The circus comes to church

[John Robinson]

Let me preface this by stating I am an unashamed, full-gospel Christian. My wife and I were saved in the early 70s back in the old Jesus Movement days, and in the intervening 45 years we've seen God do some amazing things.

That said, in my opinion, what this church is doing is plain old bat-crazy. Read the article, and tell me what you think.

http://www.faithwire.com/2018/04/25/well-known-atlanta-pastor-is-adding-scantily-clad-aerialists-into-worship-services/

[LadyKay]

Oh My!

[Dan_79]

Are you suprised?

If I want to learn what God (not allah) expects me to do, what do you guys/gals think I should do?

A: Read the bible (that book with a message kinda thingy contained within it) ?

Or

B: join the The Church of the latte de la crem de la creme semi-skimmed into the coffers off the trough of gravy boats?

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by Dan_79

[Dan_79]

 

 

[LadyKay]

3 hours ago, John Robinson said:

Read the article, and tell me what you think.

Okay. Well.......For me personally. I think I would have to attend a full service before I cast my ruling upon it. I wonder if there was this much fuss when the churches starting bringing in drum sets and  electric guitars? Anyway, God moves in mysterious ways and in ways we can not understand.  So before I would write off this church as being full of fluffy foolery, I would have to sit through a service. I would have to hear a  sermon preached and find out if it is all "just make me feel good about my life." Or if something of substance is said.   

[frienduff thaylorde]

50 minutes ago, Abby-Joy said:

The church I got saved in at age 13 ....it was an Assembly of God church with under 50 members. (really small town) At church, we actually had church!! We studied the Word of God (and yes, it was KJV) ...we heard the preaching of the Word in sincerity and humility and men of God weren't afraid nor ashamed to shed tears ...great worship (hymnals, southern gospel, and choruses) that led right into spontaneous prayer and worship in the altars ...long prayer services that didn't end till Holy Spirit was done (sometimes 1pm in the afternoon on a Sunday "morning" service or 10 or 11pm on a Sunday night service). Youth services were the same...we actually studied the Word and the youth were given opportunities to minister the Word as well. 

If we wanted to do something "fun" we planned volleyball games on non-church days or between services on Sundays. We had bake sales and walk-a-thons to raise money for MISSIONS (not a fun trip to a circus or a theme park). Walk-a-thons were actually fun! (a Saturday morning/afternoon walking 10 miles with friends) We did use our own money (or the youth pastors would chip in together) to go do mini golf or attend a southern gospel singing. One of our favorites was the Original Hinsons. They most often appeared at churches and didn't charge a fee.  They would instead take up canned goods for the food pantry.  Our church hosted a local southern gospel group once a month...as a young Christian I actually looked forward to those! 

**note** This southern gospel group didn't charge a fee...imagine that!!!  

We had a small group of youth who actually loved Jesus and we'd plan sleepovers that were all-night prayer meetings. Our youth pastors did this as well ....all-night prayer meetings at the church. We had real moves of God! (12 to 18 yr olds)

When you actually have a pastor/pastors whose goal is to minister the true Word and not entertain...you get true conversions. These will be people who are there for the right reasons and not looking for entertainment. We (as a group/youth) actually walked out of churches we visited when they brought out the entertainment (mimes, etc). It wasn't in our appetite....we actually went there to hear the Word. 

What in the world is wrong with the "church" these days?  

abby , you loved dear sister .   Read your last sentence several times and you will find out what you already know .

THE WORLD has been in churches for a long time now .   as in WORDLY .   You fish for men with wordly bait  ,   and that is what you get .   WORDLY .

and let us remember something .     The kingdom of heaven is a like a man that cast out his net,  caught all sorts of fish.   BUT,   not all were gathered in good vessels at the end

Win a man to the world ,  and you aint won anything .  IF the truth don't get them into churches and if the truth aint preached , cause that wont keep them.

THEN did they really KNOW and LOVE CHRIST .   not a condemnation .   JUST TRUTH . 

[Dan_79]

Can you imagine turning up late to this place and you go in only to find a loads of people dressed in clowns gowns complete with clown shoes on, wigs, unicyclists....juggler's the lot....

Carslberg don't do false churches...

But if they did..

(this joke might be missed on our brothers and sisters over the pond)

Edited April 26, 2018 by Dan_79

[Hidden In Him]

3 hours ago, John Robinson said:

Let me preface this by stating I am an unashamed, full-gospel Christian. My wife and I were saved in the early 70s back in the old Jesus Movement days, and in the intervening 45 years we've seen God do some amazing things.

That said, in my opinion, what this church is doing is plain old bat-crazy. Read the article, and tell me what you think.

http://www.faithwire.com/2018/04/25/well-known-atlanta-pastor-is-adding-scantily-clad-aerialists-into-worship-services/

Yeah... I looked him up. I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt initially, and at first I thought this "innovative" approach to expressing worship wouldn't be so bad in and of itself if it were packaged together with powerful exposition of the written word of God and genuine manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But after watching a couple of videos of this guy, he's part of this new breed of "apostle" who defines the term as someone who branches out or is "sent" into new territory. But anyone who founds a church in one area and then starts another one somewhere else is just expanding, not becoming "an apostle." He comes off as about 3 parts hype, 3 parts hip, 3 parts self-styled "revelation," and 1 part "innovations" (i.e. aerialists)... I hate to be critical, but he just strikes me as someone who is building his church on the foundation of his own personal charisma, and when you do that it often ends up being pretty much anything goes.  

Your post reminds me of a book I read a while back called Quitting Church, and how many who came to Christ during the Jesus Movement days can no longer tolerate what they see happening in churches today. A "circus" is sort of the impression they get. Everything appears to be mostly for entertainment purposes. At first glance, the hype of that sort of thing can make you want to believe in it, but it doesn't take long before you are sitting there experiencing no real spiritual growth and wondering, "What on earth is really happening here?" The younger generation have nothing to compare it to, so they don't know what an aberration it is, but for older Christians it's just not something they recognize as having much to do with Christianity anymore.

I wish I could take a more positive position on this guy, but any movement not founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and not led by the Spirit of God is destined to end badly. As the scripture says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." One of the best men to build this kind of a ministry was Pastor Zachary Tims, who built up an extremely large following in a very short time. But he ended up dead of a drug overdose in his hotel room one night. It's sad, but I think this type of "church" is the result of merging Christianity with the entertainment culture. They become stars, and instead of becoming a glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ it becomes the opposite: the glorification of a man...

very sad what usually happens in the end.   

[Dan_79]

7 minutes ago, Abby-Joy said:

Yesterday, my yr old son and I were listening to the news on our local Christian radio station where they announced a local church was broken in to and the liat of things stolen were "multiple televisions, play stations, an xbox, games, controllers..." ...my son was like..."This is a church?! Why do people go to church? ...to play or hear the Bible preached?" See, we don't even have a home and this is a huge reason we don't. It is very difficult to find a church where their motive and heart is to please God and not the flesh. 

Hi Abby.

Bright young lad you are raising.

Two or more people who come together in his name and he is there!

Matthew 18:20

Now throw in a sabbath where by God gives you the whole day to read to eachother and discuss and learn scripture together at the same pace, enjoyable, comfortable, interactive....

When you have the above who could possibly need xbox or clown shoes.

Edited April 26, 2018 by Dan_79

[LadyKay]

9 minutes ago, Yowm said:

You may have to sit through many services until you heard something that resembled a sermon.

Well I think one would be enough for me to know.