|
Re: Easter Weekend - First Services New Sanctuary
By the way this thread is not meant to be a doctrinal discussion. Leaving doctrine out of things this church has still seen phenomenal growth like nothing I have ever seen in my 50+ years of being a christian.
The church was originally composed of mostly homeless people and college students. When I became a part of it about four or five years ago my wife and I were among a handful of the oldest people there. Then the demographic began to broaden with a lot of young families coming and eventually a lot of older ones.
I have no problem with traditional church (not speaking doctrine here but the building with the white steeple, pews, etc) but believe there is room for a lot of different ways to have church and minister to different groups of people.
While a traditional Pentecostal, like many of my relatives, might be very uncomfortable in our church since it is not very "churchy" it does pull in folks who are either burnt out on traditional church orhave never gone to a traditional church and have no desire to do so.
While our church is one way to do things it is certainly not "the" way. I am thankful there are traditional churches ministering to those raised as christians and those who are not yet christians but have warm fuzzies towads organized religion and either no objection to or a reverence for traditional church.
I am comfortable in either setting. For almost 25 years I attended two mega churches with pews, 100 voice choir, etc and felt right at home just as I do now in a 115 year old factory building with padded moveable chairs, a giant coffee nook and people drinking coffee at the beginning of service in the sanctuary, everybody dressed in casual clothes including the preacher, etc. All of this makes it a very comfortable place for a lot of people who would not attend a traditional church.
__________________
"I think some people love spiritual bondage just the way some people love physical bondage. It makes them feel secure. In the end though it is not healthy for the one who is lost over it or the one who is lives under the oppression even if by their own choice"
Titus2woman on AFF
"We did not wear uniforms. The lady workers dressed in the current fashions of the day, ...silks...satins...jewels or whatever they happened to possess. They were very smartly turned out, so that they made an impressive appearance on the streets where a large part of our work was conducted in the early years.
"It was not until long after, when former Holiness preachers had become part of us, that strict plainness of dress began to be taught.
"Although Entire Sanctification was preached at the beginning of the Movement, it was from a Wesleyan viewpoint, and had in it very little of the later Holiness Movement characteristics. Nothing was ever said about apparel, for everyone was so taken up with the Lord that mode of dress seemingly never occurred to any of us."
Quote from Ethel Goss (widow of 1st UPC Gen Supt. Howard Goss) book "The Winds of God"
|
Threaded Mode
