The Times...They are a-Changin'

[EA]

Your wife's gonna be mad that you posted that!


lol

[CC1]

The spirit of the age we live in has a lot to do with this. I see a lack of commitment in many aspects of culture, not just the church.

It is a day of self centeredness and narcissism where people do not want any "structure". Anything that might oppose their will and whims is avoided.

I recently was trying to explain to a young person why I had no desire to watch a video clip on the internet of a reportedly very funny but profane song. I was called an old fogey, etc. Those that know me know that by no means am I a prude.I have a dry and somewhat risque sense of humor. However there are lines that are drawn in my mind that I do not cross. I find that many young people today don't have those lines or seemingly any.

For example I will watch "r" rated movies however if it turns out the rating was because of extensive cursing I have an internal filter that knows when the "line" has been reached. If I start watching a film and in the first few minutes my internal filter says "enough, this is too much too filter out and ignore" then the movie gets turned off. I don't see that filtering process in many young people these days.

I think that same "spirit" permeates the church world in the sense that poeple make all kinds of excuses to not get plugged into a church when the real reason is that they don't want to conform their lives to anything other than just what they want to in their own understanding.

I am seeing this in a young person I have known for a long time that I never though would be this way. They have fallen into that oldest of traps where after seeing some less than perfect people and situations in churches they are disillusioned with conventional church and refuse to be a member anywhere.

I have told them that if they are looking for the perfect church and pastor they are delusional because they will never find it. You have to find a church and pastor that you believe preaches and teaches the Bible correctly as close to what you believe is correct as possible then dive in and connect yourself to that church and pastor.

My young friend thinks he is just find missing church most of the time and still considers himself a Christian but he is forgetting where in the Bible it talks about preachers being given the saints for instruction and reproof, etc, etc.

Have I become an ultra con and think people should sumbmit themselves to legalistic overlords? Absolutely not! However everybody needs a body of believers to be accountable to and to grow in the Lord together with. Not to mention a pastor whose vision you can catch and follow him as he follows Christ.

[Hoovie]

Originally Posted by Edward Anglin

Your wife's gonna be mad that you posted that!


lol

You are missing it. This lady's dress code is obviously not compatible with modesty...

[EA]

CC1 has gone over to the dark side!

Oooooooooonoooooooooo!!!!

[EA]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover

You are missing it. This lady's dress code is obviously not compatible with modesty...

I betcha the first thing that crosses most folks' mind when they see that has nothing to do with her "dress code."

[CC1]

Originally Posted by Edward Anglin

I betcha the first thing that crosses most folks' mind when they see that has nothing to do with her "dress code."

I just felt sorry for the chair! (It brought to mind an incident in Austin, Texas in the mid 80's when while driving near the University of Texas I saw a young woman with a build similar to the pic Eureka posted of that woman on the chair. Only this woman was riding a 10 speed bicycle and the seat was nowehere to be seen!!!!!!

I was haunted by that image for years and as you can see even now around 25 years later it still comes to mind at times.

[EA]

Carpenter, here's my advice, fwiw.

Live life with the future in view.

The echoes of many of the arguments from FCF, NFCF and AFF have been reduced to a whisper as most folks have made up their minds about those issues - and are now implementing life changes based upon the information gathered.

Groups like the ole NFCF "Posse" have faded into oblivion, hiding out in an obscure, irrelevant crack of the world wide web, and the old-timey ways are becoming more and more foreign to even main-line Oneness Pentecostals.

And yet, I am sure that somewhere, fifty years from now, there will be someone bemoaning the loss of "the old paths." Someone like Granny Clampett, who never fully believed that The War Between The States had ended.

She had so segmented herself from society that change simply passed her by, and so she ignorantly kept on fighting a war that had long ago been settled.

Carp, this war will rage for a little while longer and then, poof, it will disappear.

It will soon be forgotten.

People will look back at these forums and laugh at some of the debates.

[EA]

The church is changing.

The way we do church is changing.

But I am not concerned.

God WILL have a church.

[Jaxon]

Interesting....My wife and I talk about this a good bit......One reason is because she is the personnel manager at a business of around 400 plus people and many of those hired are in the 20 - 30 age range..........I'm not trying to use a broad brush but there is no doubt that there is a different mind set in many in this age bracket.......Many, many are easy come easy go. ...Loyalty indeed is a bygone virtue on the job......here today and gone tommorrow and no two week notice, nothing, one day their at work the next day they are gone..............So it's not just a church thing, no, it's something that reaches inot all areas of their lives........You really can't run a business with employess that have this mindset. For any organization to be successful there has to be stability and structure somewhere............And many times this stability and structure is found in the baby boomer and up generation............Whatever happened to being faithful in all areas of our life?

[EA]

Pardon me, but that loyalty thing goes both ways.

Most employers show no loyalty.