Posted on 04/01/2018 2:39:09 AM PDT by EliRoom8
I am relocating in a few months and would like to live in Southern California. It could be almost anywhere -- Santa Barbara to Temecula. The one **attraction** I am after is to find an evangelical (and Bible teaching) church with a choir, no entertainment, no band nor drum set on stage. Maybe, even a place where the pastor-teacher wears a tie and slacks, not jeans and a t-shirt.
Seriously --- Am I hoping for too much?
You’re right on that.
I live in a small resort town in the mountains of Oregon and the only preachers that wear ties are the dwindling Missionary Baptist churches.
The growing, Evangelical churches all teach the Bible, and are strict in its preaching, but they wear jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes, like everyone else in town.
They also use electric guitars and drums.
It’s just like Paul being Greek to the Greeks, Roman tro the Romans, etc.
There’s an Orthodox Presbyterian church here in town, and the pastor believes the Old testament law still applies.
He thinks disobedient sons should be put to death, that astrologers and psychics should be put to death, that adulterers should be put to death and that pagan religions like Islam and Hinduism should be banned.
I think he’s totally mistaken in that belief.
It is simply the reality of a changing culture, and becoming all things to reach some.
And the former culture is dying out slowly.
It is very possible to find traditional churches, but there are shrinking.
We began attending a church that was culturally relevant and biblically accurate and growing.
When we joined, it had one location and 5-6,000 members.
Just 10 years later, 10 locations and 16,000.
When they hold baptism (quarterly), typically 100 or more get baptized. Old, young, pierced, tattooed, former addicts, people who had grown up in churches but drifted away. It is amazing to hear their testimonies and see God at work.
Wow, that’s really neat!
Glad to hear that.
Ed
I see it everywhere.
Churches that are biblically accurate, but culturally irrelevant, are shrinking.
Churches that are biblically weak, but culturally relevant are social clubs.
Churches that are biblically weak and culturally irrelevant are dying.
Churches that are biblically strong and culturally relevant are growing.
There is a lesson there.
Nothing wrong with staying within your own cultural preferences, but God is moving in new wine skins these days.
It is neat and a blessing to witness. Is it perfect? No church ever is. God is using it.
I assume you’d favor someone showing up at the Oval Office dressed like this.
My Mom was a protestant before someone invited her into a Benediction service that changed her life immensely.
I guess that really upset you :( Maybe you should avoid these kind of threads if they get you so worked up.
I would look at their webpages and see what their statement of faith states. If they believe the Westminster Confession or Baptist Confession you most likely (but not necessarily) will find a good church. But, sad to say, you’re going have to look hard to find a church that teaches sound doctrine.
I agree. It’s really sad to see how many church goers would never deign to wear sloppy clothing to greet the President, but feel it’s perfectly fine to assemble in slovenly attire on Sundays. These are of the same stripe who so lowly regarded the Lord that they justified shoddy, diseased sacrifices in OT.
And some people get Mormonic heartburn when the read the BOM. If that does not get you upset then you do not care about whether souls glorify God or about their eternal state. I do, by the grace of God, if not as much as i should, but thus contend against such false gospels and elitist "one true" churches, Rome being the most manifest. By any ways promoting it then you are being provocative and should expect challenges.
This is one of my pet peeves. I wore a tie to Maundy Thursday service and was asked why I was wearing a tie. I retorted that if Christ could take the time to die for me then the least I could do would be to wear a tie to His Last Supper commenmeration service.
Were you upset and provoked(triggered?) into "challenging" my comments because they gave you Catholonic heartburn about the souls that I merely invited to "stop in" at one of about six hundred places in California where Jesus Our Lord, God, Creator and Savior is worshiped truly present in the Eucharist by at least one person, in some of those places twenty four hours each day every day almost three hundred and sixty five days each year, year after year?
I would be sincerely surprised if any casual observer would consider that what you are attempting to do here on FR in any way rises from farce to the level of challenge but by all means "contend" away.
Thank you for honoring the Lord with that outward expression. God bless you.
You could have nicely invited him to a seance and it would have likewise warranted warning as a matter of care and,doctrine, and you also provided a link to more delusion.
Yet this would have normally ended at my one response, but it was you has been are triggered into a series of protestations.
I can understand how Catholics can be offended at things that attacks their church, but they need to appreciate that they are defending and or seeking to induce souls to be part of a elitist church which historically has consigned souls such as me to the Lake of Fire , and even in her modern incarnation rejects our churches as being worthy of that proper name.
I would be sincerely surprised if any casual observer would consider that what you are attempting to do here on FR in any way rises from farce to the level of challenge but by all means "contend" away.
The casual observer is typically ignorant and needs to be educated, and thank God we have a forum which enables that, despite the censorious elitists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.