How was church today?

[Jaebius]

My Sunday morning was spent at the walk-in clinic. Had a bad reaction to meds and woke up with a whole lot of red spots everywhere. Ha ha, just call me spot! The doctor at the walk-in clinic prescribed 2 new meds to counteract what the first med did to me. Oh well, maybe next week will be able to have fun and fall asleep during a sermon instead of another Sunday like this.

 

[Jaebius]

I spent today sewing together the bits for a quilt top. More interesting than the things that happened when I was going to church!

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church... The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.

 

[revsdd]

Men's Group took the service today. A series of reflections on biblical fathers - Abraham, Zechariah (father of John the Baptist) and Joseph - and the example they set for today. We also confirmed three of our young people, and presented prayer shawls to six who are graduating high school and moving on to the next phase of their lives - scattering all over the place to college,university and other options. A big loss for our congregation. All six have been involved to varying degrees and will leave a hole. We had quite a number of visitors as well - not only because of the confirmation - and several relative newcomers have enquired in recent weeks about church membership.

 

[KayTheCurler]

Jae - seems to me Spurgeon has a good point. So did I. I didn't experience anything interesting when I was going to church. Same old hymns, sermons that didn't enlighten me, lots of notices of events. Same old, same old. At no point did I look to a church service to provide me with amusement or entertainment.

 

[Luce NDs]

Have never dozed off, but have certainly fought to stay awake a few times. Imho, on a Sunday morning it's better to be asleep in church than asleep anywhere else.

Thus somnolent BS?

 

[Luce NDs]

Jae - seems to me Spurgeon has a good point. So did I. I didn't experience anything interesting when I was going to church. Same old hymns, sermons that didn't enlighten me, lots of notices of events. Same old, same old. At no point did I look to a church service to provide me with amusement or entertainment.

What would it take to entertain gnomons in a desert place? Small de wings ...

 

[Nancy]

I understand that sometimes church doesn't enlighten or inspire. But when it does...wow! I really appreciated something I wasn't expecting at the two churches yesterday. As usual, there were a lot of grey heads. But the many older men in these congregations were very active, participating in choir, reading scripture, sharing ideas and even books with me. They reminded me very much of some of my university professors and I felt like I was basking in their wisdom. It reminded me of something I always liked at church: interacting with different generations. Sadly, there's a gap in generations right now at our local churches. But maybe we can get it back...

 

[Luce NDs]

I understand that sometimes church doesn't enlighten or inspire. But when it does...wow! I really appreciated something I wasn't expecting at the two churches yesterday. As usual, there were a lot of grey heads. But the many older men in these congregations were very active, participating in choir, reading scripture, sharing ideas and even books with me. They reminded me very much of some of my university professors and I felt like I was basking in their wisdom. It reminded me of something I always liked at church: interacting with different generations. Sadly, there's a gap in generations right now at our local churches. But maybe we can get it back...

Common sense is out there ... but often denied and onyx 'd as de nailed ... Hebrew expression as seminal! Offsetting to the anti Semite? That's disastrously IKonic ... some say it IKos in hed ... hedonistically ...

 

[Jaebius]

Jae - seems to me Spurgeon has a good point. So did I. I didn't experience anything interesting when I was going to church. Same old hymns, sermons that didn't enlighten me, lots of notices of events. Same old, same old. At no point did I look to a church service to provide me with amusement or entertainment.

Yet because of your comment, "Same old, same old" Kay, it sounds to me like you did leave because you did not find church entertaining enough. If it truly was a case of wanting things to be more enlightening - why not stay and help remedy that situation. Why not try churches other than the one you were in.

 

[Luce NDs]

Yet because of your comment, "Same old, same old" Kay, it sounds to me like you did leave because you did not find church entertaining enough. If it truly was a case of wanting things to be more enlightening - why not stay and help remedy that situation. Why not try churches other than the one you were in.

Because of those that demand: same old, same old nothing new!

How much does one have to get beyond what is known to discover unknown idealisms? There be dragons for those that will not do the pilgrimage ...

Does the bible say anything about unknown idealism? Perhaps too out-there and denied by the knowns and gnomes? These resemble trolls ... some on one side some on the other side of de vale ... and the fabric is chimerii ... chimera sometimes taken as monstrosity ... like the fear God idea as a word ... and thus the shallow literacy? Tis taken so often as literal ... when the myth goes on like the light Eris in the laid down script ... dissonant humus ... fecundity for Moors ... Celtic empty places away from the rackets created by powers of intent ... the fringe is thus po'lyre understood ...

 

[Seeler]

Pinga, even before I was diagnosed with Parkinsons, I would sometimes find myself fighting sleep at church, meetings, movies, car drives (but not when driving myself), and watching TV. For awhile I fooled myself that I was just resting my eyes, or that I could concentrate better on listening with my eyes closed. It became more frequent and for longer periods as time went on. Then I read somewhere that people with Parkinsons sometimes fell asleep in unlikely places. One person I knew with advanced symptoms confessed that he often fell asleep in restaurants towards the end of the meal. So I told my minister, and a few others; it was no reflection on them or on the length of the service, or even my interest in the subject. I was reassured that they still valued my being there.
I'm glad to say that this tendency seems to have faded somewhat. Either I've learned to handle it better or the medication I take is helping control this symptom.
In your case, I imagine you were simply tired and felt relaxed and safe, so you dozed off. Nothing to be embarrassed about.

 

[Mendalla]

Yet because of your comment, "Same old, same old" Kay, it sounds to me like you did leave because you did not find church entertaining enough.

"Same old, same old" could also mean it wasn't inspiring, it wasn't challenging, it wasn't rising to whatever her spiritual needs were. Why are you insisting it has something to do with being entertaining when there is no evidence of that in her post? In fact, she clearly said that wasn't the problem.

 

[Jaebius]

"Same old, same old" could also mean it wasn't inspiring, it wasn't challenging, it wasn't rising to whatever her spiritual needs were. Why are you insisting it has something to do with being entertaining when there is no evidence of that in her post? In fact, she clearly said that wasn't the problem.

I did not insist on it as you claim Mendalla. Rather, I only said this (new emphasis here), "Yet because of your comment, 'Same old, same old" Kay, IT SOUNDS TO ME like you did leave because you did not find church entertaining enough.'" Note that in an earlier statement of hers, she suggested that she prefers quilt-making to church. Do you think that's because she finds quilt-making more inspiring than church? Please.

Indeed, I then went on to ask her a question based on her statement that church was not inspiring enough. Why leave? Why not stay and help make it better.

 

[KayTheCurler]

Yet because of your comment, "Same old, same old" Kay, it sounds to me like you did leave because you did not find church entertaining enough. If it truly was a case of wanting things to be more enlightening - why not stay and help remedy that situation. Why not try churches other than the one you were in.

When one is not included in the congregation there is little to convince one to stay. When there is no educational value to staying one leaves. Living in a small community there is a limit to denominations available - and knowledge of the way they are set up. Not interested in becoming RC or fundie in any fashion, nor was I interested in attending a church that has been slowly dying for the last thirty odd years.

 

[KayTheCurler]

Jae - please listen up and quit trying to turn my words into something you can act self righteous, self satisfied and 'expert' about.

 

[revsdd]

Yet because of your comment, "Same old, same old" Kay, it sounds to me like you did leave because you did not find church entertaining enough. If it truly was a case of wanting things to be more enlightening - why not stay and help remedy that situation. Why not try churches other than the one you were in.

There's nothing in Kay's words that suggest that she didn't find church "entertaining enough." In fact, she said the exact opposite:

At no point did I look to a church service to provide me with amusement or entertainment.

So, either you're unable to read or you're looking to cause trouble.

As for the Spurgeon quote you offered, while I understand what he's saying, I think he's using a poor hermeneutic. It's weak enough when people make an argument from silence. So, "The Bible says nothing about (insert topic), therefore the Bible is OK with (insert subject)." That's really rather pathetic because it shows no evidence of wrestling with the text at all. In the Spurgeon quote, Spurgeon seems to go one step farther, arguing a double negative from silence: "The Bible doesn't tell us to be amusing/entertaining, therefore we cannot be amusing/entertaining." (I'll cut Spurgeon some slack since I don't have the full context of the quote, but either Spurgeon is making a pathetically weak argument, or you're taking him quite out of context to support a pathetically weak argument. It's one or the other.)

No doubt that the goal of worship should not be to amuse or entertain. It should be to praise God and to inspire the faith of the people. But in the midst of doing that there's nothing wrong with some parts of worship being either amusing or entertaining.

 

[Jaebius]

There's nothing in Kay's words that suggest that she didn't find church "entertaining enough." In fact, she said the exact opposite:


So, either you're unable to read or you're looking to cause trouble.

She suggested she prefers quilt-making to church. I highly doubt that's because she finds making quilts more inspirational. Jump back Steven.

 

[revjohn]

I highly doubt that's because she finds making quilts more inspirational.

That speaks to your unbelief. What does it say of your knowledge? Have you asked so that you might know or are you presuming that you know?

Why could quilt making not also be inspirational?

 

[Nancy]

I once listened to, and learned from, a speaker who was talking about her Christian faith. She started by talking about how, she traded babysitting with a friend so they could each have some free time. Her free time was spent cleaning cupboards. She talked about how she began the task by grumbling, but ended it by thanking God. In between, she did a lot of soul searching and praying. So, if cleaning cupboards can be inspirational, I'm very sure quilt-making can be too! (For me, it's dog-walking!)

 

[Jaebius]

I once listened to, and learned from, a speaker who was talking about her Christian faith. She started by talking about how, she traded babysitting with a friend so they could each have some free time. Her free time was spent cleaning cupboards. She talked about how she began the task by grumbling, but ended it by thanking God. In between, she did a lot of soul searching and praying. So, if cleaning cupboards can be inspirational, I'm very sure quilt-making can be too! (For me, it's dog-walking!)

In my opinion, quilt-making, cupboard-cleaning and, yes, even dog-walking cannot be as inspirational as being in a community of Jesus-followers where the word of God is being taught, preached, and lived out.