One thing to note when airing grievances; those to which you are airing them must be knowledgeable enough to understand what you are talking about. This may have eluded us on Thursday night. Technically we are not supposed to speak about the outcome of the meeting, as we were asked and agreed not to. Technically no one knows about this blog.
So we told them that “evangelistic” services are, in our opinion, not at all what a church worship service is about as the church is people. The only people who are actually the church are believers and it is best to gear events toward those people’s spiritual growth. As those people are spiritually maturing, they then tell others about their spiritual life, namely evangelizing them. If those people then place their faith in Christ for salvation or are simply interested in gaining more knowledge about spiritual things, they should, by all means, come into a place where a church is meeting and see what the church is learning and teaching and how they are growing together. As spiritual growth occurs over time through the transforming of one’s will, intellect and actions through submission to the Holy Spirit as prompted by Him and the Word of God, proper teaching and discipleship are keys to a healthy, mature church family.
There was agreement with the ideas and then reiterations of the need to grow in numbers and even a statement about how we are all in agreement that evangelism is important (which, of course, it is; only it is not the single focus)
As we were going to bed I said to Jud “you know, I wonder what their plan was once they got butts in the seats.” I don’t know if there was a plan; only to get them in the seats and get them to return.
The tone of the meeting was positive. We suggested that we end the second service and re-unite the congregation. Their response is what I am not supposed to tell you about, so I won’t. I’ll tell you soon though, or if you call me and you live out of state. But I probably shouldn’t just go around posting things for the whole world to know unless the people it affects the most already know. Just today I was wondering if Katie Homes knew before all of us in the checkout line at Wal-Mart that Tom is going to force her to give birth silently on a boat. I really hope she did.
Can’t we all just be friends?
i try so hard to like all of jud’s metal friends, but we struggle to find common ground. especially martin and i (the little boy in the middle.) what with his being all happy and small all of the time. does it weird anyone else out that he is unable to bend his limbs at the joints? is it just me?