What is Wrong with going to Church?

SNPete said:

just what is wrong with going to church?

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The answer may lie in your words... Church means people. You be Church, not go to church. For some it is a reaction to structure, others hypocrisy, still others a desire to talk openly with others. For many it is simply a calling. God calls different peeps for different puropses, no reason why church can't be different in its parts and places too.

Any structure that exists purely to maintain status quo - be it a great big building or a teeny house - is unGodly. So it's not that houses are better, just different. I grew up in housechurches so i never knew there was anything else for like 10 years!

It's the same with anything in christianity, what is God calling us to do/who is God calling us to be? This is personal and as Church.

SNPete said:

I never knew there was a housechurch thing until I came to this forum and I've been a Christian for 20 years. They must be well hidden.

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Nice one, but I guess yer American?
I see whatcha saying, after all Homer stayed home on Sundays... gr8 episode!
I'll let some others talk, but I find it intersting how many peeps leave church-organisations to save their relationship with God!!!

SNPete said:

I have a question.



I been seeing posts in this section where a poster doesn’t like other Christians pushing the idea one must go to church. OK being pushy is bad. But:



My question is: just what is wrong with going to church? Wherein lies the objection?

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You are looking at one thing and interpreting it as something else .

The objection is that christians "push the idea that one must 'go to church' " . The objection is not the idea of fellowshipping or "going to church" .

One does not need to object to something for one not having a desire to do that something .

I am sure this question will be interpreted as an attack by some, but so what! I just want to understand the rationale behind the home church idea.

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This is another completely different idea outside of those other two ideas . "Home church" is simply doing the "church" thing at home . That's it . These people obviously have nothing against "going to church" since they have set up a method of doing just that .

My personal view is that going to a church can only benefit the Christian. Plus a church is a public presence that can reach out to the community. If nothing else, it is listed in the phone book so someone looking for fellowship, counsel or salvation can simply give the church a call and find someone to talk to. I don’t this as being possible with a home fellowship group.

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Well , you must not have heard of all of the abuse that "church" has caused on people . People can reach out to the community without the label of a group . Home groups can list themselves in the book as well . All of the things that you listed can be accomplished by a home group . Some home groups are connected to several other groups in a network . There are many ways to be connected in christianity outside of the traditional way .

FLANDIDLYANDERS said:

Nice one, but I guess yer American?
I see whatcha saying, after all Homer stayed home on Sundays... gr8 episode!
I'll let some others talk, but I find it intersting how many peeps leave church-organisations to save their relationship with God!!!

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Many episodes of The Simpsons concerning mainstream christianity are "spot on" . If only people in those groups would "get it" .

SNPete said:

I have a question.



I been seeing posts in this section where a poster doesn’t like other Christians pushing the idea one must go to church. OK being pushy is bad. But:



My question is: just what is wrong with going to church? Wherein lies the objection?



I am sure this question will be interpreted as an attack by some, but so what! I just want to understand the rationale behind the home church idea.



My personal view is that going to a church can only benefit the Christian. Plus a church is a public presence that can reach out to the community. If nothing else, it is listed in the phone book so someone looking for fellowship, counsel or salvation can simply give the church a call and find someone to talk to. I don’t this as being possible with a home fellowship group.

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Perhaps, you're not reading very carefully?? We do go to church, but our church has a different structure--that is, house church/whole church, or non-institutional. The objections you are reading about are to the ones with a congregational and episcapol structure, or institutional. The latter are not based on the Bible, and to support their human traditions, they have a tendency to promote spiritual abuse, irrelevance, and boredom.

In Corinthains, the Lord's Supper had a very public appearance as a special ocassion. The whole church part of the structure is very public. The church can make itself as public as it wants to be.

I agree with you that going to church is beneficial. However, in my view going to a church not based on Scripture has a lot of draw backs--like the ones you read about in this forum. And, going to a church based on Scripture makes spiritual life --well, transformed and wonderful.

Regards,

Paul

Whenever I hear people saying they don't go to church because of hypocrites, God never told us to follow them!!! Don't look at people, look at Jesus. No church is perfect, all have inperfect people in them.
Jan

janny108 said:

Whenever I hear people saying they don't go to church because of hypocrites, God never told us to follow them!!! Don't look at people, look at Jesus. No church is perfect, all have inperfect people in them.
Jan

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What if someone at the time of the Reformation said they don't go to church because of the hypocrites??? At the time it was true that there was a lot of hypocrisy everywhere. Even the RCC had to call for the Counter-Reformation to clean it up. However, the Protestants said the real source of the hypocrisy was that the RCC was based on incorrect theology, on human tradition rather than the Bible alone. Still, for the average attender it must have seemed discouraging.

Some people have tried a lot of local churches, a whole lot, and have found too much hypocrisy, as well as irrelevance. To them, it's not a matter of just trying one more--in a lot of areas, they are all the same. Then, they can just give up, or they can give more thought to how to find a church that is truly spiritual and relevant to their lives. In that thought process, the emergent church movement arouse and continues to acquire energy. People study Scripture to try to understand how church really should be and why so many churches seem dead. And, then they realize the congregational church as it is practiced today isn't in the Bible, that it's just based on human traditions, and that this human focus is in large part why things don't seem truly of the Christian spirit. Then, they try the biblical model of church structure (which is never taught in the congregational church, but still it never left the Bible), and all of a sudden they have a relevant and exciting church experience.

I give these people who don't go to church a break now. I don't judge them. The problem is not them, but a whole lot of patience is needed under their circumstances for them to come to a proper solution to being a part of a spiritual community.

And, I don't judge those people who can't give up their cherished traditions in continuing to attend a church that is really mostly based on human tradition. We are still united in the blood of Christ. They just do church different. Catholics do church very different--but they are still my brothers and sisters in the blood of Christ (but those of the Base Ecclesial movement, the RCC branch of the emergent church, perhaps, are even more so).

Regards,

Paul

One problem that I have with the typical "church" is that they simply don't fit into my schedule, and as much as I have tried to get them to open their doors on a friday afternoon they don't.

Instead, it's easier for the pastor to tell me to pray for a job that doesn't force me to work nights and weekends. It seems that they have forgotten that there are many folks out there who from economic necessity must choose to wait on tables, and provide services to those lucky ones that go to church on sunday and then feel it's OK to go out to eat afterwards, or go shopping, etc...

Never mind that poor shlep who would LOVE to be able to go to church but simply can't afford to.

Wisdom's Child said:

One problem that I have with the typical "church" is that they simply don't fit into my schedule, and as much as I have tried to get them to open their doors on a friday afternoon they don't.

Instead, it's easier for the pastor to tell me to pray for a job that doesn't force me to work nights and weekends. It seems that they have forgotten that there are many folks out there who from economic necessity must choose to wait on tables, and provide services to those lucky ones that go to church on sunday and then feel it's OK to go out to eat afterwards, or go shopping, etc...

Never mind that poor shlep who would LOVE to be able to go to church but simply can't afford to.

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Excellant point for the thread !

but I find it intersting how many peeps leave church-organisations to save their relationship with God!!!

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That's me! I became too dependant on structure and not dependant enough on God. When one leaves the safe confines of an organisation one is FORCED to put their whole trust in God...not pastors, not people, not an organisation...not sunday church...but God. When this happens I believe Growth happens. It can be at this stage that some return to the organisations...others don't, however, and continue to fellowship outside of the organisations.

That would be the ideal thing

SNPete said:

I have a question.



I been seeing posts in this section where a poster doesn’t like other Christians pushing the idea one must go to church. OK being pushy is bad. But:



My question is: just what is wrong with going to church? Wherein lies the objection?

.

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Nothing wrong with going to church!

But pushing the idea that you must go to church is wrong, because it is unscriptural.

Everyone who has called on the name of the Lord is a part of THE church.

The church is not buildings, baubles and programs- its living stones- the people who are saved. 1 Peter 2:5. The Kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.

Lismore

lismore said:

Nothing wrong with going to church!

But pushing the idea that you must go to church is wrong, because it is unscriptural.

Everyone who has called on the name of the Lord is a part of THE church.

The church is not buildings, baubles and programs- its living stones- the people who are saved. 1 Peter 2:5. The Kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.

Lismore

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Amen, Lismore

The hypocrisy is part of normal human life, until it reaches a point where errors are justified and condoned. Many people leave the church when they are asked to push beyond their rational ethical limits, to follow something unscriptural. Usually they leave after a compilation, not with one disagreement.

heron said:

Usually they leave after a compilation, not with one disagreement.

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Yep that was my case.

Buttermilk, did people accuse you of leaving in a huff over one issue or hurt, not seeing how many you had already put up with? I read a little of your other thread, but didn't go as far as details.

What is right with going to Church?

Seriously, list these qualities, you may answer the OP...