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 ...
Scripture is not a symbol.
And you make my point for me - no one worships the Scriptures, but they do use them in worship. Just as no one worships a crucifix, but they do use crucifixes in worship.
There is also the matter that for 99+% of Christians in this country, the Scriptures are a double representation of reality - they use English and Spanish representations of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words which are themselves representations of underlying realities.
We wouldn’t have Christianity without scripture.
None of the symbols, totems or idols are necessary. As a matter of fact idolatry is strictly prohibited.
Awesome movie! I happen to agree with him. No need for ostentatious decor. Jesus was a simple man and His Word "bling" to be heard.
Completely agree!!! I have recently had a running "conversation" with another freeper who thought it was disgusting that communion was passed out to 3 million people in Brazil in plastic cups. I thought it was incredibly wonderful that 3 million people were celebrating Jesus! I'm for substance rather than "ceremony".
ROFL!!
Cowboy churches were home churches before the “Home Church Movement” became cool.
Most cowboys were family men with families back east. Their role as cowboys served to get them capital for land and a starter herd and to learn the business of ranching. They were not just drifters.
Church was provided for those who spent most of their time on the range. If they were in at the ranch the service would be held in the barn in cold weather.
The history of these churches stretches back a long way...150-200 years or so.
Paul has a slightly different take on what we should be doing 1 Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
It depends on the disposition of the person praying, and that can't be discerned from mere observation.
The scriptures began to be written about 21 years after the Resurrection, the last book was not finished until about 40 years later. The Canon was not ordered until 393 at the council of Hippo and confirmed in 397 at the council of Carthage.
Are you really trying to say that we didn't have Christianity till 21, 40+, 360+ years after Christ's resurrection? Were the apostles able to preach Christ with out a Bible in their hands?
To a degree, I agree with this article. At the same time, I see absolutely nothing wrong with excited, loud, exuberant worship. Contemporary music is, by and large, a combination of new tunes with scripture at its core and old faithful hymns in a more exuberant key.
I’ve wondered about the separation of the young from the old in worship, and really am inclined to have five and up in the regular worship service. Parents should have something in their lives that forces them to practice making their kids behave. The kids need to have the worship of the church engraved in their memories.
I don’t have problems with youth groups, and in fact think that they’ve been around far longer than the contemporary music scene. Our young are going to group together with SOMEONE, whether school, sports, or community. I’d prefer they were in a church youth group.
That group, of course, should teach respect and honor for parents and the elderly. Any hint of conceit by ANY group in the church is a sign of a problem.
There is a “Freedom Biker Church” near here, on the U.S. Highway. I have no idea what their worship or preaching is like, but one can see the value of a church where bikers, both locals and those passing through, know they’ll be accepted.
Bikers come into our Catholic parish sometimes, too, and the “Hey, cool!” responses far outnumber the “Oh dears.”
“Any 2 or 3 can hold service in a living room or backyard on Wednesday night and it is no less “church” than Sunday morning in the building with others.
Completely agree!!!”
You agree with the others you’ve addressed in the above post? You agree with them that a priest is not necessary to offer a Mass or to consecrate the Sacred Species? That a living room meeting with “any 2 or 3” is no less than the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
Do you even go to Sunday Masses?
I NEVER said that a priest wasn't necessary for Mass. I agreed with that statement that a church isn't a building but IS 2 or more people worshiping together.
And NO, I don't go to Mass - I'm no longer a Catholic. However, I do go to church every Sunday. And, I'm in more than one Bible study and very active in my church.
“And NO, I don’t go to Mass - I’m no longer a Catholic.”
Thanks! That’s all I needed to know. You’re in my prayers.
it isn't....it is a visual reminder of what Christ has done for you and on your behalf....the picture that you have of your mom isn't an idol either....it is a reminder of what she looked like and a reminder of who she was....that's all...
sure you are.....not a good one, but a Catholic nevertheless...get your act together and return home.....welcome back. This is where you belong and you know it.
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