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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Which Church is the right one? | NT general Archive 1 | EdB | 71492 | ||
CDBJ This is not to be critical of your church in any way. However I can't stop thinking how many neighborhood churches you could build for that amount of money. How many local churches you have enough pastors to place. How much money could be saved not having to contend with things like traffic control, buying land for large parking lots and such. I would guess there are people attending that church that drive as much as 20-30 miles to get there. Are they really plugged in? Or do they attend and drive back home not having any meaningful relationship with others attending the same church. Is bigger better? I once read a magazine called "In Fisherman". In that magazine the editor always asked the same question. Is bigger better? His contention was we should look to nature. If bigger was better we would have 3 foot butterflies. I always think of that when I see big churches. Are they what Jesus intended or have we fallen for what the world tells us, we must be bigger? I had a professor in college that I will never forget. He had five PhDs from places like Sanford and such. He had pastored a church in California. As he talked I got the feeling the church wasn't very big, so I asked. He said it was about 230 people. I kind of thought he was never very successful as a pastor. Later in the year he began to tell about the work of the church. They has started 13 other churches and between them, they totally and fully supported 18 missionary families. Each of these other 13 churches were about 100-250 in size. And many of these had started churches like they were started. Instead of having a church with a huge staff they had 13 churches that had pastors and music ministers, youth pastor, children’s pastors, Sunday school superintendents, and praise and worship singers in each. The church weren’t as big but they had a greater number of people involved, being raised up, taking their place in the body of Christ. None of the churches were so large that they were a problem to the community (traffic, zoning, lost of tax money, people not wanting to live by such a big church), each filled a need in the neighbor hood because they were part of that neighborhood. People could walk to church, children could go there for after school activities, Bible school, the neighborhood knew the pastors. I had to quickly change my opinion of his successfulness and how I viewed success. EdB |
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2 | Which Church is the right one? | NT general Archive 1 | CDBJ | 71527 | ||
Hi EdB, your comment, However I can't stop thinking how many neighborhood churches you could build for that amount of money. How many local churches you have enough pastors to place. How much money could be saved not having to contend with things like traffic control, buying land for large parking lots and such. That is exactly what we are doing and the new additional church is about 10 miles south and is referred to as our South Campus. All of our pastors will doing double duty until it gets on it’s feet, so to speak. Many of our congregation will switch to the new church and eliminate the attendance problem that we have now. Your second notation reads, Is bigger better? I once read a magazine called "In Fisherman". In that magazine the editor always asked the same question. Is bigger better? His contention was we should look to nature. If bigger was better we would have 3 foot butterflies. I always think of that when I see big churches. Are they what Jesus intended or have we fallen for what the world tells us, we must be bigger? What should we do, just tell people that they aren’t welcome and not let them in? To my knowledge this is the fourth time that the church has branched off to other location within a 40-mile diameter and they are all doing well. As was the discussion and I will say it again, the Lord is faithful to his Word and if it is taught properly it will cause churches to grow and without the help of the carnival style sideshows and all the gimmicks that are employed now days. The following still works and there are those who still look for the truth and where it is disseminated. 2 Tim. 4:1-4 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; [2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. CDBJ |
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3 | Which Church is the right one? | NT general Archive 1 | EdB | 71530 | ||
CDBJ It sounds like your church is doing the right things. I just get upset when I see churches drawing people from miles around instead of getting them plugged into a church that is in their neighborhood. If the pastor is lifting Jesus up and church is growing fantastic! If the pastor is lifting the church up and the church is growing then there is a problem. If the people are seeking Jesus then again praise God! But if they are following a man then there is a problem. I think anytime people pass a couple dozen churches to attend one in particular they are seeking a man rather than Jesus or else there is a serious problem in area. If people walk out the church talking about the pastor, the church or their friends more than they do Jesus there is a problem. CDBJ there is a pastor in a church not far from our area that loved Jesus with all his heart. He labored in the church for years raising a family. His wife’s front teeth fell out because he couldn’t pay for a dentist. His children would never go to college. He rode in a 10 year old car with bald tires. If the church’s grass was cut he did it, if the church was painted he did it, if the parking lot was shoveled he did it. He would have given anything for a person to come do music, help with the children, youth, or mowing the lawn. The only thing he preached was Jesus. If a large church in the area would send him five faithful families to hold his arms up the church would take off. That is not meant to be an accusation aimed at you or your church. I don't know anything about you or your church. I was just giving an example from your area of what is going on in the church world today. EdB |
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4 | Which Church is the right one? | NT general Archive 1 | CDBJ | 71535 | ||
Edb, I know where you are coming from and it’s for sure that no one other then the Lord can answer some of these painful questions. The church that I attend started out in a little old cinder block building in a very poor section of town and has grown to what it is now over a period of years. To my knowledge there have only been three head pastors, in the years that it’s been in existence. I went for a period of time, in my Christian life, with out a home church. It was 17 years to be exact and the reason was, that I wasn’t being feed. I got disgusted with going to church every week and getting the same old thing to feed on spiritually. I was able to feed myself and was getting more then the pastor was feeding me. The Lord taught me how to dig out truth for myself self and I was getting Bible studies on tapes and since I couldn’t find a church that fulfilled this need my wife and I just quit going. Can you imagine what our kids would look like if all we gave them to eat was baby pabulum and a bottle for a period of twenty years? Well that was my problem, I needed the meat of the Word and couldn’t find it anywhere in the area. I think that one of the things that I missed the most besides face-to-face teaching, which was very basic, was the fellowship of other believers. It has only been in the last three years that my wife and I have found the church that we are in now. And I would attribute that fact to a verse of Scripture. Hebrews 10:25 (the last part) Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. I know a pastor that says every time he announces that he is going to teach the book of Revelation that the church fills up like they are crawling of the woodwork or something. I think you will get my drift on this after you read something. CDBJ |
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