I used this video awhile ago in a post entitled “The Best Church Video Ever”. I absolutely love it because it makes me laugh every time. I’m not going to judge whether or not this is real because I don’t know the guy personally, but it seems a bit over the top to me. Maybe God likes a person dives into a baptismal. Why not?
Although this is an extreme case of emotions running wild in a church, do you believe there is a place for big emotions in church?
Some people use “real” Bible’s because they look more holy and you can write in them. Then there’s YouVersion, which is an amazing tool. That’s pretty much all I use on the go. I’m with Jonathan Acuff on the fact that iPhones need a jingle to let everyone around me in church know that I’m using YouVersion on my iPhone and not texting people about where I want to eat after service. I think everyone feels the “judgefest” when that’s going on.
So, for those of you that use YouVersion, do you use it for reading all the time or just at church?
Yep, I was in church from day one. While growing up in the church I heard the message of, “Everyone should sell everything and follow Jesus”. That’s what was holy. Most Christians even frowned upon folks having nice stuff. That nice, new house could be sold and the money could be given to missionaries actually doing something of eternal worth. If we sold everything while on Earth, we would get gold streets and mansions when in Heaven. At least that’s what I thought. Then one day I heard a new message. It turned to one of prosperity for Christians. I remember that first message where the preacher changed his tune. The guy said we could have nice cars and mansions here on earth as well. He told us that God wanted nice things for us here on earth. I want to believe what that guy is saying. I believe that God wants us to be able to bless others and also live comfortably. Whether that means blessing others monetarily, emotionally, physically or whatever other way you could bless someone else. Even though God doesn’t need to know what time it is, I am convinced He would wear a Rolex, not a Timex.
Sometimes I still want to frown on Christians having nice things. I guess growing up in church left me feeling that way. There’s definitely a balance to it all. I’m not saying to go out and buy Rolls Royces and helicopters, but I do believe He wants his people to be blessed.
What’s the biggest blessing you’ve ever experienced?
I’ve been in church my whole life. Maybe you have been doing the church thing for a while, too. I’ve loved all of the churches that I’ve called myself a member of, but all in different ways. After saying this, none of them have been the perfect church. I always find something that I don’t necessarily agree with, whether it’s a big or a small deal. But, I do realize there’s not a totally perfect church out there. If you have found the perfect church please let me know, because I want to come check it out.
The one thing i miss about being in an old church is the purple carpet. I always wondered why churches have the weirdest colors. There are many things I miss about old time church. The hymns, choir robes, purple jackets, banners and the people playing off rhythm with tambourines. Makes me smile just thinking about it.
First, I just want to say that I love what church is to me. Community, Love and Encouragement. With that being said, today in church some people had the chance to share some past experiences they had with the church. I heard people talk about their bad experiences and it made me sad and mad all at the same time. I mean from what they were saying, if church is supposed to be the representation of the Body of Christ here on Earth, we are doing a terrible job of showing people that. As you know, their stories are not the only bad ones out there. I’m sure you’ve heard some stories like this or maybe you feel that way yourself. Pretty much when I ask anybody outside of the church about their feelings of church, it ends up being a negative thing. I understand that churches are made up of people, and these people are not perfect. That includes pastors, folks. They will probably let you down at some point because they are still humans. This is where forgiveness comes in. I am actually writing a book on good things that churches are doing. Now I will agree, there are definitely some bad things that are in churches, but there are also a lot of great things. Here’s an example of a good thing: When my parents divorced and when my dad wasn’t there anymore, the church became a second family to me. Here’s the bad side to my church story: I grew up in church my whole life and when I was in my teens, our church actually went through a terrible church split. It messed a lot of people up in the church. But, I had a decision to make there. Was I going to blame people and dwell on that? Or, was I going to forgive and move on? I forgave and moved on as everyone in that situation should. But maybe, people have the view that we are all against each other and are just there to stab each other in the back. Or, maybe they have the view of the unforgiving and the judging side? I get a glimpse of this view on the church because after I read a book by a Christian author telling me that people hate the church, I then definitely know the world hates all Christians. I really would like to think that most people have something positive to say about church, but if you don’t I want to hear that, too. I’m mainly looking for honesty here. So, here’s your turn to speak.
What are your thoughts on the church today? Good? Bad? Whatever it is, I want to hear it.
I want to get something from you if you don’t mind. I know all of our churches are spectacular in their own ways and yet we probably do a ton of stuff, if not everything, differently. You can take the ideas from the comments below and implement them at your church, so I guess you can think of this post as a church creative thinktank. Tell me things that just blow you away, blow guests away, make your church different and things that you’ve stolen from other churches. Yes, I did use “stolen” and “churches” in the same sentence.
So tell me, what are some things that your church does that you think are crazy awesome?
I have visited a whole bunch of different churches. I grew up baptist, visited methodist churches for a while and then ended up in the Assembly of God denomination. I’ve seen churches where the Holy Spirit was allowed to move and then I’ve been to churches where God was put on a schedule and what was going on would be cut off. My human nature wants to take control of the situation, but then again, God should be able to do what He wants to. I’m not saying that God can’t do what He wants to in the fact that He’s not able to, because He can do whatever He wants. I just believe that we cut it short sometimes. So, should we let God take total control of the church service or should we still keep some control? Or, is there a healthy balance to this?
I grew up in a church where the pastor said what was up. If something was a sin, he would talk about it and you repented and got right with the Lord right away. But in the past five years or so, I’ve seen a shift from what Christians are saying. Instead of saying what sin is, I’ve heard them say, “Just love everybody like Jesus loves everyone”. I’m trying to figure out if this is a good or bad thing. I mean, I agree with the fact that we should love everyone, no matter what they’ve done. But at the same time, sin is sin, right? Is it a thing where Christians should just love everybody and let God deal with what sin is? Will that person just eventually turn around on their own? The only problem I have with that is, how will those people know something is a sin if we don’t tell them? Will God just tell them one day while walking down the street? This is what I’m pondering.
