Quote:
Originally Posted by TRFrance
Fine, tell me what I misread then. I'm listening.
Yes, I understand that part. I know he wasnt talking about having a non-sprit filled church. Maybe you missed the central point I was trying to make.
This is the part I took issue with the most:
""Spirit filled" Christians have as many divorces as other Christians. They aren't anymore effective in witnessing than other Christians. They have the same retention problems as other Christians. etc, etc."
As one who grew up in that kind of enviornment, and had friends acquaintances, and family members who were deep in that type of environment, I take issue with the [unprovable] contentions that "we"
* have as many divorces, (I've heard this often, but where are the statistics? are there any? )
* arent any more effective in witnessing than they are, (interesting , since many/most of the non-spirit filled folks I knew didnt even witness)
* have the same retention problems as they do (every church has retention problems... but what statistics are there that say it's as much of a problem in Pentecostal churches as non-Pentecostal?)
My whole thing is, despite the problems in Pentecostal environments, we're nowhere near in as bad a shape as the non-spirit-filled church world. As one who's familiar with both worlds, I know it's not even close. I just don't think there's any need to paint an overly dramatic, extra-bleak picture of how things are.
|
I'm going by what I've seen with my own eyes.
My Apostolic friends have had as many divorces as my non-Apostolic friends. This is a fact in my situation!
I don't see Apostolic churches growing at larger rates than non-Apostolic churches. In fact, most of the "mega" churches in our area are non-Pentecostal!
The retention rate of Apostolic kids that I grew up with has been horrific! I can't imagine any other church organization being worse!
Threaded Mode
