Getting yo "Jesus freak" on

Thought it was funny... Anytime the word "Holy" is used in the same line as "Hip Hop" ya gotta crack a grin.

This is a banner for the church next door to ours. It no doubt makes visitors of our church cock their heads in wonderment as to the style of worship we have at Dalraida.... thinking the sign is for us.

Exodus 20:3

I had my alarm set to radio today and I woke up to a news story that a top scientist at NASA had come to a conclusion that global warming just isn't something we should really worry about. He said this in an NPR interview.

In what would seem like seconds in the media world, PR officials at NASA scrambled to save face. A NASA official said of his statement: "It was a shocking statement because of the level of ignorance it indicated with regard to the current situation. He seemed unaware that 170 nations agreed that climate change is a serious problem with enormous repercussions, and that many people will suffer if it is not addressed." ... Wow, nations agreed that it was a problem... If just agreeing on something makes it fact, maybe we can get 100 people to agree that I am a rich Kentucky Colonel surrounded by beautiful southern women in tight corsets.

This made me think back on how so many Hollywood elite, or mainstream leftist politicians act when real live SCIENTISTS downplay the global warming issue; They react with, in many cases quite literally, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why? If they are so against global warming and want the "problem" to be gone, why not say "HOORAY!!!" when a scientist says it ain't a problem? If people were dying all over the earth and the cause of death was a rise in the earths temperature by 1 degree, then I would say it is a problem, but so far, other than some smog in busy cities (which is being decreased) I don't see the problem... and apparently, neither do alot of scientist WAY smarter than me, and certainly smarter than alor of actors in Hollywood. I mean, forget the fact that during the so called "Ice Age" scientists agree that the glaciers melted on their own... without one jet flown by the Clintons and without one Hummer being driven by Sly Stallone.

This post isn't really focused on my opinion, but rather my common sense views, but even more so on the fact that we have a new religion in this world. Environmentalism. Don't get me wrong. I don't litter, I drive cars with pretty good gas mileage, and I hate oil spills. But think of it this way. In your mind, describe your reaction when you, a God-fearing person who believes in their heart of hearts that God created this earth in 7 days about 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Now, someone tells you "Creation didn't happen." or "The earth is millions of years old." Let us say these men who tell you these things are scientists... WAY smarter than you. Do you believe them? Of course not. What if a handful or real scientists (Not affiliated with a church) say that they have found record of a worldwide flood thousands of years ago? Or say they have found that the earth actually is no more than 10,000 years old. You probably would hoop and scream for joy and hold those scientist upon your shoulders. Why? Because what they say goes along with what you believe religiously.

So go back to the environmentalism church. They react the same way when a scientist says something that goes against their belief. In truth, they kind of WANT the world to be at risk. Once the world is safe, they no longer have any work to worship. They want to be little gods who are responsible for mankind and the earth.

Going back to an earlier example. Let us say that you love steak. You don't worship steak, you just like to eat it. Now you are eating a steak and watching TV when a panel of scientists come on and say "Do not eat steaks bought a week or less ago, there is a strain of bacteria in all cows used to make steaks recently." Well, you may put your fork down and stop eating. You may even finish that steak, wipe your mouth off, and cross "Steak" off your shopping list for next week until the scare goes away. However, if perhaps you were a "Steakist" and believed that all steaks were good for you, and you found a few scientists that felt that the bacteria wasn't dangerous to humans, you' would keep eating steak and worship it by anointing it with A1 steak sauce.

I don't really want to stir up a political or social discussion, I just couldn't help but notice that a large sect of certain political leaders and alot of Hollywood folks (who say you should save the world by only wiping with "one square of toilet paper per day" -Sheryl Crow) may not worship God and may not give a flip about who Jesus is, but ya gotta hand it to them, they do love religion. Which kind of solidifies the idea about human nature; That humans feel some need to worship or have a greater power than them in control.

My opinion; I really don't think us little humans can destroy a earth that God created. Does this mean I am going to test God by trying to trow a bunch of batteries in the trash or dumping my radiator fluid down the storm drain? Never. I just think the destruction of the earth is on God's watch, not in our hands.

Why Can't Church Do That?

I've had this one in the back of my mind for a while, but it resurfaced today. Our congregation is having a Yard Sale at the building to support the youth group's summer mission trip. Someone asked me about it, and I can not for the life of me figure out what would be wrong with such an event.

I had spoken to the preacher at my last congregation about it after he mentioned it being wrong in a sermon to have a "church sponsored" yard sale. I asked him, "So if we can't have a church wide 'sanctioned' yard sale, can 5 or 10 familys get together to have a yard sale at someone's home and give that money to the church or a special mission trip fund?" He said, "sure." I said, "so what is the difference with the elders saying, 'we support this; bring your stuff; the teens will do the work and keep the proceeds for the mission trip.'?" The basic answer I got was, "It's just different." Sorry, that's not an answer that's a cop-out. I just can't see a difference, nor can I see a Biblical reason why a "Church santioned" yard sale is wrong?

The only example that I can think that could be remotely related in the Bible is the money changers and animal sales in the temple. And the problem there seems to me that people were lining their own pockets. I do not mean to step on toes (and I don't think it really applies), but this would more closely related to selling Mary Kay or Boy Scout Popcorn at Church.

A Precher's Dillema

My father-in-law is a good man. He has been a minister for more than 30 years. He was one of the original missionaries in Sierre Leone, Africa. He has currently been preaching for a small Indiana congregation for at least 15 years. He is sound in doctrine, kind, gentle, and a friend to everyone. He’s always willing to lend a helping hand, and carries a smile for everyone he sees.

He is being fired from his current position and is having great trouble finding a replacement position.

A few months back the elders at his congregation sat him down to tell him they would like him to leave. They were not really explicit as to why. There was something about a couple of members having some issues with him. They weren’t real clear on what that issue was, but it seems more of a personality thing than a doctrinal thing. They also would not say who these people were.

Also they stated they were not happy with the current membership numbers. In fact, they said that they had wanted the attendance to be up by a certain number by the first of this year, and that goal was not met. However, they did not relay this information to the congregation, nor to my father-in-law. They have given him until the end of this month to leave.

All kinds of emotions flair through my system.

If a member has a problem with anyone, let alone a preacher, shouldn’t they have a sit-down? Why wouldn’t the elders bring in this person or persons and let them talk with my father-in-law? They should try to work these things out, before they let him go. We have a hidden feeling, this person, is in fact one of the elders and he’s too chicken to actually talk to my father-in-law.

If an attendance goal was set, why was no one told? There are so many things wrong with it, I get all kinds of pissed. Attendance should not be the only goal of a congregation. Certainly we are told to teach and save the lost. Certainly we should be inviting people to come. But if all we care about is butts in the pew, we may in fact get that, but at what cost? Look to the TV to find giant congregations full of false teaching. Growing the current membership spiritually and brining the lost in by sound doctrine should be the priority.

Seeking and saving is not the duty of just the preacher. If an attendance goal is set, the membership ought to be involved. As Christians we are all to be telling the Good News, not just the preacher. But certainly he ought to be told of this goal. How is anyone expected to reach a goal, if they don’t know what the goal is, or that there even is one.

Even secular work places do better than that.

This Sunday we visited my in-laws and attended services with them. One of the elders announced they had found a new preacher and he would be starting in June. None of the two elders told my father-in-law beforehand. Luckily a kind member had let him know a few days ago, in private, or I don’t know what would have happened. My father-in-law asked the elders if they wanted him out of the preacher’s house now, and they said he has until June, and maybe a little longer because they were “working on something.”

Fifteen years of dedicated service this man has given them, and he’s treated like a dog. What’s the rush? Would the church be hurt if they waited until he was gone to start looking for a replacement? From a business perspective I can understand how you’d want to make the transition quick, and find a replacement quick. I can also understand how you might put the pressure on him to leave so that he won’t stay forever. From a business perspective this makes sense. But this is God’s Church. We are supposed to be better than that. It would be different if he was accused of preaching falsehoods. If he had taught from the pulpit unsound doctrine and led others astray, I can understand kicking him out. But the only reasons given for his departure is that he didn’t bring enough people into the building. That’s no reason to be treated this shoddily.

My mother-in-law told me that none of the elders have even spoken to her. Not just about this situation, but even a hello.

On the other end, he is having great trouble finding another job. He has been to probably 20 congregations and not heard anything good. Almost all of them have directly asked him how old he is (he’s in his 60s) and several have pretty much straight out told him he won’t get the job due to this.

In the secular world, you don’t even ask that question. Not even for jobs that require a great deal of strenuous activity. If you do you’ll get your butt sued for age discrimination. But apparently as Christians we don’t mind a little discrimination. Because, of course, a lifetime of service and experience doesn’t mean anything. Young people straight out of college with little experience will do a better job.
This completely depresses me on the state of the church.

A Good Service

I’m a writing fool today. Sorry for those who get bumped.

Amy and I visited my grandmother the other day in Maryville, Tennessee. While there we attended the Maryville church of Christ. What a joyous thing it was.

The congregation is decent in size, probably around 300 members. This made for a glorious song service. It really is amazing what a few hundred extra members will make in the singing. But beyond just the change is numbers, the member all seemed to truly be singing with joy from their hearts. I hate to sing congregations that don’t really sing, and adore it when everybody gathers together to create a “joyful noise.”

The lesson, likewise was marvelous. The preacher spoke about avoiding temptation, and feeing the devil. He spoke energetically and enthusiastically. He used some examples from current events (some local teens had just been killed in a car accident involving alcohol,) told some personal anecdotes, and made us crack the Book multiple times. The scriptures were actually read (instead of just alluded to) and he applied them directly to his points in the sermon.

The congregation was not overly friendly, but no less than half a dozen members approached us and chatted us up amicably.

All in all it was a very wonderful service where we worshipped God appropriately, and left feeling enthusiastic and encouraged.

Wednesday Nights

What's cool about this blog group is that I can say the most insane thing and it be considered as something intellectual.

Let's talk about Wednesday nights, shall we?

Firstly, let's eleminate all talk of any Wednesday night class from college level on down. I look at college, youth, and child class on Wednesday nights as fine, and worthy.

Adult classes, at least in my opinion at my church, are lacking.

The more I think about the choices I have (A class about Old Testament stories, a ladies class which I dont qualify for, but I hear it is really dull, and ussually an auditorium class that is as exciting as my business calculus class in colelge) the more I am happy I teach 2 and 3 year olds on most Wednesday nights. I am sorry, but talking about Hebrews in a lecture-style way, or David and Goliath does not make me want to go out and start knocking on doors for Jesus.

I thought Wednesday night services were to lift us up, recharge our batteries, get us back on fire for Christ. Instead, we are lead to the auditorium after dull classes like cattle, sing a song WAY flat and slow so we sound like we are SAD, even when singing a happy song, and hear a lesson that sounds like the past 232 Wednesday night devos, always ending with "if you need anything, please come as we stand and sing."

This is out "battery charger" after working 8 to 9 hours in this evil and tempting world.

Here is my idea;
Instead of starting at 7pm (an hour before many children's bedtime) have it at 6pm.
Have your classes for 30 minutes. All ages in their own classrooms. The last 30 minutes of church is int he fellowship hall, or what-have-you, eating a pretty cheap meal, easy to make for large groups (spagettii, some rice dish, etc...). Before eating there is a gathering for QUICK announcements, a thankful prayer, go get your food, and someone speaks for MAYBE 10 minutes tops as we eat. "The Invitation" (which we find no wher ein teh Bible, yet would split churches if we didnt have it) can be optional.

Heck, make classes optional. Make it one big fat happy family meal!

Fellowship. That is the ONLY part of Wednesday night service that recharges my batteries. We are not commanded to worship God in any specific way or time on Wednesdays. So in a way, it IS a selfish day to have any sort of church related event on. WE NEED IT! If fellowshiping with fellow brothers and sisters who need fellowship too is how we can recharge better, so be it.

Homecoming

I was afforded a very special honor Sunday in the form of an invitation to speak at Homecoming at Luverne church of Christ. When one of the elders there, called me a few weeks back to ask if I would speak, I was shocked. I couldn't say no.

LcoC was the first congregation I ever attended. I went there with my family from the time I was born until I was about five years old. Then Dad went to work with another congregation. But, I have always considered Luverne home. I remember going to fellowships, get-togethers, game nights, and so many other church functions with the people there. I remember children being born and old folks passing away. It was my first, Christian family.

I was asked to deliver three lessons. The first was for class and the others were for the two worship periods. I used Colossians 3 for the class. The other two lessons were taken from an article I recently wrote for a Christian publication. They were mostly taken from I Corinthians 13 and were titled "Love As A Lifestyle".

Everything went well, but after all the teaching, preaching, singing, eating, and preaching again, I was exhausted. I'm still recovering today, but I'm happy that I got to go home in one of the best ways possible and I can't wait to go home for good one day.

God Speed

This past Sunday, part of the sermon was about our relationships with false teachers. We discussed both those who were once a part of the church but have now been swayed into believing that which is false, and against God’s Word, and those who proclaim false doctrines but have never truly understood the Truth.

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. - II John 2:10-11

Much of the lesson dealt with those who have never known the truth, but teach a falsehood. Like shady televangelists, snake charmers, denominations and even “good” organizations that operate under a religious umbrella.

The idea being that we shouldn’t give to places like the Salvation Army because they have churches and minister a false religion. Even though they have a branch of their operation that gives to the poor, the giving comes with false teaching.

Helpful organizations like the United Way also support pro-choice legislation and homosexuality.

All of this makes some level of sense, to me. However when I think about it further it brings up some questions that, honestly, I don’t know the answer to.

Recently, I helped organize a blood drive through the Red Cross. But look at that name, red CROSS, it doesn’t take much to realize there is, or was a religious connection to that organization. I don’t believe they have churches, or do a lot evangelizing. However, if there is any type of connection to falsehood does it mean that I must not be a part of them, must not give blood? Giving blood, quite literally saves lives, and I don’t know of any other means to donate. If it is the only means of which to give this live-saving liquid, is it still immoral of me to give?

If I have furniture that I no longer need and want to give it to the poor, where do I give? If the Salvation Army is out, is a secular organization like Goodwill ok? If, by giving to a false religious organization I am aligning myself with their beliefs, does that mean I am aligning myself with secularism if I give to Goodwill?

Taking this a step further, if I buy my groceries at Wal-Mart am I then aligning myself with their evil corporate policies? If K-Mart supports pornography, and Disney supports the homosexual agenda and abortion, am I then supporting these things by buying their products?

Surely, at some point, we have to “support” evil things in some way, so that we may live. Early Christians must have gone to the market and purchased things from heathens. Jesus said that we should render unto Caesar what is his. But where do we draw that line.

Resignation

Two weeks ago my Dad resigned from the little country congregation he'd ministered to for over 24 years.

He told me this Sunday night when he and Mom came to visit.

When we first started there, I was about eight years old. It was a pretty nice-sized little congregation. There were lots of kids and attendance averaged 75 on a Sunday morning. But, over the years, the kids grew up, old folks died. Families showed less interest in church and more interest in how much money they could make if they put God on the back-burner.

The kids suffered as a result of their parents putting God last. Now, they're lucky to have 45 on a Sunday morning. None of the kids of our generation except for my brother and me and maybe one other guy attend regularly and are involved in anything spiritual.

I think that contributed to Dad's resignation, but also, the men there (no elders since none of them but Dad are qualified) had spoken about cutting Dad's salary since attendance and contribution had been down.

Now, let me be perfectly clear, it was not the money that affected him, but the fact that they had no confidence in him. With his carpentry business, he doesn't need the money they pay him and winds up giving most of it away anyway. He had already been talking to Mom about leaving way before that, too. But, that lack of confidence caused him to take action.

So, he called a meeting after church and told the men that he was resigning and he would give them any amount of time they needed to find someone else. He told them that he wanted things to change there one way or another. Then, he told them something strange: He told them they could hire him back if they wanted to, but that he would be taking the first 3 weeks of August off. The final and probably biggest reason he resigned was that he needed more time with his family. Noah would be coming then, Mom needs now more than ever to go see her Mom in South Carolina, my brother and his family live around 6 hours away.

So, the next Sunday, the men called a meeting without Dad. There were 55 people there that morning. All of the men and their wives and all the kids they could guilt into being there made it.

The song leader came out afterwards and told Dad they wanted to hire him back at his current salary and they all agreed to his terms. He said they all wanted to do better, too. They all gave him their vote of confidence.

So, maybe this odd, bold, and kamikaze move made a difference and woke some people out of their complacency. But, most of all, it made me see Dad as the fearless, confident man he is.

Ex-coC Support Group

To make a long story short, I went online to Wikipedia and looked up church of Christ. The write-up they had was actually very accurate. They also included links to online coC resources, including Apologetics Press.

However, one of the related groups under the Former Members and Internal Critical Views section led to this website.

I just thought I'd pass it on as an interesting study in why the coC is losing people. Maybe we can glean some good info from it. Some of it's not so good, I'm sure. But, it's interesting to see why some folks have left.

Church

I am getting way too close to being one of "those" people...

Those people who come to church, talk to few if any people...

Those people who sometimes don’t want to be there...

Those people who pretty much want to avoid social events with church folks...

Those people who bring others down...

Tonight was the last straw. My wife and I were skipping Wed class (working on VBS stuff in the work room... we do this every wednesday night till VBS... why go to church at all then?) and my wife mentioned how she is starting to notice her attitude slipping. I am 100% certain it is because of me. I know it is. Guilt swept over me... how could one of the sweetest, kindest women on earth have a bad attitude towards doing work for the church? Why you ask? Because of ME!

That was all it took. I canceled Tuesday night VBS work sessions, canceled one of the Saturdays, and told my wife let's finish this crap with a bang and never do it again.

I desperately sought out an elder with which to speak (We have 4... one I care not to speak to as much as I can, one seems to care little for anything, much less church related issues, and the other two who seem to know what's going on were not there...) I mentioned to the non-caring elder that I am not doing VBS next year. I had to stop it at that because I started to tear up and was about to cry.

Anger? Frustration? Saddness? Guilt? Joy? I don't know, I cannot pin-point the emotion.

I refuse to sacrifice my joy, my salvation, my eternity so some kids can make macaroni necklaces for mommy and get a sugar rush on cookies and kool-aid each night for a week. If VBS saves a few souls, awesome, but if it would be at the expense of my own soul, forget it. Call me selfish.

I get so ANGRY when people use the "over worked" excuse as a reason why they don’t work for the church very much, but here I am using it (though I am not using little-league as an excuse and I dont just come to fun events and avoid the work events...). I need to back off. I really think I do. I am a negative influence on my wife, my friends, my brothers and sisters.

I don't socialize like I used to. I shun being around alot of the people I used to long to be around. I am starting to associate this church building with work that I hate doing. Hense, I dread walking into the building at all.

Dare I say I am starting to hate going to church?

But it makes me sad. VBS is kewl. We are good at it. But frankly, I am sick of it and if I never do another one, it will be too soon, which again makes me sad because this is not the Jamison I have always been. Why the change? What does God want me to do? I feel like I am seeing my church, my brothers and sisters and everything in a different light. And I don’t like it.

Pray for me to find the zeal and passion I used to have. Pray for me to improve my attitude. I know God will answer that one. In high school my mom always said I had a bad attitude. I finally just prayed that God would improve my attitude and He did...

Love you.

I am sorry, but I must share this via blog...

Our blog has really gotten classy, I know...

But I have to share this with all my c of C buddies... especially you Sippie-pooh...

Song leader game

Obviously made by a member of the church...

My fave lines "Just make sure there are no men around", the quote from Billy Grahm: "But where are the intruments?", and best of all "Go ahead and sing all 4 verses!"

Alabama Burning

Here's a link to a report about arson on 9 church buildings in west Alabama:

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4470748

They all seem to be Baptist church buildings and there seems to be a pattern. I have a feeling it's some sort of religious vendetta. Should the coC be on guard, too?

Scary!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

Ok, long story short;
I am to make a presentation this friday night from 8pm to 8:45pm at church during our "Fortifying the Family" weekend.

My topic: Protecting our children from internet threats (porn, chat predators, etc).

2 problems with this:

1) Ive never spoken in front of a crowd like this before. Well, I did one time and vowed never to do it again.

2) Everyone at church now thinks of me as "the computer guy" and just last night I had 3 people come talk to me about some computer problem they had.

I don't want to be "that guy!" Heck, I don't want to be that guy ANYWHERE anymore actually!

Here is the other bad part.

Since I've never really done this before, alot of people (mostly ladies, age 45 to 80) are coming for one of two reasons:

1) They think I am going to teach them how to "use their computer" (Which I had to assure a lady for about 5 minutes that that was not what I was going to talk about. I had to end the conversation with "You don't have any young children, you don't need to come!")

2) They want to hear me speak.

Im serious, a 50-ish year old lady approached me, then 2 minutes later a 78 year old lady approached me to say how she is so looking forward to hearing me speak! I am thinking "You are looking forward to hearing me tell you how you can protect your 10 year old from porn and chat room threats? Lady, your gradchildren are probably in college!"

Old church ladies are funny. I guess they look at presentations and speeches as entertainment. I could probably do a 30 minute lesson on sweeping out the garage floor and these ladies would show up to be entertained...

The dilemma

Being on a roll of “crossing lines” I guess I’ll throw another thought to you wizened owls out there.

Some of you know that I’ve been trying to put together a c.o.C based show based on documenting the work of missionary groups across the globe.

So I talk to a c.o.C based TV network in Chattanooga and they would air a program based on this idea which is wonderful but they have a few stipulations. The Gospel Broadcast Network is run by a few elders from the Highland c.o.C in Dalton, GA. Their whole thing is to create a TV network, run by elders as sanctioned by the Bible, to provide the Word for other c.o.Cer’s.

When I’ve suggested my show idea I mentioned a group called Healing Hands International, http://www.hhi.org/ because they were interested in working on this project. (As a footnote one week worth of shooting would cost them $26,000. This would in turn produce a number of shows to be broadcast on at least GBN.)

It turns out they, GBN, don’t want anything associated with HHI because they are not an “elder based” group, being run by a board and thusly “not a work of the church.” I’m a bit shocked by this really.

So HHI calls me and they want a meeting because 26K is a lot of money to give to a person for a non-profit.

Here come the twisty parts. I’ve contacted a dozen or so “other faith” networks that would be interested in getting some content like this, most recently the Trinity Broadcasting Network. I can’t think of a network that I think could be more damaging to Christians than TBN but they do pull big numbers and one of the thrusts of the show I’ve developed is that it’s used as a platform so the featured mission groups can find an audience to garner financial support, which is the key element of any mission. I dare you guys to ask Chuck how much money AP needs to do what they want and how beneficial it would be to place their name in front of a global, well funded audience.

HHI gets donations from major corporations and others not associated within the “Church” so this is not an issue as much for them, but GBN is a key point to operating within the faith.

So should I move forward on meeting with HHI and try and get placement on TBN and a handful of other networks or should I scrap the whole thing because GBN doesn’t want to be associated with the one group that is willing to front the money to get the whole thing moving for me?

PS I realized this morning that GBN is producing a show written by Chuck’s Apologetics Press, which is NOT elder based!!! To me this is going against their own standard… I feel that I have to call them on this but would I chop off the hand that feeds me because I’m calling them out on hypocritical rhetoric?

I've spent the last thirty minutes looking for the posts where we talked about instrumental music in and out of the church. A friend of mine here who goes to a "Christian Church" had a conversation where she was asked the difference between their church and a church of Christ. Someone she knew went to a "church of Christ" that played instruments. She and I talked about it and I did a so so job of explaining the how's and why's.

That night I broke out my Bibles and wrote up a two page explanation only using scripture as to why we don't include the banjo during service and praise only using our voices. I included the "law of exclusion" and idea of respecting the "silence of the scripture" to back things up.

The next day I saw her sitting at her computer checking my work. I told her I used the NASB from the exact website she was looking on so she could check me verbatim. I realized as she threw a few questions at me she was playing my part in a blog discussion we had! Anyway I thought it might be useful for her to hear me playing that part since she's never been able to completely stump me on any of our religious differences. It would level the playing field a bit and maybe help her to see that liberal doesn't always mean correct.

Forsaking the Assembly

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." (Heb. 10:23-25)

Yesterday, my place of employment decided to have a management leadership conference from 9 in the AM until 4 in the PM. Being mandatory I attended thus missing morning worship. Being the second Sunday of the month the congregation to which I am a member had a pot-luck dinner after morning worship followed by a 1 PM service. They did not have an evening worship.

Thus I was unable to attend either service at the congregation to which I am a member.

This brought to mind a question. Was I obligated to attend services elsewhere that evening in order to take of communion and not forsake the assembly?

Another example: New Years Eve my home congregation cancelled evening services so that we could spend time with our families. Amy and I did so by traveling to Palmyra to be with her family. The congregation in Palmyra did have evening services. We Amy and I obligated to attend that service even though the elders to whom we are accountable to had essentially given us the night off?

What if we had stayed in Bloomington? There are other congregations in the city that held New Years Eve services. Would we be forsaking the assembly had we not attended one of their services?

Christianity and the primordial ooze

Brew brought up an interesting point which I think can merit a bit of delving.
Collectively the members of this blog adhere to a fairly strict set of “guidelines” established without an ecclesiastical hierarchy. We all agree that through the diligent searching of Biblical texts the “church” as we recognize it is set up in a good way.

During the Crusades, Exploration (insert conquering) of new worlds, and various other tumultuous times throughout the “Church” (note: C, big C) history. During these eras Christianity was spread much in the same way as Islam and that’s by conquering the guys who didn’t believe the same thing.

Though it’s been proven time and time again that the four gospels are as accurate as they could be having in some cases only being written a decade after the crucifixion if not sooner that bad stuff has happened in the besmirched name of God.

In bypassing the historical “Church” do we have the right to claim a new “church” based on the evolution of the practitioners of this sect of the modern church?
My point is this. I don’t consider the faith of those who enacted the crusades, witch hunts and other murderous activities a part of my “church” because of their perception of of Biblical texts. Those folks followed a man not the words, actions and deeds of the Son of Man.

Depression

Today in chuch, Tony said that there was a study done and out of all Christian churches, the church of Christ had the highest rates of depression.
He mentioned a reason why, but I want to hear your thoughts.
Discuss.