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Just maybe to -----With all the sin happening in the Catholic Church and other denominations --people have lost trust in their Preachers and just maybe don't want to be associated with a Church Setting anymore ----Maybe it would be better if Church buildings were sold and the money used to buy a Van that the Preachers could take and meet the people where they are ---and Preach that way ----Jesus travelled the country to Preach only speaking occasionally in the synagogue---maybe it should go back to that style of teaching and preaching ----
 
Mendalla said:
I don't because when I visit the websites of many of them, it is often apparent that my various heresies (unitarianism and universalism are both generally frowned upon in much of the Christian world still) would be quite unwelcome and they are often less than welcoming to LGBTQ+ as well. At this point, I can't see myself attending or joining a church that is not welcoming to gender and sexual minorities, no matter how attractive the services are to young people. Really, the mainline and progressive churches who are "affirming" or whatever you want to call it need to up their game on the attracting young people front or the face of Christianity going forward is going to be exclusion, which will drive the overall numbers for Christianity down further as excluded groups and their allies are unable to find a church that fits both their spiritual needs and their values.
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It's pretty hard to push a message of excluding LGBTQ to the young these days, they're too smart for that...same with many other prejudices...I realize some new churches do this, but not so much for the more modern thinkers of the younger generation.
 
Waterfall said:
It's pretty hard to push a message of excluding LGBTQ to the young these days, they're too smart for that...same with many other prejudices...I realize some new churches do this, but not so much for the more modern thinkers of the younger generation.
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All the megachurches in London are quite clear that they regard marriage as being between a man and a woman. One has (or had, not sure about current reality since I don't drive by there as often anymore) something like four services a weekend and had off duty cops hired to manage traffic flow. I can't attend a church that believes that after attending the church that performed the second same sex marriage to happen in London (the first was done by MCC).
 
Mendalla said:
I knew a lesbian who ended up choosing them over UU but I haven't seen her in eons. I've never checked out the one here and I had heard that they were actually fairly conservative theologically, even if progressive socially so was never sure I wanted to.
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I have known two people associated with MCC. One was a guy I worked with about ten years ago. He had a very expansive faith perspective and he was completely comfortable there.

The second person is a guy in my United Church congregation. He switched from MCC when he moved into our area. He sought out an Affirming congregation.
 
Does this discussion string draw a distinct line between hostiles and those looking for hospitality ... secure places to tell their stories?

Of course the very concept of being hospitable would set of many of the normal paradigm ... being the state of humanity ... and how it has drifted more and more towards inhumanity not matter how you spell it out ...

Is it best to tell of experiences with the diabolical through the medium of a coded myth? Who could unravel and interpret it other than one that could see into the darker spaced of the psyche (an abstract domain)?

These topics couldn't be ... right ... given the perfection of mankind? Or maybe they are primarily broken and cracked ... consider the signs!

Liberty Bells ... it just doesn't ring true ...
 
Mendalla said:
All the megachurches in London are quite clear that they regard marriage as being between a man and a woman. One has (or had, not sure about current reality since I don't drive by there as often anymore) something like four services a weekend and had off duty cops hired to manage traffic flow. I can't attend a church that believes that after attending the church that performed the second same sex marriage to happen in London (the first was done by MCC).
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My sister attends a mega church with her family...for years they spouted the same garbage and the older preacher who was there for years, preached the same thing. I was considered totally wrong for years for believing otherwise. Then in comes a new minister, young and endorsed same sex unions and more. They have changed their whole attitude. Interesting, sometimes it takes a new minister to make the changes acceptable to the congregation. Leaders have a huge responsibility sometimes.
 
Sometimes a minister leads ... sometimes they are mostly up against a mutinous bunch ... preferring to follow an exceptionally simple life!

It is said that it takes a whole array to make up a spectrum/spectra!
 
Mendalla said:
On the other hand, sometimes the new minister trying to bring new ideas loses the battle. I have been there, done that.
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There was a time all churches would only marry men and women....times change....some slower than others BUT just saying not all that are referred to as Mega Churches feel this way.
Heck I still know a couple that go to a church that preaches against same sex marriages, it's tiring sometimes to have to argue the point. Often I'll just say, you know how I feel about that.
 
The church, the steeples ... and the eliminated people about in the streets!

Was the primal church constructed to assist folks to assist one another? How did it turn so brutish except for desires for excessive temptations ... and the beautiful psyche turned ugly ... thoughtless?
 
At one point in time the Church was the hub of the community - almost everyone in the community attended, if not often at least sometimes. Because the 'community spirit' is almost dead in many places the Church no longer seems relevant in serving a purpose to a vast number of people. Selfishness is rife, people generally only care about themselves and what affects them personally - they care less about what happens in the community. So, as the community spirit dies so dies the Churches as no one wishes to attend, or even feels compelled to attend.

The hypocrisy of many Churches hasn't helped either - when the Churches preach one thing and then do the opposite, why would anyone have faith in them? The Church is supposed to represent the ultimate good in humanity, to instil virtues and morality into the people they serve, but when no one listens anymore the preachers preach to empty pews and the Church loses its purpose.

There is no easy answer or solution to the issue - the question is, which needs to change first, the people or the Churches? Or do they both need to change equally and at the same time? It's one of those catch 22 situations.
 
Davyc said:
At one point in time the Church was the hub of the community - almost everyone in the community attended, if not often at least sometimes. Because the 'community spirit' is almost dead in many places the Church no longer seems relevant in serving a purpose to a vast number of people. Selfishness is rife, people generally only care about themselves and what affects them personally - they care less about what happens in the community. So, as the community spirit dies so dies the Churches as no one wishes to attend, or even feels compelled to attend.

The hypocrisy of many Churches hasn't helped either - when the Churches preach one thing and then do the opposite, why would anyone have faith in them? The Church is supposed to represent the ultimate good in humanity, to instil virtues and morality into the people they serve, but when no one listens anymore the preachers preach to empty pews and the Church loses its purpose.

There is no easy answer or solution to the issue - the question is, which needs to change first, the people or the Churches? Or do they both need to change equally and at the same time? It's one of those catch 22 situations.
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The essence of my cemetery report as there are only two of us that accept such responsibilities to the best of our ability ... but yet cannot resolve ... catch 22 or unfunctional when people do not gather more than physical wealth ... something goes ...

Thus my expression ... "it'll be the death of me"! Yet the Job continues ... basically undone and incomplete ... tomorrow is cancelled due to lack of interest, concern, or worry for anything else ... the network is ruined!

And yet passion for winning deposes all intelligence ... thoughts go! Like Shamus ... they slide away ... like waves in the abstract (sometimes imaginary like the mine de) ... just Eire?

Imagine all the words indicating an incomplete psyche ... it just can't gather in reality! Kind've out there ... thus some sects regress ... back off! It is time to look at the "I" of it from a distance ... like OBI! DPD ... some might suggest dippy ...
 
There are so many signs of this antimaterial quality ... like psyche cave-ins ... natural places for recompose 'r?

In deep space plenty of room for expanding on the character ... this cannot be said in normal language as it goes against totalitarianism ... one half of the diabolical projection of what's needed to test choices ... psychological pain?

If the psyche is disposed of could these identities sense such improbable connections? Physical Gods are thus driven to build Big Houses ... while spiritually that is over the hill ... dale, rill, etc. Is my pious nature wavering ? Has been for a vast time ... many acquaintances tell me I'm out of it! So I must be there instead of here ... somewhat split so as to observe the doppelganger ... essence of my self? Said to be some to be a con science and they being on the pro side ... without worry, concern, sense of the other (alternate)?

Gobble Egook? To sustain that which we do not naively desire to know .. that dark carrier ... carrion on ... fertile waste? Somewhat toxic and needed to be processed in trees that authority would like to harvest to the last one ... kind of mystical construct!

R is the game ... as gamma ... tis in the dark yet!
 
Community is not dead everywhere. While society as a whole pushes selfishness, many people seek community, community that accepts then as they are and willing to include them in the process of advancing community. It is easy to feel cynical, especially if caught in a place where community is hard to find. Covid had made it harder, but there are still people nurturing community in many ways. One member in her nineties of DRCC would bake stuff for shut ins and deliver it to them until she got sick and died from cancer. There are people who take time to phone others who are shut ins. Some write cards and letters. Some successful churches will be doorways to contributing to building community. Some successful churches will be refuges.
 
jimkenney12 said:
Community is not dead everywhere. While society as a whole pushes selfishness, many people seek community, community that accepts then as they are and willing to include them in the process of advancing community. It is easy to feel cynical, especially if caught in a place where community is hard to find. Covid had made it harder, but there are still people nurturing community in many ways. One member in her nineties of DRCC would bake stuff for shut ins and deliver it to them until she got sick and died from cancer. There are people who take time to phone others who are shut ins. Some write cards and letters. Some successful churches will be doorways to contributing to building community. Some successful churches will be refuges.
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It's generally the older generation that promote community - it's what they remember when they were being brought up in the world; in essence they are a dying breed and the younger generation moving up the ladder to take their place are less interested - their community is online, not in the physical or real world. There are still thriving communities, but they are thin on the ground and getting thinner as the older generation makes way. It's sad and it's disheartening because the younger generations live for the moment and for themselves and their own little enclave of friends (mainly online) the broader community of the real world has little interest for them, probably because they don't know how to communicate and commune outside of their little glass and plastic idols.
 
Davyc said:
At one point in time the Church was the hub of the community - almost everyone in the community attended, if not often at least sometimes. Because the 'community spirit' is almost dead in many places
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I am not sure this is true. People are just finding community in places other than the church. There is no rule that says it is necessary for the church, or even religion, to provide a "hub". In fact, if this is true...
Davyc said:
The hypocrisy of many Churches hasn't helped either - when the Churches preach one thing and then do the opposite, why would anyone have faith in them?
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Then it is probably healthier that the church lose that place in the community. The church does not exist to be a community hub, but a gathering place for those who share a faith. If people no longer share that faith and see the church as a negative, then it is time for another "community hub" to take its place.

After all, community is as much as bunch of neighbours getting together in a backyard as a bunch of relative strangers getting together in a church or other faith-based institution. It's my neighbour helping me with my yard and me doing the same for him, which does not require a church (in fact, he is RC and I am unchurched so we are not even part of the same religious community).
 
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