that. He couldn’t deal with ‘jumping through hoops’.
Some fundamentalists can be very annoying. They get in your face. They will not listen to anyone. All that does is turn people off.
Some fundamentalists can be very annoying. They get in your face. They will not listen to anyone. All that does is turn people off.
Churches need standards. There is right and wrong and the churches need to make a stand for righteousness. Embracing human evil is not righteousness. This includes the human evil of communism.
I used to believe in the whole “fundamentalist” game.
But it is all about attacking Christianity.
Secular fundamentalism does not get attacked in our society.
Sexual fundamentalism does not get attacked in our society.’
those folks get in our faces every day— no problem.
Those New York Values are much celebrated and forced on us daily.
Jesus established the church. His Scriptures indicate we are to be part of a local community of believers who gather regularly for worship.
Christ followers who are serious about being in Him will.
I’m Assembly of God old school and the new church when we moved was totally youth orientated, they have moved to all these choruses that the youth like, noting for Seniors. Preacher preaches Love, Peace, GIVE. No songs for seniors, no programs, no preaching on Salvation, End Times in Revelations. No preaching on Sin. No Altar calls. No talking about the Holy Ghost or Spirit. No come to Jesus. No one talked to new people.
Everything is youth centered. And when he said NOT to get up to go to the RR during service I had to quit going. I have a very bad back, and a digestive disorder that sends you to the RR frequently Gastroparesis..Slow Motility, means you are either puking, or going at the other end. I was supposed to sit there and mess on myself? Or puke in the isle? We sat in the last row for that reason. I don’t think so. I’d say the church left me. Not that I left it. Been a year, not one sick call from the preacher.
I got little out of those services. I get more from reading the Bible than what he preached.
“”I didn’t want them to see walking with God as a relationship of jumping through hoops – that it was about behavioral management or sin management.””
That’s not how I would have described it. Lets just say the day I turned 18 I ran for the door like the building was on fire, I could not get away from those people fast enough.
I left for the opposite reason stated in the article, churches celebrating same sex unions and abortion.
Those cited in the article who left should not act all surprised that churches (until very very recently) didn’t celebrate sin.
“Everything is youth centered.”
Yea and that will backfire in the long run. Churches do this thinking if you bring in the kids they will be lifelong members. They also do this to try to encourage kids to get their parents to come. Really though I think a lot of parents just drop them off for free baby sitting. What ends up happening is the kids throw away “that religious stuff” like they toss out their Barbies and Transformer toys in the dumpster when they are older teens. Who the church should be targeting is the men. Men (are suppose) to bring the family to church, not children encouraging them parents to come.
“And when he said NOT to get up to go to the RR during service I had to quit going.”
I would have puked just once in the isle before I left just to get back at them.
There is no such thing as Christianity without the church. Just formed the Church and called it his church. Paul says Christ loved the church.
These complainers are simply people who want to have it their way only
I left my church. It was a very difficult thing to do.They no longer have God’s word and the Bible’s best interests in mind.
It’s evolved with the times and it has forgotten its roots. Love the sin, love the sinner. Go along to get along.
There are some interesting points of view in the article. The concerns the people raise shouldn’t be dismissed. However, they all seemed to share an essential self-focus ... I, me, my ... that I think is a key to their choice to disaffiliate from religious institutions.
I think just about all of them could find “solutions” to their issues in a variety of Christian congregations. However, it’s much less complicated simply to decide to be the Church of Me, including only those whom the individual finds it easy to include.
Americans have left the church for 1 main reason:
It was taken over by Marxists years ago!
The Church has become feminine... the pastors, preachers, and priests to a large degree have been emasculated. No one wants to sit through an hour or two of masses listening to boring liberals that make no judgements on society!
The Churches need to become more manly, much more conservative, and much more traditional.
You don’t have to join the fan club to enjoy the music.
I went non-denominational years ago. Focus on the Bible (Old Covenant for foundation and prelude and New Covenant for what we live under today) and never missing a chance to raise Jesus in our hearts beats all the extraneous bits and pieces of all the religions that base themselves on Christianity but also think they have a lock on the deal - no matter how they must invent/twist Biblical “truths’ to support their specific stance. The Bible was God/Holy Spirit inspired and religions are man-made constructs that have many Old Covenant type demands on the parishioners (reminds me of Paul in Galatians telling the folks how they have fallen from Grace by trying to live under the old rules despite the message of Jesus’ sacrifice ....)
I left major denominations about 25 years ago and started attending Bible Churches. It seemed that the major denominations started preaching on social issues rather than the word of God and got away from mankind’s relationship with God. A lot of their sermons were sending the wrong messages, that you are saved by acts rather than grace and that Bible teachings should be changed to reflect current morals. Funny how they would accept the Bible as God’s word then seek to rewrite it with their words.
This article is disinformation. Most of the people who have left “church” have done so because the church does not hold strong to the faith. The churches losing the most members are the ones that have substituted leftist politics for the Gospel. Most importantly, they have become pro-abortion, pro-homosexual ‘marriage,’ embrace policies that create more single mothers and are generall anti-family, the cornerstone of society. They have more or less abandoned God and put fallen men and women in His place.
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