Monday, August 01, 2005
The Future
The young men led the worship service at Dalraida c of C last night and it was a truly heartening experience. They led singing (which they need a little help with), read scripture, said prayers, carried the Lord's Supper, and gave reports on their mission trip to Jacksonville, FL. Afterward, I went up to Brian Wakefield, the youth minister (who some of you might remember from Faulkner...he married Liz Compton, Melanie's and Alison's younger sis). I just had to let him know how much I appreciated his hard work with those young guys. Young men and women are the future of the church. It was just awesome to see them in action and know that the church's future is bright!
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Or as someone once said to me as a young lad, the youth group isn't only the future of the church, but it's present.
Glad to see the young men at Dalraida doing so well.
Indeed, well said, my friend. We are all its present and future. Thanks for the encouragement!
I just hope none of them grow up to start a community church... which seems to be the going trend among some of my friends... none of which I will name here...
Oy! Yeah, everyone wants to do something "new". "New" of course, means reading other guys' books instead of reading the Bible. Folks start to think that the Bible isn't new enough so they delve into the other junk to get something "new" when all they write iss rehashed junk that the Bible already warned against! The saddest thing is that they don't realize that the Bible isn't old or new, it's eternal and unending as the Word who was with God in the beginning and is God...Nothing can beat it...it's all we need for life and godliness!
Speaking of the future and liberal churches. We ended up staying in G-berg the other night and when I got up Sunday morning I looked down from the breezeway to a lady who had Joel Olsten’s book sitting next to her as she sat watching the river just below her. Upon further inspection I realized that instead of reading this “godly mans’” book she was lighting a cigarette and playing video poker. Though being one to point out the ironic in most situations, including my own, because we had not planned on staying over night we skipped church because all of our clothing was a bit ripe and not worship appropriate. Leaving the hotel I noticed I had some trouble driving, it seems I had a giant plank in my eye.
Maybe it's that black stripe across your face, man. Gotta be hard to see past that! J/K, of course. Yeah, man...I agree that hypocrisy comes in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Everyone is prone to it and it's wrong no matter what. I'm just as weak and vulnerable as the next guy. We gotta be careful and watch for those wolves, though man...
Maybe I've been in France too long, but what's a community church?
It's the new non-denominational fad that some coCers are falling for. There are lots of guys out there writing books that are the "gospel according to them" and drawing in people with "post-modern" garbage that's been espoused since the first century. Mullins posted something about Rick Warren and others who have been leading this phenomena. It's a "buy my book" religion as far as I can tell.
Funny thing, I called Tyree, my friend in los angeles, and told her all about it and she had never heard of them either. It is a southern thing. We decided that it is because in the south, most c of c-ers that grew up in the church are bored with it. OR that they want to read more into the Bible that isnt even there. And seeking out something new.
New christians look at the Bible and see it for what it is; simple.
20-somethings who grew up in the church look at the Bible and say "It must mean something else."
I think you're right, Jamison. Although, I can't imagine ever getting bored with the Bible. That's just me, though. You had mentioned that coming up with a more readable, yet accurate, version would be helpful to people. There are MANY versions out there. Of course, these bookselling evangelists are writing their own idea of what they think things mean. I call it "Peewee Hermeneutics".
Alright, I'm still confused. CofC is "non denominational" and what's the problem with having a service in a home? I'm sure they venture off scripturally, I'm just curious as to where.
I didn't know "home church" was mentioned in here. Nothing wrong with that. They did it in the early church, too. Being non-denom is good, in my opinion. I guess you're talking about another post. Anyway, if you're talking about Jeremy Walden's thing, it's the philosophy behind it that concerns me. It seems to be more about starting the "church of Jeremy Walden" based not on Biblical priciples, but other guys' books. Thats the trend I see across all the blogs of these guys I have been seeing. They base all their studies on other guys' books rather than the Bible. This is what I called "Peewee Hermeneutics". Hermeneutics are principles used for analyzing scripture (e.g. taking things in context, knowing the difference between literal and figurative language, comparing OT and NT prophecy for the fullness of meaning, etc.) These guys are doing no such thing. Their study consists of, "Hey, man! Did you read this guy's book? It said the Earth's gonna be God's homeinstead of Heaven...cool, huh?!?!?!" That's bull, man! What bothers me is their approach to scripture, or lack thereof. The Bible tells us to approach scripture from the inside out instead of the outside in. If we are constantly applying someone else's ideas to scripture and not building our own faith from the inside out, we're gonna get lost in the clouds of flawed human perspective. That's dangerous.
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