Replies

I have the book and I mostly agree with it. Plus, having to dress up and wear a necktie makes it seem like another day at the office.

My ideal church would meet outdoors on a mountain top or by a babbling brook full of bass, tout and/or catfish.

It would be about 80% music and 20% sermonizing and last about half an hour. Sort of like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir program Music and the Spoken Word. I always come away from that program feeling uplifted and they don't pass a collection plate. They just need to move the venue outdoors. But there is enough outdoor scenery on the program to give me the general feel.

Many of the things in this article ring true for me. I was brought up Baptists and went to church every Sunday as well as Bible Study (then called Youth Group) on Wednesday nights. My church also participated in summer camp for boys. During the summer, my brother and I would go to camp for two full weeks. It was a Christian camp and we had our Bibles with us but there was also a lot of other activities like swimming, archery (yes, archery), hiking, canoeing, wood carving with pocket knives, and other things that would never be done at summer camp today on account of it needing to be "safe" and accessible for girls as well. Back then, there was no girls at this camp.

All that changed when I became an adult. I married a Catholic girl and went to her church with her for a while, but a lot about the church turned me off. There was a ritual in the 1980s that Catholics put in place (sign of peace?) that involved you holding or shaking hands of everybody around you during a prayer or hymn which just did not sit well with me. I kind of faded from the church scene after that. Doesn't make me any less of a Christian however.

My ideal church would meet outdoors on a mountain top or by a babbling brook full of bass, tout and/or catfish.

Jesus was big on taking his disciples sailing, fishing, hiking in the wilderness, climbing up high mountains apart... all the outdoor guy stuff.

The Messiah just might get lost in... Cabela's!

Plus, having to dress up and wear a necktie makes it seem like another day at the office.

When wife and I were looking for a new church; I dressed like this to visit them.

The church we finally stayed with is quite casual.

I told the SS group we entered the first day that I felt kinda OVER dressed!

Why did we stay there?

It was the one that preached the most bible and had a quite active outreach.

Yeah; it's got the newstyle music and lyrics and I sorely miss the old hymns; but I'm one of the 99.

Them lost sheep have no clue what us old coots were brought up with.