I'm tired of the Christian Culture

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AGTG

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My friend, there is nothing "casual" about spending hours a day in His presence in prayer, seeking His will, and studying His word. It's intense, but the life that comes forth is abundant and wonderful.

When you do these things in sincerity, He will lead you to a church where you can become part of His family in authentic love. Will it be perfect? No, but neither are we yet. Let Him do His work in you His way.
 
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Gnarwhal

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My friend, there is nothing "casual" about spending hours a day in His presence in prayer, seeking His will, and studying His word. It's intense, but the life that comes forth is abundant and wonderful.

When you do these things in sincerity, He will lead you to a church where you can become part of His family in authentic love. Will it be perfect? No, but neither are we yet. Let Him do His work in you His way.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I've prayed the hours before (First, Third, Sixth, Ninth) and found it immensely fulfilling. However, that is still irrelevant in this conversation.

This thread was started originally to address the actual culture in church, specifically evangelicalism, and how it's been warped over the decades and ultimately how it may be responsible (as I suspect) for a high burnout rate among Christians. Though, I wager this burnout is ultimately a good thing because I think it compels Christians to pursue a fuller, richer and theologically sound faith rather than the superficial and theologically barren faith of evangelicalism.
 
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Mhcapa1

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You say you had a time when you dug into the history of the church.
I had a time when I thought ok, preachers preachers saying this and that, this devotional says this, this book by this guy says this, this other person sayssthis, etc. I had read some of the Bible, studied topics, etc. Especially proverbs.
I thought I was doing things the way the Bible taught but stuff just seemed so hard.. like more difficult than they should.
I got fed up and I saught God, was like why, your word says this, I'm trying to do that, why is stuff so hard?
After that one thing led to another and I had this huge hunger to read the whole Bible and stop relying solely on sermons and topical studies etc. I put the Bible in chronological order. I took ~ 2 months off from everything. To me, 2 months invested in that was worth it in the long run. Turned the TV off, cell phone to a minimum, only did absolutely necessary stuff when it came to work/business. I was out in the country away from the noise. I woke up prayerfully started reading (well listening.. I used an audio Bible app). I had a concordance, a lexicon and Hebrew and Greek dictionaries. The app had 50+ versions of the Bible. I stopped and compared versions, definitions, etc when needed.

It was worth it.

It's now becoming an annual thing for me - not the taking 2 months off solely focused on it - but reading the Bible in chronological order. I realized if I divide it up into 365 days, and start on Pentecost, then when I get to certain events in the story it actually falls on the day that the event is celebrated, like Passover for example.. when Jewish people are celebrating Passover I'm reaching the part of the new testament where the disciples ask Jesus where should we go to prepare for the Passover? And the whole new covenant and crucifixion etc.
Its really pretty amazing.
Over time I've started to dig deeper and learn about archetypes, etc.
I think the main thing is being born again like Jesus talked about in John 3.
Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit gives birth to spirit. Flesh and blood cant inherit the kingdom of heaven. You must be born of the spirit to see heaven. Once that happens, I think a lot of the stuff you and others are talking about concerning people and brick and morter church stuff and all that ... It might not bother you as much? The Holy Spirit can work on you and teach you and open your eyes etc.
It's really about love. Loving God, and loving others.
Maybe you already know all of this, but I thought I'd share the thoughts.
Peace
 
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Mhcapa1

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And where you said -
"I think it compels Christians to pursue a fuller, richer and theologically sound faith rather than the superficial and theologically barren faith of evangelicalism."

Maybe it will for some. God uses all things to work for the good of those who love Him and are called to His purpose. Right?
 
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Unix

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I commend You for that, Mhcapa1!
Sounds like what I'm doing except I didn't do in an exact chronological order.
I keep taking time completely off just to read and research the Bible, probably usually more often than once a Year, maybe twice every 1½ Years. Prepping to do this took effort and time, now I know how to go about doing this:
After that one thing led to another and I had this huge hunger to read the whole Bible and stop relying solely on sermons and topical studies etc. I put the Bible in chronological order. I took ~ 2 months off from everything.
[...]
It's now becoming an annual thing for me - not the taking 2 months off solely focused on it - but reading the Bible in chronological order. I realized if I divide it up into 365 days, and start on Pentecost, then when I get to certain events in the story it actually falls on the day that the event is celebrated, like Passover for example.. when Jewish people are celebrating Passover I'm reaching the part of the new testament where the disciples ask Jesus where should we go to prepare for the Passover? And the whole new covenant and crucifixion etc.
Its really pretty amazing.
Over time I've started to dig deeper and learn about archetypes, etc.
I think the main thing is being born again like Jesus talked about in John 3.
 
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Mhcapa1

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Unix - I just saught God. I wanted answers! Haha. God is good.
I havent taken months off like that since that time. I seriously buffered myself from the outside world at that time because I was determined to know what the Bible said for myself, and get a right understanding, and not just trust what someone else said or wrote about the Bible you know?

The chronological order of it really helped me because at least for one it put the passages, topics etc I had learned in the past into context with the whole Bible.
After that I did try to follow the church through a study of history from around the time of acts through the fall of Rome and Puritans settling in the U.S., then U.S. history to around mid 2000's.

The next time I read it in chron order it was more like a couple of hours to a few hours each day and more of a micro instead of macro look. It replaced the time Id spent before after work watching TV etc

Now it's more like a couple hrs each day.
I have to admit, all of the multitude of churches and denominations and this and that... I'm just like uh.... lol
I initially wasn't sure what to click on out of the dozens of denominations when I made an acct on this site to reply to this thread! Lol

It sounds like you take a lump of time away every few months. How do you study since not chronological? Any advice?
 
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Mhcapa1

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I dug up some of the charts I used. Maybe you'll find them helpful or interesting at least.View attachment 219479
bible-timeline.png
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prophets-and-kings-judah-and-israel.jpg
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I liked comparing the charts as I read.


I use an app called the Bible app that has ton of Bible versions and audio Bible's for a lot of versions.
I discovered a couple of pretty good 365 day chron plan in it too.
Here's a link to that if you're interested
The top two on this page are the ones I've done and thought they were pretty good:
Chronological | YouVersion Search | The Bible App
 
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SkyWriting

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In recent months I've started dating a woman and she's not a Christian (but she believes in a Higher Power and is open to the idea of going to church, probably more than me), but I find her more thoughtful, compelling, honest and full of integrity than most folks I knew in my former Christian circles and I'm absolutely crazy about her.

Does anyone else understand what I'm saying, and maybe feel the same way? If so, have you decided to continue in your faith? If you have, how do you reconcile this conflict?

Matthew 7:12
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you,
do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
 
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Gnarwhal

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TheGoodLight

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I can relate a lot to the original post. I was in a tightly controlling, Calvinistic denom in which the pastor and 'teaching elders' slowly train you to distance yourself from people who they don't deem acceptable in their sight (mostly, people who aren't conservative Baptists or Presbyterians). The guy insulted Catholics (not just criticizing aspects of the Catholic church--he got nasty) every other sermon, by the time I had stopped attending. I ended up in a mainline denomination, and the old denom tried to 'church discipline' me on my way out the door, deciding that I must have some sort of personal grudge that I 'needed to resolve Biblically'. I won't copy the contents of what they sent, but it reads like the diary of a madman. It's disturbing.

I was highly stressed while I worked on trying to transfer, and afterward. I kept chewing plastic coffee cups and drinking (large) iced coffees 2 times a day. Eventually, I wrecked my teeth (for example, there is depth from the tops of my front teeth missing... not sure if dentists give you fillings for that to prevent further damage or whatever else they do for that... I never even had a cavity before). They kept trying to contact me afterward, and I did meet with someone from there who I knew, who expressed his concerns about my new denom with me. They still try to meet with me every now and then. I have a hunch that they're going to excommunicate me rather than accept me as a transfer, as I never received any sort of documentation from them suggesting approval of transfer. 'It is what it is', I guess. It isn't like I'd ever rejoin that denom, and my current church, when I talked to people there about these circumstances, made it clear that they wouldn't be influenced any way whatsoever about what they do with my church record on their end. As far as they're concerned, that chapter of my life is over, and they're happy to have me (knowing this has done wonders for my soul). I told the pastor about some of the practices, and he let out a 'Really?' and his mind was blown. (Again, they weren't just a 'conservative church'. There were some very creepy practices and mind-controlling approaches going on there.)

The anxiety's started to fade a little, though I could use some dental insurance.
 
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TheGoodLight

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Generally I wouldn't expect a conservative Protestant Church or a Catholic Church to issue a letter of transfer to a mainline church (nor accept a transfer from one). Not even non-creepy conservative churches.

Thank you for informing me of this. Some months ago it would have caused me panic, but now I realize that excommunication from such a denomination will not bother me too much, and that nothing I can do, short of some sort of 'epiphany' in their eyes, will be able to please them.

For what it's worth, when I agreed to membership with the conservative church, I was told that transfers to 'liberal' churches would receive advisement against, but excommunication would not inherently result. However, they have consistently lied to me, or at least intriguingly coincidentally 'forgotten', many things they have told me before. It's quite unsettling.
 
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Drifter Kybe Scythe Kane

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Is that even possible?

I burned out about six months ago, when my divorce proceedings began. In the months and years preceding that I went from being the pretty ordinary evangelical that I was raised to be, to a whacky charismatic, to utilizing my love of history to seek out the truest continuation of the church and it's traditions (which led me to exploring Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy). Then I stopped cold turkey. I got sick of it all, stopped going to church and am left feeling more or less Agnostic, or at least ambivalent.

I think this decline started with basically a disdain for Christian culture. I've gotten tired that Christians try so hard to create their own versions of everything. Like Rob Bell said about art, for example:

Full Article.

I started seeing what Bell said about art, and I started seeing the same principle in every other aspect of life. Art, relationships, academics, social circles and events... what the what?!

I got tired of this sub-par "alternative" to life that I felt like I was expected to live if I wanted to be a Christian. This was a huge component of my detachment from the faith. In recent months I've started dating a woman and she's not a Christian (but she believes in a Higher Power and is open to the idea of going to church, probably more than me), but I find her more thoughtful, compelling, honest and full of integrity than most folks I knew in my former Christian circles and I'm absolutely crazy about her.

Does anyone else understand what I'm saying, and maybe feel the same way? If so, have you decided to continue in your faith? If you have, how do you reconcile this conflict?
Anything that works. I'm Christian and the religion in which I cherry pick out of works out just fine for me. Sometimes you don't know what to do until you take a step back and look at the bigger picture going back to the drawing board for you until you know what you're after and know what you want. You have to know life is short and there are no guarantees. One thing I can tell you is to get your inner self to allow it to make sense for you but I understand certain chapters in our lives forces certain changes. Just a little advice considering what I examine.
 
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Gnarwhal

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Yeah this thread's irrelevant for me now, I'm Catholic and don't lean as liberal as I used to. I just needed time to heal from the tectonic changes in my life that I was reacting to, and I did. After that I enrolled in RCIA and 18 months later was Confirmed in the Catholic Church.

I put in a request with staff to close this up.

Thanks everyone, adios.
 
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