KCDAD said:
What do we need churches for? (pardon the grammar faux pas)
Why can't we go back to meetings in homes, where you actually know and care about eh people in your worship fellowship? What do larger congregations and especially the (demonic) megachurches provide? [Other than $$$$$$, $$$$$$, and more $$$$$$]
i think the Emerging Movement is along this as mentioned already. my church, even though i haven't been there for awhile due to driving issues currently is a home based church. the pastor has his pastoral through the Missionary Church and they fully support what he is wanting to do. and now, there are many home based churches that he's helping create in the area. he leads one, and then he leads one in the tattoo parlor he and another Christian opened up on another day. if you want to check it out, here's the url:
www.pdox.org feel free to come to the discussion page if you want to
there's several things i like about it.
one, since it is a home based church, the ministry does have an infiliation with a denomination. not for income sources, cause right now, him opening up that tattoo parlor was partly in due to the fact that he needed more income to live with...he has a wife and two kids. but he also goes and speaks at different churches, so it's not a total seperation from "the church" as a body.
the meetings are usually centered around discussion and fellowship...fellowship used to last till 11pm at times. we all hang out, eat together, have a couple of hours of study and go back to fellowship. so it isn't an hour escapade.
the praise and worship time...well there is none. if anything, our praise and worship could be seen through our fellowship of being where more than one gathers in the name, He is there also. i like it. i'm sick of emotional worship songs, and even hymnals. i would rather have discussion, deep discussion instead of worrying about some pivatol worship band, or singing old hymns that i could really careless about.
it's a place where you aren't judged by your theological standpoints. the pastor and i have become friends now, and he knows some standpoints i stand on. doesn't me he agrees with me all the time, cause that's not the point. we are more focused about the here and now with the kingdom of God, and how are we to bring the Gospel to the world in ways that can defeat the walls that are up against Christianity...and ironically been tearing apart a so called "all powerful belief." if your a skeptic, your welcome just as the next Christian.
the discussions are, for me at least, stimulating. a lot of studies i have noticed are in the mindframe of similiar to Brian McLaren. we have used his studies as part of our discussions.
if i would judge the pastor and his wife as the model of the ministry, i would say it is great. they have constantly offered me their home to stay at for days and just hang out. it's nice, when conversation may not always be around theology or Christian. but actually just be friends and brothers and sisters in the faith. the pastor and i have a lot in common or so it seems and their kids are little blessings. plus i helped him make a castle bunk bed. as maybe pointless as it seems in regards to "church", to me it is big, cause again, it is actual fellowship, and not hearing another person say amen to what you have to say, then have nothing to do with you after the hour of church has passed. plus, when my fiancee and i are ready, a nd she's here, he's going to marry us. thankfully my fiancee is cool with it, just cause he's a friend of mine, and plus, well, he's a bit "unorthodox looking"
, hell she's with me, hahaha, she's got a fun time ahead for her in this area, muhahaha.
i haven't been there in awhile and changes have came. i hope within the next month or so i can get back up regularly. it was one ministry that actually, i put as another thing that either saved my faith, or at least, pushed me to deal with things healthly. i found out about this ministry when i was up in the city, planning on going out to a bar and getting drunk. i still went to that bar that night, but ironically enough i didn't get drunk. either God does do things, or accident timing is truly a blessing.
plus on a funny/personal note, it's the first church that when i parked my truck there, it got broken into and towed. kind of odd coming out, and all you see is a puddle of glass, and no truck, because the bed of my truck was blocking the garage of the gay bar next to it, and all my cd's were gone, and window completely gone, and me and his brother walking downtown Toledo trying to find my truck and eventually running into a gay bouncer for a bar, and having a great conversation with. as odd as that seems, and i had to pay some money to get the truck fixed, it was actually a really good night. they have sadly moved from that location to be more home based, but still putting a church in that kind of situation, at least to me shows they have the right intentions, but i guess there's always a need for churches in white suburban areas, but i've never lived in the suburbs so it's hard to relate to people/a church setting that attend some megachurch. i got sick of people making it public/to the congregation about the income, claiming God was doing it, when as far as i'm concerned it's nothing spiritual. people with money, giving money to a church, is nothing of a spiritual issue, but just simple financial logic, that church will prosper.
so hopefully you don't mind me talking about this church and then basically agreeing with you kcdad about the stuff you mentioned in your OP. God Bless KCDAD!
btw-when is the animaniacs re-run start? is it going on already?
