Probably not too many, but probably not too many people claiming to be Christians are saved in the first place. Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it.
I've enjoyed reading your posts, and I am pretty much in agreement with what you've said, although I am wondering if you are saying Christians should not go to church? You seem to feel fairly negative about churches so do you think there are any good churches and what would they look like?
I am dead set against the age old traditional church set up. Have you read any of Frank Violas books that have come out with titles like "Pagan Christianity"? Today's church does not in any way have the form of Christ's intention, but are established to provide jobs, occupations and places where money is made through handouts. In other words, ministries, which are 99% in the form of teachers and pastors, are today occupations, not true ministries.
What God has called us to are home gatherings where money has no reason to be brought up, and where building projects for such things as crystal cathedrals and $20 million aircraft purchased for "travel" and vacations are out of the question. We've gotten off the right path, and have been there for centuries.
Just how wrong can it be that folks sit for hours upon hours with their gaze to the front of the church watching one man doing all the speaking with his intent, of course, to feed his family through your offerings? With that gone, there would be only the meeting of groups with up to a dozen folks in each home meeting that gather to permit the offering of each member to the discussion and ministry of the others. Instead, today we have programs designed to entertain, with, as I call them, mosh pit worship services that play at volumes far too loud, and where folks rush to the front to stand and sway like secular concernt goers, as their emotions lead them into "experiences" with God, some call this impartation or experience consciousness. This isn't God's intent, to be tossed to the floor to laugh for hours on end. Not one bit of these sort of gatherings can be proven in Scripture.
What is happening to the extreme today is the verse that says "for God has taken the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." And so, today, it is the ridiculous that rules. The more absurd, the better, or more godlike to these believers.
Where is the real growth in this? What are these people being prepared for? Certainly not as believers are instructed in Eph. 4 to come to the point where they too are equipped for "the work of the ministry." And exactly what ministries would they be equipped to perform even if they stepped out to form one? Of course we know, the same experience dominant one they themselves have known.
First, there is no teaching in the first principles; secondly, there is a money based operation that pits one have with another have not; and thirdly, there are cliques that arise from the giving and worldly positions of a small portion of members. I know how that operates. I've been in the middle of that trap and have written about it numerous times. As a struggling college student, I could give nothing more than my ability to play the upright bass, and not at any time was I ever taken aside by any so-called father in the faith to be mentored. They didn't want anything to do with me because I was poor. Then, once I graduated college, got a good job, earned decent wages, and gave to the church, the leadership was always standing at the door to shake my hand, greet me with a hug, and ask if I would like to teach adult Sunday school. So, to my mind money has to be taken completely out of the picture and the only way for that to happen is to meet in homes where it's not needed for anything more than a few treats that someone might bring along.
Of course, at home meetings there will need to be a few who actually have opened their Bibles, who have good study habits, and were themselves well taught in the first principles. Without that, then the small group will become more like a college Bible study class; but if that is all that can be, then fine, I'd say. At least it keeps the believers away from the trappings of intense one-sided teaching and eventual extremism.
even evngelize on twitter during the nfl season with other fans of the sport even tho most of them will be angry an cuss me out because im an eagles fan hahha
