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Should churches graduate people?
The only educational institution that I have ever heard of that doesn't graduate anyone is the church. In a church you find someone who has only been a Christian for three weeks and knows nothing about the Bible sitting on the same pew with someone who has been a Christian 40 years and has read through the Bible 30 times. And they are both listening to a unenthusiastic message about "Christianity 101" by a preacher who almost falls asleep in his own sermons. Does that many any sense?
After somebody has been in church a couple of years and has heard the "Christianity 101" message a few times, why doesn't the church graduate him or her and send them out to prayer walk in their community. Why keep them tied to the building and to the apron strings of the preacher?
Our modern church system produces bored Sunday morning Christians who live like average Americans the rest of the week. Where are the bold, courageous Christian men and women that you read about in the Book of Acts and in church history?
Our American church system doesn't seem to produce that kind of Christian. And if God begins to raise up a bold, courageous Christian man or woman, the preacher is usually threatened by him or her and calls him a rebel, tells him to "get under authority", and pulls him back into the fold of mediocrity.
American churches, let God's people go! Let God raise up bold and courageous Christians before it is too late. Surely it is now time for some church members to graduate and go boldly live the Gospel.
Comments
Tell us all how people should "live the Gospel." Abandon family and friends and wander from town to town preaching the Good News?
Paul: Mary told the servants at the wedding to do whatever Jesus said. Maybe that would be a good place to start.
Paul,
I'm not smart enough to know the answer to that, but way too many men are willing to spiritually and physically abandon family and friends every day for their jobs or other earthly interests. But I can't tell if you are looking for an argument or really want an answer.
Grace and Peace
Byron sent me this link. Thought I might comment. The main problem today is that what people think and feel is "Christianity" is in fact a manmade imitation that looks and smells like Christianity but really isn't. The church SHOULD BE the thing that brings people together, nurtures us and trains us to get out and live. Because there are so many churches and variations of “Christianity”, most people would not know REAL Christianity if it came up and slapped the right cheek! 20 years ago there were about 20,000 known "Christian” churches in the world, all CLAIMING to be following Jesus and the Bible. Today that number is crowding 40,000! Is THIS what Jesus prayed for in John 17:20-21 and died for on that Cross? If we trim off all the warm fuzzy stuff that makes people attracted to different groups and teachers and restore the original simple message then we would have one church that focused on two simple commands and the key players in the whole thing would be the Dads among us.
The condition of the church mirrors the condition of the family. We have a lousy divided spiritual situation in the “church” today because we have a lousy divided situation in our families who make up the church! Until we get everyone set right and get a leadership model in the church based on the original one set down by God and then get men to fill those spots who are GOOD family leaders then things will only get worse. Things went from 1 church to 20,000 in 1,985 years and from 20,000 to 38,000 in just 20 more! What we need today is a modern episode of what happened in the time of King Josiah! If it worked for him why couldn’t the same thing work for us? Thanks...
Barry meet Steve, Steve this is Barry. He's a high school buddy that I haven't seen in 30 years. I wish you two would hook up on Facebook and look over each others writings and studies. I'm just proud to know you both.
I have to respectfully disagree. It is in going to Church that I find a place to reconnect with what I stand for as a Christian and to be reminded of how I should live as Christ's follower. I'm Catholic, and the word we use for our church services, "Mass," comes from the Latin word for "you are dismissed." So in that sense, church is a place where we can be reminded of Jesus' commands and then be dismissed to live out what he taught.
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