I hate going to church

In my opinion the concept of a worship service came from man’s imagination. I haven’t been near one for 34 years, and I’m absolutely certain that God confirms I have not missed out on anything. The ideal is to join in with a small group of nondenominational Christians in your local community that have banded together for encouragement and support, and treat them as your family. Whatever you do, do not join a denomination, or associate with a group that holds worship services or any other regulated religious meetup. Order yes, regimentation no.

Many people are searching for a 'genuine Christian fellowship'..nowadays.
- Beyond..'nicely packaged' weekly services/programs.
---
It seems..you are discouraged/disappointed.
My advice is..
- to find a few Christians.. for genuine/spiritual fellowship.
It might be helpful to you..
- on your journey..at this juncture/time.

...Says the person who wants his word to be taken as fact, like he was an admiral.

Hebrews 10:

"
Hold Fast Your Confession
19Therefore, brethren, having boldness[f] to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

After having determined that I would never again go to an I.C. church, last Sunday I went to Church Of The Nazarene. They were quite nice. Genuinely so. I have a ride to and from church. The Lord told someone to offer that to me. As I have bilateral sciatica and it's difficult for me to walk the mile to church...what a blessing!
After the message (which was the message for me), we sang a song and I sensed the Lord's presence in a very real way. A guy struck up a conversation with me and when he realized how isolated I was, he offered to pick me up for a coffee.
Later, the pastor tracked me down and we had a nice talk. He and another asked to pray for me. I agreed. Once again, I sensed the Lord's touch. I believe He took me out of the church long ago. I think He just might be putting me back in!

Fo real tho!

They told me when I was starting out, and I have heard them telling young ministers since, that if you haven't struck oil after 30 minutes, stop boring. Pun intended.

It may surprise a lot of Christians we aren't called to go to church, i.e., a building once a week. We're called to go to the world with the gospel.

To me going to church is a boring waste of time. I don't see the model of "church," as it's now done, taught by Jesus or the New Testament. Tragically it's done a lot more harm to the cause of Christ and the gospel than good.

In my opinion it depends on what one regards as church. If it's trotting along to a formal church service on the weekend, that's not church. It's merely observing a religious ritual or tradition. We are called to show the gospel to the world through our godly behaviour. Very few of us are called to go and preach the gospel to the unsaved.

Lynx, your responses are just plainly immature. Grow up!

Who said anything about preaching? We're all called to go and make disciples, you don't have to preach to do that.

I was concerned that someone may have mistakenly gotten the impression that's what you may have been alluding too, so I thought it prudent to add a comment. And I agree, we don't have to preach. Indeed, it's by our godly manner we may draw some to Christ.

Yes that, but also by talking to people, having a conversation.

Odd... I could have sworn you said I was on ignore.

Yes. I guess in a way our godly behaviour is the bait, and the Word is the hook. If we strike too soon or too heavy at a nibble, we may not only lose the fish, but scare it away.

When I was fellowshipping at a certain church years ago, it was lead by a (senior) pastor that was an evangelist/preacher type. He was constantly telling of the need for everyone to get out and witness. An admirable thing to do, yet most of the congregation were in a sorry state, still clad with scales that should have been removed from them years ago.

You were. But I always hope all of us, including myself, change for the better, so I prefer to try and see if that is the case.

Whether you make fun of me is of no consequence to me personally, but what is, is the bad example given to a new member and in particular if that person happens to be a new Christian.

We Christians have to communicate with godly love, not with human synicism or any other form of nastiness. Would you agree with that?

Well shoot. I was having fun with it.

Ignore is usually a bad idea, because then people can say whatever they want and you can't even see it.

It's my preference not to ignore anyone, but sometimes it's best done for the peace of all.

My concern is about the younger and more impressionable amongst us. God has a requirement that we that have been in Christendom for a while help keep the pathway for the newcomer straight and flat, no stumbling blocks before them. No doubt you would agree they have enough of those thrown in front of them each day through the world. We can't do that within the safe harbour that is the church. I'm not trying to stamp any personal authority here, but just sharing a concern for the welfare of everyone, as patronising as that may sound. 🙂

Hi, Tony.

Let me begin by saying that I'm NOT seeking to condemn you in what I'm about to say. Instead, I'm just hoping that you were being sincere about "not striking too soon" and that you might consider the following.

I noticed this morning that a thread in the "New Christian Chat Members" forum has disappeared. Not only that, but I also noticed that the account of the member who started that thread has disappeared as well.

Why am I mentioning this to you?

Well, because it's the member and thread of the young woman you PM'd about how she was dressed in her initial profile picture.

I'm obviously not God or omniscient, but it's possible that she left because she was offended by you for "striking too soon". I read your PM that she posted, and, honestly, I didn't think that you spoke out of place, and I also found your PM to be graceful, and not harsh. However, and this is a BIG HOWEVER, I do believe that you "struck too soon".

When people come here as newbies, we really don't have any idea of what their background is like. With such being the case, we really should give them some time to tell us about themselves and the journey that led them here before saying something that might run them away.

Anyhow, like I said, I'm NOT seeking to condemn you, but I do hope that you'll give people a little bit more time to test the waters in the future before saying something to them that might cause unintended offense.

Just my two cents worth.

P.S.

I've recently been thinking about an idiotic joke that I made to a newbie a while back that may have run them off, so I'm NOT speaking to you in a "holier-than-thou" manner. In fact, I'm speaking to MYSELF as much as I'm speaking to you.

That's OK. I agree with your 'rebuke' in the post that you mentioned, and that I ought to have used the word 'influenced' instead of 'guided'. I didn't say anything at that time out of respect for the account holder's comment that she had wished to move on past the disagreement.

As for the rest of my intent about challenging her, and the approach I took in the wording I used and that I approached her privately so I wouldn't embarrass her in public, that was fine. However, Instead of her being concerned about the problem I raised, she became indignant, and went public with her indignation. As soon as she did that, she opened herself to public scrutiny and broader challenge. She could have left her complaint in private or reported the discussion to Admins.

In my opinion, she had anger in her heart and the evil one was using that to rile her up. You can see that happening in some other discussions.

I did try to smooth out the contention between us by saying how lovely her new profile photo was, and that I hoped she would stay on Christian Chat. She accepted that praise and wish for her, and I noticed she had commented on other unrelated forums after that incident, so it seemed she was ok and had moved on.

I'm not saying that my communication with her hadn't influenced her decision to leave, but there may well have been other reasons she has left, and her account removed. Maybe Admin can chip in with a reason for her leaving CC.

I'm always open to criticism, and don't believe I am right in all of my assessments and judgements. I do take stock of what I am about to say in any discussion before I post it, usually editing it many times to make sure I'm on topic and careful not to cause unnecessary hurt or conflict. But I realise that's still a WIP for me.

Shalom 🙂