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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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email
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| I Like The Music! |
Every city has a few of them: the big church.
You know the one. On a scale of one to ten, the fluff factor is eleven? The main pastor is slightly off theologically on almost every doctrine in the bible, except for those doctrines where he is actually way, way off. It doesn't really matter to the congregation, because most of them come to the church for the show anyway. The great majority of the congregation "love" their church, yet few of them could name five other people in their congregation (excluding those who speak into the microphones).
The lobby has a bookstore and a coffee shop, and a windows that overlook a landscaped scene; there is plenty of open floor space, and comfortable furniture, and the color scheme changes every three years "just because". Everything about the church screams "success" and "money" - and not surprisingly that is the main theme of most of the sermons.
Every Sunday is a performance, and weekly programs bring in all sorts of cool and interesting people. Do you have marriage problems? Sure you do! Those who don't are either not married or in denial. Why not come to see our guest expert on marriages? We will bring in people who love God, and have them speak alongside people who are little more than liberal feel-good psychologists, set them in the same venue, and you can take home whichever teaching works for you.
You got family problems? Not to worry, we will get in some "experts" from whatever is popular, and slap them on the stage next week. In fact, we will have an ongoing "ministry" on the side, consisting largely of musical concerts and popular speakers speaking on popular topics. It's a religious smorgasbord because that is what brings in the crowds.
You know, it is easy to be polemic about this sort of schlock, and it is easy to solicit the proverbial "amens" when you speak out against it, because we all know people who think that that is Christianity, or that that is church. We all watch people we wish we could convince otherwise, continue on year after year, giving their money and attention to this dog and pony show, and lament the stalled and empty faith that refuses to grow in the light of such a facade.
It is a head shaking, gut turning thing.
Scripture says their will be wolves in sheeps clothing, my prayer is that some of these lupine pastors would grow real wool, and that the flock of God would be less fleeced by the same.
Rant over. |
posted by Daniel @
2:25 PM
 
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| 5 Comments: |
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Wow on just posted something sort of related to this on the discussion board of a facebook page I started. Interesting.
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Extra point for "lupine."
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Lest we forget the quiet nursing rooms for new mothers, the class rooms surrounding the gym/theater/sanctuary, the ample array of parking attendants smiling at you... constantly, or the fifty thousand pamphlets you're handed every time you enter a doorway... I wonder to where you ar referring?? My senitments exactly brother.
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Sab, though this describes well the standard, "cookie-cutter" big church in our neck of the woods, it describes equally well a variety of other McChurches™.
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Wow on just posted something sort of related to this on the discussion board of a facebook page I started. Interesting.