I went to a church today where the pastor didn't even open up the Bible to make a two-line quote. He decided, instead, to "paraphrase". I don't mean they spoke the passage from memory or off of a power point or printer paper, there -was- no passage. This disturbing fact left me critical of what little teaching there was. (Not little as in short, but little as in diminuitive in thinking). I haven't been to a lot of churches where I disagree entirely with their teaching, and I don't want to look at my works as if they were perfect and their works, utterly disgusting, merely because of my Body-of-Christ-idealism. On the other hand, I don't think it's idealism, because idealism is a place in the mind, and no one has ever reached idealism (else it would not be ideal, it would be ...iReal). It does serve as a put-down, though, and I've used it on myself quite frequently when coming down hard on my church body. Then again, it sure is a good way to stop the church from striving towards perfection in Christ , if they are told countless times that their Christ is just an extension of idealism.
Perhaps this church doesn't teach like that every Sunday. And no church is ever perfect, but I think that at the very least, I should like my church to teach me and guide me and council me and pray for me. These are all recommendations made in the church. I also feel a need to love fellow Christians and live in community with them, not just for my own gain either, I want to pray for them and council them when the time comes. I want to be there for my friends at this church, but I am pretty desperately sure that kind of church is not my ideal, and not Christ's either. No church IS Christ's ideal, but I feel called to stand for certain aspects over others, and one of them would be teaching from Christ's word, which before hither I had thought was a done deal, except in esoteric churches... hm. I think I am done here.
High fives and banana cream pies for being in the same boat as ME! :D Yeah...I thought preaching from the Bible (READING THE TEXT) was done in every church. But your experience sounds very close to mine this past Sunday. Yar, give it another shot. Sundays could be different. Know I will pray about this for you.
ReplyDeletehahhahha... wait... did you go to the OLIVE BRANCH!?!? :O.. no, nevermind, steph said they were Bible believin'...i believe her...
ReplyDeleteAlthough Bible believing can be pretty far removed from Bible teaching, and even further from Bible practicing..
ReplyDeleteI was trying to be merciful for her sake and presume my faith upon her character. mph. why do i have word verification on here??
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