Is there an area where you disagree with your church?

[HermanNeutics13]

IS there an area where you disagree with your church, denomination, or Christianity in general. By that I am not saying you have to say part of the Bible is wrong, but rather you find the interpretation of others to be incorrect.

 

[WolfGate]

Denominationally? no. The EFCA statement of faith is pretty much the essentials.
https://go.efca.org/resources/document/efca-statement-faith

The EFCA distinctive make it clear that individuals are allowed to interpret other areas differently.

The Evangelical Free Church of America is a believers’ church—membership consists of those who have a personal faith in Jesus Christ.

The great heritage of EFCA people around the world includes the fact that fellowship and ministry opportunities in the local church are based solely on one’s personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and trusting in Him alone for salvation. Membership requires commitment to sound doctrine as expressed in our Statement of Faith. However, a person is not excluded from membership because he or she does not agree on every fine point of doctrine. Within the EFCA, there is allowance for legitimate differences of understanding in some areas of doctrine.

2. The Evangelical Free Church of America is evangelical—we are committed to the inerrancy and authority of the Bible and the essentials of the gospel.
The EFCA was born out of a heritage of commitment to the authority and inerrancy of Scripture. We have deep convictions based on the authority of God’s Word, but we do not draw battle lines over minor points. Nor do we make minor issues of doctrine a test of fellowship in the local church. We are evangelical. We believe in separated living and personal holiness, but we are not separatists.

Have I disagreed with some of the interpretations of our senior pastors before? Yes, I have. And with other elders in our church. One pastor was young earth creation. (Our current one is not). We had a assistant pastor who was full five point Calvinist. I am much more on that end of the spectrum, but he and I disagreed on some points particularly with regards to unconditional election. In our EFCA church these disagreements have not been a problem.

I have seen denominations where I would disagree on non-essential points and suspect it would be a problem (meaning they would view what I see as a non-essential non-gospel point as being essential).

 

[Merlin]

Yes, there are things I disagree with.

 

[Gwen-is-new!]

Staying in a 5-star hotel while on a medical mission trip to Romania... doesn't seem right? Short term mission trips from US to International I just don't know.. Short-term being the key word here. How to interpret and apply the Great Commission, I guess would be the area of confusion.

 

[Theatreguy18]

The idea that LGBT Christians are not valid unless they remain celibate

 

[ml5363]

God doesn't speak to you in your dreams, wine was no alcohol , women should wear dresses all the time, little kids in hell..dispensationlism

 

[SkyWriting]

IS there an area where you disagree with your church, denomination, or Christianity in general. By that I am not saying you have to say part of the Bible is wrong, but rather you find the interpretation of others to be incorrect.

Sure, I communicate disputes with my pastor. He's not a good listener.

 

[sarah_beloved]

I struggle with (and I dislike, tbh) the idea of female submission in a marriage for a couple of reasons:
1. The number of men I can truly respect from the bottom of my heart is very little.
2. After being a single mom for years, where I have to be the one to lead, protect and fill the gap of a missing father to my child, I cannot imagine giving up this position to anyone else. As a result I'm fiercely independent. A little too fiercely probably.

I know that my understanding of submission might not be accurate, and it is tainted with my own insecurities. I'm still learning

 

[Sketcher]

I disagree with the way video is handled during the service. I also wish we would replace some of the songs in worship with more meaningful ones. I still go almost every Sunday.

 

[DreyDay]

IS there an area where you disagree with your church, denomination, or Christianity in general. By that I am not saying you have to say part of the Bible is wrong, but rather you find the interpretation of others to be incorrect.

Yeah definitely. Pastors don't teach enough about how men can be more assertive. Instead, they teach ideologies that have been promoted by the current trend of feminism in this country. Church leaders promote the idea of men being passive, weak, mild mannered, submissive, not having a backbone, and always giving in to the demands of the woman. Why aren't men at church being taught about assertiveness, goal-setting, self improvement, bravery, and leadership?

The amount of socially awkward virgins in church singles groups is disproportionate to the general population. The church needs to teach guys how to properly banter with women, through various ways like flirting, creating sexual tension, and getting her interested in you. Instead we have leaders teaching single guys how to be boring, cookie-cutter archetypes who are less exciting than watching paint dry.

 

[football5680]

Not really. The only thing I would change is the way the message is conveyed. I think some leaders in the Church do not speak direct enough and tend to give more ambiguous statements that are still in line with what the beliefs of the Church are, but it is conveyed in a way that may cause confusion for some people. I like leaders who speak directly with no regard for political correctness and are not afraid to say something that may offend people as long as it is in line with Catholic doctrine.

I don't like dialogue with any other Non-Christian religion if the goal isn't to bring them into the Church because it is pointless and can give off a sense of relativism to some people.

I would like it if the Church would publicly excommunicate any self-proclaimed "Catholic" politician who supports something like abortion or gay marriage to show that supporting this stuff is completely unacceptable for somebody who claims to be Catholic.

Today the Church is more against the death penalty because we now have prisons that can hold these people for the rest of their life but I think some crimes warrant the death penalty and it is sometimes in the best interest of both society and the individual. The individual would not have to sit in prison for several decades with nothing but their death to look forward to and society would not have to pay for an individual who did it nothing but harm.

 

[Shempster]

Tons of stuff.
But I see stuff everywhere. Its part of us learning to love others and practice grace sticking it out though.
There are some groups where things just do not fit certain people, so its perfectly fine to go with a group more like yourself.
However, if you do this it is very likely that you won't grow much. See birds of a feather like everything a certain way and eventually we just sit in the mud and recite our beliefs to each other.
You want to really grow? Go to a church where you are a minority in the congregation or where everyone is much older than you. Yes, it will be a struggle but this environment will net the most in terms of your personal growth and revelation of God.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

IS there an area where you disagree with your church, denomination, or Christianity in general. By that I am not saying you have to say part of the Bible is wrong, but rather you find the interpretation of others to be incorrect.

There are people who hold to nearly identical doctrines, yet they can have huge disagreement on how the church is to operate in the world. Philosophy of ministry is where most people disagree with their church or denomination, even more so than doctrine.

To answer your question, yes.

 

[WolfGate]

There are people who hold to nearly identical theology, yet they can have huge disagreement on how the church is to operate in the world. Philosophy of ministry is where most people disagree with their church or denomination, more than doctrine.

To answer your question, yes.

Well said. I have noticed the same thing but not been able to express it quite so succinctly.

 

[JCFantasy23]

I chose the Methodist denomination for a variety of reasons, and it's a denomination where they accept a lot of viewpoints on various issues anyway. I'm not into infant baptism though, which they do endorse, but it's not a deal breaker for me. I do wish more churches incorporated the old testament more in their teachings and sermons, not focusing only on the New Testament.

 

[Gordon Wright]

I see bad doctrine as a symptom. If they believe something that doesn't make sense, it raises the question of why they believe something even though it doesn't make sense.

Having all the doctrine seem reasonable does not make everything fine. Interpretations of scripture are in turn subject to interpretation. The same word can mean very different things to different people. Look at what people actually do - there's the bottom line.

I want a church where the culture is neither too toxic not too mediocre. I want evidence of the active presence of the Holy Spirit, and not too much defensiveness and irrationality. In other words, an alternative to the world.

 

[Albion]

IS there an area where you disagree with your church, denomination, or Christianity in general. By that I am not saying you have to say part of the Bible is wrong, but rather you find the interpretation of others to be incorrect.

I can't honestly say there is, although I disagree with the beliefs and religious practices that it permits to other members of the same church body. But that's not quite the same thing, and I'm not especially offended by the degree of latitude it allows anyway.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

I see bad doctrine as a symptom. If they believe something that doesn't make sense, it raises the question of why they believe something even though it doesn't make sense.

I've found that wherever there is a belief or behavior that doesn't seem to make sense, there is an idol behind it. Idolatry makes people do, say, and believe crazy things.

When you find a church filled with rational people who also hold conservative, orthodox Christian beliefs, please let me know. I'll sell my house and move.

 

[Tigger45]

Barring the fact that nothing gets perfect marks this side of heaven, I'd grade my denom & particular congregation's practices and culture highly.

 

[seeking.IAM]

I've worshipped in many churches of many traditions during all my trips around the sun. I have yet to find one where I could agree with everything. I stand quite convinced that upon our entry into the Heavenly Kingdom persons of all faith practices will hear, "Well, you didn't quite understand what I meant by that, but close enough."