Firm Foundation Posted January 2, 2020 Group: Mars Hill Followers: 4 Topic Count: 6 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 2,280 Content Per Day: 1.24 Reputation: 854 Days Won: 2 Joined: 03/31/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted January 2, 2020 23 minutes ago, Debp said: Only one pastor you can recommend? May I ask about your personal pastor? I understand if you are disabled, you may not be able to attend worship services. If you don't have a pastor currently, may I ask about your background with pastors? One that I can recommend that anyone can access. My church is not online or on tv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Mclees Posted January 4, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 158 Topics Per Day: 0.07 Content Count: 1,915 Content Per Day: 0.81 Reputation: 910 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/15/2017 Status: Offline Share Posted January 4, 2020 On 12/31/2019 at 9:06 AM, Neighbor said: Hi, I don't think we disagree so much. I am not wanting a man with a Cadillac to only have a bicycle instead. I neither envy his pleasure nor desire he not have any pleasure. For all to equally own a ten year old Chevy instead seems to require that some one have owned a brand new one. Universal mediocrity for all is not my trumpet to sound nor listen to and follow. I know that the poor will always be with us. In fact I have often been that poor in financial capacity. I have in my own experience been pleased to be able to literally glean the fields after the crop has been picked by it's owner their having left the corners for the poor. I have also been financially privileged during a few periods of time to be able to fund the need of another or to join in with other to do labor to the benefit of a widow of the church body. It is a thrill to be a joyful recipient as well as it is to be a joy filled giver. It takes the one for the other does it not? Praise God for His unlimited excess that He has extended without my having merited This is what I see. Many churches had humble small beginnings cared more for the poor bur with time if the preacher was good begins to prosper so they form a board and start looking for another place to build a bigger. With time they attract a better well off family members. wore better clothes and gave bigger offerings and the preach gets better pay and the. they grow more and expand for more members. What's missing now . you now longer see the poor. They have been outclassed. Now the church starts looking for the wealthy to be members of their church. They may even start trying to out do neighboring churches. Your church promises that you can be more well off or even become wealthy saying its Gods blessing. Yes they drive better cars and use better cologne. Still you will not see one poor person among your congregation. They won't because they have no money when they pass the plate. This is what I see. This is not just for the posterity church. tell me if this doesn oy describe many in our well to do churhes in the free world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neighbor Posted January 4, 2020 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 18 Topic Count: 950 Topics Per Day: 0.35 Content Count: 13,530 Content Per Day: 5.03 Reputation: 9,027 Days Won: 6 Joined: 12/04/2016 Status: Online Birthday: 03/03/1885 Share Posted January 4, 2020 2 hours ago, Mike Mclees said: This is what I see. Many churches had humble small beginnings cared more for the poor bur with time if the preacher was good begins to prosper so they form a board and start looking for another place to build a bigger. With time they attract a better well off family members. wore better clothes and gave bigger offerings and the preach gets better pay and the. they grow more and expand for more members. What's missing now . you now longer see the poor. They have been outclassed. Now the church starts looking for the wealthy to be members of their church. They may even start trying to out do neighboring churches. Your church promises that you can be more well off or even become wealthy saying its Gods blessing. Yes they drive better cars and use better cologne. Still you will not see one poor person among your congregation. They won't because they have no money when they pass the plate. This is what I see. This is not just for the posterity church. tell me if this doesn oy describe many in our well to do churhes in the free world. Hi, Not been my experience at all. From some 1500 of us at an independent Baptist church, to 75 of us at a CoC, to 3500 of us at a Covenant church, to some 500 of us at a Community church, to a Calvary Chapel with less than 200, the sense of community and of helping one another and helping as the need become known has always been my experience among the saints of our Lord Jesus. Plus I have been led by some of the most awesome and really brilliant elders at each. As I have shared before; some go into Benin, others go into El Salvador, we go into the local ghettos, even have some of our women that go help the ladies that work at the "gentlemens" clubs in town an d to share of our Lord with them. Part of the Lord's Supper for me for over 20 years a tone of these churches has been a offering to the benevolent fund. We usually have $30,000 t0 $40,000 on hand for helping our widows, orphans, and those with immediate needs to care for family. The men go month after month helping with yards and home repair. Plus there is a widow's work day. We put in air conditioners, paint homes, repair and even replace septic systems. Whatever the need might be, hands get dirty, backs ache, and we get'r done. All whether rich or not labor hard and love the doing of it. We have always been of every age range and economic status one can think of. Some have gone so far as France to do drywall work for a church, all at their own expense. Drywall is down and dirty work. When covered with drywall mud and dust everyone looks alike, rich and poor look very much the same- and smell sweaty too. Others go into rather risky territory to put in water wells. I have had no problem being led to no less than five vastly different church bodies each of whom love to help in the name of our Lord. I even know one that literally has provided cool containers of water to those in need, by having opened up a bottled water facility as a ministry at great expense and time. Saints are everywhere doing what they do, hardly letting the left hand know what the right is doing. They love our Lord Jesus. May God continue to bless all, rich or poor, that love the doing of service in His name. Praise God for the encouragement they are to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neighbor Posted January 4, 2020 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 18 Topic Count: 950 Topics Per Day: 0.35 Content Count: 13,530 Content Per Day: 5.03 Reputation: 9,027 Days Won: 6 Joined: 12/04/2016 Status: Online Birthday: 03/03/1885 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Hi, Church of God "doctrine" like it used to be when and where? Has it changed? ??? Simply interested- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Mclees Posted January 4, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 158 Topics Per Day: 0.07 Content Count: 1,915 Content Per Day: 0.81 Reputation: 910 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/15/2017 Status: Offline Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Neighbor said: Hi, Not been my experience at all. From some 1500 of us at an independent Baptist church, to 75 of us at a CoC, to 3500 of us at a Covenant church, to some 500 of us at a Community church, to a Calvary Chapel with less than 200, the sense of community and of helping one another and helping as the need become known has always been my experience among the saints of our Lord Jesus. Plus I have been led by some of the most awesome and really brilliant elders at each. As I have shared before; some go into Benin, others go into El Salvador, we go into the local ghettos, even have some of our women that go help the ladies that work at the "gentlemens" clubs in town an d to share of our Lord with them. Part of the Lord's Supper for me for over 20 years a tone of these churches has been a offering to the benevolent fund. We usually have $30,000 t0 $40,000 on hand for helping our widows, orphans, and those with immediate needs to care for family. The men go month after month helping with yards and home repair. Plus there is a widow's work day. We put in air conditioners, paint homes, repair and even replace septic systems. Whatever the need might be, hands get dirty, backs ache, and we get'r done. All whether rich or not labor hard and love the doing of it. We have always been of every age range and economic status one can think of. Some have gone so far as France to do drywall work for a church, all at their own expense. Drywall is down and dirty work. When covered with drywall mud and dust everyone looks alike, rich and poor look very much the same- and smell sweaty too. Others go into rather risky territory to put in water wells. I have had no problem being led to no less than five vastly different church bodies each of whom love to help in the name of our Lord. I even know one that literally has provided cool containers of water to those in need, by having opened up a bottled water facility as a ministry at great expense and time. Saints are everywhere doing what they do, hardly letting the left hand know what the right is doing. They love our Lord Jesus. May God continue to bless all, rich or poor, that love the doing of service in His name. Praise God for the encouragement they are to me. If it be as you say then I apologize and truly done in humility and spreading the Gospel then God bless you. Edited January 4, 2020 by Mike Mclees 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neighbor Posted January 4, 2020 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 18 Topic Count: 950 Topics Per Day: 0.35 Content Count: 13,530 Content Per Day: 5.03 Reputation: 9,027 Days Won: 6 Joined: 12/04/2016 Status: Online Birthday: 03/03/1885 Share Posted January 4, 2020 On 1/1/2020 at 7:52 PM, Firm Foundation said: There is only one minister I can recommend, and that is Joseph Chambers. He has a church in Charlotte N.C. called Paw Creek Church. It is independent, but he is an old Church of God preacher. He preaches Church of God doctrine like it used to be. He is the most sound teacher I know of. "Church of God doctrine like it used to be." How was that? Has it changed? Simply interested- I spend some time pretty near Cleveland Tn, and the fields of the Wood, NC. Might be stimulating to know more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neighbor Posted January 4, 2020 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 18 Topic Count: 950 Topics Per Day: 0.35 Content Count: 13,530 Content Per Day: 5.03 Reputation: 9,027 Days Won: 6 Joined: 12/04/2016 Status: Online Birthday: 03/03/1885 Share Posted January 4, 2020 9 minutes ago, Mike Mclees said: If it be as you say then I apologize and truly done in humility and spreading the Gospel then God bless you. Hey? ??? Are you by any chance suffering from a lack of opportunity to serve as you feel led by The Holy Spirit? Looking to start something where you are now? Or be moved by God into serving with others elsewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonerAndy Posted January 5, 2020 Group: Senior Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 19 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 693 Content Per Day: 0.42 Reputation: 396 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/28/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted January 5, 2020 1. An unwillingness to confront badly behaving Christians in the Church. 2. A lack of Church discipline. One of the biggest problems we have is that the church lacks credibility with the pagans. It's hard to say we have a real thing going on, when pagans look at the people in the church, and see guys looking at porn, sleeping with a girl they are not married to in the choir, and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Churches, and christianity itself, would have far more credibility if they kicked out people who were not living like Christians. 3. A focus on fitting into the kid culture. 4. Having more 'christians' than having Good Christians. Our culture today is child-centric. We have deified our children. Parents choose churches, based on their child programs. When you look at church budgets, 3/4ths go to children ministries. The entire pagan, and church world, revolves around kids. You can hear it in how church advertise. Bring your kids to (insert event) it will be fun!..... Fun... not godly... not educational... not character building.... "Fun" is what kids want. And why do Chruches do this? To cram more people into the door. Not better people. Not more Christian people. Not more G-d centered, and Christ honoring people... just more people. We don't need more people. Yes we can cram more people onto the Titanic, but that ship is sinking. We need better people, G-d fearing people, so we can have a faith that is rising up, not sinking down. 5. Failing to teach the younger generation to get married, and get on with life. If we don't teach kids what it means to be an adult, someone else will. 6. Being unwilling to deal with hard subjects, because hard subjects are not family friendly. Both of these are tied to the previous two. Having kid-centered churches, results in church that do not deal with hard issues of life. Because their hard issues of life, are not "fun". Like dealing with porn, fornication, proper roles for men and women, and not even being able to say the word "Breast" which is in the Bible, but somehow banned from church. In ages past, none of these adult issues had to be dealt with in public, and so church became sanitized into a kid centered affair where hard topics were never talked about. But today, if you don't teach your kids about sex, someone else will. If the church, and parents don't, then they'll learn from their pagan friends, at their pagan schools, that they can self-identify as an M1 Tank, and it's evil and bigoted of religious people to say otherwise. If not there, then the media, or TV, or the internet, or the movies, or their co-workers, or somewhere. We need to make the church into a place for adults, not kids. We need to make the church, where G-d teaches people how to live life, not "have fun". Anyway.... that's pretty much what I see as the biggest problems today. I think most of the rest of our issues, all stem from these issues. I think we would likely deal with all those other problems, if the church wasn't so kid-friendly and culture centered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Mclees Posted January 5, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 158 Topics Per Day: 0.07 Content Count: 1,915 Content Per Day: 0.81 Reputation: 910 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/15/2017 Status: Offline Share Posted January 5, 2020 You are right. Our children need guidance. Perverted life styles being now legal are a direct threat to our future generation which is our kids today. Faith In God is being diminished by the ungodly. We must watch for Jesus Return and teach our children Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firm Foundation Posted January 5, 2020 Group: Mars Hill Followers: 4 Topic Count: 6 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 2,280 Content Per Day: 1.24 Reputation: 854 Days Won: 2 Joined: 03/31/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted January 5, 2020 On 1/4/2020 at 4:57 PM, Neighbor said: "Church of God doctrine like it used to be." How was that? Has it changed? Simply interested- I spend some time pretty near Cleveland Tn, and the fields of the Wood, NC. Might be stimulating to know more. They just let down standards to some degree to try to be more "seeker friendly." Pastor Chambers felt like they were getting too lukewarm, and pulled out of the denomination. He calls himself "classical Pentecostal," but I just call it traditional holiness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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