An excerpt from a newspaper
ad for Connection Church, a neighboring community church, reads: Sinners and
Saints Encore...[organizers] present a rousing evening of drinking songs,
gospel songs, and other tunes of debauchery, doctrine and fun in an all-new
larger venue! Tickets: $30 per person (Glass of wine included with each
ticket).” It should come as no surprise
that entertaining and embracing the world is becoming more and more blatant in the church. Paul wrote, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to
peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of
God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat
anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better
not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your
brother to fall” (RO 14:19-21 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I can see the sense these churches are trying to make. I could see it fifteen years ago when the ilk of this thinking tore our church apart. But Peggy Hill has some good advice for us all, “Don’t be a try baby; be a do baby.”
-----Nothing of this world is monolithic. Nothing is entirely right, or entirely wrong. Eve ruined that possibility when she listened to the snake’s advice. Although I profoundly disagree with the concept of making the worship service an event of entertainment for entrapping riff-raff within a slightly evangelistic moment, I’m not so sure that offering an event attracting both it and Christians into the same place for a neighborly get-together (let’s not call it fellowship) is that bad of an idea, if the decorum of the situation will actually seed some hearts with the gospel. But if the decorum slips just a little, it could just as easily rubber-stamp vice. The line is thin.
-----One of my overly used expressions is “It is what it is”. It goes along with what I told my daughter last night about people and their differences, “There’s always three sides to every story, his side, her side, and reality’s side.” You don’t know until you really, really know. And the only way you can really, really know anything is by critical thinking. Well, excepting when the Holy Spirit just outright tells you. But that don’t happen too often. So, critical thinking begins with my beloved bride’s favorite activity: investigation. One of reality’s little facts is that you can’t truly think about what you have no information on. Hat’s off to my beautiful bride!
-----The information contained in the ad itself does seem somewhat suspicious. Suspicion only increases when is added further information CBS News broke yesterday that the body of the pastor of a nearby Connection Church was found in a river north of Santa Fe, New Mexico where he had gone missing last week looking for hidden treasure. Yah, that’s like gold, and rubies, and stuff, not the pearl of great price thing we go into our worship services to polish up. Well that sounds pretty scathing.
-----At least it does until you practice the “You don’t know until you really, really know” thing. We don’t know if it is the pastor of the same church. And even if it were, we don’t know that he had not gone to find that treasure for hiring in some big bands, both pop and Christian, to perform between some of Franklin Graham’s best efforts -in person. Was he being a do baby? Is that Connection Church being a do baby? I don’t know. If they are at least being a try baby, then God bless their efforts. And I think Peggy’s encouragement is good, but really, one must try before one can do.
-----Oh. By the way. My favorite math says reality = truth = Jesus = God’s participation in your life. So “reality” is one of my favorite words for what can be unpacked from it on the spot. Maybe the Connection Church is wanting a night that can be unpacked, too. Somebody ought to go investigate.
-----And if it is the same Connection Church whose pastor went missing last week, God bless them after that tragedy. He always unpacks good from the misery of those who love Him.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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