Iz Land

Well, I can’t post on the board, as I never got my registration e-mail, and I can’t re-register with another username, because my e-mail address is already taken.  jaja  But, I wanted to say on looking for a new church that it is hard and I have been in that situation before.  It is hard because when we know people, we love them.  My .02 is that we are sheep and sheep need to be fed.  As the saying goes, healthy sheep make more baby sheep.  And so often the temptation for pastor’s is to think that they can grow a church by telling people how to get saved-over and over again.  But, the reality is that Christians will make more baby Christians if you just feed them well.  So, a good in depth bible teaching is how to grow a church.  And, to me a good church must teach though the whole bible, sort of like J Vernon MaGee does.  Themes, topical studies etc.  allow too much room for soap box teaching.  When a pastor is teaching every single book of the bible, cover to cover, every single chapter, it’s hard to teach on “money” or “giving” or whatever he “feels” like teaching on all the time.  And the whole counsel of God is what we all need.  And the whole bible is written about and by Him anyways.  I myself have never spoken in tongues, and only occasionally raise my hands in service.  But, biblically, a church I go to needs to allow for these things.  The divorce thing, well, that’ s a subject near and dear to my heart-jaja-I know in the Calvary Chapels, which is where I go, they allow for that, on a case by case basis.  The want to know what has happened, and then they decide from there.  For me, it has not been an issue.  I mean, clearly, if person A divorced person B a year ago because they were sleeping with Person C and wanted to marry them, well, that’s a prob.  On the other hand, if you are just going along and your spouse runs off with someone, how the heck can anyone hold that against the other spouse???  I am just saying, that obviously every sitch is different, and I don’t see how there can be a blanket policy.  And what if you divorced before you were even a Christian???  On the subject of having the most mission trips and service type things, that is a wonderful wonderful thing.  I really believe we find our lives when we give ours away to others.  But, if we are not being fed, we run out of gas.  It’s like working real hard, but never getting lunch.  It’s fine for awhile, but it’s hard to keep it up for very long.  In Acts it tells us that they were continuely giving themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship and the prayer.  I think that’s what a church should be doing, and everything else just flows out of that.  The worship service style is another issue nowadays.  I am comfortable with a middle ground.  I like many of the old hymns, and they can be really really good when they are sort of updated to 2005.  Even like JK’s “It is Well.”  But, worship has always been contemporary.  I think even a few of the old hymns were made from old drinking songs.  The average person did not take music appreciation at Yale and as beautiful as much of that is, it is not normal and does not touch our lives where we live.  Many of these thoughts are hold over from the days when the choir would sing to the church, and “perform” difficult pieces.  But, worship is about the church doing the singing, to Jesus.  It ought to be very personal and a time where we truly opening ourselves to Him.  I am not against choirs or solos at all, but I don’t think they should be the emphasis in any service.  The majority of the singing should be all of us, to Him.

Well, all those things being said, there is no perfect church.  We are sinners.  For me, without the word being taught cover to cover, it won’t work.  That is the direction and really how the pastor get’s his direction.  The pastor sets the tone for the fellowship.  Mary and Martha always mean alot to me.  Our christian walk is a mix of rest, work and worship.  Sometimes we are to be sitting at the feet of Jesus, and listening to Him and worshipping Him; that is number one.  But there is still a time for work and fellowship. whew:)

Izzy